Kovacliska - Dust To Dust Part 6

She didn't wear a wedding ring.There were no pictures of a significant otherin her office. She didn't seem the type to troll bars for the kind of guy whocould have given her that shiner.

He didn't buy the explanation of a fall. The placement of the wounds was toosuspicious. Who took a fall and broke it with her face? The natural reactionto falling was to bring the hands out to hit first and save doing the kind ofdamage that had been done to her. She hadn't had a mark on her hands.The idea of someone striking a woman made him sick and furious. The idea ofthis particular woman allowing it baffled him.He set the questions aside as he pulled into Mike Fallon's driveway. Therewere no cars at the curb or in the drive. No one answered the doorbell. Kovac pulled out his cell phone and dialed Mike's number from the sc.r.a.p ofpaper he'd scribbled it on. The phone rang unanswered. That Mike was asleep orunconscious from tranquilizers or booze seemed a good bet, and eitherpossibility suited Kovac fine. All he really wanted was a few minutes alone inthe house. He went around the side and checked the garage. The car was there. He wentaround to the back and took the key out from under the mat.The house was silent. No distant sound of a television or radio or a shower running. The old man 'was probably dead to the world. He could have anotherfive or ten minutes before he had to face the day he would bury his son.Kovac went to the kitchen counter cluttered with the pharmaceuticals that keptMike Fallon functioning in one way or another, and sorted through the bottles.Prilosec, Darvocet, Ambien.Ambien, aka zolpidem. The barbiturate found in Andy Fallon's blood. Kovacstared at the bottle, a tight feeling in his chest. He popped the childproofcap and looked inside. Empty. The prescription was for thirty tablets withinstructions to take one at bedtime as needed. The refill date was November 7. It was probably just a coincidence that father and son had been using the samestuff to knock themselves out. Ambien was a common prescription sleep aid. b.u.t.there had been no Ambien at Andy Fallon's house, and that seemed strange. Ifhe'd taken the drug the night of his death, then where was the bottle? Not inthe medicine cabinet, not in the garbage, not in the mightstand. Mike's bottlewas empty, but he could have taken all the pills himself 'in accordance withthe instructions. On the other hand, if "as needed" meant once or twice aweek, then there were a h.e.l.l of a lot of pills unaccounted for.D U S T T 0 D U S T 139 Kovac let possibilities run through his rmind, unchecked, uncensored. None ofthem pleasant, but then, that was the nature of his work and the bent of hismind because of the work. He couldn't afford to trust, to discount, to filterpossibilities through a screen of denial the way most people did. He didn'tfeel badly about that. It didn't depress him, the way it did others in hisline of work. The simple truth of the world was that people, even otherwisedecent people, regularly did rotten things to other people, even to their ownchildren. Still, he couldn't come up with a scenario in which Mike Fallon played adirect role in his son's death. The old man's physical limitations made itimpossible. He supposed Andy could have taken the pills from his father'sstash, but that didn't ring true for him either. Or he could have gotten themfrom a fiend. He thought again of the sheets and towels in the washingmachine, of the few clean dishes in Andy's dishwasher."Hey, Mike! You up?" he called. "It's Kovac! No answer.He set the prescription bottle back on the counter and went out of the crampedlittle kitchen. The house had a stillness to it he didn't like, a sense ofbeing vacant. Maybe Neil had come and carted Mike away already, but thefuneral was hours away. Maybe Mike had other relatives who were, even now, giving him comfort and coffee and saying all the right things, but Kovacdidn't think so. He'd known Mike Fallon only in the context of being alone.Isolated first by his toughness, then by his bitterness. It was hard toimagine anyone loving him the way people in close families loved one another.Not that Kovac knew much about it. His own family was scattered to the fourwinds. He never saw any of them.He looked at the empty rooms of Mike Fallon's house and wondered if he waslooking at his own future."Mike? It's Kovac," he called again, turning down the- short hall to thebedrooms. The smell hit him first. Not overpowering, but uninistakable. Dread fell likean anvil on his chest. His heart beat up against it like a fist harnmering ona door. He swore under his breath, pulling the Glock from its holster.With his foot,he pushed open the door to the spare bedroom. Nothing. No one. just empty twinbeds with white chenille spreads, and a sepiatoned portrait ofjesus in a cheapmetal frame on the wall. "I'Vhke?" He moved toward Fallon's bedroom door, already knowing. Theimages of what he would find on the other side were rolling through his head.Still, he stood to the side as he turned the k.n.o.b. He filled his lungs withair and pushed the door open with his foot.The room was in the same state of disarray as when he had last seen it.Theframed photographs Fallon had smashed were still piled where Kovac had leftthem. The bed was still unmade. The i elly gla.s.s still sat on the nightstandwith a splash of whiskey in it. Dirty clothes still littered the floor.Kovac stared at the empty room, at a loss for a moment, trying to clear theimages he'd had fi7om his head. The smell was stronger here, where he wa.s.standing. Blood and excrement and urine. The biting, metallic scent ofgunpowder. The bathroom door was directly across from him. Closed.He stood to the side and knocked, said Fallon's name again, though barely loudenough to hear himself He turned the k.n.o.b and pushed the door open.The shower curtain looked as if someone had given birth on it. b.l.o.o.d.y chunksof tissue and hair clung to it.Iron Mike Fallon sat in his wheelchair, in his underwear, his head andshoulders flung backward, arms hanging out to the sides. The spindly, hairy,useless legs were canted over to the left. His mouth hung open and his eyeswere wide, as if he had realized in the final instant that the reality ofdeath was surprisingly different from the way he had imagined it would be."Aw, Mikey" Kovac said softly.Out of long habit, he came into the room carefully, taking in the detailsautomatically, even as another part of his brain considered his own loss inthis. Mike Fallon had broken him in, set a standard, became a legend to liveup to. Like a father in a lot of ways. Better than, he supposed, consideringMike's strained relationships with his own sons. It had been bad enough to seethe old man soured and angry and pathetic. To see him dead in his underwearwas the final indignity.The back of his skull was gone, blown wide open. A flap of scalp clung to thecrown of his head by a collection of b.l.o.o.d.y gray hairs. Brain matter and tinybone fi7agments had splattered the floor. An old .38 service revolver lay onthe floor to Fallon's right, flung there as his body had jerked in its death spasm.D U S T T 0 D U S T 141 Iron Mike Fallon,just another cop to end it all by his own hand with the gunhe had carried to protect the public. G.o.d knew how many did it each year. Toomany. They spent their careers as a part of a brotherhood but diedalone--because none of them knew how to deal with the stress and every lastone was afraid to tell anybody. It didn't matter if they'd turned in the badge. A cop was a cop until the day he died.That day was today for Mike Fallon. The day his son would be buried.A man should never outlive his kids, Kojak. He ought to die before they canbreak his heart. Kovac touched two fingers to the old man's throat. A mere formality, thoughhe'd known people who'd survived such wounds. Or rather, he'd known a fewwhose hearts had continued beating