They now had sixty-four new mug shots to show Assanti. He pondered the photos long and hard. He was really trying to be cooperative, but he was severely limited in that he was white. In the long run, he simply gave up.
Bent and Wade hit the streets again.
137
Eileen was already there when Kling got to the office at five-ten that Wednesday afternoon. He apologized for being late and then took the chair Karin Lefkowitz offered him. He found it difficult to keep his eyes off Eileen. She was dressed casually - well, almost sloppily, in a faded denim skirt and a cotton sweater that matched her eyes - but she looked fresh and beautiful and radiantly happy. Karin explained that they'd just been talking about Eileen's first success with the hostage negotiating team. Last night, she'd . . .
"Well, it wasn't a major triumph or anything like that," Eileen said quickly.
"A baptism of fire, more or less," Karin said, and smiled.
"Bad word to use," Eileen said. "Fire."
Both of them were smiling now. Kling felt suddenly like an outsider. He didn't know how Eileen was using the word, and he felt somewhat like a foreigner here in his own country. Fire meant combustion. Fire meant to terminate someone's employment. Fire also meant to shoot. But Karin seemed to know exactly which meaning or meanings Eileen had intended, and this sense of shared intimacy was somehow unsettling to him.
"So," Karin said, "I'm glad you could make it."
But what had happened last night? Weren't they going to tell him?
"Happy to be here," he said, and smiled.
"I'll tell you where we are," Karin said. "Then maybe you can help us."
"Happy to," he said, and realized he'd repeated himself, or almost, and suddenly felt foolish. "If I can," he said lamely. Help them with what? he wondered.
Karin told him where they were.
Recounted the whole confusing tale of the Halloween night that had only been last year but that seemed centuries ago, when he'd stuck his nose into what was admittedly none of his business, causing Eileen to lose her two backups and placing her in an extremely dangerous and vulnerable position with a serial killer.
138
"Since that time," Karin explained, "Eileen has been blaming you for..."
"Well, you know," Kling started, "I was only trying to . . ."
"I know that," Eileen said.
"I mean, the last thing I wanted was to come between you and your backups. I know Annie Rawles," he said, turning back to Karin, "she's a good cop. And whereas this other guy . . ."
"Shanahan," Eileen said.
"Shanahan," he said, nodding to her in acknowledgement, "was a stranger to me . . ."
"Mike Shanahan."
"Which, by the way, is how the mixup came about. I didn't know him, he didn't know me ..."
"I know," Eileen said.
"What I'm saying is I'd rather have cut off my right arm than put you in any kind of situation where you'd have to face down a killer."
The room went silent.
"I think Eileen knows that," Karin said.
"I hope so," Kling said.
"She also knows . . . don't you, Eileen? . . . that whereas you were to blame for losing her backups ..."
"Well, as I told you ..."
"... you were not to blame for her having to kill Bobby Wilson."
"Well. . . who said I was?"
"Eileen thought you were."
"You didn't think that, did you?" he asked, turning to her.
"Yes, I did."
"That I was . . . how could you think that? I mean, the guy was coming at you ..."
"I know."
"... with a knife ..."
"I know."
"So how could I have had anything to do with that? I mean, anybody . . . any police officer ..."
139
I "Jesus, I really didn't think you were blaming me for that,
I Eileen."
I "It's complicated," she said.
"Well, I know that. But you can't blame . . ."
"It's involved with the rape, too."
"Well, yeah, that," he said.
Eileen looked at him.
"Bert. . ." she said. "Don't just dismiss it."
"I'm not dismissing it, Eileen, you know that."
"Just don't fucking dismiss it, okay?"
He felt as if he'd been slapped in the face. He looked at her, stunned.
"It wasn't well, yeah, that," she said. "It was rapel"
"Eileen, I didn't mean it that way. I meant. . ."
He stopped dead, shaking his head.
"Yes, what did you mean, Mr Kling?" Karin asked.
"Never mind, forget it."
"No, I think it may help us here."
"Help who here?" he asked. "Are you trying to help me, too, or are you trying to blame me for everything that happened since the rape? Or maybe even for the rape itself, who the hell knows, you're blaming me for everything else, why not the rape, too?"
"No one's blaming you for the rape," Eileen said.
"Thanks a lot."
"But, yes, I think you did have a lot to do . . ."
"Oh, listen. . ."
"... with what happened since the rape, yes."
"Okay, I lost your backups, I admit it. I shouldn't have been there, I should have let them handle it. But that's not the crime of the cent..."
"You're still doing it," Eileen said.
"Doing what, for Christ's sake?"
"He doesn't even realize it," she said to Karin.
"What is it I don't realize? What do you want me to say?
140
That I'm the one who really killed that cocks . . .?"
He cut himself short.
"Yes?" Karin said.
"I didn't kill Bobby Wilson," he said. "But if it makes you happier to think I was responsible for it, I'll take the rap, okay?"
"What were you about to call him?"
Kling hesitated.
"Go ahead," Karin said.
"A cocksucker," he said.
"Why'd you stop?"
"Because I don't know you well enough to use such language in your presence."
Eileen started laughing.
"What's funny?" he said.
"You never used that word in my presence, either," she said.
"Well, I guess that's a sin, too," he said, "watching my language when there's a lady around."
"If only you could hear yourself," Eileen said, still laughing.
"I don't know what's so funny here," he said, beginning to get angry again. "Do you know what's so funny?" he asked Karin.
"Why'd you go to the Canal Zone that night?" Karin asked.
"I told you."
"No, you didn't," Eileen said.
"I went there because I didn't think Annie and Shanahan could handle it."
"No," Eileen said.
"Then why'd I. . .?"
"You thought / couldn't handle it."
He looked at her.
"Yes," she said.
"No. I didn't want to trust your safety to two people ..."
"You didn't want to trust my safety to me."
"Eileen, no cop trusts himself alone in a situation ..."
141
"I know that."
"That's why there are backups ..."
"Yes, yes ..."
"The more backups the better."
"But you didn't trust me, Bert. Ever since the rape ..."
"Oh, Jesus, here's the rape again! Ever since the rape, ever since the rape..."
"Yes, goddamn it!"
"No, goddamn it! You're talking about trust? Well, who didn't trust who? I don't like being blamed for something I ..."
"I blame you for losing faith in me!"
"No. You blame me for wanting to protect you!"
"I didn't need your protection! I needed your understanding!"
"Oh, come on, Eileen. If I'd been any more understanding, I'd have qualified for the priesthood."
"What does that mean?"
"Well, you figure it out, okay?"