“Oh, really? Who? Jack Hardwick, who dragged you into this mess to begin with? The state police, whom your investigation is undermining? Those are your friends and allies?” She shook her head in a way that looked like a shudder, then went on. “Even if the whole world was willing to help you, it wouldn’t matter. It would still be just you against him. It always comes down to that. High Noon at the O.K. Corral.”

He said nothing.

Madeleine sat back in her chair, watching him. Gradually, a look of discovery changed her expression. “I just realized something.”

“What?”

“You never really worked for the NYPD, did you? You never saw yourself as their employee, as a tool of the department. You saw the department as your tool—something to be used on your terms, if and when you felt like it, to achieve your goals.”

“My goals were their goals. Catch the bad guys. Get the evidence. Lock ’em up.”

She continued as though he hadn’t spoken. “For you, the department was really just backup. The real contest was always between you and the bad guy. You and the bad guy on the way to the showdown. Sometimes you took advantage of department resources, sometimes you didn’t. But you always saw it as your battle, your call.”

He listened to what she was saying. Maybe she was right. Maybe his approach to things was too limited, too restricted to his own point of view. Maybe that was a big problem, maybe it wasn’t. Maybe it was just the natural product of his brain chemistry, something over which he would never have any control. But whatever it was, he had no desire to keep talking about it. He suddenly found the whole topic exhausting.

He wasn’t sure what to do next.

But he had to do something. Even if it led to nothing.

He decided to call Adonis Angelidis.

Chapter 41

A Cautionary Tale

Gurney’s call to the cell number given him by Angelidis had been answered immediately by the man himself. Gurney’s brief description of a rapidly developing situation that could be of mutual interest resulted in an agreement to get together at the Aegean Odyssey in two hours.

Not wanting to leave before making sure that Madeleine was ready to go to the Winkler farm in Buck Ridge, he was pleased to find her in the bedroom, packing a big nylon duffel bag.

She spoke as she stuffed a pair of socks into a sneaker. “The hens have enough of their regular food and plenty of water, so you don’t have to bother with that. But maybe in the morning you could bring them some chopped strawberries?”