for a time because the damage had been doneto some less useful part of the brain. It wasn't really survival.Fallon was cool to the touch. Rigor was setting in in the face and throat, butnot yet in the upper body. Based on that, Kovac put the time of death withinthe last five or six hours. Two or three in the morning. The loneliest hoursof the night. The hours that seem to stretch endlessly when a man was lyingawake, staring into the dark at the bleaker realities of his life.Kovac went out of the room, out of the house, and stood on the back stoop,staring at nothing. He lit a cigarette and smoked it, his fingers stiffeningin the cold. He had gloves in his pockets, but didn't bother to put them on.Sometimes it was good to hurt. Physical pain as an affirmation of life, as anacknowledgment of deeper suffering.He wished for a gla.s.s of whiskey to toast the old man, but that would have towait. He finished the cigarette and reached for his cell phone."This is Kovac, homicide. Send me the tag 'em and bag 'em boys. I've got aDBI" he said."And send the A team. He used to be one of ours." H E H A D T A K E N a seat on the front step, trench coat wrapped around hisfreezing a.s.s, and was smoking a second cigarette by the time LI*slr-.-a rolled up."Jesus, Tinks, whatre you trying to do? Bring down the neighbor-142 T A M 0 A 0 hood?" he called as she climbed out of the car. It was her own, the Saturnsporting a trash bag window."You think the neighborhood watch block commander will call the cops?" sheasked, coming up the sidewalk."He'll probably gun you down in the street. Shoot first, ask questions later.America at the dawn of the new rru'llennium." "if I'm lucky he'll hit the gas tank and toast the rotten thing. I could standa break this week." "You and me both " Kovac said. He nodded at the car as Liska came up thesnow-packed steps, ignoring the clean wheelchair ramp. "So what happened?"She shrugged it off. "Just another victim of the moral decline. In the Haafframp, no less.""World's going to h.e.l.l on Rollerblades." "Keeps the paychecks conning.11"Did they get anything?""Not that I could tell.There was nothing worth getting, except my address offsome junk mail."Kovac frowned. "I don't like that." "Yeah, well ... Didn't your mother ever tell you you'll get hemorrhoidssitting on cold concrete?""Naw" He got up slowly, stiffly. "She told me I'd go blind beating off.""I didn't need that image in my head.""Beats what you'll see inside," he said. He bent over to crush out thecigarette and dropped the b.u.t.t off the side of the stoop, behind a jumpershrub. Neither of them spoke for a moment as an awkward tension fell around them."I'm really sorry, Sam," Liska said softly. "I know he meant a lot to YOU."Kovac sighed. "It's always the tough ones that eat their guns." Liska gave hima little shove. "Hey, you do that to me, I'll revive you just so I can shootyou myself."He tried to smile but couldn't, so he looked away, to next door. Fallon'sneighbor had plywood silhouettes of the three wise men on camels in front oftheir picture window, hot on the trail of the Christ child. A schnauzer was taking a whiz on one of the camels.D U S T T 0 D U S T 143 "I'm not that tough, Tinks"' he confessed. He felt as if all of that old armorhad rusted and flaked away, layer by layer, leaving him exposed. Which wasworse? Being too hard to feel, too remote to be touched, or being open to feelthe touch of other people's lives and emotions, open to being hurt by thatcontact? h.e.l.l of a choi ice on a day like this. Like trying to decide if you'd rather be stabbed or bludgeoned,he thought."Good." Liska put her hand on his back and leaned her head against hisshoulder for a few seconds. The contact gave comfort, like something coolagainst a burn.Better to be open, he decided, reflecting back on the original question. Evenif it hurt more often than not. Sometimes it felt like this. He slipped hisarm around his partner's shoulders and gave her a squeeze. "Thanks.""Don't mention it. Really," she teased, straight-faced, as she stepped away."I have a reputation to uphold. And speaking of people with reputations ...Guess who was seen dining together this morning at that celebrity hot spotChez Chuck." Kovac waited. "Cal Springer and Bruce Ogden." "I'll be d.a.m.ned.""Strange bedfellows, huh?" "Were they happy to see you?""Yeah, like they'd be happy to have head lice. My guess is it wasn't a plannedmeeting. Cal was sweating like a monk in a wh.o.r.ehouse. He bolted at the firstchance." "He's pretty d.a.m.n nervous for a man who's been cleared of any wrongdoing.""I'll say. And Ogden . . ." She looked out at the street as if she might findsomething there to compare him to. A garbage truck rumbled past. "That guy'slike a keg of mitro with a tricky detonator. I'd love a peek in his personneljacket.""Savard told me she'll check Fallon's case file regarding the Curtisinvestigation. See what notes he might have made about Ogden, whether Ogdenthreatened him, that kind of thing.""But she wouldn't let you see the file." "No.""You're losing your touch, Sam."He huffed a laugh. "What touch? I'm hoping she gets so sick of theA M sight of me she gives me what I want Just to make me go away. Aversiontherapy.""Well, I have to say, if I weren't such the tough cupcake, Ogden would havegiven me a little chill this morming"' Liska admitted. "There we are, himgetting in my face, and all I could think of was Curtis-beaten to death with aball bat." Kovac turned it over in his head. "You're thinking what if Ogden was the onehara.s.sing Curtis and went off on him for complaining to IA. But Ogden wouldnever have been privy to the Curtis investigation if there'd been any beefabout him hara.s.sing Curtis in the past. That s.h.i.t only happens in the movies.""Yeah," Liska said on a sigh. "If you were Mel Gibson and I were Jodie Foster,that could happen.""Mel Gibson's short." "Okay. If you were ... Bruce Willis." "He's short and bald.""Al Pacino?" "Looks like someone dragged him down a gravel road behind a truck."Liska rolled her eyes. "Jesus. Harrison Ford?" "He's getting kind of old.""So are you," Liska pointed out, then looked at the street again. "Where's theCSU?" She bounced up and down a little on the b.a.l.l.s of her feet. She wasn't wearing a hat, and the rims of her ears had turned bright pink in the cold."At a terminal domestic situation," Kovac said." Get this. Conu-nonlaw wifesays she got fed up with the hubby raping her when she was pa.s.sed outdrunk-after nine years of it. She stabbed him in the chest, face, and groinwith a busted vodka bottle." "Wow. Absolut homicide." "Good one. Anyway, they'll be a little while.""I'll do the Polaroids, then." She held her hand out for his car keys so shecould go get the camera.By the book. Every violent death was processed like a homicide. Kovac wentback into the house with her and started making notes. There was a certaincomfort in the routine, provided he didn't remind himself the victim had beenhis mentor once upon a lifetime ago. Liska made none of the usual dark jokesthey used to take the edge off a horrific death scene. For a time the onlysound was the D U S T T 0 D U S T 145 click and whir of the camera as it spat out one gruesome photo after another.When he realized the sound had stopped, Kovac looked up from his notebook.Liska was squatting down in front of Fallon, staring at him as if she expectedhim to answer some question she had asked telepathically. "What?" Kovac asked.She didn't answer, but stood and glanced from wall to wall in the narrowbathroom, then over her shoulder and back. Her brows puckered together and shemade a little knot of her mouth. "Why'd he back in?""Huh?" "This room is narrow, besides the obstacles of the toilet and sink.Why'd he back in? That had to be tricky. Why bother?"Kovac considered the old man and the question. "He goes infrontwise, whoever opens the door opens it on the hamburger side of his head.Maybe