Terminal City

ELEVEN

“You can’t be that unhappy to see me,” Mike said.

“Perfect end to a truly miserable day,” I said, closing the door to the conference room of the morgue shortly before 7:30 P.M. “You here to top it off?”

Mike’s feet were up on the long table. He had obviously been examining autopsy and crime scene photographs. Mercer and I had just put the Thatchers in a patrol car for the ride home. I didn’t imagine there would be much conversation on that long, sad drive.

“The commissioner thinks I’m presidential material. I mean, not presidential but-”

“I wasn’t confused for a nanosecond. He’s asked you to be part of the task force when the feebies show up.”

“Scully heard that the dead girl’s wacko ex-”

“Nothing to suggest Paco is wacko, okay?”

“What did you feed her that’s got her snapping at me, Mercer?”

I raised my arms and held them out to both sides. “You guys talking about me? So very sorry. I’m just out of sorts ’cause I’m so distressed about Mrs. Chapman’s health.”

“Relax, Coop. She’s doing much better.”

I looked for the slightest sign of deception or discomfort in Mike’s demeanor but saw neither.

Mercer didn’t skip a beat. “I called Corinne’s brother. He’s got-”

“Do you mind giving us a few minutes, Mercer?” I asked.

He looked at Mike before he answered me. “You can have whatever you want, Alex, but this doesn’t seem like the time-”

Mike took his feet down and sat up straight. “I’ve got no secrets from Mercer, kid. You got a beef with me, shoot.”

I stared straight at Mike. “If you don’t mind, Mercer. Five minutes.”

He turned and saluted me before walking out of the room.

“Don’t go acting all crazy on me, Coop.”

“You know I adore your mother, Mike,” I said. “My father helped you get her the best doctors, the best care when she was first diagnosed. There’s nothing I wouldn’t do for her.”

“And she’s coming along fine. I just told you that.”

“You also told me that she’s in ICU for a few more days of observation.”

Mike’s expression didn’t change. “Like I said. So what’s got you so smoked up about my mother, Coop?”

“Just the fact that I went to visit her in the hospital-”

“Whoa. No visitors but family.”

“Excuse me. She always says I’m just a shadow away from family. I went to say hello to her this morning-just a smile and to blow a kiss-perk her up a bit. Funniest thing is, she wasn’t there. Not this morning. Not this week.”

“So-”

“So your bullshit is wearing thin with me, Detective Chapman. I don’t care that you make a fool of me, but just give it to me face-to-face. Are we done?”

Mike was talking over me. “What hospital did you go to?”

“What does that matter? She wasn’t there.”

“Where?”

I was overtired and overwrought, practically wringing my hands to keep them from flailing while I talked. “Lutheran. The Medical Center.”

“Well, that’s the problem.”

“No, I’m obviously the problem, Mike. What is it? Margaret’s always been treated at Lutheran. Why are you being so-so evasive? It’s about us. It’s about me, isn’t it? It’s not about your mother at all.”

“I got no issue with you, Coop.”

“Then what?”

“Don’t go crying on me, okay? Just dig those two chunky central incisors-the uppers, right there in the front of your mouth,” Mike said, stepping toward me and grabbing my shoulders tightly. “Just dig those two big teeth into your lip. Thatta girl. Bite down.”

I looked at Mike. I wanted him to put his arms around me and explain the long absence and the nonsense about his mother.

“Not here, Coop, okay? I know that look in your eye. Don’t even think about it,” he said, releasing me and taking two steps back, running his fingers through his hair. “Not in the morgue, okay? Creeps me out to think about even touching you while we’re a hairbreadth away from an autopsy table.”

“I wasn’t thinking about touching you.”

“Sure you were,” he said, flashing that irresistible grin. “You wanted a piece of me, didn’t you?”

“Where is your mother? Would you just tell me that?”

“You never heard of HIPAA Security Rule?” Mike said, still clowning around.

“HIPAA, my ass. I’m not violating Margaret’s privacy by asking where she is.”

“Yeah, but-”

“Just your privacy, Mike. Am I violating that?”

“Listen to me for a minute, Coop,” he said, turning dead serious on a dime, leaning on his arms on the table between us. “When are you going to understand that I would sooner stick a shiv between the fifth and sixth ribs on the left side of my chest cavity than-”

“You mean, the place where most people have a heart? Are you able to say the word ‘heart’?”

“-than hurt you. Do you get that?” he asked, jabbing a finger toward my face. “Will you ever get that?”

I inhaled and looked down at the table. “I don’t think you’d do anything-intentionally-to hurt me.”

“What did you just say?”

“You heard me.”

“It’s not enough for you, is it?” Mike said. “For Christsakes, we’re in the morgue, Coop. My testosterone kind of chills down in here. It’s about all I can give you right now.”

I picked my head up. “Then just tell me where Margaret is.”

“Margaret is under a doctor’s care. You want to see her on Sunday? Come to church with me.” Mike had taken his mother to Mass whenever he could for as long as I’d known him. “We let heathens in.”

“Can I visit with her?” I asked, softening my tone.

“Course you can.” Mike walked around the end of the table and stood face-to-face with me. “Sometimes you just have to trust me, kid.”

“Hard to do when you go off the way you did for so long. Hard to understand.”

“What happened to the gray matter up there?” he asked, tapping the side of my head. “Asleep at the wheel?”

“Distracted.”

“Use your brain, Coop.”

“If I think too much, it takes me to a bad place,” I said. “It’s one thing to have a three-week rip, but then a vacation on top of that?”

Mike hesitated before speaking. “Scully’s giving me a big break, taking a real chance. You think I just disappeared on you? Is that what you think?”

“I don’t exactly have a choice, do I? Or has there been another temptress?”

Mike threw back his head. “Just because your peepers are green, kid, don’t fall into that trap and become some green-eyed monster. There’s no other woman. No competition.”

“What then?”

“Scully sent me on a mission, okay? If I tell you about it, I’ll have to kill you,” Mike said, grinning at me as he walked back toward the chair he’d first been sitting in.

“You’re killing me anyway.”

“Will you give me a week?”

I shook my head. “Tell me now.”

“No can do.”

“I see,” I said, walking toward the door. “I’m supposed to trust you, but you can’t-”

“It’s not me. It’s the commissioner,” Mike said, pivoting to cut me off at the door.

“Scully trusts me implicitly.”

“He thinks you have too many friends. That you gossip.”

“That I-I-?” That one was hard to dispute.

“We’ll have this all out, Coop. Believe me. Next week.”

“What about Saturday night?”

“We’re still on.”

“But you won’t tell me your secret?”

“It’s not mine to tell.”

“So your mother? That’s all some line you fed me?” I put my hand on the doorknob.

“Keep your temper under check, Coop. I wanted her out of harm’s way,” Mike said, gripping my wrist and pulling it off the knob. “Very same place I want you.”