Page 190 - Labelle Gramercy, On the Case

Jury-rigged

lectures on some subject of great inconsequentiality or her all-too-
frequent departures on cases she insisted on handling solo.
“Don’t clean out your desk yet, Duncan. Let us first examine this
most recent crime: it should afford us sufficient evidence of the
emerging pattern.”
I smiled blandly. You bet your life it does, sweetheart. And as for
patterns, I was certain she would get so caught up in her cybernetic
ball of loose threads that the obvious connections would be invisible
to her.
“Go right ahead, Lieutenant. But when we’re finished, I need to
look for a piece of paper we might need.”
“I hope it’s not a missing part of your case notes here.”
“Oh, no, just one of those arcane little bits of absolute
confirmation you always want me to dig up and dust off for the
files.”
She shook her head. “You’ve changed, Duncan, in the short span
of my absence. Your manner of speaking has an almost reckless
quality to it. I hope the pressure of managing this case without me
has not been too great. Are you sleeping enough and eating
properly?”
Her concern was not in the least maternal or collegial. I knew she
would suspend me as medically unfit without a second thought if my
behavior deviated another iota or two from her standards.
“Oh, yes, I am. Thanks for asking. Must be the caffeine in this
coffee. A lot stronger than usual.”
Her nostrils twitched. I belatedly recognized my blunder: could she
smell the difference between regular and decaffeinated coffee, even
after it had been sitting for half an hour on the other side of the
room? I glanced at my cup. It was empty. All she could get from the
air now were metabolic by-products in my exhalation. Surely that was
not possible—unless years of concentrated effort had turned her into
a two-legged bloodhound! Once again, she stirred the demons of
doubt in my soul.
“We may discuss the topic again after you have eaten lunch and
normalized your blood sugar. Now, getting back to the demise of
Beryl Creighton: have you anything to add to your notes here?”
Perhaps a sober recitation of memorized facts would mollify her.
“I might have something soon. For now, the circumstances are as

189