Matt walked to the office and stood in the door until Natali looked up and waved him inside. He stood up and put out his hand.
“I didn’t expect to see you so soon, Payne,” he said. “I, uh, heard what happened. I’m sorry.”
“Thank you,” Matt said.
It was evident on Natali’s face that he, too, was recalling the circumstances of their first meeting.
“I thought I would rather work than sit around.”
That’s not true. I’m here because I got shitfaced and didn’t want to go to bed. I’m a goddamned hypocrite and a liar.
“Yeah,” Natali said. “I understand.” He paused and then went on. “Payne, some of the people here are going to resent you being here.”
“I thought they would.”
“But they know—Captain Quaire passed the word—that you had nothing to do with it. So I don’t think it will be a problem. If there is one, you come to me with it.”
“Thank you.”
“You’ll be working with Wally Milham. There’s a memo…”
“I saw it.”
“OK. I don’t think you’ll have any trouble with Milham. And he’s a good Homicide detective. You can learn a lot from him. Homicide works differently. I don’t know how much experience you had at East Detectives…”
“Not much,” Matt said. “Most of it on recovered stolen vehicles.”
Natali smiled understandingly.
“I did a few of those myself, when I made detective,” he said. “We don’t get as many jobs here,” Natali went on. “And when one comes in, everybody goes to work on it. There’s an assigned detective, of course. Milham, in the case of the Inferno Lounge job. But everybody works on it.”
“I understand. Or I think I do.”
“You’ll catch on in a hurry,” Natali said. “If you have any problems, come see me.”
“Thank you, sir.”
When he went to Wally Milham’s desk, Milham was working his way through a thick stack of paper forms. He read one of the forms, and then placed it facedown beside the unread stack.“You better take a look at these,” Milham said, tapping the facedown stack without raising his eyes from the document he was reading.
Matt pulled up a chair and slid the facedown stack to him.
Matt turned over the stack. They were all carbon copies of 75-49s, the standard Police Department Detective Division Investigation Report.
He started to read the first one:
The telephone on the desk rang. Without taking his eyes from the 75-49s before him, Milham reached for it.“Homicide, Milham,” he said.
Matt looked up in natural curiosity.
“Hello, honey,” Milham said, his voice changing.
The Widow Kellog, Matt decided, and that makes it none of my business.
He turned his attention to the second 75-49:
“Jesus Christ!” Milham said, softly but with such intensity that Matt’s noble intention to mind his own business was overwhelmed by curiosity.“Baby,” Milham said. “You stay there. Stay inside. I’ll be right there!”
I wonder what the hell that’s all about.