Middle Of Nowhere

   Boldt took issue with Krishevski's confident grin and steely-eyed glint. The man looked like a trained watchdog. The room smelled of stale tobacco, garlic, and booze, and the combination turned Boldt's stomach. Krishevski had taken unwarranted pot shots at Boldt and his department's handling of evidence in the runup to guild elections two years earlier, all in a blatant attempt to portray Homicide as an ivory-tower department in need of an overhaul, an attempt to keep Boldt from receiving the lateral transfer back to his old squad. Krishevski's complaints had fallen short of outright accusation, but had crossed acceptable lines. In point of fact, their troubled history went back twenty years, to a time when Boldt had been selected for advancement and Krishevski had not. The sores from those wounds remained. Boldt had little doubt that the blue brick had been ordered by this man, little doubt that his own selection as target had been as much personal vendetta as union strategy.

   The Police Officers Guild had been organized in the late fifties to represent officers in contract negotiation, and to provide legal representation for any officer who required it. The guild represented all personnel below the rank of lieutenant, accounting for the majority of SPD's twelve hundred officers. The administrative ranks of lieutenant, captain, and above— less than one hundred in number—were represented by a separate management team, effectively separating uniforms from the white-collar jobs. Membership in the guild was theoretically voluntary, but nearly every uniformed officer belonged, as well as most of the detectives. Its elected officials came out of its own ranks of active officers.

   As the elected president of the guild, Mac Krishevski, senior sergeant in SPD's Property room, was guild spokesman—its public voice and point man. Boldt, among others, not only blamed Krishevski for allowing, if not encouraging, the first illegal strike in the department's history—despite the man's claims otherwise— but also for permanently tarnishing the badge and the public's view of law enforcement.

   "You being president of the Chapter," Boldt said, "I'm holding you responsible for what happened to my wife tonight."

   "Now wait a second!" Krishevski complained.

   Boldt boiled. "If you don't control your fellow striking officers, if you don't bring those responsible forward for discipline—to set a proper example—then in effect you're condoning what happened tonight. If that's the case, then I'd prepare myself for certain consequences."

   "Are you threatening me, Lieutenant?"

   Boldt calmed outwardly, though internally he continued to churn. He said clinically, "I'm asking for your assistance in querying guild members for any knowledge of my wife's assault. I'm asking you to make this right, no matter what the history between us."

   "I'm not responsible for this . . . absenteeism, Lieutenant. I'm simply a dog on a runner: back and forth between the blue and the brass."

   "Right," Boldt said sarcastically. He'd heard it all before.

   "The move to restrict overtime and prohibit off-duty employment opportunities for our officers was viewed by certain individuals within the department as intrusive and destructive and is apparently the driving force behind this current situation."

   "This absenteeism," Boldt said, "that the papers and courts are calling a strike."

   "I'm in constant contact with both the chief's and the mayor's office, as I'm sure you're aware. As Chapter president, I'm forced to put my own personal feelings aside and to represent the majority opinion of my constituency. I do not condone tossing a brick through a window, and I'm sorry for your wife's injuries and any upset this may have caused you and your family. But the brick could just have easily been from an angry neighbor. Am I right? Someone pissed off over the Flu— improperly associating you with the sickout. The public understands so little of our inner workings."

   It was true, though Boldt was loath to admit it. His neighbor's acquisition of an attack dog was proof enough of the public's current perception of safety. "All I'm saying is—if you start a war, you had better be prepared to fight it."

   Krishevski's eyes hardened. "I seriously doubt that the current absenteeism had anything to do with your wife's incident."

   "A blue brick? The reports of slashed tires? Coincidence?" Boldt asked.

   "An angry public," Krishevski repeated.

   Boldt did not appreciate the man's slight grin. "You brought my family into this. For that, you'll be sorry."

   "Another threat!"