I believed that McKinney had manufactured that niche because Ellen was a decent lawyer and a nice person who was not otherwise a fit in our division. For two years I had ignored office gossip that they had been having an affair, but now the amount of time they spent together behind closed doors seemed inordinate for the nonessential nature of Ellen’s work.

I went back to my desk to gather the notes I planned to take in to McKinney to discuss the latest interviews Mike and I had done on the Caxton investigation. McKinney waved at me as he passed by my doorway. “We gotta talk.”

The case papers had outgrown a single folder. I pulled out the sheaf of reports we had worked from yesterday, took my thick legal pad including my to-do list, and headed down to the deputy’s office. I knocked on the heavy metal door.

“Come in,” Ellen called out to me. Not exactly the welcome I wanted.

She was standing by a hot plate at the far end of the room, boiling water for tea. She had opened a jar of honey and was holding two mugs. McKinney had his back to me and was talking on the phone. It was all a bit too domestic for my taste.

“How’s Mercer?” Ellen asked.

“He’s in rough shape. It was a very close call.”

“You must feel awful. I can’t imagine how you handled watching him get shot.”

I slowly moved my head back and forth, biting my lip. I had no intention of telling her anything about how I felt, and was boring my eyes through the back of McKinney’s sweaty T-shirt as though it would somehow get him off the phone faster.

“Want some tea?” she asked, holding up a third mug with a photo of McKinney’s kids under a Christmas tree emblazoned on its ceramic side.

“No thanks,” I said, raising my cardboard coffee cup at her.

“Any new leads?”

“I’ll wait until Pat gets off the phone.”

“Been up to the Vineyard at all?”

“Uh huh.” When you’re ready for full disclosure on your personal life, I’ll be happy to give you an update on my own.

“You really look whipped. Ought to try a little concealer for those circles under your eyes. Maybe you should take the next couple of weeks off. Stay up there until after Labor Day.”

Women in the workplace, I sighed to myself. Why is it that Mike Chapman could tell me how bad I looked and I could acknowledge it, but when Ellen eyeballed me and said the same thing, it sounded bitchy? Maybe I could take two weeks in the country if I was as expendable around here as you are, I thought. “I’m fine. I’ll take it easy next weekend.”

McKinney finished his conversation and sat down opposite me at his small conference table. “I want to talk to you about the case, Alex-I mean, the whole matter. I’ve been thinking that maybe the best thing-”

“Pat, would you mind if we just do this one-on-one?”

Ellen had poured the water and was squeezing the tea bags now.

“You mean Ellen? She’s a unit chief in the division. What’s the problem?”

“This discussion is between you and me. I know you’ve called a meeting for ten o’clock this morning to which I wasn’t invited. I’m planning to be there.”

“That’s a stupid idea, Alex. In fact, I’m not even sure it makes any sense for you to stay on the Caxton investigation.”

“Ellen, would you mind leaving the room, please?”

She placed the mugs on the table, and instead of answering me, she looked at Pat, who was looking directly in my eyes.

“I’m not having this conversation in Ellen’s presence. Last I knew,” I said, trying not to let my temper take over my response, “no one in this case had jumped bail, failed to appear, warranted out on a misdemeanor, or otherwise done anything to invoke the awesome power of Ellen Gunsher’s irrelevant little unit. This is between the two of us, Pat. You have no business talking about it with Ellen. And don’t you dare even think about taking me off the Caxton murder. I’ll go right to Battaglia and-”

“I’ve already done that, Alex.”

Ellen’s head was snapping back and forth between us like it was on a spring. I was infuriated that Pat had spoken to the district attorney about removing me from the investigation.

“I’ll bet he told you to stick it. He has absolutely no problem with the work I’ve been doing.”

It was a bluff, but a successful one. McKinney’s moment of hesitation revealed to me that although he had raised the issue with Battaglia, he had not been given a green light to take the case away from me.

I pushed my chair back and walked to the door. “I’ll be in Battaglia’s office. When you and the Lipton Tea lady finish your morning tête-à-tête, feel free to come in, by yourself, to get a bulletin on the case. Meanwhile, I’ll leave you to the important matter of how many of yesterday’s token suckers failed to show up in AP 17.”

I doubled back past my office, across the main corridor, and used my magnetized identification badge to buzz myself into the executive wing. Secretaries to the administrative assistant, the first assistant, and the chief assistant were setting up their desks for the day and greeted me with interest and concern.

Rose Malone was already at her word processor when I approached her desk. She was the last to leave the building most nights-sometimes with Paul Battaglia, but never before him. And she was always the first one in place the next day.

She didn’t even turn her head to speak to me. “He’s not here yet, Alex. There’s a community board breakfast meeting in East Harlem.”

“Do you expect him before ten?”

“No. He’s going from that one directly to the Midtown Court. There’s going to be a press release about the new computer system that will track bench warrants in all the borough courthouses and police precincts.”

Great. A new technology that will make Ellen Gunsher completely obsolete. “Will he call in from the car?”

“I expect so. Shall I transfer him over to you?”

“Please. Especially if you get him within the hour, okay?”

“Anything wrong?”

“Was Pat McKinney alone with him for any period of time yesterday?”

Rose stopped typing and looked back at Battaglia’s date book, as though trying to find a way to remind herself of the day’s meetings.

“I know he called and asked if the boss would see him. They may have spoken for a minute or two, but Paul was tied up most of the afternoon with the accountants who’ve been working on that welfare fraud case. It couldn’t have been much of a conversation.”

I thanked her and walked back to my office. As much as McKinney may have wanted me off the Caxton case, I was still alive. I needed to sit down and go over what the rest of the week might produce for us, knowing that any kind of evidentiary break would help cement my position on the team.

I could hear Chapman serenading Laura as I went back to my office. What had probably started as a cross-examination of what she knew about my relationship with Jacob Tyler had segued into an impromptu version of Paul Simon’s “Fifty Ways to Leave Your Lover.” As I turned the corner he grinned at me and continued singing. “Don’t make a mistake, Jake. Just let yourself go.”

“To what do I owe this unexpected pleasure?” I growled.

“People to talk to, places to go, subpoenas to get. Let’s start with the latter. What happened to your manners? What about ‘Good morning, Mr. Chapman. How are you today? Thank you for bringing me another cup of coffee,’ huh? I’m even going out on a limb for a ‘Don’t you look lovely today, Miss Cooper. Could be you had a good night’s rest at long last.’ ”

“Thanks. But I’ve already been told by Ellen Gunsher that even makeup can’t help me in my current condition. Pat’s trying to knock me off your investigation.”

“What kind of suicide mission is he on?”

“There’s a meeting at ten to assign one of the senior trial counsel to Mercer’s shooting. And since I’m a witness to that, he wants to take me off the whole thing and set one of his pets up to handle it, before Rod Squires returns from vacation.” My back was to the door as I reached across my desk to replace the case papers on top of the folder. “I’m trying to get a call into Battaglia before this morning’s caucus on the subject.”