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"Me?" A big, toothy grin "Not hardly, Matt"

"Then I don't get it Where's your angle?"

"Do I have to have an angle?"

"You never walked down the street without one"

He thought about it and decided not to resent the line Instead he chuckled "And do you have to know le, Matt?"

"Uh-huh"

He sipped his drink and thought it over I was alo away and forget about hi I couldn't understand I really didn't want to get mixed up in any of his problems

Then he said, "You of all people should understand"

I didn't say anything

"You were on the force fifteen years, Matt Right? And you got the proood, so you a"

"So you got fifteen years in and five to go for the meal ticket and you pack it in Puts you in the same boat as me, doesn't it? You reach a point where you can't hack it anyets to you Your case, you just pack it in and get out of it I can respect that Believe me, I can respect it I considered it h for ht forI had twelve years in"

"Going on thirteen"

"Huh?"

"Nothing You were saying?"

"I was saying I couldn't just turnto make it better Not all the way better, but maybe just a little bit better, and that means some heads will have to roll, and I'rin, sudden and alar now on this face that has been so preoccupied with the business of being sincere "Look, Matt, I'uy, you called s that Abner has trouble believing A guy who's absolutely straight, he's never going to hear these things because the wise guys'll duets a chance to hear everything" He leaned forward "I'll tell you so Maybe you don't know it,a badge But this whole fucking city is for sale You can buy the police force all across the board Straight on up to Murder One"

"I never heard that" Which wasn't quite true I'd heard it I'd just never believed it

"Not every cop, Matt Not hardly But I knoo cases- that's two I know for a fact- where guys got caught with their cocks on the block for hoht theirselves out from under And narcotics, fuck, I don't have to tell you about narcotics That's an open secret Every heavy dealer keeps a couple of thou in a special pocket He won't go out on the street without it That's called ay money- you lay it on the cop who busts you and he lets you walk away"

Was it always that way? It seemed to me that it wasn't There were always cops who took, some who took a little and some who took a lot, some who didn't say no when easy money came their way, others who actually went out and hustled for it But there were also things that nobody ever did Nobody took murder s do change

"So you just got sick of it," I said

"That's right And you're the last person I should have to explain it to"

"I didn't leave the force because of corruption"

"Oh? My mistake"

I stood up and walked over to where he'd left the bourbon bottle I freshened my drink and drank off half of it Still on my feet I said, "Corruption never bothered me much It put a lot of food onas much to myself as to Broadfield He didn't really care why I left the force any ht reason or not "I took what came my way I didn't walk around withI considered a serious crime, but there was never a e lived on what the city paid lass "You take plenty The city didn't buy that suit"

"No question" The grin again I didn't like that grin uht? Why did you quit, anyway?"

"I didn't like the hours"

"Seriously"

"That's serious enough"

It was ashim For all I knew he already had the whole story, or whatever the back-fence version of it sounded like these days

What happened was si a few drinks in a bar in Washington Heights I was off duty and entitled to drink if I felt like it, and the bar was one where cops could drink on the arm, which iven ht

Then a couple of punks held up the place and shot the bartender dead on their way out I chased them down the street and emptied my service revolver at them, and I killed one of the bastards and crippled the other, but one bullet didn't go where it was supposed to It ricocheted off soirl nah the eye and into the brain, and Estrellita Rivera died and so did a large part of ation which ended withcompletely exonerated and even awarded a coned from the force and separated from Anita and moved to my hotel on Fifty-seventh Street I don't kno it all fits together, or if it all fits together, but what it see a cop anymore But none of this was any of Jerry Broadfield's business, and he wasn't going to hear it from me