"Sure. I get it."
"When we find Gray, we'll make him take us to Megan Cameron."
"Right."
"We'll get her back. Maybe alive, maybe not. There's nothing we can do about that right now."
"I hear you, Chief," Lewinsky said.
Yes, Hammond thought. You hear me. But do you believe me?
He headed for his car, where his driver was watching highlights of the news conference on a portable TV. Through the open window his own voice was audible, saying, "He can run, but we'll hunt him down. He can hide amp;"
Hammond supposed he ought to hate himself for thinking itbut damn, that really was a good line.
Chapter Thirty-six
Wolper snapped off the car radio as Hammond finished his announcement. "That's something, anyway," he said.
Robin wished she could be optimistic, but she knew that finding the car was unimportant. She'd never expected Gray to hang on to the Saab. "They won't find him by looking for a car," she said quietly from the passenger seat. "There are ten million cars in this city."
"With every patrol unit in the county looking for that Firebird, there's a chance it'll be spotted."
"Long shot."
"Not as long a shot as this snipe hunt you've got going. No way this is going to pan out."
"Thanks for the prognostication."
"If Gray has your daughter, he's in the desert. If he doesn't, he's probably already made his way out of town. The farther he gets from LA, the less heat there'll be."
"That's if he's thinking logically. I'm guessing he's scared, rattled."
"Sociopaths are cool customers. Ice-cold, in fact. They don't get scared and desperate."
"They're not human, you mean?"
He squeezed the steering wheel as if it were a substitute for his rubber ball. "Technically they're human. Just barely. They don't have the normal range of emotions. You know that. No empathy, no compassion."
She threw his own words back at him. "Then I guess they're realists, aren't they? They're practical." She took a breath. "Sorry. That was unfair. It's just amp; I hate it when anybody's humanity is denied. It's wrong. It's demeaning."
"Demeaning to them or to us?"
"To them and to us."
"You haven't seen what I've seen, Doctor. You haven't seen a body dumped in a trash bin with its arms and legs missing." She stiffened, fear flashing through her. He noticed. "Damn," he said. "I forgot for a minuteabout your daughter."
"It's okay." She fought for self-control. She could not think about Meg now. Thinking about Meg would make her crazy. "And I know you've seen a lot. You've been aroundisn't that how you put it last night?"
"Sounds like something I would say."
"But the thing is, I've been around, too, believe it or not. And I know there's more to these people than a rap sheet. Every one of them, even the worst, is somebody's son or husband or amp; father." She did her best not to stumble on the last word.
"Their victims were also somebody's loved ones," Wolper said.
"I know. It's wrong to lose sight of that. We have to keep all of it in our field of vision. We have to see the whole picture, all sides." But all she could see now was Meg. Meg in danger amp; in pain amp;
"We can't be omniscient," Wolper said.
"We can't be unfeeling, either."
He grunted, noncommittal. She decided not to pursue the subject. She had no strength to argue right now. It took all her focus to keep herself from screaming aloud.
"We're lucky Hammond's running the show," Wolper said. "As the brass go, he's not too bad."
"I had the impression he's a bit of a showboater."
"He likes getting his picture taken; that's for sure."
"Then why are we lucky to have him?"
"Because he can snap his fingers and make people jump. Hammond's on a fast track to the top of the department. He might be chief in a few years if he plays his cards rightand he's sure as hell played 'em right so far."
"I wish Deputy Chief Wagner were in charge."
"Your angel. Your sponsor."
"My liaison with the department," she corrected.
"Wagner wouldn't go near this case. He avoids risk. Stays away from anything messy. And if he was running things, he'd be too cautious to get anything done."
"Caution might be better than recklessness."
"Hammond isn't reckless. He's just ambitious and not afraid to show it. Joined the force at nineteen. Went to night school to earn his college degree, then got himself a master's. Worked his way up the ladderNarcotics, undercover work, patrol, the whole nine yards. He's the same age as me, and he's sitting in the catbird seat. Makes me wonder what I did wrong."
"You're not doing anything wrong. You're doing your job."
Wolper gave the steering wheel another squeeze. "Sometimes it doesn't feel like enough."
"Is it you saying thator your ex-wife?"
"Oh, no, you don't. You're not putting me on the couch."
"Occupational hazard. Sorry." She didn't want an impromptu therapy session with him anyway. She had other things on her mind.
"When I showed up for our appointment," Wolper said, "the Rampart guys thought I was there to get my head shrunk. The news will probably be all over the department by tomorrow."
Their appointment. Robin had forgotten about that. She forced herself to focus. "What did you come to tell me, anyhow?"
"About Brand?" He shrugged. "I looked at the file. The shooting looks clean to me. The review was thorough, no whitewash as far as I can tell. Brand's story was consistent with the physical evidence."
"But he told me a different story."
"Don't people say all kinds of things under hypnosis?"
"MBI isn't hypnosis."
"It's an altered state of consciousness. Can't the mind play tricks on a personpower of suggestionlike in all those child abuse cases that turned out to be bullshit?"
"It can happen," she admitted.
"Happens all the time, as I understand it. People are hypnotized and start talking about their past lives. How they used to stuff mummies or got their head chopped off in the French Revolution."
"Brand wasn't talking about a past life. He was talking about Eddie Valdez. And if he killed Valdez the way he said he did amp;" She stopped. A new thought occurred to her, a thought powerful enough to shut out the clamor of fear for her daughter.
"Yes?" Wolper prompted.
"Then he might have a motive to come after me."
"After you?"
"Gray said there was another man. Mr. Cool."
"Give me a break. You know that story of his was bullshit."
"Of course it was." She looked at Wolper. "Except amp; what if it wasn't?"
He took a moment to reply. When he did, his question surprised her. "You were hurt worse than you let on, weren't you?"
"What makes you say that?"
"Don't play dumb. You lost consciousness when he hit you."
She gave in. "How did you know?"
"If you hadn't, you'd know for sure if there was one man or two."
"Okay, you caught me. I didn't want to be sent to the ER, so I fibbed a little."
"A concussion is nothing to fool around withas you ought to know, Doctor. How long were you out?"
"Long enough for Gray to kill the deputy and put on the dead man's pants, I guess."
"That could be a couple minutes. I'm taking you to Cedars-Sinai."
"No, you're not."
"God damn it, you're a doctor. You know how serious a head trauma can be."
"Yes, I do know. And I don't give a damn."