V Is for Vengeance

exactly endorse your point of view. About Audrey and this gang stuff.”
    “Because he’s just like Diana Alvarez, thrilled at the chance to cast me in a bad light.”
    “Why would he do that?”
    I waved the question aside. “It’s not worth getting into. It’s ancient history. I won’t claim he hates me. That would be an exaggeration. Let’s just say he dislikes me and the feeling’s mutual.”
    “I gathered as much. I mean, I wasn’t sure how well you knew the guy, but he didn’t come across as a big fan of yours.”
    “He was a friend of my ex-husband’s, who was also a cop. Believe me, there’s no love lost between us. I think he’s a creep.”
    Marvin’s right knee began a subtle jumping that he stilled with one hand. “Yes, well, that’s an item I thought we should cover while we’re at it. You don’t like Diana Alvarez and now it turns out you don’t like the vice detective. No offense, but it sounds like they don’t like you either.”
    “Of course they don’t. That’s the point I just made.”
    “Which presents me with a problem. The newspaper gal I don’t care about so much as this vice cop, what’s his name.”
    “Priddy.”
    “Right. If you’ll remember our initial conversation, you said I should hire you because they considered you a professional. Now it looks like that’s not true.”
    “He doesn’t consider me a professional at any rate,” I said.
    “So that has me wondering.”
    “About what?”
    “If you’re the best person for the job. I thought we could kick the subject back and forth between us. I’m curious what you have to say for yourself.”
    “I’ve said my piece. You want to fire me, fire me.”
    “I never said anything about firing you,” he said, aggrieved.
    “I thought I’d save you some time. No need to dance around the subject. You want me gone, I’m gone.”
    “Don’t be in such a rush. Thing is, I don’t question your qualifications or your sincerity. It’s just the police don’t believe there’s anything to this business about a shoplifting gang. You have to admit it sounds farfetched, which I’ve said all along.”
    “I’m not going to argue. You know why? Because it would sound self-serving, like I’m promoting my theory to protect my job. You’re the boss. You can believe anything you want. Audrey was an angel, falsely arrested, and falsely charged. She didn’t throw herself off the bridge, she tripped and fell.”
    “Now you’re twisting my words. I accept Audrey stole things. I already gave you that the last time we talked. It’s this notion there was more going on, like this big conspiracy. The cop isn’t buying it and he should know, don’t you think?”
    “Marvin, she had hundreds of dollars’ worth of stolen items in her underwear, which was specifically designed for just that purpose. Shoplifting wasn’t a hobby. She was a pro.”
    “That doesn’t mean she was part of an organized ring. The cop pretty much said the whole idea was bogus.”
    “Len Priddy would scoff at anything I said. You have no idea how contemptuous he is of me.”
    “That’s what I’m saying. You go forward, he’s not going to cooperate, which means you and the cops are working at cross-purposes.”
    “What do you want to do? Just give me the bottom line here and let’s get on with it.”
    He shrugged, apparently not wanting to be pinned down without agonizing first. This was Marvin’s version of playing fair. “I thought we should toss around some possibilities, like maybe you could confine your questions to how she died and leave the other part to the police.”
    “If you think her death was a homicide, the sheriff’s department is in a better position to investigate than I am. They’ll bend over backward finding out what went on. I’m coming at events from the other end, trying to figure out what she was involved in and whether that got her killed.”
    He shook his head. “Doesn’t feel right to me.”
    “It doesn’t feel right to me either.”
    “There’s gotta be a compromise. We split the difference, as it were, so you get what you want and I do too.”
    “This is a business arrangement. Compromise doesn’t come into it. I think it’s cleaner and more honest if we part company. No harm, no foul. You go your way and I go mine. We shake hands and walk away.”
    “I have a lot of respect for you.”
    “Uh-hun. Right.”
    “No, I mean it. So how about this? Go ahead and work off the money I paid you and then