Chapter 55

"SO IT'S OVER," Cleary said to me.

I sat with him and Sergeant DiBella in Cleary's office at the courthouse.

"I still want to know the deal with Beth Ann Blair and Royce Garner," I said.

"Even though no one's paying you," DiBella said. "And the lady was paying you wants you to stop."

"Yuh," I said. "That's about right."

"You're a pushy bastard," Cleary said. "I suspect you'll find that out in a while."

"I suspect that, too," I said.

"So, what will you do with it?"

"If it had nothing to do with the school shootup," I said, "I'll forget about it. I don't care who bangs whom."

"Whom?" DiBella said.

"Whom," I said.

"I'll be surprised if that's what you find out," Cleary said.

"Me, too."

"So if you find out it's germane?" Cleary said.

"Jesus Christ," DiBella said. "Germane?"

"Try to learn from us," I said to DiBella.

DiBella grinned.

"What'll you do?" Cleary said.

"We'll talk," I said.

DiBella took a small notebook from his inside pocket and opened it.

"Beth Ann Blair," he said, looking at the notebook, "has been a school shrink in Santa Cruz, California; Louisville, Kentucky; Vero Beach, Florida; and Belfast, Maine. All private schools, all coed."

"Moves around a lot," I said.

"Nothing suspicious anywhere," DiBella said. "She stays a couple years at a school, moves on."

"Be interesting to talk to the students who were there when she was."

"For crisssake, Spenser," DiBella said. "I got no budget for this. We got no case here. Kid confessed. You even agree he did it."

"She's a child molester," I said.

"There's that," Cleary said. "And you say you've got the photo to prove it. But if you open that up, then don't you open up the whole Jared Clark thing?"

"That's why we're just three pals chewing the fat," I said.

"Until you find out whom this is all germane to," DiBella said.

"Nice," I said.

"I'm a fast learner," DiBella said.

"I got no problem letting you roam," Cleary said. "But I'm the chief prosecutor in Bethel County, and I take the job seriously."

"I heard that," I said.

"So, it's cool, as long as your interests and mine coincide," Cleary said. "But as soon as I decide they don't the leash is going to get a lot shorter."

"I sort of guessed that," I said.

"So you want to keep shaking this tree for a while on your own, for free, be my guest. Be kind of interesting to see if something falls out."

"It will be," I said.

"And in case you feel like getting cute, remember I can be a lot more unpleasant than I am now," Cleary said.

"Wow!" I said.