Her father nodded, as if he already knew. “So I hear. Brewer assigned this case to you?”
“Yes.”
He nodded again, chewing reflectively. “You’ve been paired with a Cruz Martinez for the duration of the case?”
She gritted her teeth. His information was accurate, as always. “Yes.”
“What’s he like?”
She looked at him in surprise. “Why, do you know him?”
“It’s impolite to answer a question with another question,” he admonished her. “But, no, of course I don’t know him. That’s why I asked you.”
She shrugged, knowing the casual gesture would annoy him. “He’s all right, I guess.”
“Do you think you’ll be able to link him to the gun sales?”
Madeline froze in the act of raising her fork to her lips. Then slowly she replaced it on her plate. “Where,” she asked in carefully measured words, “did you get that information?”
He waved her question away nonchalantly. “I have my sources, Madeline, you know that. Now, please answer my question.”
But she had no intention of doing so. When she spoke again it was difficult to keep her voice from shaking with anger. “I’ve told you before, I do not care to have your snoops spying on every aspect of my career and then reporting back to you. You have no business asking for, or receiving, such privileged information about an Internal Affairs investigation. It’s a complete abuse of your position to even request it.”
But her father, as usual, was unmoved by her words. “For heaven’s sake, Madeline, I certainly don’t have hired men ‘spying’ on you, as you so inelegantly put it. I happened to run into a friend at my club and we had a drink together. You know how it is.” He wiped his mouth with his napkin. “He shared the information with me because he thought I’d be interested.”
Oh, yes, Madeline thought, her stomach churning with fury. She knew exactly how it was. How it had always been. He’d never trusted her to live her own life, and he never would. He was constantly looking over her shoulder, warning her about which decisions to make, second-guessing her all the way. She knew blowing up at him would solve nothing, but she could no more stop herself than she could quit breathing. “We’ve had this discussion before,” she said furiously. “When are you going to keep your nose out of my professional life?”
When he answered, Geoffrey’s voice was crisp. “When I can trust your professional judgment. From what I’ve heard of Martinez, he’s quite a ladies’ man. I don’t want you to make another mistake.”
The color leeched from her face. “What exactly are you implying?”
“You know very well, Madeline, but if you insist on having it spelled out… As soon as I heard about this job you’ve been assigned-to see if Martinez is clean-I had a feeling of déjà vu. I just think you need to be very careful that you don’t succumb to this man’s surface charm and overlook any evidence to suggest that he’s a criminal.”
“Like I did before?” she said woodenly.
“With Dennis Belding, yes. Good Lord, you were planning to marry the man before he was caught going through my personal papers in my office. The damage he was intending to do me was only barely averted. You don’t exactly have the best track record in your judgment of men, my dear.”
“May I remind you,” she retorted, “that you were totally in favor of our engagement? Dennis had your wholehearted approval.”
“Hmm, yes, that was unfortunate. But it’s neither here nor there. You understand now what I’m talking about. Perhaps it would be best for you to ask Brewer to assign someone else to Martinez.”
“That is out of the question,” she snapped.
Predictably, her show of temper had little visible effect on her father. His voice, when he spoke, was tinged with censure. “Well, then, be very careful, Madeline. You act as if you despise the power that comes with my position, but it was the only thing that saved you from being implicated in Dennis’s little schemes.”
Her chair clattered as she stood abruptly. “That’s not true!”
He surveyed her impassively. “Isn’t it?”
She closed her eyes briefly, but trying to rein in her temper at this point was impossible. “I prefer to believe that I was cleared in the investigation because I was innocent. And you would do well to remember that Cruz Martinez might be, too.”
Geoffrey rose also. “Believe what you wish. But if you insist on going ahead with this investigation, you had better be sure of your motives regarding Martinez. If you conclude he’s innocent of any wrongdoing, be very certain this time that you’ve reached your conclusion based upon the evidence, and not upon your emotions.”
Madeline picked up her purse with hands that were not quite steady. “Congratulations, Father. You’ve managed to ruin another meal.”
Realizing her intention, he frowned. “Madeline, you aren’t leaving? You haven’t finished your dinner.”
“I’ve lost my appetite,” she said clearly, and stalked from the room and out of the house.
Back in her own apartment she tried to curb the anger that renewed every time she played back their conversation. Her blood pressure couldn’t stand more than an hour a month in her father’s presence. She’d known that he didn’t have an especially high opinion of her. But to imply that she would succumb to any man who came her way… How could he not know her at all, after thirty years?
The answer was simple, she thought glumly as she methodically put her purse away and hung up her jacket. Geoffrey Casey had never taken the time to get to know either of his children. They existed solely as extensions of himself, extensions he felt compelled to control. He didn’t want to get to know them. To do so would mean he would have to admit they were individuals in their own right.
She flipped on some soothing music and plopped down on the couch, sitting cross-legged. She bent her head back and concentrated on allowing the tension from the evening to slip away. Really, what difference did it make what her father thought? He’d long since lost the power to really hurt her with his lack of faith.
She refused to admit, even to herself, that he’d never quite lost the power to make her doubt herself.
Madeline knocked on Captain Brewer’s door the next morning and entered at his brusque command. His eyebrows rose when he saw her, and he motioned her to a chair.
“Well, Sergeant, do you have something for me already?”
“Just an update.” She told him of the interrogation of Stover the day before, “Martinez is going to ask Ritter to try to convince Jacobs to reduce the charges in return for Stover telling us where he got the weapon.”
“What else do you have?”
“His weapon is the only one that’s been recovered in the act of a crime. And it’s the same kind that was used in each of the drive- by shootings.”
Brewer waited for a few moments, but when she added nothing further, he said, “That’s all? Casey, you’ve got nothing. If Jacobs had been interested, he would have acted by now.”
“Maybe no one has suggested it yet,” she maintained stubbornly. “We figured it was worth a shot.”
The captain didn’t look convinced. “Don’t get your hopes up. Stover robbed a bank, for God’s sake, and got caught red-handed doing it. Jacobs isn’t going to want to give up a sure conviction.” He looked at her for a long moment. “What have you gotten on Martinez so far?”
She sighed. “It’s only been one day. Did you think I was going to walk in after twenty-four hours and hand him over to you?” She hesitated. Damn her father for his words last night. Now she would be examining each move she made for signs of favoritism to Martinez. Brewer, too, was eyeing her speculatively.
“So you’re saying you haven’t found anything so far.”
After a momentary pause she related the scene between Martinez and Baker. “He mentioned the Internal Affairs investigation.”
“And?” the man demanded. “Did you get the feeling he was harboring a grudge against the department?”