he wanted to preserve a little dignity.""Then he might have had the consideration to put on some clothes, don't youthink? Those skivvies don't exactly scream 'Respect me."'" Suicides don't always make sense. Someone's gonna take and eat athirty-eight slug, he's not exactly in his right mind. And you know as well asI do-plenty of people off themselves in the can.You'd think they were gonnahave to clean up the mess themselves."Liska said nothing. Her attention had gone to the floor, dingy vinyl that hadbeen mostly white twenty years ago. Behind Fallon, the vinyl had taken a sprayof blood flecked with bits of bone and chunks of brain matter that looked like overcooked macaroni. In front of him: nothing. The shower curtain was a mess;the door they had entered through was clean.Anyone corming into-or going out of-the room had a clean path. No blood tostep in or to'mark fingerprints."If he'd been a billionaire with a young, pretty wife, I'd say you9re on a hotscent, Tinks," Kovac said. "But he was a bitter old man in a wheelchair whojust lost his favorite son. Whatd he have left to live for? He was torn upabout Andy, couldn't forgive himself for not forgiving the boy. So he rolledit in here, parked it, and capped himself And he did it the way he did it tomake a neat death scene o none of us would come busting in here andstep on his brain."I Liska pointed the Polaroid at the .38 on the floor and snapped one lastshot. "That'll be his old service weapon," Kovac said. "When we look around, we'llfind that he kept it in a shoe box in the back of his closet, 'cause that'swhere old cops always stash their guns." He made a sharp, hard-edged smile."That's where I stash mine, if you want to come and take it away from me.We7repathetic creatures of pattern and habit." He stared at Fallon. "Some of usmore pathetic than others.""You're sounding a little bitter yourself, Kojak," Liska said, handing the snapshots to him.He slipped them into the inside breast pocket of his topcoat. "How can I lookat this and not be?" From another part of the house came the thump of an exterior door closing.Kovac gladly turned away from the corpse and started down the hall."It's about d.a.m.n time," he barked, then pulled up short at the same time NeilFallon stopped dead in the archway between the living room and dining room.He looked as if he'd been rolled. His hair stood up on one side, a purplingbruise crowned the crest of his right cheek, and his lip was spht.The brownsuit looked slept.in. The cheap tie was askew and the top b.u.t.ton of the whiteshirt undone. He couldn't have gotten the collar closed with a winch. He'dobviously bought the shirt a couple of neck sizes ago and hadn't had occasionto wear it since. He gulped a couple of breaths, pumping himself up."Jesus Christ, he can't even leave this to me?" he said, his expressionsliding from shock to anger. "I can't even drive him to the G.o.dd.a.m.n funeralhome? He's gotta have one of his own for that too? The son of a b.i.t.c.h-""He's dead, Neil," Kovac said bluntly. "Looks like he shot himself. I'm sorry.,,Fallon stared at him for a full minute, then shook his head in amazement."You're the regular Angel of Death, aren't you?""Just the messenger."Fallon turned around as if he might walk right back out the front door, but hejust stood there with his hands on his hips, the bull shoulders rising andfalling.Kovac waited, thinking about another cigarette and that gla.s.s of whiskey he'dwanted earlier. He remembered the bottle of Old Crow Neil had had out in his shed the day he'd told him about his brother,D U S T T 0 D U S T 147 and how they had stood out in the cold and shared it while they stared at thesnow blowing across the frozen lake. It seemed a year ago."When did you last talk to Mike?" he asked, falling back on the routine, sameas he always did."Last night. On the phone." "What time was that?"Fallon started to laugh, a harsh, discordant sound. "You're some piece ofwork, Kovac," he said, starting to pace a small circle at the far end of thedining room table. "My brother and my old man dead inside a week and you'regiving me the f.u.c.king third degree.You're something. I hadn't seen the old manfive times in the last ten years, and you think maybe I killed him.Why would Ibother?" "That's not why I asked, but as long as you've brought it up, I'll need toknow for the record where you were this morning between midnight and fourA.M." "f.u.c.k you.""I think I'd remember that. Must have been someone else." "I was home in bed." "Got a wife or girlfriend to corroborate?" "I've got a wife.We're separated."Fallon looked around as if searching for some neutral third party to witnesswhat was happening to him now, but there was no one. He paced some more andshook his head, the anger and frustration building visibly.He made a little lunge toward Kovac and bounced back, jabbing the air with aforefinger, a grimace contorting his face. "I hated that old son of a b.i.t.c.h! If.u.c.king hated himl"Tears squeezed out of his tightly closed eyes and rolled over his cheeks. "Buthe was my old man," he said, and sucked in a quick breath. "And now he's dead.I don't need any s.h.i.t from you!"He stopped pacing and bent over with his hands on his knees, as if he'd takena blow to the stomach. He groaned in the back of his throat. "Christ, I'm gonna be sick."Kovac moved to block the path to the bathroom, but Fallon went for the kitcheninstead and straight out the back door.Kovac started to follow, then pulled up as the head of the crime scene unitwalked in the front door. just as well. By the time he was able to join NeilFallon on the back steps, any gastrointestinal pyrotechnics had subsided.Fallon stood leaning against the railing, staring at the backyard,148 T A Msipping out of a shin metal flask. His skin looked slightly gray, his eyesrimmed in red. He didn't acknowledge Kovac's presence, but pointed to a nakedoak tree in the far corner of the yard."That was the hanging tree," he said without emotion. "When Andy and I werekids.""Playing cowboys.""And pirates, and Tarzan, and whatever. He should have come back here and doneit. Andy hanging dead in the backyard, Iron Mike in the house with his headblown off. I could have come and parked my car in the garage and ga.s.sedmyself""Howd Mike sound last night on the phone?""Like an a.s.shole, like always.'I wanna be at the G.o.dd.a.m.n funeral home by teno'clock."' The impersonation was less than flattering, but not less thanaccurate. "'You can d.a.m.n well be here on time.' f.u.c.king old p.r.i.c.k," hemuttered, and swiped a gloved hand under hisrunning nose."What time was that? I'm trying to get a frame for what happened when' " Kovacexplained. "We need it for the paperwork."Fallon stared at the tree and shrugged. "I dunno. I wasn't paying attention.Maybe like nine or something.""Couldn't have been. I ran into him at your brother's house around nine."Fallon looked At him. "What were you doing there?""Poking around. There's a couple of loose ends need tying up." "Like what?Andy hung himself How can you have any doubts about that?""I like to know the why of things," Kovac said. "I'm funny that way. I want tolook at what he was working on, what was going on in his personal life, thingslike that. Fill in the blanks, get the whole picture. You see?"If Fallon saw, he didn't like it. He turned away and took another pull on thelittle flask."I'm used to people dying," Kovac said. "Drug dealers kill each other overmoney. junkies kill each other over dope. Husbands and wives kill each otherout of hate. There's a method to the madness. Someone like your brother buysit, a guy with everything going for him, I need to try to make some sense ofit.""Good luck.""Whatd you do to your face?"0 U S TT 0D U S T 149 Fallon tried to shake off the attention. He touched a hand to the bruise on his cheek as if to brush it away. "Nothing. Mixed it up a little in the parking lot with a customer last might."

