“He can try until he’s blue in the face.”
“And he will.”
Our diet drinks arrived, and I changed the subject.
“I’m meeting with Downey in the morning.” Marino’s eyes wandered to the television over the bar. “Lucy’s getting started on AFIS. And then I’ve got to do something about Ben Steven,”
”What you ought to do is get rid of him.”
“Do you have any idea how difficult it is to fire a state employee?”
“They say it’s easier to fire Jesus Christ,” Marino said. “Unless the employee is appointed and got a grade off the charts, like you. You still ought to find some way to run the bastard off.”
“Have you talked to him?”
“Oh, yeah. According to him, you’re arrogant, ambitious, and strange. A real pain in the ass to work for.”
“He actually said something like that?”I asked in disbelief.
“That was the drift.”
“I hope someone is checking into his finances. I’d be interested to know if he’s made any large deposits lately. Susan didn’t get into trouble alone.”
”I agree with you. I think Stevens knows a lot and is covering his tracks like crazy. By the way, I checked with Susan’s bank. One of the tellers remembers her making the thirty-five-hundred-dollar deposit in cash. Twenties, fifties, and hundred-dollar bills that she was carrying in her purse.”
“What did Stevens have to say about Susan?”
“He’s saying that he really didn’t know her, but that it was his impression there was some problem between you and her. In other words, he’s reinforcing what’s been in the news.”
Our food arrived, and it was all I could do to swallow a single bite because I was so angry.
“And what about Fielding?” I said. “Does he think I’m horrible to work for?”
Marino stared off again. “He says you’re very driven and he’s never been able to figure you out.”
“I didn’t hire him to figure me out, and compared to him, I am certainly driven. Fielding is disenchanted with forensic medicine and has been for several years. He expends most of his energy in the gym.”
“Doc” – Marino met my eyes- “you are driven compared to anyone, and most people can’t figure you out. You don’t exactly walk around with your heart on your sleeve. In fact, you can come across as someone who don’t have feelings. You’re so damn hard to read that to others who don’t know you, it sometimes appears that nothing gets to you. Other cops, lawyers, they ask me about you. They want to know what you’re really like, how you can do what you do every day – what the deal is. They see you as somebody who don’t get close to anyone.”
“And what do you tell them when they ask?” I said.
“I don’t tell them a damn thing.”
“Are you finished psychoanalyzing me yet, Marino?”
He lit a cigarette. “Look, I’m going to say something to you, and you ain’t gonna like it. You’ve always been this reserved, professional lady – someone real slow to let you in, but once the person’s there, he’s there. He’s got a damn friend for life and you’d do anything for But you’ve been different this past year. You’ve had about a hundred walls up ever since Mark got killed. For those of us around you, it’s like being in a room that was once seventy degrees and suddenly the temperature’s down to about fifty five. I don’t think you’re even aware of it.”
“So nobody’s feeling all that attached to you right now. Maybe they even resent you a little bit because they feel ignored or snubbed by you. Maybe they never liked you anyway. Maybe they’re just indifferent. The thing about people is, whether you’re sitting on a throne or a hot seat, they’re going to use your position to their advantage. And if there’s no bond between you and them, that just makes it all the easier for them to try to get what they want without giving a rat’s ass about what happens to you. And that’s where you are. There’s a lot of people who’ve been waiting for years to see you bleed.”