Taylor scowled a little. “Is there a point to this conversation?”
“Sure,” Kovac said. He blew out one last hard jet stream of toxic fumes. If he smoked only half the cigarette, that wasn’t so bad. He stubbed it out on the sidewalk and palmed the dead butt. At least he wasn’t a litterbug.
“Here’s your lesson for the day, Junior. If there’s one thing I can assure you about working Homicide, it’s that you are going to see some of the most mentally fucked-up people and family situations you can imagine. After all the years I’ve been doing this job, just when I say I’ve seen everything, somebody comes up with some new and different way to be a sick, perverted wack job.
“Never judge a family by their address or bank account,” he went on. “And never underestimate the power of the American public to utterly shock and disappoint you.”
*
THE DIRECTOR OF THE Office for Conflict Resolution was waiting for them. Inez Ngoukani was tall and elegant, an ebony sculpture with long slender limbs and full features beneath a tight cap of steel gray hair. She invited them into a conference room as graciously as if they were at her home for a pleasant chat.
“May I offer you something to drink, gentlemen?” she asked in a beautiful, cultured accent. Kovac felt like he should have gone and washed up and brushed his teeth before coming in the room.
“We have cucumber water,” she said, gesturing gracefully to a glass pitcher on the table. “It’s very refreshing.”
“Thank you, ma’am,” Taylor said, and poured glasses for all three of them.
Kovac took a long drink, hoping to wash the smoke out of his mouth.
“Professor Foster broke the news to me about Lucien and his wife, Sondra,” Ngoukani said. “Terrible. So terrible to imagine what they must have gone through. The more educated we are, the less we believe violence can touch our lives. But it can and it does. I saw Lucien on Monday, and now he’s gone.”
“What was his mood when you saw him?” Kovac asked.
“Ooooh,” she said, raising her pencil-thin eyebrows nearly to her hairline. “He was in a foul humor. So angry.”
“Did he say why?”
“No, and I didn’t ask. I’ve been trying to help him come to a calmer, more reasonable place in his mind. He would have none of that Monday.”
“Did you find that unusual?”
“No, to be honest. Lucien is a difficult man. If something doesn’t go his way, he throws a tantrum like a spoiled boy. This ongoing clash with his daughter has not gone well for him. His temper has been terrible.”
“His daughter was his student assistant,” Taylor said. “That seems like an unusual situation.”
“Highly. And a recipe for disaster from the start,” Ngoukani said. “Professor Foster told me he tried to discourage them, but the two of them seemed bent on it. Who can decipher the tangled motives of a parent-and-child relationship as complicated as that one? One might think Diana wanted her father’s acceptance and approval, and that Lucien wanted to support her effort to follow in his footsteps, yet they butted heads constantly.”
“So, how does this work?” Taylor asked. “The daughter filed a complaint. Could he have gotten fired?”
“No. Not at this point. The Office for Conflict Resolution is a neutral and independent office where the faculty and staff, including the student workers, can raise concerns,” she explained. “We advocate for neither management or nonmanagement. We facilitate discussions between the parties involved, consult with them individually, and offer coaching. We offer mediation in the hope of resolving the issue before it can escalate to the point of having to be reported to Human Resources or to the General Council for more serious consideration with the potential for career-impacting consequences.”
“But according to Forrest Foster this complaint was still going to create a problem for Professor Chamberlain with regard to his possible promotion,” Taylor said. “How does that work if this office is confidential?”
She gave him a look like he should have known better. “The university can be a very small and incestuous world, Detective. It was hardly a secret within the department that Lucien and Diana weren’t getting along. Diana came to this office with her complaints. Her father went to Forrest Foster with his outrage, trying to head his daughter off at the pass, so to speak, thinking if he could discredit her with his friend, the head of the department, that would be the end of it. But Forrest wasn’t willing to look the other way. He couldn’t. There’s too much at stake, and he is an honorable man. He encouraged Lucien to try to solve the issue through this office.”
“Did the daughter’s complaints hold water?” Kovac asked.