"Enough on the assholes," Lucas snapped.

"You're an asshole," Rodriguez said. "Both of you are. So why don't you slap me around a little, or something, huh?" He inched closer to Lucas. "C'mon, hit me, I won't hit you back. It'll just give me a little more to sue you with, you motherfuckers. You're ruining my bidness"

And suddenly his face crinkled up and he said, "My bidness. You're ruinin' my bidness." And he turned around and went back through the door into his office.

"Jesus," Sloan said, impressed. "The guy was I mean, those were tears."

"Yeah." Lucas scratched his head, then shrugged. "Let's go."

"We're sure he's dealing drugs?" Sloan asked.

"Unless he's got an evil twin."

The Rodriguez interview put a blight on the day, and they drove, mostly in silence, back toward Minneapolis. "Drop you at the hospital?" Sloan asked.

"Nah I'm gonna I don't know what I'm gonna do."

"What if we're wrong about Rodriguez?"

"I've been sitting here thinking about that," Lucas said. "But we're not You know what we're doing? We've gotten to the place where we think dope dealers are automatically subhumans but both of us could think of guys who push a little dope and aren't all that bad as guys. Love their wives."

"Not a lot of them," Sloan said. "Most of them are dirt."

"Not a lot, but some. Some of them are human beings. You know what it reminds me of? Remember when you were interviewing Sandy Lansing's father, and he started off on 'niggers' and all that?"

"Yeah."

"He's the flip side of Rodriguez. Here was a guy who coulda played the nice old candy-shop owner on a TV show, but then he opens his mouth, and this bullshit comes out. Rodriguez is a dope dealer, andhis story is this pathetic struggle to get out of the slums. Fuck, I don't know." He thought about it for a minute, then said, "What I do know is, Rodriguez is a drug dealer, he was running Sandy Lansing, he was at the party where Sandy Lansing was killed, he denies all of it, and that's the only tie we've got."

Del called. Sloan handed Lucas his cell phone and asked, irritably, "Why don't you turn on your fuckin' phone?"

"What's going on?" Lucas asked.

"I'm at Boo McDonald's, and I got some seriously bad fuckin' news," Del said. McDonald was the paraplegic radio and computer monitor.

"All right."

"You know that little rat who publishesSpittle? He's got a new story out, and it names Rodriguez."

"What?"

"Yeah, the little jerk. I'm going over to scream at him, scream at his parents. But Rodriguez's name is out."

Rose Marie was livid. "You gotta tell me the truth, Lucasthis isn't the little push you were talking about?"

"No. Nobody got the name from me or any of my people."

"Not from me, or anybody I know," Lester said. "There's gotta be fifty or sixty people in the department who know the names."

"I've had about nine calls in the last half hour, and what do I say?" Rose Marie asked. "I can't say no, it's not Rodriguez, because itis. So I say, I can't comment on an ongoing investigation. And you know what that means? That means, yes. And everybody knows it."

"TheSpittle kid's got a leak," Lucas said. "We know this goddamn place leaks."

"If I find the fuckin' leak, that guy will find himself out on his ass, and I'll spend the rest of my term trying to fuck his pension," Rose Marie snarled. "I want you to put that word outthat I'm looking for the guy, and his job and his pension are on the line."

"That's a little strong," Lester said. "I'm not sure they'll believe it."

"It'll give them something to think about," she said. "By God, I'm gonna have IA look into this. Brace a few people. I'm not gonna have this shit. I'm not going to have it!"

Lucas said, "I can tell you one thing. This morning I asked you guys to send a couple more people over to watch Rodriguez. We better put a serious net around the guy now. I mean, forget about Jael Corbeau and Catherine Kinsleyhe's gotta be number one on this other fruitcake's hit list."

Lucas went back to his office, found two notes. One said, "Call Jael." The other, "Call Catrin."

He called Jael, who said, "The dozen long-stemmed roses you sent to my house haven't arrived yet."

"I'm sorry, I thought uh well, I mean, I thoughtyou were supposed to send them tome. I've been waiting," Lucas said.

"God, he's such a wit," Jael said. "I need a man with wit maybe. So anything going on? Can I get out of here?"

"Not yet." He told her quickly about the leak in the department. "It'll be on the news."

"What're you doing tonight?" she asked. "I mean, this isn't another proposition. I'd like to rejoice in the blood of the lamb."

"What?" He was confused.

"This guy who's trying to kill mehe's preaching at some church tonight," Jael said. "I'd like to see him. One of your guys here did, and its supposed to be something else."

"Man, I don't know," Lucas said. "That might not be such a good idea."

"C'mon, don't be a stick-in-the-mud," she said. "Besides, you can bring a gun. And I'm going nuts. Lets get the sports car, lets go see him."

"I'll call you. Things are going on over here. If I can get away maybe."

He called Catrin; she was on a cell phone, and answered in her car. "Let me pull over to the side," she said. Her voice was showing stress; he thought she might have been crying.

"What happened?" But she'd put the phone down.

A moment later, she came back. "Well I told him that I thought we had some problems, and that I was thinking of going away, that I thought I might want to be by myself for a while. You know what he said?"

"I don't"

"He said, 'Well, whatever you think you have to do. Let me know.' It was like I wasn't sure I could make it to lunch."

"Catrin, I really can't advise you, I just don't know"

"He just walked away from me," Catrin said. "Now I wonder if he isn't having an affair or something. It was like he was waiting for me to say something."

"If the guy has any sensitivity at all, if he knows you at all, then he knew something was coming," Lucas said. "It's like waiting for the ax to fall. When it does, there isn't much to say. You know about everything that anybody might say"

"Lucas, what are you talking about? We were married for more than twenty years."

"When we were talking at lunch when you asked if you were just screwed I mean, look at your old man. If he argues with you, he's being domineering and he's not letting you lead your own life. If he doesn't argue with you, but is absolutely supportive, tells you to do whatever you want, then he's being patronizing and you feel like your life is a hobby, because he's got all the money and you're going to London for plays, and all that. And if he lets you go, he doesn't care. SoI mean, when you talk about being screwed, he's about as screwed as you can get. Whatever he does is wrong."

"It sounds like you're on his side," she said. There was an undertone of disbelief.

"Absolutely not. Look, half of my friends have been divorced, and most of the other half are fucked up. I'm fucked up. I've been through this Jesus. I'm on your side, Catrin, because we're old friends. If I was your husbands friend, I'd be on his side, because nobody's right or wrong. And in that case, you've just got to go with your friends."

"Well, I talked to one of my girlfriends down hereactually, I had lunch with three of them, my best friend and a couple that I've always been friends withand I knew by the way one of them was acting she's on Jack's side."

"That's gonna happen," Lucas said. "And some old friends of Jack's will be on your side. That'll surprise you, too. You said you belong to a golf club?"

"Yes."

"What's gonna amaze you is, a couple of his male friends are going to put the moves on you."

"The loose woman"