Winter Moon

rolled his head back and forth on the pillow in disbelief. "Nice to know not all the scum out there are godless scum, isn't it?"
        "Warms my heart," Crawford said.
        Jack was the only patient in the room. His most recent roommate, a fifty-year-old estate-planning specialist, in residence for three days, had died the previous day of complications from routine gallbladder surgery.
        Crawford sat on the edge of the vacant bed. "I got some good news for you."
        "I can use it."
        "Internal Affairs submitted its final report on the shootings, and you're cleared across the board. Better yet, both the chief and the commission are going to accept it as definitive."
        "Why don't I feel like dancing?"
        "We both know the whole demand for a special investigation was bullshit. But we also both know… once they open that door, they don't always close it again without slamming it on some poor innocent bastard's fingers. So we'll count our blessings."
        "They clear Luther too?"
        "Yes, of course."
        "All right."
        Crawford said, "I put your name in for a commendation-Luther too, posthumously. Both are going to be approved."
        "Thank you, Captain."
        "Deserved."
        "I don't give a damn about the dickheads on the commission, and the chief can take a hike to hell too, for all I care. But it means something to me because it was you put in our names."
        Lowering his gaze to his brown cap, which he turned around and around.in his brown hands, Crawford said, "I appreciate that."
        They were both silent awhile.
        Jack was remembering Luther. He figured Crawford was too.
        Finally Crawford looked up from his cap and said, "Now for the bad news."
        "Always has to be some."
        "Not actively bad, just irritating. You hear about the Anson Oliver movie?"
        "Which one? There were three."
        "So you haven't heard. His parents and his pregnant fiancee made a deal with Warner Brothers."
        "Deal?"
        "Sold the rights to Anson Oliver's life story for one million dollars?"
        Jack was speechless.
        Crawford said, "The way they tell it, they made the deal for two reasons.
        First, they want to provide for Oliver's unborn son, make sure the kid's future is secure."
        "What about my kid's future?" Jack asked angrily.
        Crawford cocked his head. "You really pissed?"
        "Yes!"
        "Hell, Jack, since when did our kids ever matter to people like them?"
        "Since never."
        "Exactly. You and me and our kids, we're here to applaud them when they do something artistic or high minded-and clean up after them when they make a mess."
        "It isn't fair," Jack said. He laughed at his own words, as if any experienced cop could still expect life to be fair, virtue to be rewarded, and villainy to be punished. "Ah, hell."
        "You can't hate them for that. It's just the way they are, the way they think.
        They'll never change. Might as well hate lightning, hate ice being cold and fire being hot.".Jack sighed, still angry but only smoldering. "You said they had two reasons for making the deal. What's number two?"
        "To make a movie that will be a monument to the genius of Anson Oliver,"
        " Crawford said. "That's how the father put it. A monument to the genius of Anson Oliver."
        "
        "For the love of God."
        Crawford laughed softly. "Yeah, for the love of God. And the fiancee, mother of the heir-to-be, she says this movie's going to put Anson Oliver's controversial career and his death in historical perspective."
        "What historical perspective? He made movies, he wasn't the leader of the Western world-he just made movies."
        Crawford shrugged. "Well, by the time they're done building him up, I suspect he'll have been an antidrug crusader, a tireless advocate for the homeless-" Jack picked it up: "A devout Christian who once considered dedicating his life to missionary work-" until Mother Teresa told him to make movies instead-"
        "-and because of his effective efforts on behalf of justice, he was killed by a conspiracy involving the CIA, the FBI-"
        "-the British royal family, the International Brotherhood of Boilermakers and Pipe Fitters-"
        "-the late Joseph Stalin-"
        "-Kermit the Frog-"
        "-and a cabal of pill-popping rabbis in New Jersey," Jack