"Don't be reckless, Sachs. That bomb--"
The fervent look in her eyes silenced him. "I want to get him, whatever it takes. And I have a feeling you want to get him just as much. I think you'd take chances too." She added with cryptic significance, "Maybe you are taking chances."
This had a greater reaction than she'd expected. He blinked, looked away. But he said nothing else, sipped his scotch.
On impulse, she asked, "Can I ask something? If you don't want me to you can tell me to clam up."
"Come on, Sachs. We've got secrets, you and me? I don't think so."
Eyes on the floor, she said, "I remember once I was telling you about Nick. How I felt about him and so on. How what happened between us was so hard."
He nodded.
"And I asked you if you'd felt that way about anyone, maybe your wife. And you said yes, but not Blaine." She looked up at him.
He recovered fast, though not fast enough. And she realized she'd blown cold air on an exposed nerve.
"I remember," he answered.
"Who was she? Look, if you don't want to talk about it . . . "
"I don't mind. Her name was Claire. Claire Trilling. How's that for a last name?"
"Probably put up with the same crap in school I had to. Amelia Sex. Amelia Sucks . . . How'd you meet her?"
"Well . . . " He laughed at his own reluctance to continue. "In the department."
"She was a cop?" Sachs was surprised.
"Yep."
"What happened?"
"It was a . . . difficult relationship." Rhyme shook his head ruefully. "I was married, she was married. Just not to each other."
"Kids?"
"She had a daughter."
"So you broke up?"
"It wouldn't have worked, Sachs. Oh, Blaine and I were destined to get divorced--or kill each other. It was only a matter of time. But Claire . . . she was worried about her daughter--about her husband taking the little girl if she got divorced. She didn't love him, but he was a good man. Loved the girl a lot."
"You meet her?"
"The daughter
? Yes."
"You ever see her now? Claire?"
"No. That was the past. She's not on the force anymore."
"You broke up after your accident?"
"No, no, before."
"She knows you were hurt, though, right?"