"Over what?"

"He made a remark. I took exception and said something about his s.e.xual preferences and a sheep. He took a swing and got lucky." "That's a.s.sault,"

Kovac pointed out. "You call the cops?"

Fallon gave a nervous laugh. "That's a good one. He was a cop." "A cop? A city cop?"

"He wasn't in uniform."

"How'd you know he was a cop?" "Please. Like I can't spot one a nuile off."

"Did you get a name? A badge number?"

"Right. After he knocked me on my a.s.s, I demanded his badge number. Anyway, Idon't need the ha.s.sle of filing a report. He was Just some a.s.shole knew Andy.He made a crack. We took it outside." "What'd he look like?" "Like half the cops in the world," Fallon said impatiently. He slipped theflask into his coat pocket, pulled out a pack of cigarettes, and went aboutthat ritual, fumbling with his gloves, fingers clumsy with cold--or withnerves. He swore to himself, got the thing lit, took a couple of hard puffi."Look, I wish I hadn't said anything. I don't want to do anything with it. I'dhad a few myself. I got a mouth on me when I'm tanked." "Big guy? Little guy?White? Black? Old? Young?"Fallon scowled and fidgeted. He looked as if his skin suddenly didn't fit himright.-He wouldn't meet Kovac's gaze. "I don't even know that I'd know him ifI saw him again. It didn't mean anything. It's not important.""It could mean a h.e.l.l of a lot," Kovac said. "Your brother worked InternalAffairs. He made enemies for a living.""But he killed himself," Fallon insisted. "That was what happened, right? Hehung himself The case is closed.""Everyone seems to want it to be." "But you don't?""I want the truth-whatever it might be."Neil Fallon laughed, then sobered, staring once again at the backyard-or backin time. "Then you picked the wrong family, Kovac. The Fallons have never beenvery dedicated to the truth about anything.0 A 0 We he to ourselves and about ourselves and about our lives. That's what we do best." "What's that supposed to mean?""Nothing. We're the all-American family, that's what. At least we were beforetwo-thirds of us committed suicide this week." "Could anyone else at your place ID this guy from last night?" Kovac asked,more concerned for the moment with the notion of Ogden going way the h.e.l.l outto Neil Fallon's bar and bait shop than he was with the crumbling dynamics ofthe Fallon fanuily,"I was working alone." "Other customers?""Maybe. Jesus," Fallon muttered, "I wish I'd told you I walked into a door.""You wouldn't be the first person to try it today," Kovac said. "So, was itbefore or after the donnybrook when you talked to Mike?" Fallon blew smoke outhis nose. Annoyed. "After, I guess. What the h.e.l.l difference does it make?""He was pretty out of it when I saw him. On sedatives or something. If youtalked to him after that, I guess he had snapped out of it." "I guess. When itcame to chewing my a.s.s, he always rose to theoccasion," he said bitterly. "Nothing was ever good enough. Nothing ever madeup.""Made up for what?""That I wasn't him. That I wasn't Andy. You might have thought after he foundout Andy was queer ... Well, he's dead now, so what's the difference? It'sover. Finally."He looked at the oak tree once more, then threw the cigarette into the snowand checked his watch. "I have to get to the funeral home. Maybe I can get onein the ground before the other turns cold."He gave Kovac a sideways look as he went to open the door. "Don't take itpersonal, but I hope I never see you again, Kovac."Kovac didn't say anything. He stood on the stoop and looked back at the Fallonbrothers' hanging tree, imagiming two young boys with their lives ahead ofthem, playing good guys and bad guys; the bonds of brotherhood twining thepaths of their lives, shaping their strengths and weaknesses and resentments.If there was one thing from which people never recovered, it was childhood. Ifthere was one tie that could never truly be broken, for good or for ill, itwas to family.D U S T T 0 He turned the thoughts over in his head like a bear turning over rocks to seewhat kind of grubs it might find. He thought about the Fallons, and thejealousies and disappointments and anger among them. He thought about thefaceless cop Neil Fallon had picked a fight with in the parking lot of the barand bait shop.Would Ogden have been stupid enough to go there? Why? Or maybe stupid was thewrong word. What would he stand to gain? Maybe that was the question.Even as he pondered that, Kovac couldn't stop thinking that Neil Fallon hadn'teven asked to see his father. The vic's family usually did. Most people wouldrefuse to believe the bad news until they saw the body with their own eyes.Neil Fallon hadn't asked. And he hadn't taken a step toward the bathroom whenhe'd said he felt sick. He'd i lit f gone straig or the back door. Maybe he'd wanted air. Maybe he hadn't asked to see his dead father because hewasn't the sort of person who needed the visual image to make the death real,or maybe because he couldn't stomach that kind of thing.Or maybe they should be running tests for gunpowder residue on Neil Fallon'shands. The back door opened and Liska stuck her head out. "The vultures have landed."Kovac groaned. He'd bought some time calling in the request for the crimescene unit over his cell phone, but dispatch would have called the team overthe radio, and every reporter in the metro area had a scanner. News of a deadbody never failed to bring out the scavengers. According to the press, ThePeople had a right to know about the tragedies of strangers."You want me to handle them?" Liska asked. "No. I'll give them a statement," he said, thinking about the life and timesof Mike Fallon, the pain, the loss, the soured love and wasted chances. "How'sthis? Life's a b.i.t.c.h and then you die."Liska arched a brow and spoke with heavy sarcasm. "Yeah. There's a headline."She started to go back inside. Kovac stopped her with a question. "Hey, Tinks,when you saw Ogden this morning, did he look like he'd been in a fight?""No. Why?"152 T A M 0 A G "Next time you see him, ask him what the h.e.l.l he was doing at Neil Fallon'sbar last Might. See if you get a rise."Liska looked unhappy. "He was at Fallon's bar?""Maybe. Fallon claims some cop was out there making cracks, and they mixed itup in the parking lot.""Did he describe Ogden?""No. He dropped his little bomb, then clarnmed up. He acts like a man who'sscared of something. Like retribution maybe.""Why would Ogden go all the way out there? What would be the point? Evenif-G.o.d, especially if he had something to do with Andy Fallon or with theCurtis murder. Go out there and pick a fight with Neil Fallon? Not even Ogdenis that stupid.""That's what I'm thinking. And the next logical question is, then why wouldNeil Fallon he about it if it didn't happen?""Neil Fallon, whose father is sitting in the bathroom missing the back of hishead?" Neil Fallon, who was seething with long-held hard feelings. Neil Fallon, whohad admitted to a quick, harsh temper. Neil Fallon, who resented his brotherand hated his father, even after their deaths."Let's do a little digging on Mr. Fallon," Kovac said. "Put Elwood on it, ifhe's not busy. I'll talk to some of Fallon's customers. See if anyone else sawthis phantom cop.""Will do." Kovac took one last grim look at the hanging tree. "Make sure the ME'S peoplebag Mike's hands.We could be looking at a murder, after all."

D U S T T 0 D U S T 153.

