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Then Harry’s door opened. I was so deep into my own paranoia about the future of my NYPD career that I tried to figure out if the door had opened in an angry way or a professional way. I listened to the tone of the two men’s voices as they exchanged good-byes. Not pleasant.
Macy had only a menacing glance for me as he fumed
back across the squad bay floor, this time heading for the exit.
As Harry watched him leave, he ran a hand over his face, looked at me, and shook his head.
I had stepped over the line and I knew it. I also knew I needed to apologize. First to Harry, then, as much as it bugged me, to John Macy.
At the moment, though, I couldn’t get a clear read on Harry. Not that it’s ever easy. I slid out of my seat and started walking toward him. When I was still twenty feet away, I said, “Harry, I’m sorry. I let him get under my skin.”
Harry let out a sigh. That was almost always a really bad sign that he was about to say something no one wanted to hear. I waited for the words Go home or, worse, You’re off the case. I just hoped none of this problem I had created would bleed over onto Hollis. He didn’t deserve to be punished for my stupidity.
I said, “What happened? What did Macy demand?”
“At first I tried to reason with the turd. Then he tried to reason with me.” Harry chuckled. “Like that ever works.” He looked at me in silence for a moment. “Macy came up here to see the operations of our task force, and all he saw was a junior detective pounding the books and a lead detective acting like a child. Basically, he doesn’t think you’re the right man for this case.”
Harry looked at me. He said in a calm and quiet voice, “Get out of here. Go find some perspective. Go talk to your kids, to your beautiful fiancée, or even to your grandfather. Figure out what’s more important to you: stopping a killer or annoying a minor city official.”
“Should I come back tomorrow?” I wasn’t being dramatic. I was dead serious.
“Yes. Unless I call you tonight and tell you not to bother. Which is a possibility.” He stared at the door that Macy had raced out of. Then Harry said, “There’s something about that guy I don’t like. He acts a little like my first wife. He seems pleasant enough until you look a little closer.” Harry looked back at me. “You remember when my wife ran off with our mechanic?”
I nodded. It’s not unusual to help a fellow cop get through a divorce.
“It was tough. He was a really good mechanic.”
Chapter 37
It had been months since I’d left the office this early. It was odd to see the sun still shining as I got into my city-issued Chevy Impala. I wasn’t ready to explain my early arrival to Mary Catherine. Which was one of the reasons why I took a detour to Holy Name, swung by to visit my grandfather.
I was in need of counseling, or at least a little verbal abuse. Seamus was always good for both. Especially the abuse.
It took a while to get to him, though, as I first had to say hello to several different nuns I had known since I was a child. Basically, every conversation I’d had at Holy Name in the last six months had been about the wedding. And the nuns all said the same thing: “I can’t believe little Michael Bennett is getting married!”
I had no trouble not being a smart-ass with the nuns. I didn’t feel the need to remind them that little Michael Bennett had actually been married before, or that ever since I’d lost my first wife, Maeve, I’d been a widower with ten children—all of whom these self-same nuns had personally educated. But since happy talk of the wedding made them smile and laugh, I went along with it. I know that’s what Mary Catherine (and Maeve) would have wanted.
I found my grandfather in his office, looking over the shoulder of a twenty-something African American in an Avengers T-shirt working on Seamus’s computer. I knew the young man’s name was Elgin Brown, and he had a degree from Stony Brook in computer technology. Elgin was by all accounts a great kid (I’ve noticed as I get older that anyone under thirty is a kid).
I said, “What’s going on here? Elgin trying to erase all your gambling websites before they’re subject to some kind of audit by the Catholic Church?”
My grandfather looked up at me. “Don’t be ridiculous. I keep all those websites on my phone only. Elgin is showing me how we could create a website to help kids in the neighborhood who need access to tutors and after-school care.”
I smiled. Not only because my grandfather was always trying to do something for the community but also because even in his eighties he wanted to learn new things. He could have just asked Elgin to summarize the information for him. Instead, he wanted to master the skills himself.
Joining the priesthood really hadn’t changed Seamus at all. Gone straight from hell to heaven, he took to saying when he sold his Hell’s Kitchen gin mill and became a man of the cloth. The first thing he learned back then was how to hide his mischievous streak in public.
I waited for a couple of minutes while they finished up their work. I had to admit, my grandfather looked pretty good for his age. At least for now. He’d had a few health scares in the last couple of years. Losing him was one of the scariest concepts I could fathom. The very idea of life without the man who raised me, encouraged me, and always kept me grounded was terrifying. For now, there was nothing I liked more than surprising him at his office.
Seamus again looked up at me. “Shouldn’t you be at work rather than bothering an old man?”
Elgin stood up. My grandfather patted him on the back and thanked him. The kid slipped out of the room like a ghost.
I said, “He never makes eye contact with me.”
“You intimidate him.”
“How?”
