“I guess you’re thinking you’d have been better off calling 911,” Trimble said, turning slightly in the seat so he could watch me without getting a crick in his neck. I figured he wanted me behind the wheel so I wouldn’t have my hands free to try anything.

“Yeah, in retrospect,” I said. “Although it proves Bullock’s no liar. He has someone on the inside.”

“Yeah, well, I doubt I’m the only one. Lenny Indigo was pretty resourceful that way, developing friends where he could best use them.”

“It didn’t keep him out of jail.”

“Yeah,” Trimble said. “Things finally caught up with him.” He paused. “It happens sometimes.”

“I’m just gonna go out on a limb here and guess that, back on that night when you and Lawrence Jones were partners, and that kid took a shot at him, and you hesitated?”

I glanced over at Trimble. His eyes had become slits.

“I’m guessing you didn’t just hesitate out of fear or anything. I’m guessing you recognized that kid. I remember Lawrence saying that he worked for Indigo’s organization, and when you saw him, in the light, you recognized him. Maybe even knew him. And you also knew that he and you reported to the same guy, which made you think that maybe it wouldn’t be such a good idea to shoot him.”

Trimble’s tongue was poking the inside of his cheek.

“So you didn’t just freeze. You chose to protect a partner in crime instead of your partner on the force.”

“Just drive, okay?” Trimble said. “If I want entertainment, I can turn on the radio.”

“Bullock’s never going to let me and Angie walk away from this, is he?”

“I don’t know that. We get his goods back, he might look a lot more favorably on your situation.”

“That’s not how he dealt with Lawrence.”

I got onto the expressway ramp, gave the cruiser some more gas. It roared ahead. “I don’t suppose I could use the siren,” I said.

“No.”

“Did you know that Bullock did Lawrence? Did you know he was going to?”

“You don’t have any proof that Bullock, or any of those clowns working with him, tried to kill Lawrence. I asked him about it, he says he didn’t do it.”

I shook my head. “And you believe that.”

“There’s no reason for him to lie,” Trimble said, but with little conviction.

“Maybe Bullock thinks if you knew he killed your former partner, that might be too much of a test of your loyalty to him. And open your eyes, man. You deal in evidence. Bullock has my check. The one I gave to Lawrence. But that’s not enough. This one goes into your cold-case file.”

“Someone’ll take a fall for it.”