C H A P T E I T W 0 U L D N'T B E a cop funeral like the ones shown on the six o'clocknews.The church would not overflow with ranks of uniforms who had rolled in from all over the state. There would be no endless caravan of radio cars to the cemetery. No one was going to play "Amazing Grace" on the bagpipes. AndyFallon had not fillen-in the line of duty. His death had not been heroic.The place didn't even look like a church, Kovac thought as he left the car inthe lot and walked toward the low brick building. Like most churches built inthe seventies, it looked more like a munic.i.p.al building. Only the thin,stylized iron cross on the front gave it away. That and the illuminated signout near the boulevard. ST. MICHAEL'S ADVENT: WAITING FOR A MIRACLE? Ma.s.s WEEKDAYS: 7 A.M. SAt.u.r.dAY: 5 Pm. SUNDAY: 9 A.M. & 11 A.M. As if rm'racles were performed regularly at those scheduled hours. The hea.r.s.ewas sitting on the circle drive near the side entrance.154 No nuiracles for Andy Fallon. Maybe if he had come here Sat.u.r.day at five ...The wind whipped Kovac's coat around his legs. He bent his head into it tokeep his hat. The windchill was in the teens. Mourners moved toward the churchfrom scattershot spots in the parking lot. Cop. Cop.Three civilians together-aman and two women in their late twenties. The cops were in plain clothes, andhe didn't know them, but he could spot a cop as easily as Neil Fallon. It wasin the carriage, in the demeanor, in the eyes, in the mustache.The usual dirge was playing on the organ as they trailed one another into thebuilding to loiter in the narthex. Kovac renewed his promise to himself not tohave a funeral when he died. His pals could hoist a few for him at Patrick's,and maybe Liska could do something with his ashes.Toss them out on the stepsof city hall to Join the ashes of a thousand cigarettes smoked there by copsevery day. Seemed fitting. He sure as h.e.l.l wouldn't put people through this:standing around staring at one another, listening to G.o.d-awful organ music andchoking on the smell of gladiolas.He put his hat on the rack but kept his coat, and stood off to the sidewatching the civilians move as a trio to another small knot of their own kind.He would approach them later. Afterward. After they had all shared theexperience of putting their friend in the ground. He wondered if any of themhad been close enough to Andy Fallon to share a s.e.xual paraphilia.Impossible to tell. In his experience the most normal-seenuing people could beinvolved in the weirdest s.h.i.t. Andy Fallon's friends looked Eke the cream oftheir generation. Well dressed, clean-cut, their faces pale with grief beneaththe fading red of wind-kissed cheeks. Couldn't say who was gay, who wa.s.straight, who was into S and M.The doors opened again, and Steve Pierce held one back, letting Jocelyn Daringprecede him in. They made a handsome couple in expensive black cashmere coats:Jocelyn a statuesque porcelain doll with every blond hair neatly swept backand held in place with a black velvet bow. She may not have felt the loss ofher fianc's best friend, but she knew how to dress the part. She appeared tobe pouting. Pierce stood beside her near the coatrack with a thousand-yardstare. He didn't help her with her coat. She said something to him, and hesnapped at her. Kovac couldn't make out the words, but his toneD U S T T 0 D U S T 15S was sharp and her reaction was to intensify the pout. They didn't touch asthey went into the church.

