‘We’re in my office. On the left, just past the bedroom.’ She waited for him to go first as she continued to stand in front of the table.
Brazil was already getting a sick feeling. He didn’t want to see what was on the table. He walked past the bedroom and refused to look inside. He entered West’s office and didn’t look around. Hammer was sitting close to the desk, reading glasses on, eyes fixed on the strange map on the computer screen.
‘What were you saying to that woman in the Jeep?’ Hammer asked him right off. ‘The one whose parking place I took.’
‘I told her she was in a garbage zone.’
‘A what?’ West said as she walked in.
‘Where trucks pull in and out all night as they make their rounds to restaurant Dumpsters. I showed her my badge and she complied.’
‘You probably shouldn’t have done that,’ Hammer told him. ‘You got anything to drink in this house, Virginia?’
‘Good stuff?’
‘I’m driving my police car.’
Brazil found a chair and set it down near Hammer.
‘Water and Sprite,’ West said.
‘What about Perrier?’ Hammer asked.
‘Not since the benzene scare.’
‘That’s ridiculous, Virginia. When chickens get avian flu, do you never eat them again?’
‘Has that happened recently? I got Diet Coke.’
‘Tap water is fine,’ Hammer said. ‘Andy, we’ve been sitting here talking and not getting anywhere at all. Do you have a clue as to what this is about? Please explain how fish got into COMSTAT.’
‘Well, they didn’t, not directly, Chief Hammer,’ Brazil said. ‘And I’d love some water, too,’ he said to West. ‘But I can get it. I can get Chief Hammer’s, too, if you want. I’d be happy to.’
‘I’ll do it. And don’t be so polite, it makes me sick.’
‘I’m sorry.’ Brazil was polite again.
It was awful being inside West’s home and reminded that she had never invited him over, not even once since they had moved to Richmond. It was the first time he had seen her in anything but business suits or running clothes, and she was wearing the worn-out jeans that had always driven him crazy. Her gray tee shirt was made out of really soft cotton that clung to every contour of full breasts he was no longer allowed to see, much less touch. He ached all over.
‘If you look at the top of the screen here.’ He ran his finger across the monitor, addressing Hammer as if West had been caught up in the rapture, never to be seen again. This tells you what we’re looking at is our website, because that’s its address.’
‘No,’ Hammer said in disbelief.
‘ ‘Fraid so,’ Brazil said.
Hammer and West bent close to the screen and stared in shock at:
http://www/sen””orrin””hatch””r””utah.govsen””bill”
” 10/sen””judic””commit/dept””justice/nij/nypd””I””p
ol””plaza/comstat/comp””map””center””dc/interpol/s
cot””yrd/fbi/atf/ss/dea/cia/va””nat””guard/va”state””
pol/va””corn””dept/va””crim””just””serv/juv””just””s
erv/va””att gen/va””gov””off/va””dept””health/va””
dept””safety/city””mang/gsa/city””hall/city””counc//ric
h””pol””dept/off””pub””info/qa/rich””times””disp/ap/
upi/link”ntwk/all”rights”resrv/classfyd/asneed/othr%vyz /pub””domain.html
‘Andy, I’ve never seen such shit as this,’ Hammer exclaimed. ‘Please don’t tell me this is how the public accesses our website.’
‘I’m afraid that’s it,’ Brazil told her anyway.
‘How the hell do you expect anyone to remember something like that?’ West asked, scowling at the screen.
Brazil ignored her. ‘At least it works,’ he said. ‘We know that much since we’ve gotten some responses.’
‘But why the hell is ours so goddamn complicated?’
Hammer wanted to know. ‘How many responses are we going to get with an address like that?’ She paused for a minute, a shadow falling over her face. ‘Don’t tell me Fling had something to do with this.’
Silence.
‘Oh God,’ Hammer muttered.
‘Well,’ Brazil answered her, ‘you wanted this ASAP, Chief Hammer. It was a matter of finding gateways to pass through en route to our website, sort of the way mail is routed here and there before it finally gets to you, or the way you may have to change planes at four different airports before you get where you need to go…’
‘Oh great,’ West said. ‘So Fling has people going to fifty different airports just to get from one end of the city to the other. He has the post office routing a letter through twenty different states just to travel two blocks.’