A Fine Specimen Read Free Page A

“Sergeant Kathy Martello,
hear you’re a friend of Captain Avery’s. Pleased to meet you.” She put down the
second cup in front of the lieutenant hard enough for some of the coffee to
slosh over. “We like the captain a lot, so anyone he sends us is very welcome
here. Isn’t that right, Loot?” She gave the lieutenant A Look and walked out.
    “Loot” took a long gulp
of his coffee, though Caitlin could see steam coming off the cup. Maybe one
developed a calloused gullet the farther one rose in law enforcement hierarchy?
Her own cup was steaming too, and smelled awful—of dishrags dipped in
turpentine.
    Still, Sergeant Martello
had made the effort, so Caitlin gingerly brought the cup to her mouth, hoping
it hadn’t been recycled. Budget cuts were everywhere. She sipped the hot,
bitter brew and nearly gagged. It was one of the worst cups of coffee she’d
ever tasted. Worse even than the Sociology Department cafeteria coffee. She
remembered Ray commenting on that.
    Whoa.
    Maybe there could be a
paper in this.
    Bad coffee, Good
Policing: A Causal Link. The
journal of her professional society published several satirical articles a year
and this would make a good one. Maybe she could get a lab to make analyses of
the coffee in, say, all the police stations in the tri-county area, and
correlate the organoleptic data with arrest figures—
    Caitlin struggled to
bring her mind back to the moment. Her mind wandered at the best of times,
which often got her into trouble. Now, with Lieutenant Cruz watching her out of
cold, dark, steely eyes was no time to be wool gathering.
    “So,” he said again. “I
take it—”
    “Hey, boss.” The face
that peeped into the door of the office was arrestingly ugly. Sparse red hair
straggled back from a long, narrow freckled face with broad features. A wide,
gap-toothed mouth smiled at her seraphically. He looked like an aging, goofy
Howdy Doody on Quaaludes.
    The man stared at her
for a minute then shouted over his shoulder, “She’s okay!”
    “That’s it!” Lieutenant
Cruz slammed both hands down on his desk, got up and circled it. He stood
framed in the doorway, a tall, broad-shouldered figure, and looked out at the
squad room. Caitlin leaned a little to the right so she could see beyond him.
Everyone in the squad room was frozen, as if caught in a game of “red light,
green light”.
    “Okay, you jokers,” Lieutenant
Cruz growled. His voice wasn’t loud but it carried. “If one more person comes
through this door, there’s going to be hell to pay. And you know I mean it.”
Caitlin watched the back of his head as he slowly quartered the room. Wherever
he looked, people’s eyes dropped. The only sounds were the rustling of papers
and tapping of computer keyboards as the officers ostentatiously got back to
work. “I trust I’ve made myself clear,” he added icily.
    She heard soft coughs
and phones ringing in the distance. The lieutenant lingered in the doorway a
moment longer then closed the door of his office just hard enough to make a
point. Caitlin’s heart jumped at the sound of the sharp snick of the
door.
    They were alone in the
room.
    Lieutenant Cruz made his
way back to his desk, his tread as soft and dangerous as a panther’s. He
settled back smoothly into his chair and looked at her for a long,
nerve-racking moment.
    “Okay. Let’s get down to
business here.” His deep voice was vibrant with frustration as he eyed her
across his steepled fingers. “Precisely what is it that you want from me?”
    “ I don’t want—”
Caitlin began, then bit her lip. She’d argued with Ray Avery for three days
running over this but he had finally convinced her that she should visit the
station house, so now it was her decision to be here and she had to take
responsibility for it. She looked into the lieutenant’s eyes and immediately
realized her mistake. They were dark, mesmerizing, hostile. She felt like a
titmouse facing a cobra, paralyzed. What would the