Not a happy couple.Kovac went to the gla.s.s doors and looked in at the a.s.sembled mourners. Thepews were chrome and black plastic chairs hooked one to the next. There wereno kneelers, no creepy statues of the Virgin or the saints adorned with realhuman hair.There was nothing daunting about the place, no overriding sense ofG.o.d glaring down on His terrified flock. Not like when Kovac had been a kid,when eating a burger on Friday during Lent was a sure pa.s.s to h.e.l.l. He hadfeared and respected the church of his youth.This place was about as scary asgoing to a lecture at the public library.Pierce and Daring had taken seats on the center aisle about halfway toward thefront. Pierce rose abruptly and came back out, the girlfriend watching him allthe way. He stared at the floor, digging a cigarette and a lighter from hiscoat pocket as he walked. Kovac moved away from the doors. Pierce didn't seehim as he crossed the narthex and went outside. Kovac followed and took a position three feet to Pierce's right on the broadconcrete step. Pierce didn't look at him."I keep saying I'm qul*ttl'ngi'Kovac said, shaking one out of a pack ofSalems. He hooked it with his lip and lit it with a Christmas Bic. Nothingsays Christmas like lung cancer. "But you know what? I never do. I like it.Everybody tries to make me feel guilty about it, and I buy into that. Like Ithink I deserve it or something. So then I say I'm quitting, but I never do."Pierce regarded him from the corner of his eye and lit his own cigarette witha slim brushed-chrome lighter that looked like a giant bullet. His hands wereshaking. He returned his stare to the street and slowly exhaled."I guess that's Just human nature," Kovac went on, wishing he'd grabbed hishat on his way out. He could feel all his body heat rushing out the top of hishead. "Everybody carries around a load of s.h.i.t they think they ought to feelguilty about. Like somehow that makes them a better person. Like there's somelaw against just being who you are.""There are plenty of laws against that," Pierce said, still staring at thestreet. "Depending on who you are."Kovac let that hang for a moment.Walted. Pierce had opened theT A M I H 0 A 0 door.just a crack. "Well, sure, if you're a prost.i.tute or a drug dealer. Ordid you mean something less obvious?"Pierce blew out a stream of smoke. "Like if you're gay," Kovac suggested.Pierce moved his shoulders and swallowed, Adam's apple bobbing. "That woulddepend on who you ask.""I'm asking you. Do you think that's something a person should feel guiltyabout? Do you think it's something a person should hide?" "Depends on theperson. Depends on their circ.u.mstances." "Depends on whether he's engaged tothe boss's daughter, for instance," Kovac offered.He watched as the missile hit the target square in the chest. Pierce actuallytook a step back."I believe I've already told you I'm not gay," he said in a tight voice. Hisgaze darted from side to side, looking for eavesdroppers."You did." "Then you clearly didn't believe me." Angrier.Kovac took a slow pull on his smoke. All the time in the world. "Would youcare to ask my fiancEe? Would you like us to videotape ourselves having s.e.x?"Angrier. "Any requests for positions?" Kovac didn't answer."Would you like a list of my ex-girlfriends?"Kovac just looked at him, letting the anger roll off him. And still it wasvisibly building in Pierce, a kind of frenetic excitement he was havingdifficulty containing."I've been a cop for a lot of years, Steve," he said at last. "I can tell whensomeone's holding something back on me.You're carrying a lot of extra weight."Pierce looked as if the blood vessels in his eyes rmight pop. "I just lost mybest friend since college. I found him dead. We were like brothers.You thinkone man can't grieve deeply for another without them being gay? Is that what your life is like, Sergeant?You wan yourself off for fear of what other peoplemight think of you if they knew the truth?""I don't give a s.h.i.t what anybody thinks of me," Kovac said matterof-factly."I got nothing riding on it. I'm not trying to impress anyone. I've seen toomany people carry rocks around every day until the weight of it all drags themunder and kills them one way or another.You've got a chance to unload one."D U S T T 0 D U S T 157 "I don't need to." "He's going in the ground today. If you know something, it won't go in theground with him, Steve. It'll hang around your neck until you take it off.""I don't know anything." He gave a harsh laugh that came out on a cloud ofsmoke and warm breath in the cold air. "I don't know a d.a.m.n thing.""If you were there that night-""I don't know who Andy was f.u.c.king, Sergeant," Pierce said bitterly, turningthe heads of several people going into the church. "But it wasn't me."The cords stood out in his neck. His face was as red as his hair. The blue eyes were narrow and filled with venom and tears. He threw his cigarette downand ground it out with the toe of an expensive oxford. "Now, if you'll excuseme, I'm a pallbearer. I have to go move my best friend's corpse."Kovac let him go and finished his own smoke, thinking that a lot of peoplewould have called him cruel for what he'djust done. He didn't think of it thatway. He thought ofAndy Fallon hanging dead from a rafter.What he did, he didfor the victim.The victim was dead-there weren't many things crueler thandeath. He crushed out the cigarette, then picked up both b.u.t.ts and deposited them ina plant pot near the door. Through the gla.s.s he could see the casket had beenrolled into the narthex from a side hall. The pallbearers were being giveninstructions by a portly man from the funeral home.Neil Fallon stood off to one side, looking blank. Ace Wyatt put a hand on thefuneral director's shoulder and said something to him in confidence. Gaines,the iiber-a.s.sistant, hovered nearby, ready to step, fetch, or kiss an a.s.s."Are you going in, Sergeant? Or are you watching from the cheap seats?"Kovac focused on the faint reflection that had appeared beside his in thegla.s.s. Amanda Savard in herVeronica Lake getup.The glain sungla.s.ses, thevelvet scarf swathing her head. Not a getup, he thought, a disguise. There wasa big difference."How's the head?" he asked. "Nothing hurt but my pride.""Yeah.What's a little concussion to a tough cookie like you?"158 T A M 1 0 A G "Embarra.s.sing:' she said. "Id sooner you let the subject go."He almost laughed. "You don't know me very well, Lieutenant." "I don't knowyou at alrshe said, taking hold of the door handle with a small gloved hand."Let's keep it that way."She may as well have waved a red flag. He wondered if she knew that-and if shedid, then what game she was playing at.You and the L4 lieutenant. Yeah, right, Kovac."I don't let go:' he said, making her glance back at him over her shoulder."You nught as well know that."Inscrutable behind the shades, she made no comment and went into the church.Kovac followed her. Glutton for punishment. The procession of casket andmourners had gone up the aisle. The organist was pounding out yet anotherdepressing song of death.Savard chose a seat in the back, in an otherwise empty row. She didn't so muchas acknowledge Kovac as he slid in beside her. She didn't sing the requiredhymn, didn't Join in the spoken prayers or responsories. She never took thesungla.s.ses off or lowered the scarf or unb.u.t.toned her coat. As if she were in a coc.o.o.n, the layers of clothing insulating her from the thoughts of theoutside world. Wrapping her in her own thoughts about Andy Fallon.Kovac watched her from the corner of his eye, thinking he had to be an a.s.sholeto tempt fate this way, to push her b.u.t.tons. One word from her and he'd besuspended. On the other hand, it seemed not a bad idea to give the appearanceof having aligned himself with IA for the moment. Not that anyone in thiscrowd seemed to care. All focus-not simply that ofAmanda Savard--seemed inward. No one really heardthe priest, who hadn't known Andy Fallon at all, and could speak of him onlybecause someone had filled him in. As with most funerals, it didn't matterwhat the presiding clergyman had to say anyway. What mattered was the panoramaof memories playing through each person's head, the mental and emotionalsc.r.a.pbooks of experiences with the person lost.As Kovac studied the faces, he wondered which, if any, hid memoties ofintimacies with Andy Fallon; memories of shared pa.s.sions, of sharedperversions. Which of these people might have helped Andy Fallon put a noosearound his neck, then panicked when things went wrong? Which one knew thatmissing piece to the puzzle of Andy Fallon's state of mind: would he havekilled himselP Did any of them really care to know? The case had been closed.D U S T T 0 D U S T 159 The priest was pretending the word suicide had never been mentioned in thesame sentence with Andy Fallon's name. In another hour, Andy Fallon would bein the ground, buried, a fading memory.The moment came for eulogies. Neil Fallon shifted in his seat, glancingfurtively from side to side as if to see whether anyone was watching him notget up and speak at his only brother's funeral. Steve Pierce stared down athis feet, looking as if he was having trouble getting a deep breath. Kovacfelt a sinuilar pressure in his own chest as he waited. The mindhunters calledemotionally charged situations such as this "precipitating stressors,"triggers for actions, triggers for confessions, for testimonials. But this wasMinnesota, a place where people were not naturally given to speaking openlyabout their emotions. The moment pa.s.sed without drama.Savard rose, slipped her coat off, and--sungla.s.ses and scarf still inplace--walked with all the elegance and import of a queen to the front of thechurch. The priest stepped aside for her to take the lectern."I'm Lieutenant Amanda Savard"' she said in a tone that was at once quiet andauthoritative. "Andy worked for me. He was a fine officer, a dedicated andtalented investigator, and a wonderful person. We are 'all richer for havingknown him and we are poorer for his untimely loss. Thank you."Simple. Eloquent. She came back to the pew with her head bowed. Mysterious.Kovac rose and stepped into the aisle to allow her back to her seat. Peoplewere staring. Probably at Savard. Probably wondering how a guy like him cameto be sitting with a woman like her.Kovac stared back, silently challenging. Steve Pierce met his gaze for just amoment, then looked away. Ace Wyatt rose and adjusted his shirt cuffs as hewent to the lectern. "Jesus Christ:'Kovac grumbled, then crossed himself as the woman sitting tworows ahead turned and gave him a dirty look. "Can you believe this guy? Anyexcuse for a photo op."Savard lifted a brow at him. "He'd hang his bare a.s.s out a tenth-story window and fart the national anthemif he thought it'd get him publicity."One corner of Savard's perfect mouth curled in wry amus.e.m.e.nt. "Captain Wyattis a longtime acquaintance of mine."Kovac winced. "Stepped right into that, didn't I?" "Headfirst.""That's how I do most everything. That's why I look this way."

