“Bud Chambers.”
“No, don’t. Don’t you dare.” Mueller backed away a step as if Will had pulled a knife on him.
“Damn it, Steve. Don’t let Dodds piss this away. This homicide is the same MO as Mount Adams. It’s him. Do they have a time of death?”
“No…I don’t know. Look, Will, I don’t know how to tell you this, but you’re not going to be a cop now. Take the disability. You can get a good partial pension. My gosh, your wife must make a ton with the bank now. You don’t need the money. Quit driving yourself nuts over this. Think of all the Reds games you can go to.”
“You can break that seal and get in that office,” Will said. “I want to look around. And I want to see the murder book. Nothing is right about this case.”
“Stop.”
“Just call security and let’s look inside.”
Mueller smiled and shook his head. “You were a good detective, Will, but never very smart about your career. I was worried about that when you transferred over. Big-time homicide copper having to lower himself to investigate chickenshit complaints against officers. I was afraid you’d always want to go for the big cases, even when you didn’t belong there. You didn’t disappoint me. The Reading incident, remember?”
“The city was in the wrong. I just went where the facts pointed.”
“And you didn’t mind pissing on a city council member to get there.”
“Important people can still be asked questions. A good internal affairs investigator has to be able to do that. And he has to be able to disagree with his superiors.”
“In your world, but it’s not too smart. You can make enemies in high places. Most cases in our division involve pleasing our stakeholders.”
“Our ‘stakeholders,’ as you call them, are the citizens of Cincinnati, not the brass.”
“Sure,” Mueller said. “That’s what I meant. What I mean is you need to be smart this time, stop driving yourself nuts over some case that’s just a lot of smoke.”
“In the middle of the smoke lies the crime.” Will wanted to slap himself. Now he was making up his own Muellerisms.
Mueller took on an uncharacteristically thoughtful expression. “You’re not tracking, Will. I never wanted you on this detail. Homicide guys always think they’re better. Never knew why you left a prestige detail like homicide to come here. But we had a new chief and I did what he told me.”
“Does the chief know you’re trying to retire me?”
Mueller gave an exasperated sigh. “Has the chief been to visit? It’s time to take you back to your room.”
