When she didn’t reply, he asked,
“Anything else I’ve done dangerously?”
“When you chased the guy in Philadelphia, you were drunk.”
“I wasn’t drunk. And you will recall I caught him.”
“After you fell down twice.”
“I fell over a goddamn wire.”
She snorted.
“And the Highway sergeant gave you mints. He saw you were drunk.”
“Isn’t that what they call the pot calling the kettle black?”
“At least I admit it.”
“Okay. I admit it. I was drunk. Happy?”
“And we never should have gone to the hotel in the first place. You should have thought what it would mean to me if it ever got out.”
“I wasn’t aware that our going to a hotel-in which, by the way, we have separate rooms-was going to see you branded forever with a scarlet A on your forehead.”
“It would damned sure keep me from staying in Homicide, ” Olivia said.
“Look, you better be prepared, Olivia-Christ, you’re naive-for all sorts of clever remarks from the guys in Homicide about our ‘vacation’ in Alabama. Whether we move into some dump of a motel or not, there are going to be suggestions that we fooled around.”
“What they’re going to think, is (a) I walked into Homicide, and (b) took one look at the hotshot sergeant, who calls the first deputy commissioner ‘Uncle Denny,’ and (c) jumped into his bed. And you know it, and you know that’ll keep me from staying in Homicide. And you don’t care.”
“As much as I would like it to be otherwise, I think you have absolutely no chance of staying in Homicide.”
“Is that so?”
“That’s so. The only reason I’m in Homicide is because Mariani had that brainstorm about giving the top-five guys on the sergeant’s exam their choice of assignment.”
“It had nothing to do, right, with your ‘Uncle Denny’ Coughlin?”
“No, goddamn it, it didn’t. He tried to talk me out of it, as a matter of fact.”
She snorted again.
“And he was probably right. There is no one more aware of my limitations as a Homicide investigator than I am.”
“Amazing! That’s the first modest thing I’ve ever heard you say.”
“Oh, screw you!”
“Fat chance!”
The doorman of the Grand Hotel opened the door for Olivia.
“Olivia, would you like to have dinner with me?
”
“I think I’ll have a sandwich in my room. But thank you just the same.”