160 T A M 0 A G "I knew Andy Fallon when he was a boy," Wyatt began with all the dramatictalent of a community theater actor. The fact that he was about to become astar on national television was testimony to the declining standards of theAmerican public. "I didn't know Andy Fallon the man very well, but I know whathe was made of Courage and integrity and determination. I know this because Icame up through the trenches with his old man, Iron Mike Fallon.We all knewIron Mike.We all respected the man and his opinions, and feared his temper ifwe screwed up. A finer police officer I have never known."It is with deepest regret I have to announce Mike Fallon's pa.s.sing late lastnight.". A small gasp went through the crowd. Savardjerked as if she'd been hit witha cattle prod, her pale skin instantly turning paler. Her breathing turnedquick and shallow.Wyatt went on. "Despondent over the death of his son . . Kovac leaned down."Are you all right, Lieutenant?" "Excuse me," she said, standing abruptly.Kovac rose to let her out. She pushed past him, nearly shoving him back intohis chair. She wanted to run down the aisle and out of the church, and justkeep on running. But she didn't. No one she pa.s.sed gave her more than apa.s.sing glance, their collective attention on Wyatt at the lectern. No oneelse seemed to hear the pounding of her heart or the roaring of her blood inher veins. She pushed open the gla.s.s door to the narthex and turned down the hall,seeking and finding the ladies' room. The light was dim and the room smelledof commercial air freshener. Ace Wyatt's voice was still in her head, bringingon a sense of panic. Then she realized it was coming from a speaker hung highon the wall. She tore off the scarf and sungla.s.ses, nearly crying out in pain as theearplece dragged through the oozing rug burn. Eyes squeezed tight against thethreateming flood of tears, she fumbled blindly for the faucets. The waterexploded into the sink, splashing up on her. She didn't care. She scooped itwith both hands and put her face in it.Dizziness swirled through her brain, weakness drained her legs. She fellagainst the sink, clutching at the porcelain basin with one hand, reaching tobrace against the wall with the other. She tried to will herself past thenausea, begged G.o.d to get her through it, ignored her convement faith in ahigher power she had ceased to believe in long ago."Please, please, please," she chanted, doubled over, her head nearlyD U S T T 0 D U S T in the sink. In her mind's eye she could see Andy Fallon staring at her withaccusation and anger. He was dead. Now Mike Fallon.Despondent over the death of his son ..."Lieutenant?" Kovac's voice sounded just outside the door. "Amanda?You inthere? Are you all right?"Savard tried to push herself upright, tried to get a breath deep enough tospeak with a steady voice. She couldn't quite manage either. "Y-yes," shesaid, wincing at the weakness of her tone. "I'm fine. Thank you."The door swung open and Kovac came in without hesitation or regard for themodesty of any woman who might have been in the rest room. He looked fierce."I'm fine, Sergeant Kovac.""Yeah, I can see that:' he said, coming to her. "Even better than when youwere fine this morning, keeling over at your desk. Do you often feel theoverwhelming urge to take a shower with your clothes on?" he asked, his gazecutting from the wet tendrils of hair plastered to the sides of her face tothe dark splotches of water on her suit."I was feeling a little dizzy," she said, pressing a hand to her forehead. She took a slow breath through her mouth and closed her eyes for a second.

Kovac put a hand on her shoulder and she stiffened, telling herself she should bolt, telling herself not to. She looked at him via his reflection in the mirror and saw the concern in his dark eyes. She saw herself and was appalled by how vulnerable she appeared in that moment-pale and battered.

"Come on, IT," he said softly, shortening her tide to a nickname, "let me take you to a doctor."

"No." She should have told him to take his hand off her, but the weight of it was solid and strong and rea.s.suring, even if she couldn't lean into it the way she wanted to, needed to. A shiver went through her. She shouldn't have wanted or needed anything, certainly not from this man.

She looked at the reflection of his hand on her shoulder. A big hand, wide, with blunt-tipped fingers. A working man's hands, she thought, regardless of the fact that Kovac's work was done with his mind and not his hands. His fingers tightened briefly.

0 A G.

"Well, at least let's get out of here:' he said. "This d.a.m.n air freshener is enough to choke a goat."

"I can take care of,myself," Savard announced. "Really. Thank you anyway."

"Come on," Kovac coaxed again, turning toward the door and neatly drawing her with him.Years of practice herding drunks and victims and people in various states of shock made it easy for him. "I've got your coat in the hall."

She pulled away, went back to the sink, and collected her sungla.s.ses and carefully slid them on. The velvet scarf was wet in spots. She put it back on anyway, arranging it carefully, draping it Just so. Kovac watched her.

"I thought you only knew Mike Fallon by reputation," he said. "That's right.

Id spoken to him, of course. About Andy."

"Your reaction to the news of his death seems a little extreme, then." "I told you, I was feeling dizzy," she said. "The announcement of Mike Fallon's death didn't really have all that much to do with it. it's a tragedy, of course ......

"The world's full of them, I hear." "Yes."

Satisfied with the scarf, she walked past Kovac and out under her own steam.

Show no weakness.Too late for that.

He had left her coat draped over a table piled with church bulletins. She picked it up and started to put it on, the pain in her neck and upper back grabbing hold and stopping her with only one arm in a sleeve. Kovac helped her on with it the rest of the way, standing a little too close behind her, trapping her between himself and the table.

"I know," he said softly. "You're fine.You could have done it yourself."

Savard stepped sideways and ducked around him, heading across the narthex.The organ had started up again, and the acrid-sweet smell of incense burned the air.

. "I'm not letting you drive away from here, Lieutenant," Kovac said, falling into step beside her. "If you're dizzy, you're not safe to be behind the wheel."

"I'm fine. It's pa.s.sed."

"I'll give you a ride. I'm headed back to the station myself." ."I'm going home."

T 0.

D U S T.

"Then I'll drop you off." "It's out of your way."

He held the door for her. "That's all right, the ride will give me the chance to ask you a couple of questions."

"G.o.d, do you never stop?" she said through her teeth.

"No. Never. I told you-I don't let go. Not until I get what I want." His hand slipped around hers and she tried to jerk away, her heart jumping, eyes going wide behind the gla.s.ses. "What do you think you're doing?"

He stared at her for a second, reading G.o.d knew what in her expression. Even

with the scarf and gla.s.ses, she felt naked in front of him."Keys." As he said it, the muscles of her hand relaxed marginally and heslipped the key ring from her fingers. A maj or tactical error. She didn'twant Kovac driving her home. She didn't want him in her house. She didn't wanthis interest. She was accustomed to a position of power, but even though sheoutranked him, Kovac had years and experience over her. Knowing that made herfeel subordinate, like a little girl pretending at a job of great importance."If you have a question, ask it," she said, folding her arms around herself.The wind was bitter and raw.The temperature had dropped in the hour they'dbeen in the church. The sun was already sagging in the winter-white sky. "Thenyou'll give me my keys back, Sergeant." "Did Andy Fallon ever talk about hisbrother?" "No." "Did he ever mention he was seeing someone dating---or that he washaving problems in his personal life?""I told you before-his personal life was none of my business.Why are youpursuing this, Sergeant?"He tried to look innocent, but Savard doubted he had been able to pull thatoff even as an infant.There was a world-weariness to Kovac that surpa.s.sed hisyears by a thousand. "I'm paid to investigate:'he said. "To investigate crt.mes. There's been no crime I'm aware of" "Mike Fallon is rninus half his head," Kovac said. "I'm gonna make d.a.m.n suresomebody else didn't do that job for him before I walk away from it."Savard stared at him through the dark gla.s.ses. "Why would youthink anyone would murder Mike Fallon? CaptainWyatt said he took his ownlife." " Captain Wyatt was speaking prematurely.The investigation is ongoing.The bodywasn't even stiff yet when I left the scene to come here." ','It wouldn't makeany sense for someone to murder Mike Fallon:' Savard argued."Who says it has to make any sense?" Kovac returned. "Someone gets p.i.s.sed ofF,loses their temper, strikes out. Boom, murder. Someone holds a grudge longenough, gets fed up on it, something strikes a spark. Bang, somebody's dead. Isee it every d.a.m.n day, Lieutenant.""Mr. Fallon was in poor health. He'd just lost his son. I'm a.s.suming the signsat the scene of his death pointed to suicide. Doesn't it seem more logicalthat he pulled the trigger himself than to think someone else might have doneit?" "Sure. But then, a clever killer might think that tool" Kovac pointed out."It must be slow in homicide these days," Savard remarked, "that one of theirbest detectives can spend all his time on non-cases." "The more I'm around thepeople involved with Andy and MikeFallon, the less I consider these deaths 'non-cases.'You knew Andy. You claimto have cared about him.You want me to walk away from this if I think there'sa chance he didn't put that noose around his neck himself ?You want me toshrug it off if it looks like maybe Mike didn't stick that thirty-eight in hismouth without help? What kind of cop would I be if I did that?"Behind them, the doors of the church swung open and the mourners came out,bundled against the cold and hurrying toward the parking lot. Kovac spottedSteve Pierce and Jocelyn Daring, Daring trying to put her arm through herfiancFs, Pierce shrugging her off. Not far behind them came Ace Wyatt and histoady. Wyatt looked impervious to cold, shoulders back, jaw out. He drew abead on Kovac like a laser-sight missile."Sam:' he said in his serious TV voice, "I understand you found Mike:My G.o.d,what a tragedy.""Flis; death, or me finding him?""Both, I suppose. Poor Mike. He just couldn't take the burden. I think he felta tremendous guilt over Andy's death, over the unreIsolved issues between them. It's too bad ...... U S T T 0 D U S T 165 He looked to Savard and nodded. "Amanda, good to see you, despite the occasion."

