“I’ll try to make up for Rita’s absence.” She hung up.
STONE MET DINO for lunch at P. J. Clarke’s, and they both ordered a rare bacon cheeseburger and fries.
“I hear you and the commissioner are getting chummy,” Dino said.
“Where the hell did you hear that?”
“You can’t keep anything from me.”
“No, seriously, how did you know about it?”
“His driver is a buddy of my driver. What did the old man say to you?”
“He asked me why I never made detective first grade.”
“And what did you tell him?”
“The truth, what else?”
“You told him it was politics?”
“I did.”
“That sounds really lame, you know.”
“The commissioner didn’t think so. He said that he’d read my file and that he could read between the lines.”
“Why the hell would he read your file?”
“He said he read it when Brian asked to have me put on active status.”
“Why the hell should the commissioner be interested in you, Stone?”
“I guess he just likes the cut of my jib,” Stone said with a smirk.
“Horseshit. He was a captain downtown when all that went down.”
“He said he heard about it at the time,” Stone replied. “You’re beginning to sound jealous of my new relationship with the commissioner, Dino. You want me to put in a good word for you?”
“Yeah, sure,” Dino said. “Don’t you dare mention my name; I don’t want to be associated with you in the commissioner’s eyes.”
“And why the hell not? What’s wrong with being associated with me?”
“Because you’re a well-known pain in the ass in the department and a self-important fuckup.”
“I am not,” Stone said. “I have the reputation of a cop who did his job until he was wounded in the line of duty and given a medical retirement.”
“If that’s the way you want to think about it, go ahead. Still being in the department, I have a different viewpoint.”
“Who the hell said that about me, anyway?”
“Guys who served with us in the squad.”
“That crowd? Who gives a shit what they think? They’re a bunch of bums. Anyway, most of them are tending bar in Queens by now. I guess the commissioner bases his opinions on better information than squad room gossip.”
“You know, there are a lot of guys serving time in uncomfortable precincts who once thought the commissioner had a high opinion of them. He’s like that; you can’t read him.”
“I’m not reading him,” Stone said. “I was just telling you what he said. If you think he’s a liar, fine. Anyway, I’m not subject to a transfer to an uncomfortable place. This active crap is just a paperwork thing to make Brian Doyle think he’s my boss.”