Feller scoffed. “People surprise you.” Rook and Heat traded some drive-by eye contact and looked away. “So can we get a list of the A-through-Ms? Start getting warrants so we can do some interviews?”
“There is no list,” said Ochoa. “The files were stolen and so was all the documentation from the office. Hard drives, date books, everything. It’s a dead end.”
“Did Lon King keep a patient list at his home?” asked Miguel. “We should find that out.”
“I already asked.” Detective Aguinaldo riffled through pages of her notes. “According to his partner, they shared an office-slash-studio in their second bedroom. King mainly used it as a retreat, where he read psychology journals and worked on a nature book he was writing. The only way Stallings saw him consult his case notes was with the paper files he brought home.”
“His receptionist mentioned thumb drives,” Heat said to her.
“I’ll follow up.”
Rhymer raised a polite hand and waited for Nikki’s chin to tilt his way. “Here’s one solution. Make our own list. Have Personnel generate a roster of all the department referrals that have been made to Lon King by NYPD.”
“That’s a great idea,” said Roach in a near-chorus.
“It’s a fucking needle in a haystack,” said Feller. “Come on, man, how many referrals have there been? How long do you go back? It’s a nonstarter, if you ask me.”
Rhymer, self-advocating for a change, said, “You got something better?”
“Wheel spinning, Rhymes.”
Detective Rhymer flared. “Hey, dickhead, just because you didn’t think of it doesn’t make it a bad idea.” Feller was too shocked to fire back. The rest were too shocked to do anything but stare in disbelief at the soft-spoken, sweet-natured, almost courtly Virginian. Squad politics had just gotten ugly—Opie had called Randy a dickhead.
Heat wondered if she had brought this on by not making that clean squad leader appointment and stifling the flames of rivalry right away. Or had this been boiling underneath the whole time and the change simply made it blow up? She studied Rook. While everyone was beating the bushes for a clue, what the heck was he sitting on?
Then she banished that thought—for now. It wasn’t going to lead her anywhere good.
Lon King, PhD
Counseling Transcript
Session of Feb. 22/13 with Heat, N., Det. Grade-1, NYPD
LK: It’s been a while, Nikki. Let’s see, last time we talked, you had gotten pissed off and baptized Jameson Rook with your cocktail.
NH: A tequila shot, yeah.
LK: How is it going for you two?
NH: We’re engaged. LK: Congratulations.
NH: Thank you.
LK: How is it going for you two?
NH: You just asked me that.
LK: You answered with a fact. How about a feeling?
NH: Isn’t that in the fact?
LK: I’d like to know.
[No reply]
LK: Nikki, when you made this appointment, you said it was just—What did you call it?
NH: A tune-up.
LK: Very nuts and bolts. Which is fine. It’s your style. Or your comfort zone. Is there more? You like things concrete, tell me if there’s a specific issue that you’re confronting.
NH: Well…Yeah, I guess. [Long pause]…Living together.
LK: You mean before the wedding? I thought you said you and Rook had been sharing space for a few years.
NH: I mean after the wedding. And the issue isn’t living together, of course we’ll live together…It’s a question of where. [Long pause] You’re going to make me say this, aren’t you.
LK: I’m listening.
NH: OK. OK…It’s just, the whole idea has me all stressed. We can’t be the first couple to choose whose apartment we live in and whose we…give up.
LK: You’re correct, it’s not uncommon. Although I see it more frequently with couples coming into a committed relationship from divorce, where one partner feels like a guest in the other’s home. One remedy is to get rid of both places and—
NH: That makes no sense. Rook has this ginormous loft in Tribeca. Lots of space, plenty of room for both of our stuff…[Silence]
LK: Interesting answer. So it seems that the issue is giving up your apartment, Nikki.