"Captain." Even with the shades on, Kovac could tell she was looking past Wyatt, not at him. "Terrible news about Mike Fallon," she said. "I'm sorry to hear it. I know you and he had a history."

"Poor Mike," he said in a thick voice, looking away. He let a beat of silence pa.s.s, as if out of respect, then pulled in a cleansing breath. "I see you know Sam."

"Better than I'd care to," she said, and reached out and took her keys from Kovac's hand. "If you gentlemen Will excuse me ...

"I was just telling the lieutenant how it struck me odd Mike would be so upset last night about Andy killing himself, that being a mortal sin and all, then go home after and eat his gun," Kovac said, effectively holding Savard in place. "Doesn't make sense, does it?"

"Who says it has to make sense?" Savard said sarcastically. "Amanda's right,"

Wyatt said. "Mike wasn't in his right mind, was he?"

"He was barely coherent last I saw him:'Kovac said. "How about you, Ace? You took him home. Howd he seem when you left him?" Gaines looked pointedly at his watch. "Captain . . ."

Wyatt made a face.. "I know, Gavin. The meeting with the PR people."

"And miss the interment?" Kovac said. There goes a photo op. Somehow, he managed to have the sense not to say that.

"It's been postponed:'Gaines informed him. "Some kind of equipment problem."

"Ah. TFC technical difficulty," Kovac said. "Too f.u.c.king Cold to dig the hole.

Excuse my language, Lieutenant," he said sweetly.

"I don't think there is an excuse for you, Sergeant Kovac:'she said dryly.

"And on that note, gentlemen, I'll say good-bye."

She raised a hand in farewell and made her escape across the snowpacked lot.

Kovac let her go, sensing that to try to stop her now, with witnesses around, would be crossing a line he'd come too close to as it was. He allowed himself to watch her for a second.

"Sam, you can't seriously be thinking Mike was murdered," Wyatt said.

"I'm a horruicide cop." Kovac settled his hat on his head. "I think everyone's murdered. It's my natural mind-set. What time was it when you left Mike?"

T A M I.

Gaines interrupted. "Captain, if you'd like to go on to the meeting, I'll take care of this."

"Do you eat his food and Wipe his a.s.s too?" Kovac asked, earning a cold look from the a.s.sistant.

"You're holding the captain from a very important meeting, Sergeant Kovac' "

Gaines said curtly, subtly moving to put himself between them. "I was there with Mr. Fallon and the captain last night. I can answer your questions as well as Captain Wyatt."

"There's no need, Gavin:'Wyatt said. "By the time you bring the car around, Sam and I will be done."

Kovac looked smug. "Yeah, Slick, you run along and start the car. You and I can get together later and get your take on things over a latte. So you'll have that to look forward to."

Gaines didn't like being bested, and didn't like being dismissed.The blue eyes were as cold as the concrete beneath their feet, the handsome jaw set. But he bowed to Wyatt's orders and hustled away toward a black Lincoln Continental.

"That's some elegant guard dog you've got yourself, Ace:' Kovac said.

"Gavin is my right hand. Ambitious, single-iminded, fiercely loyal. I wouldn't be where I am without him. He's got a very bright future. He's a bit overzealous at times, but I could say the same about you, Sam. Unless I'm out of the loop-and I'm not-there wasn't anything about Mike's death to warrant suspicion of murder."

Kovac stuffed his hands in his coat pockets and sighed. "He was one of ours, Ace. Mike was special. Sure, maybe the legend was more special than the man,

more important, but still ... I feel like I owe him a -good hard look.You know what I mean? You ought to, considering your own history with him."

"It's hard to think the door's closing on that chapter of our lives. Hard to believe he's gone:'Wyatt said quietly, staring across the parking lot as exhaust billowed in a cold vapor cloud from the tailp1pe of the Lincoln.

It had to be as much a relief to him as anything, Kovac thought. The night of the Thorne murder, all those years ago, had been the defining moment in the lives of Ace Wyatt and Mike Fallon. That night their lives had turned on a dime, never to be the same again, always to be linked by that moment that had made Mike Fallon a cripple and Ace Wyatt a hero. With Mike gone, the weight of that D U S T.

T 0.

burden must have lifted, a sensation that would both relieve and confuse. How could there be an Ace Wyatt if there was no Mike Fallon to counterbalance?

"It was around ten-thirty when we left Mike's house,"Vfyatt said. "He was quiet. Wrapped up in his grief I had no idea what he was thinking or I would have tried to stop him." His mouth twisted with irony as the car pulled up.

"Or maybe that would have been the greater tragedy. He suffered a lot of years. Now it's over. Let him go, Sam. He's at peace now."

Gaines got out of the car and went around to open the pa.s.senger door. Wyatt got in without another word, and the Lincoln was off in a cloud of exhaust.

The Lone Ranger and Tonto riding off into the sunset.

Kovac stood on the curb a moment longer, the only one left of the group who had come to see Andy Fallon off to the hereafter. Even the priest had disappeared.

"Lone Ranger," he muttered, and started across the frozen parking lot with his hands in his pockets and his shoulders hunched into the wind.

T A.

C H A P T E.

"NEIL FALLON HAS arecord."

Kovac paused with his coat half off. "That was fast."

"Service with a smile," Elwood said, peering over the cubicle. Liska sat on her chair, her maniacal pixie look lighting her face. She was something when she caught a scent on a case, he thought. It was like an addiction with her.

The excitement was so intense, it was just a few steps to the right of s.e.xual.

Kovac couldn't remember ever being that hot for the job, and the job was the one great love of his life. Maybe he needed to consider hormone therapy.

"He has a Juvie record--sealed, of course, though I've put through a request to have a peek:' Liska said. "He spent seven years in the army. I've requested his service records. The year he got out, he went away for a.s.sault. Three to five. He did eighteen months."

"What'd he do?"

"Got in a fight at a bar. He put the guy in a coma for a week." "Temper, temper, Neil."

Kovac finished taking off his coat and hooked it on the rack, thinkMg. The office was the usual buzzing hive of constant low-level activit) Phones rang, someone laughed. A multiply-pierced twenty-something thug with bleached, spiked hair and pants hanging off his a.s.s was led past