House of Blues

for
twenty years. Yeah, I hit Langdon. She hit me first."
    "Oh, sure she did. Big nasty Langdon's always
picking on poor pitiful you. You childish sonofabitch—you're like
some playground bully with Langdon. Even if she did hit you, which I
do not believe, I'm sure she had a damn good reason." Even in
her state of suspended animation, Skip realized what a remarkable
thing Tarantino had done—he'd flat—out lost it. He'd reprimanded
O'Rourke in front of the entire unit, and he'd taken one officers
side against another. The irony was, O'Rourke didn't deserve it.
    " I did," she said.
    " What?"
    " I did have a damn good reason and I did hit him
first."
    "What?" Tarantino was turning red,
beginning to be embarrassed at what he'd done; also, she thought, to
realize he'd been made a fool of.
    But he said, "Now you're protecting him? For
God's sake, Skip. Cappello, did she hit him first?"
    There was a long pause. Skip sensed Cappello
hesitating, making up her mind, though she had absolutely no doubt
what the answer would be. Cappello was a by-the-book cop,
scrupulously fair. She probably didn't like O'Rourke, but she was far
too professional.
    He still didn't 1ook up.
    "I don't feel right about it. I owe you one."
    He lifted his head with a jerk and she watched his
face become suffused. He didn't speak, obviously trying to hold in
his bile for once.
    She left, feeling isolated by his hatred. Even though
everyone in the unit had stood with her against him, something that
should have warmed her, she felt cold.
    No one knew exactly why he hated her. Because he
hated women and he hated anyone from Uptown—because his wife had
dumped him—these were the easiest explanations, but they didn't
seem like enough.
    She must symbolize something for him, or perhaps she
had a scent, so subtle no one could consciously smell it, but that
some people experienced on some level, and that made them hate her.
    Skip, get a grip, she told herself You're just
depressed because of Jim. Oh, Jim. I forgot about that.
    A wave of something washed over her, something
stinging that she recognized as sorrow. The shock was wearing off She
drove out to the West End, to look at the lake. She sat there, in her
car, and thought about Jim, intermittently, between sessions of going
blank again, feeling the way she'd felt before O'Rourke had spoken to
her. She thought mostly about how kind Jim was, and that surprised
her. If anyone had asked her to describe him, she'd have said first
that he was professional and competent, second that he was kind. But
the part of him that was human, not the cop part, was what stuck with
her now.
    He probably married both those women because he
couldn't stand to hurt either one's feelings. The thought made her
smile. And then she had one that she'd been smashing down: It could
have been me.
    Face it, it could have.
    You can get killed on the job. You know it when you
start, but then you forget. You can die.
    Oh, shit. I want to go home.
    What she wanted was company—specifically that of
Steve Steinman. She wanted to feel his naked body against hers—his
chest hair, his hard thighs, his heat. She wanted sex not so much as
a couple of arms around her.
    He wasn't home, and for some reason that set her off:
she cried at last. And then she slept.
    She was awakened by the phone.
    " This your lucky day." It was Delavon.
    " With all due respect, Delavon, it's not my
lucky day." How the hell did he get my home phone number?
Jeweldean doesn't have it.
    "Uh-oh. Thought you wanted a meeting."
    " I do. Where and when?"
    "Why you in such a bad mood?"
    " You probably know already. You know my home
phone number."
    "Delavon know all, see all."
    " Where're we meeting?"
    " You comin' alone?"
    "Of course not—do you think I'm crazy?"
    "Hey, you asked to see me. What you scared of'?"
    "Okay, okay, I'm coming alone."
    " Tha's more like it." He gave her an
address.
    In the mood she was in, she would have loved to go
alone, but that was too dicey. She reached Cappello at a crime scene.
    "Damn. I'm missing one?"
    "I know you're all torn up about it."
    "I need backup. I've got a meeting with the guy
who sent me to Turan."
    "Can it wait an hour?"
    "I don't think so. This dude's pretty
capricious."
    "We're having some problems here—I can't spare
anyone."
    " Hey. This is about Jim."
    "I know, but here's the situation. O'Rourke
wasn't in the office when we left. I don't know where he was, but he
might be back."
    She let a beat pass. "But that's crazy.