Blow Fly

79

LUCY STANDS ON THE MOST beautiful Persian rug she has ever seen, one she has stood on many, many times during better moments with Jaime Berger.

They are far apart from each other in the living room.

"It's hard for me to imagine you dressed as a prostitute and getting into an altercation with a drunk," Berger goes on. "That was sloppy work on your part."

"I made a mistake."

"I'll say you did."

"I had to go back. For my tactical baton," Lucy tells her.

"Which one of you pulled the trigger?"

The question shocks Lucy. She doesn't want to remember.

"Rocco was planning on killing Marino, his own father," Lucy says again. "Next time Marino went on one of his fishing trips, Rocco was going to take him out. Rocco wanted to die. He did kill himself, sort of."

Berger looks out at the city, her hands tightly clasped. "He sort of killed himself. You sort of murdered him. Sort of dead. Sort of being pregnant. Sort of committing perjury."

"We had to."

Berger doesn't want to hear this. She has no choice.

"We did, I swear."

Berger remains silent.

"He was a Red Notice. He was going to die. The Chandonnes would have taken him out, and not in a nice way."

"Now the defense is mercy killing," Berger finally speaks.

"How is it different from what our soldiers did in Iraq?"

"Now the defense is world peace."

"Rocco's life was over, anyway."

"Now the defense is he was already dead."

"Please don't make fun of me, Jaime!"

"I'm supposed to congratulate you?" Berger goes on. "And now you've fucked me, too, because I know about it. I know about it." Berger repeats each word slowly. "Am I stupid or what? Jesus! I sat right there"-she whirls around and jabs a finger at Lucy-"and translated those goddamn reports for you.

"You may as well have walked into my office and confessed to a murder, and had me say, Don't worry about it, Lucy. We all make mistakes. Or It happened in Poland, so it's not my jurisdiction. It doesn't count. Or Tell me all about it if it will make you feel better. See, I'm not a real district attorney when I'm with you. When we're alone, when we're inside my apartment, it's not professional."