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She nodded toward the outer office.
“Sure, send him in,” the mayor replied, with an enthusiasm he really didn’t feel. He had things to do, and the less time spent on the promotion ceremony the better.
It wasn’t only Commissioner Mariani. He had with him Deputy Commissioner Coughlin and a tall, lean, stern-faced, gray-haired woman in a simple black dress and the young detective who had scored number one.
“Good morning, Mr. Mayor,” Mariani said.
“Good morning, Ralph.”
The mayor smiled at the woman, who returned it with a barely perceptible curling of her lips.
She looks like that farmer’s wife in the Grant Wood painting.
What’s that on her dress? Miniature police badges. Three of them.
“Mr. Mayor,” Coughlin said. “I thought before the program begins that you’d like to meet Mrs. Gertrude Moffitt…”
“I’m delighted. How do you do, Mrs. Moffitt?”
She nodded, her lips curled slightly again, but she didn’t say anything.
“Mrs. Moffitt is the widow of a police officer, and two of her sons died in the line of duty as police officers…,” Coughlin said.
Well, that explains the three badges.
“… Sergeant John X. Moffitt and Captain Richard C. Moffitt…” Coughlin went on.
“That’s a proud tradition, Mrs. Moffitt,” the mayor said. “I’m honored to meet you.”
She nodded again.
“… and she is Detective Payne’s grandmother,” Coughlin finished.
“The tradition continues, then,” the mayor said. “This must be a proud moment for you.”
“If my grandson still carried his father’s name, it would be,” she said.
What the hell does that mean?
Detective Payne looked pained.
Whatever the hell it is, I’m not going to get into it here and now.
“Since you know full well, Mrs. Moffitt, that police work never ceases, I’m sure you’ll forgive me if I ask the commissioner if there have been any developments in the Roy Rogers case.”
“I’m afraid not, Mr. Mayor…”
Damn! The press will be in the conference room. It would have been a perfect place and time to announce the cops have finally bagged those animals.
“… but Commissioner Coughlin tells me there was a meeting last night of all the principals of the task force, plus Chief of Detectives Lowenstein.”
“Really? Well, I hope something good will come from it.”
“I feel sure that it will, Mr. Mayor,” Coughlin said. “We all feel there will be developments in the very near future.”
/> “I hope you’re right, Commissioner,” the mayor said. “Mrs. Moffitt, when we go into the conference room”-he looked at his watch-“and we’re going to have to do that right now, I think it would be very appropriate if you were to pin his new badge on your grandson.”
And a picture like that will certainly make the evening news.
