“Sorry to bother you so early,” Berger said, accepting a cup of coffee. He leaned his elbows on our tile tabletop and held the mug with two hands as he drank, as if he were a very old man who’d slept outside in a storm. The image caused me to wonder whether Wayne Gallen had any protection from the nasty weather. Ugly as he was in all ways, I didn’t want him out of commission before I had some answers.
Matt introduced Jean, who’d entered the kitchen when she heard the doorbell. She’d gone for a run already, and had changed from one expensive-looking sweatsuit to another. They were the kind Rose might wear, I noted, and wondered why I didn’t resent the same look on Rose.
Jean shook Berger’s hand, her head half-turned to me. “Matt’s real partner? So glad to meet you, Detective Berger.”
Then I remembered why the fancy sweatsuits appeared pretentious on Jean, but classy on Rose.
Berger gave no indication that he caught her hostility to me, possibly recalling a period when he might have felt the same way. “Ah, this coffee’s good,” he said, reaching for a bagel to go with it. “I’m beat. I feel like I’ve been working two jobs.”
Matt sighed heavily, and Berger, flustered by his own remark, rushed in. “I don’t mean it that way, Matt. You take all the time you need. Cynthia and Rebecca both have bad colds, and I was up all night listening to them coughing. And—”
Matt held up his hand. “It’s okay. I know I’m slacking off here. What do you have?”
Berger put his mug down and flipped open his notebook, from the same supply closet Matt used, apparently, and put it on the table in front of him. “Lorna Frederick called yesterday afternoon, late. She wants to talk to someone at the department, preferably you and Gloria.” He swung his mug at me. “Ms. Frederick … I guess it’s Dr. Frederick, said she may have been abrupt at the interview you had the other day, and she does not in any way want us to think she is not cooperative, blah blah blah.” Berger twirled his bagel in the air to indicate that the rest of Lorna’s words were not worth repeating exactly. He closed his notebook, which, as far as I could tell, he hadn’t glanced at while he talked.
My excitement that we didn’t have to wheedle Lorna into a second interview took a backseat to Matt’s needs. “Matt has a medical appointment this morning,” I said.
“He needs to have his simulation done.” From Jean, not to be outdone in mothering.
“I know,” Berger said. “So, I thought you might come with me, Gloria. We should move on this while she’s willing, and I could use a little, you know, technical assistance.”
Matt, who’d been a good sport about being talked about in the third person, now raised his eyebrows and gave me a quick wink. We both knew what a breakthrough this represented. Berger had gone from not wanting me around the department when I first signed on, to now wanting me as a partner on an interview. Very flattering, but bad timing, however. I wasn’t about to leave Matt’s side.
“Can’t this wait until later today, or tomorrow?”
“I don’t mind at all taking care of my brother,” Jean said, her delicate chin in the air. Matt gave her a look that I assumed was supposed to remind her of her recent promise to work on accepting me. I did my best not to look in her direction. It was hard, and even harder not to come back with the fourteen retorts on my lips, like “How sweet of you,” or “Maybe you could leave your Cape Cod estate and move in with us.”
“Gloria, I’d feel much better if you’d go with Berger,” Matt said. “This simulating thing is nothing anyway. It’s just pretend, right? And this way, I’d feel like my job was being taken care of.”
I sighed. “If you put it that way …” I turned to Berger. “I’d love to come with you, though I’m sure you could handle it yourself.” One more shot at being let off the hook, without alienating my new partner.
“Well, it’s always nice to have someone else around, and since this lady is a scientist …”
I looked at Matt. He nodded. “What time?” I asked.
“Matt’s office, eleven o’clock.” He smiled at Matt. “Your office is bigger.”
I checked my watch. I had two hours to go over the reports Andrea had given me. Two hours to pull something useful out of my next interview with the scientist-cum-horsewoman Lorna Frederick. After Berger left, I kissed Matt, ignored Jean, and went to work.
I liked my newly arranged office, in the second floor guest room, facing the busy Fernwood Avenue. I worked better with worldly noises like traffic and neighborhood sounds around me, probably a holdover from having to share lab space all my professional life. Old Mr. Dorlando next door often obliged, using his power mower on his front lawn at all hours. This morning delivery trucks made a clamor on their way to and from a supermarket at the end of the street, their alternate route when there was construction work or repairs on Broadway, which seemed to occur frequently.