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“No. Absolutely not.”
Martine wanted to ask something, but didn’t. Ron—like all parents, a psychic—said, “There’s no talk of me losing my job. And if I did, I’d get a new one. Easy-peasey.”
Relief flowed into the girl’s face.
A sensation that her father absolutely did not feel.
At the thought of leaving the only job he had ever wanted, or keeping the badge but being desked, Ron’s gut tightened, his heart stuttered. He controlled the urge to cry. Barely.
Brad, the more reserved of the two, said, “Maybe we should, like, stay home.”
Ron reached out and gripped the boy’s forearm. “No, we go on with our life. We live it normally. We don’t let things like this affect us. We rise above it. You ever hear that expression?”
They nodded.
“Now, are you okay with this?”
They said, “Sure” and “Okay.”
But the words were flimsy. They were confused and shaken and, possibly, afraid.
This broke Ron Pulaski’s heart.
But he fired up a smoke screen of his own: “Clear the table, finish your homework. Then Monopoly with dessert.”
Their smiles were genuine. Their favorite version of the game was Dog-opoly. Which would give them the chance to resume the ongoing discussion of adding a canine to the household.
“Homework?” Ron asked again.
Martine, in grade school, didn’t have any.
“Mine’s done,” Brad said.
But he said it in a way that Ron had heard gangbangers on the street say, “Ain’t got nothing on me.”
“All of it?” Ron asked.
“Kinda.”
“Kinda?” He laughed. “Either the light’s on or it isn’t.”
Lincoln Rhyme, when hearing a phrase like “most unique” would say, “Either it’s unique or it isn’t. Like being pregnant.” Ron thought the table lamp metaphor more appropriate.
“Maybe this paper. But it’s almost finished.”
“Well, maybe you can finish it later. Go get the game.”
The boy’s face brightened.
The children readied the table in the rec room and brought their ringers—Auggie and Daisy—with them. Ron and Jenny walked into the kitchen to finish the cleanup. Wiping the counter, Jenny said, “How does this affect what you told me yesterday? Your talk with Lon?”
About taking over for Lincoln Rhyme.
If he got fired, nothing would stop him from being a consultant for the NYPD like Lincoln. Except his credibility as an expert witness would be destroyed. And that meant he’d never be hired.
Indicted and convicted … Well, that was something else.
“Depends on the findings.”
