The Nitrogen Murder(91)
“My dad is already making noises like I should find another profession. He thinks I can just switch my head around and teach third grade or something.”
Matt had his arm along the back of the uncomfortable wooden bench. He was paying attention to her. Why couldn’t more people just pay attention? Dana wondered.
“Can you tell me how you’re responding so far? Some people would be very angry and lash out at those around them. Others might withdraw”
“Both, I guess. I’m angry inside, but I withdraw. That shrink I saw asked if I wanted medication, but I don’t. It wouldn’t look very good on a med school app, for one thing. But how am I going to be a doctor if I’m going to get emotionally involved?”
“How can you do it if you don’t?”
She wanted to bury her head in Matt’s shoulders. Not sexual, she knew that. Fatherly, or brotherly.
Maybe she just needed to give her own father another chance.
It was getting a little better all the time, Dana admitted. One week, and she was able to call up happy memories of Tanisha. And she’d taken some action for Marne and Rachel. She’d opened an account with the money she’d found, and told Marne that since Tanisha died in the line of duty, Valley Medical Ambulance Company had offered compensation.
“Well, I’ll be, if that isn’t nice,” Marne had said. “My girl took good care of us right to the end.”
Dana inhaled some good weed, a miraculous present from Kyle that came with a note: Heard about your troubles. This is on me. Sweet guy. “Dope shit,” Tanisha would have called this batch. Dana smiled as another memory came to her.
They have a repeat patient, an old black man named Antwon. They know he’s okay, but they still have to ask the four A&O questions—alert and oriented. What’s your birthday? Tanisha asks. Who’s the president of the United States? What month is this? And then, when she knows Antwon is fine, What was Puff Daddy’s greatest hit?
Dana took a toke, maybe her last, she thought. She didn’t need this anymore. She was going to be the cleanest MD there was.
“Here’s to you, Tanisha,” she said into the cool night.
CHAPTER THIRTY
I’d been involved in so many interrogations, formal and informal, with Matt, and at times with his partner, that it seemed unusual for two regular Berkeley PD detectives to be on tap to interview me.
To my relief, Inspector Dennis Russell didn’t bring up the nature of our interaction on my last trip to California. You might think we’d just met, starting from scratch, with mutual respect. Unless you were paying close attention.
“I’ve been looking forward to this,” I said to Russell and a female detective, introduced as Inspector Ariana Gilmore.
“I’ll bet you have,” Russell said.
Russell allowed me to go through the two separate threads it had taken a whole team of us to work out. He’d already talked to Phil, Elaine, and Dana and apparently was saving Matt for last.
I thought about how differently I’d worked this week, as part of a group. More reminiscent of my research days than my recent police consulting. Usually Matt and I worked together to put the pieces of a puzzle together, whenever a science-related homicide came to the attention of the Revere PD. At most, we’d be joined by his partner, but more and more in special cases, Berger left Matt and me alone when I had a contract.
This time it had taken several of us, combining information and abilities. Phil had found a way to expose Patel, in spite of the odds against him; Dana had shared all her discoveries, no matter how difficult; Elaine had stood firm, and in the end saved Phil’s life; William, from three thousand miles away, had extracted the PDA data; Matt had provided support for Dana and a link to the Berkeley PD that surely helped us all. Ironically, the one “fact” Matt had learned from Russell—that Phil had boarded a plane to Hawaii—turned out to be incorrect. But Matt’s ego withstood that, and he continued to work effectively behind the scenes, even going out of his way to help Dana and Marne reconcile.
I looked at Russell and pictured his grade-school report card the antithesis of Matt’s: Little Dennis does not work well with others.
Our whole time together on Saturday morning, Russell used me as a character witness.
Did I have any reason to think Phil would betray his company or his country? Did I think Dana was really innocent of any drug-related charges? What was my impression of Howard Christopher? Of Julia? Of Robin? Was there anything else I wanted to say?
I laid out my understanding of Howard Christopher’s role, from the tape. Russell listened but didn’t comment. When I was finished, he asked again, “Is there anything else?”