Red Man Down(42)

Cifuentes walked up and looked at the screen and then around at the others, saying, ‘Why are you all looking at Angela Lacey?’

‘Can you believe that’s only three years ago? She looks so …’ Her hair was golden – OK, maybe with a little help from a bottle. Her eyes were bright blue. She’s maybe a couple of pounds overweight and, sure enough, she did have a very nice … the screen blurred; Sarah realized she was weeping. The pain in her foot had melded with the infinite pathos of lost time, and for one panicky moment she felt as if she might stand on one foot in this busy building and cry them a river.

But the other detectives had heard the commotion and crowded around. Ray looked over and said, ‘Oh, you found the ugly perp-walk picture.’

Jason walked all the way into Leo’s workspace, animated and smiling, and said, ‘Leo, what’s up, baby, you find something so ugly it made Sarah cry?’

Delaney heard the commotion and came out of his office, looked at the odd grouping and said, ‘Sarah, why are you crying?’

‘Oh … I hurt my foot.’

‘Well, let’s get it tended to. Guys, are you going to let her stand there all day holding her foot? Give her a hand, will you?’ With Ollie and Oscar boosting her on either side, Sarah hopped into the good light in front of Delaney’s office and sat down in a straight chair.

Holding the shoe Ollie had handed him, Delaney bent over her foot, which looked undamaged in its pristine nylon sock. He said, ‘It looks OK, but you need the city doc? Shall I get somebody to drive you?’

‘Boss, no – listen. It’s just a bruise – my foot’s OK.’ She nodded toward Tobin’s work station. ‘It was that picture on Leo’s computer that made me cry.’

Delaney walked over, read the caption under the picture, and shook his head, puzzled. He came back saying, ‘I don’t get it. What’s so sad about a stupid perp walk?’

‘Frank Martin had worked there for over twenty years.’

‘So?’

Sarah blinked a couple of times. ‘I guess it just struck me how fast even very substantial people can sometimes lose everything.’

‘Well, Jesus, you been a cop half your life and you just noticed that?’ He looked at his watch. ‘Time to go home. Here’s your shoe – can you make it to your car, Sarah? Sure? Better soak that foot tonight.’

On Bentley Street, Sarah gimped into the kitchen and said, ‘Something smells wonderful here.’

‘Scalloped potatoes and ham,’ Denny said, ‘sliced into a casserole by your very own personal niece.’

‘And cooked by your personal mother in this sweet little device,’ Aggie said, pulling the dish out of the toaster oven on the counter. ‘See how easy?’

Sarah winked at Denny, who was beaming with satisfaction. Aggie looked up from spooning food onto plates and said, ‘Why are you limping?’

‘Dumbest cop move of the year,’ Sarah said. ‘I let myself get stepped on by a cow-footed detective.’

‘Better soak it after we eat.’

Sarah seriously intended to do that, but fell asleep after dinner watching the news. She woke with a start when her mother poked her, and stumbled off to bed.

Dietz wasn’t home from work yet when she woke in the gray dawn, feeling her right foot throb. Pulling it out from under the covers carefully, she saw that it was swollen, especially the bulbous fifth toe, and now sported rainbow hues.

‘My pinkie is purple with a blue and yellow surround,’ she told Delaney when he answered his cell at home. ‘It’s sore as hell – I can’t stand on it.’

‘OK, this is what we pay work comp for – go to the city doc and get something done about it.’

‘I will. And depending on what that turns out to be, I’ll try to make it in around noon.’

‘Get the foot fixed first, then decide.’

She took along a magazine and a short novel, and almost finished both during the alternating pain and boredom of the long morning. She waited for a doctor, then for an X-ray technician, then for the development of X-rays.

‘Well, you’re lucky,’ the doctor said, ‘your toe’s not broken. It is dislocated, though. I can put it back right here in the office, but’ – he patted her shoulder – ‘I better put some happy juice in there before I do that, or you might punch my lights out before I finish.’

She had another nice read while a couple of shots deadened the area. Then she watched with wonder as the doctor put a toe joint she now couldn’t feel back where it belonged. Downing the Ibuprofen he swore would not render her unsafe to drive, she watched him wrap a light bandage around the whole set of toes and tape it in place. Beginning to feel like a movie monster, she replaced the thick white sock and ugly sandal that were now the only footwear her right foot would tolerate, and clumped out of the building into worsening weather. I live in a land of perpetual sunshine, so of course I have to mangle my foot during the only cold snap we have all winter.