“Maybe it really was Interpol,” Marino says, and it’s a good thing I’m accustomed to his non sequiturs. “Maybe I wrote down the number wrong.” He picks up where he left off about the bogus phone call from a bogus investigator. “Maybe that’s all it is.”

“I seriously doubt it. I’m sorry to say but I think the call you got is exactly what it appears to be, Marino, and I’m sure it’s upsetting.” I don’t add that it might be somewhat the way I felt when Benton played the 911 recording for me that Marino refused to share.

I know all too well what it’s like to be falsely accused, excluded, belittled, treated suspiciously or simply tormented and harassed. But when Marino is upset, he doesn’t necessarily compare notes with others, including me. There are no other notes. Only his.

“Wait till I get my hands on whoever it is,” and he’s enraged all over again. “How the hell did this person come up with my name and get my cell number? Where did he get the information? How did he know to call me about anything?”

“I don’t know.” I’m saying that a lot.

“Well it’s the biggest and most important thing we need to find out. Who gave the info to this asswipe joker?”

“It’s probably not the biggest or most important thing we need to find out at the moment.” I stare at him, and I hate that someone has targeted him like this.

I know how Marino gets. He can’t endure being boondoggled. He can’t tolerate being made to feel as unimportant and powerless as he did while he was growing up on the wrong side of the tracks in New Jersey.

“I recommend you put this on a shelf for now,” I tell him. “We’ll worry about Interpol later. At your earliest convenience I suggest you have Lucy take a look at your phone to see if she can trace the unknown call that supposedly was from the NCB’s counterterrorism division.”

“Right,” he says tersely, and he’s furious with himself.

MARINO WAS TRICKED, AND it will be unfortunate if other cops find out about it.

I think of Roberts, for example, who Marino just emasculated. The way he goes after his comrades will come back to him a hundredfold if they discover he fell prey to a hoax of the worst order. They’ll be merciless, but it’s not a joke. It’s no laughing matter. Marino might have been talking to the same anonymous person who, it would seem, used voice-altering software to complain about me in a 911 call today.