Page 12 (1/2)
“Who was that?” Sara asked
“Robert Swinster,” Max replied, “a handwriting analyst He was rechecking Bruce Grey’s note”
“Did he find anything?”
The phone on the desk buzzed Max put up a finger to signal for her to wait and picked up the receiver
“Yes?”
“Daily News on line five again ABC-TV on line eight”
“I’ht now,” he snapped He slammed the receiver back into the cradle “Dah to drive a man crazy”
“Temper, temper”
“Everyone keeps screa our job How the hell are we supposed to get anything done with the press breathing down our necks all the time? Bunch of vultures—present co? I think the ain, the sick bastards”
“Comes with the territory,” Sara replied
“I know,” Max said, “but the pressure on this one is unbelievable At the press conference the other day I felt like freshDober answers in that holier-than-thou way of his Every gay activist is co the fascist police departainst homosexuals I’ve had a dozen phony confessions today alone Everyone suddenly wants to be the Gay Slasher” He took a deep breath “Ah, screw it So how’s Michael?”
“Feeling better His tea him now”
“Good I needed to talk this over with you right away”
“Bouncing time, eh?”
Max nodded and so Sara had been instruunned down four of Max’s fellow officers in one week Max had learned froent listener, and Sara was about as sharp a listener as there was Very often they said sos to each other, came up with some crazy hypotheses, even called each other crazy, but eventually the irrational statean tosolid solutions
“Is this case harder for you than most?” she asked
“Meaning?”
“You knohat I mean”
He s to make sure that no one ithin earshot “It’ddetective in charge of finding the Gay Slasher?”
She said nothing
“Sara, you’re still the only one who knows—aside from Lenny andup and down “I wish I could say so, but do you knoould happen to me if the force found out?”
“I can iine”
“I’d lose everything I’d be lucky if they let me work as a meter maid”
“You don’t have to explain yourself to me, Max”
He nodded, his eyes lowered to the floor “By the way, Lenny says hello”
“How is he?”