“I remember,” Kevin said. “He had pizza sauce on his forehead.”
“Excuse me?”
Kevin blinked. “The boy. That’s how we found him. It was horrible. Todd was pretty shaken up.”
Bill furrowed his brow. “An ambulance was called,” he said.
Kevin breathed in and out. Concentrating.
“It came for the mom,” Kevin said. “She was upset, obviously, and she went after the Greek who’d fired the bullet. They struggled and she fell down the stairs. We called it in immediately… as far as I know, she was taken to the hospital.”
Bill continued to stare at him before finally setting the pages aside. “You talked to her beforehand, right?”
“I tried to… but she was pretty hysterical. I tried to calm her down, but she went crazy. What else is there to tell? It’s all in the report.”
Bill reached for the papers on his desk again. “I saw what you wrote. But the woman is claiming that you told her to push the perp down the stairs.”
“What?”
Bill read from the pages. “She claims you were talking about God and told her, quote, ‘The man was a sinner and deserved to be punished because the Bible says Thou shalt not kill.’ She says that you also told her that the guy was probably going to get probation, even though he killed her kid, so she should take matters into her own hands. Because wrongdoers deserve to be punished. Does any of this ring a bell?”
Kevin could feel the blood in his cheeks. “That’s ridiculous,” he said. “You know she’s lying, right?”
He expected Bill to immediately agree with him, to say that he knew Internal Affairs would clear him. But Bill didn’t. Instead, his boss leaned forward.
“What exactly did you tell her? Word for word.”
“I didn’t tell her anything. I asked her what happened and she told me and I saw the hole in the ceiling and went upstairs and I arrested the neighbor after he admitted to firing the gun. I cuffed him and started bringing him down the stairs; the next thing I know, she went after him.”
Bill was silent, his gaze locked on Kevin. “You never talked to her about sin?”
“No.”
He held up the paper he had been reading from. “You never said the words Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.”
“No.”
“None of this sounds familiar at all?”
Kevin felt the anger rising but forced it back down. “Nothing. It’s a lie. You know how people are. She probably wants to sue the city so she can get a big payday.”
Bill’s jaw muscle was flexing and it took a long time before he spoke.
“Had you been drinking before you talked to the woman?”
“I don’t know where this is coming from. No. I don’t do that. I wouldn’t do that. You know my clear rate. I’m a good detective.” Kevin held out his hands, almost blind from the throbbing pain in his head. “C’mon, Bill. We’ve worked together for years.”
“That’s why I’m talking to you instead of firing you. Because in the past few months, you haven’t been yourself. And I’ve been hearing rumors.”
“What rumors?”
“That you’re drunk when you come into work.”
“It’s not true.”
“So if I gave you a Breathalyzer, you’d blow a zero, right?”
Kevin could feel his heart hammering in his chest. He knew how to lie and he was good at it but he had to keep his voice steady. “Last night, I was up late with a buddy and we were drinking. There might still be some alcohol in my system, but I’m not drunk and I didn’t drink before coming into work this morning. Or that day, either. Or any day, for that matter.”
Bill stared at him. “Tell me what’s going on with Erin,” he said.
“I’ve already told you. She’s helping a friend in Manchester. We went to the Cape just a few weeks ago.”
“You told Coffey that you went to a restaurant in Provincetown with Erin, but the restaurant closed six months ago and there was no record of you checking into the bed-and-breakfast you mentioned. And no one has seen or heard from Erin in months.”
Kevin felt his head filling with blood, making the pounding worse. “You checked up on me?”
“You’ve been drinking on the job and you’ve been lying to me.”
“I haven’t—”
“Stop lying to me!” the captain suddenly shouted. “I can smell your breath from here!” His eyes flared anger. “And as of now, you’re suspended from duty. You should call your union rep before you meet with Internal Affairs. Leave your gun and your badge on my desk and go home.”