Ghost of a Chance

The New York City Central Office of Police was a ten-story building in Manhattan’s inner ring a few blocks south and west of the park. It was early afternoon when Alex walked through the front doors and headed for the elevators in the back. All six of the detective divisions were on the fifth floor and he had no desire to take the stairs after the day he was having.

“You!” Detweiler’s voice assaulted him as soon as he exited the elevator on the fifth floor. Before Alex knew what was happening, the portly lieutenant was right in his face. “You’ve got a lot of nerve showing your face here!” he yelled.

“Me,” Alex yelled right back. He’d decided on the way over that the only chance he had to convince the lieutenant that he had nothing to do with the story was to be offended himself. “Somebody on your team has a mighty big mouth!” Alex yelled, shoving Leslie’s copy of the tabloid at Detweiler.

“My team?” he yelled back as detectives from all over the floor began to drift out into the hall to see what the commotion was about. “It was you who talked to this rag, why else would they make you sound like some master detective come to save us keystone cops?”

“You think that’s good for me?” Alex rejoined, lowering his voice a bit. “This hack makes me sound like some all-powerful sorcerer. What happens when clients come to see me expecting miracles I can’t deliver? Word will get around I don’t have the juice. It’ll ruin my reputation and my business.”

“Don’t try to make yourself out to be the victim,” Detweiler said. “No cop would say these things about a fellow cop, it has to be you.”

“Yeah?” Alex spat back. “And what about those details in the paper from yesterday? What about the stab wounds? Someone leaked that before I was even on the case.”

“That’s no big thing. That doctor you live with is chummy with the coroner. You could have learned that from him.”

“And then what?” Alex said, addressing the assembled crowd for the first time. “I got myself involved? How? Anyone think I put Callahan up to it? He brought me in, remember?”

Apparently Detweiler had forgotten that point because he opened his mouth to answer and abruptly shut it again. A murmur of agreement rumbled through the onlookers. Most of them wouldn’t have peed on Alex if he’d been on fire, but no one believed that Callahan could be bullied into anything.

Alex had guessed that if it came down to a choice between believing Detweiler or believing Callahan, the detectives would go with the latter. Everyone who knew the big Lieutenant knew he was a tough, honest, son-of-a-bitch. Not the kind of guy someone like Alex would be able to leverage.

Alex may not have though much of Detweiler, but the man wasn’t stupid. He sensed the shift in the audience instantly and his face screwed up into a look of fury. He understood the corner into which Alex had backed him.

He rushed Alex, grabbing him by the front of his waistcoat and slamming him into the wall of the hallway.

“All right, scribbler,” he said in a low voice only Alex could hear. “That was pretty smart of you, but don’t think I’ve changed my mind. You’ve been talking to that hack from the Sun and if anything you’ve told him ruins my case, I’ll have you brought up on an obstruction charge.”

Alex looked him right in the eyes without blinking.

“Wasn’t me.”

“I don’t believe you,” Detweiler growled. “Now get out of my building and stay out of my case. If I catch you anywhere near this, I’ll have you arrested.”

“For what?” Alex asked, a smile creeping across his lips.

Detweiler smiled too.

“Obstruction,” he said. “Interfering with a police investigation, jaywalking, and anything else I can think of.”

“That won’t stick and you know it.”

Detweiler shrugged.

“Maybe not,” he said, “but I can hold you for forty-eight hours without charging you with anything. Now get out.”

He let go of Alex and stepped back, smoothing out his jacket.

“Get back to work, you mugs,” he said to the hallway, and he and the other detectives disappeared, leaving Alex alone by the elevator.

Alex straightened his own jacket and turned to the call button. His gamble had paid off, so he wasn’t in jail, but he was off the case. The more stubborn part of his mind wanted to tell Anne Watson that he’d keep working just to spite Detweiler, but that was asking for trouble, and he really didn’t have any meaningful way to help her anyway.

He sighed as the elevator doors slid open.

“That went well,” he said to the empty hallway.

6 The Doctor’s Vault

“Let me see your hands,” Iggy commanded once Alex got back to the brownstone and explained his day.

Alex held out his hands and Iggy took them, each in turn, squeezing them and feeling the bones and tendons in the fingers.

“How long has this been going on?” he asked, feeling the trembling in Alex’s fingers.

“A few weeks now,” Alex said.

Iggy gave him a sour look.

“You should have told me,” he said.