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morning to keep the rain off me.”
    â€œYou managed to find a space right in front. I half expected to see an NYPD placard on your dash.”
    The air smelled fresh from the recent rain. The street and sidewalks were still wet. A few of the cars and cabs swishing past still had their wipers working.
    â€œI figured you’d come around again,” Beam said.
    â€œOf course. Want to go back in for some coffee and conversation?”
    â€œLet’s drive and talk,” Beam said, and stepped off the curb to get behind the wheel of the Lincoln. He and Lani had bought the car new ten years ago, with money she’d inherited from her wealthy family in Philadelphia. Lani had been rich with her own money when Beam married her. That bothered a few of his fellow cops, but the circles her wealth allowed them to travel in had been useful to Beam. He could talk to people otherwise inaccessible without a warrant.
    As soon as he pressed the button on his key fob, the doors unlocked and da Vinci was climbing into the other side of the car. Beam settled into the plush leather seat and fastened his safety belt. As he started the engine, the car began to chime, and he noticed da Vinci wasn’t using his seat belt.
    â€œYou forgot to buckle up,” Beam said.
    â€œNever do.”
    â€œShame on you.” Beam pulled out into traffic. The warning chime finally stopped. “We making progress?”
    â€œComputer guy will be at your place tomorrow afternoon. He’ll make sure you’re plugged into the department network,” da Vinci said.
    â€œHe didn’t say ‘plugged into’ I bet.”
    â€œI didn’t talk to him personally, but you’re probably right. They think in terms of ports. The thing is, we don’t want there to be any glitches.”
    â€œWe don’t,” Beam agreed, swooping the big car around a corner to beat a traffic signal.
    â€œThis old boat’s amazing,” da Vinci said. “You don’t even feel the potholes.”
    â€œIt’s like new. We didn’t drive it much. I mostly drive it now to keep up the battery.”
    â€œAnybody ever mistake it for a limo?”
    â€œSometimes. When I tailed or staked out suspects, I wore my eight-point uniform cap and they thought I was a chauffeur.”
    â€œI never asked you,” da Vinci said, “do you happen to be Jewish?”
    â€œMy father was. My mother wasn’t.”
    â€œWas your father of the faith? Wear a yarmulke, all that stuff?”
    â€œHe went to synagogue for a while, then he drifted away from religion. I asked him why once, and he said he’d lost his faith in Korea, and it took him a while to realize it.”
    â€œHe was a cop, wasn’t he?”
    â€œSergeant, Brooklyn South.”
    â€œDidn’t he—”
    â€œHe ate his gun,” Beam said. Didn’t leave a note.
    â€œShit deal. Korea? The job?”
    Beam knew what da Vinci was thinking, that people close to Beam tended to commit suicide, as if he carried an infection.
    â€œThat when you joined the department?” da Vinci asked.
    â€œYou know all these answers,” Beam said.
    Da Vinci smiled. “I guess I know most of them.”
    â€œI dropped out of college and joined the Army, became an MP, then applied at the NYPD when I got out.”
    â€œBecause of your father?”
    â€œI’m not sure. It seemed the natural thing to do.”
    They drove without talking for a while, the big sedan seeming to levitate over bumps.
    â€œI’m giving you Corey and Looper,” da Vinci said.
    â€œWhat’s a Corey and Looper?”
    â€œDetectives, and good ones. Looper’s early fifties, gone far as he’s gonna get in the department and knows it. He’s a good cop, but he’s burned his bridges behind him, far as promotion’s concerned.”
    â€œWhat’s his flaw?”
    â€œToo honest. Nobody trusts him.”
    â€œAnd