The Body Box (34 page)

BOOK: The Body Box

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FIFTY-FOUR

I took a couple of weeks off, medical leave, started going to meetings every night. For the first time, I was feeling like I'd turned some kind of corner, like I'd faced up to something in myself, something I'd been bullshitting about in the residential program last year, hiding from, not taking seriously. Back in the program I had learned to say all the wordsâbut that's a far cry from believing them.

But finally I went back, walked into the Cold Case Unit at a reasonable hour, nine o'clock in the morning. My intention had been to tell Lt. Gooch that I was going to quit the Unit, that I was going to put myself back in the pool and take a street cop assignment again.

But then I walked into the room, smelled the leaky pipes, and something came out of my mouth other than the thing I'd been working myself up to say. “You ever noticed it stinks in here?” I said.

Lt. Gooch looked up at me, his pale blue eyes studying me. “Yup,” he said.

“So what's next . . . Hank?”

He kept looking at me. “Take a week. Find a case.”

I turned to go, thinking maybe I'd amble over to Records to pick up some case files, when he called to me. “And Mechelle? Just one thing. No DNA, and no children.”

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ISBN: 978-0-7860-3306-5

BOOK: The Body Box

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