Mean Woman Blues

shit.”
    The backyard was littered with urns and statues, crosses and gates, even a couple of the prized metal chairs. “Billy” was there, of course, but he was way beside the point. The point was, they’d been had or Kevin O’Malley had, and it was going to rebound nastily on Skip and Abasolo— and poor Steve.
    “All right,” A.A. said. “Here’s what we do. As of now, the task force is disbanded; neither you nor Hagerty nor LeDoux is to speak to any of the prisoners again. We’ll impound this stuff tonight and hope no media show up to whip our asses. No matter what happens, from now on, you refer all press inquiries to me. Oh, and one more thing: Tell Steinman to get his ass on the next plane back to town.”
    “Why?”
    “You know why.”
    She thought it through. A warrant could be issued for his arrest; that was why.
    They left the district officers to guard the trove, and, on the ride back, Abasolo called the chief to break the news that his great PR coup had become a disaster.
    When he was off the phone, Skip said, “Adam, thanks for sticking by me.”
    Abasolo said nothing. Again, his jaw worked.
    She couldn’t let it go. “You, uh, think maybe I helped myself while I was setting up the warehouse? You know Steve was out of town. So it would have been just me. Acting alone.”
    “Okay, for the record: How did that stuff get there?”
    “Somebody climbed over the gate, opened it, and unloaded a track.”
    “Why not you? You’re even friends with one of the suspects.”
    “He’s an acquaintance, not a friend.” She couldn’t believe Abasolo hadn’t gotten it. Absolutely couldn’t conceive of it. The scam was so obvious to her she hadn’t even bothered to spell it out. She pulled his own trick on him: “Think about it.”
    He didn’t speak until they got back to the station, and when he did, it was with resignation. “Jacomine.”
    She was cut to the bone. “You actually suspected me, A. A.?”
    He laughed. “Hell, no, Skip. You acted properly on this; you had no reason to come to me unless it really went down the way you say it did.”
    “Well, why’d you take so long thinking it over?”
    “I was just trying to think if it could have been anybody else. I guess it could have been— Neil Gibson, for instance. He knows who your boyfriend is, right?”
    “Right. And he might have had another cache of stuff he could have moved to Steve’s backyard, but, as a practical matter, who’d move it? All his crime buddies are in jail.”
    “He could find somebody. And it would be a hell of a lot better for us if it played out that way.”
    “You’re not kidding.”
    “But we have to prepare for the possibility that it’s a blind alley. You can see exactly how the shit’s going to fly.”
    The expression seemed woefully inadequate when she looked ahead; the thing coming at her was more like an avalanche than a sewage shower. It began the next morning, with the publication of a picture of Steve’s backyard, probably obtained by climbing the same fence the dog poisoner used. The picture identified the home owner and included the information that he wasn’t available for comment.
    By the time Skip got to work, Kevin O’Malley had left her half a dozen messages. Foolishly, she picked up when the phone rang again. It was O’Malley: “Why didn’t you tell me Steve Steinman was your boyfriend?”
    That just killed her. Talk about your stupid questions. “Good morning to you too, Kevin.”
Ever consider that I’m having a worse one than you are?
“I’m referring all press inquiries to Sergeant Adam Abasolo. Let me transfer you.”
    She did so with an odd feeling of numbness in her fingers. Two days ago she was the department’s golden girl. Now she was officially dirty.
    Hagerty and LeDoux were like a couple of Rottweilers penned up in the middle of a sheep herd. They kept throwing themselves against their cage, stomping all over the station growling and barking. Skip had hardly put down the phone when they rampaged into her office. “Skip, we were set up!” Hagerty yelled, her voice shrill. “None of us ever saw that stupid Billy statue. We never had the damn thing! We all worked on the warehouse. We were there all the time; nobody could have walked off with anything. And we’ve got a really good inventory. We can
prove
nothing happened.” She took a breath through flared nostrils. “Goddamn Gibson! That’s who it was, wasn’t it? Viper in your goddamn midst.” She was