Roses Are Red

Chapter Ninety-Two

The meeting started out very badly. Detective Weiss from NYPD Internal Affairs took it upon himself to speak for the rest of us. Weiss found it necessary to start at the beginning and methodically go over Macdougall's previous statement sentence by sentence.

It was excruciating. I badly wanted to interrupt him, but I didn't. Every time Weiss asked another question or launched into a senseless diatribe criticizing Macdougall, I nudged Betsey's foot under the table. To punctuate a couple of embarrassing exchanges she kicked me in the shins.

Macdougall finally had enough of it too. "You fucking suck! "he blew up at Weiss. "You people are a joke. It's about your gut, Weiss, not covering your fat ass. You're wasting my time. Let somebody else ask the questions."

He glared at Weiss, who still seemed not to get it.

"You're asking all the wrong fucking questions, asshole." Macdougall finally stood up and shouted at the top of his voice," You're godawful at your job, you suck, you're wasting everybody's time!"

Macdougall then stomped over to a grimy window that was covered by a heavy metal screen and bars. His lawyers trailed after him. He said something, and they all laughed. Ho, ho, ho. What a crack-up Brian Macdougall was.

The rest of us sat at the conference table and watched them. Betsey consoled Weiss, tried to keep up a united front.

"Fuck him, "Weiss said with unusual clarity and brevity," I can ask him anything I want to. We bought that son of a bitch."

Betsey nodded at Weiss. "You're right, Harry. He's arrogant and he's wrong. Typical detective, "she said," Maybe he would respond to Detective Cross. He doesn't seem to like IAD."

Weiss shook his head at first, but then he relented. "Fine, whatever it takes. Whatever works with this asshole. I'm a team player."

"We're all team players," she said and lightly patted Weiss's arm. She was good. "Thanks for being open to the suggestion."

Macdougall came back to the table, and he seemed calmer. He even apologized to Weiss. "I'm sorry. Nerves are a little frayed, you know."

I waited a couple of seconds for his apology to be accepted by Weiss, but the IAD man never said a word. I finally began. "Detective Macdougall, why don't you tell us what you have that's important. You know what you have to tell. You also know what we want to hear."

Macdougall looked at both of his lawyers. He finally smiled.