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"Don't be silly," she said.
H. Richard Detweiler, in a quilted silk dressing gown, came out of the front door as Matt drove up, holding a cup of coffee.
"He doesn't do that too well, does he?" Penny said.
"Do what?"
"Manage to look like he just happened to be there?"
Matt drove right past Detweiler, waving cheerfully at him, and around to the garage. His Volkswagen was parked to one side.
"You lie to your father," Matt said. "I'm getting out of here."
"You're underestimating him. I'll bet there's no keys in your Bug."
There were not.
It was necessary to walk back to the house, where Penny gave an entirely credible, but wholly false, report of GiGi's party, and why they had decided to stay over and come back first thing in the morning.
Matt was at first amused. Then it occurred to him that if Penny could lie that easily to her father, she could lie as easily to someone else, say M. Payne, Esq., and it no longer seemed amusing.
And then he realized that H. Richard Detweiler didn't believe a word Penny had told him.
He has no idea where we really were, but he knows damned well we were not at GiGi's. So why isn't he mad
? Aren't fathers supposed to be furious when young men screw their daughters?
As a general rule of thumb, yes. But not when the young gentleman is an old, dear, and more importantly, responsible friend of the family, and the young lady in question has previously been involved in things that make a night between the sheets seem quite innocent, indeed.
"I really have to go."
"I'll have Jensen bring your car around," Detweiler said.
"Just get me the keys, please, I can get it myself."
"Thank you for a lovely evening, Matt," Penny said. "Ask me again, soon."
When she was sure her father's back was turned, she winked lewdly at him.
****
At two minutes before eight, Matt Payne pushed open the door to the Special Investigations Section. Two sergeants were waiting for him.
"Payne," Sergeant Maxwell Henkels said, "I told you once before. This is the second time, I'm not going to tell you again. I want to know where you are located all the time."
Somebody, obviously, has been looking for me.
"I wasn't aware that applied when I'm off duty," Matt said.
"Yeah, well, now you do. You understand me, I'm not going to tell you again?"
"I understand, Sergeant."
"Payne," Sergeant Jerry O'Dowd said uncomfortably, a strange smile on his face. "You have thirty-one minutes to meet Inspector Wohl at Chief Marchessi's office in Internal Affairs."
"What?"
"What are you, deaf or what?" Sergeant Maxwell Henkels demanded.
