She bit down into a hefty Reuben sandwich that squirted mustard onto her forefinger and thumb. Catherine smiled. “Sloppy, but worth it. You and Pittman are really at odds, right? More like you hate each other’s guts?”

“It’s serious dislike, and it’s mutual,” I told her. “He’s tried to do me in a couple of times. He thinks I’m a threat to his career.”

Catherine was attacking her sandwich. “Hmmm, there’s a thought. Would you be a better chief of detectives?”

“Wouldn’t run, wouldn’t serve if elected. I wouldn’t be good cooped up in an office playing political Ping-Pong.”

Catherine laughed. She’s one of those people who can find humor almost anywhere. “This is just fricking great, Alex. The defense is calling the chief of detectives as one of its goddamn witnesses. He’s listed as hostile, but I don’t think he is.”

Catherine and I finished off the rest of her sandwich. “Well, let’s find out what Mr. Halpern has up his sleeve today,” she said.

At the start of the afternoon session, Jules Halpern did a careful and thorough setup of Pittman’s credentials, which sounded reasonably impressive in the abstract. Undergrad at George Washington, then law school at American; twenty-four years on the police force, with medals for bravery and citations from three different mayors.

“Chief Pittman, how would you describe Detective Cross’s record in the department?” asked Halpern.

I cringed in my seat. Felt my brow wrinkle, my eyes narrow. Here we go, I thought.

“Detective Cross has been involved in some high-profile cases that the department has solved,” he said, and left it at that. Not exactly praise, but at least he hadn’t gone on the attack.

Halpern nodded sagely. “What, if anything, has changed his performance recently?”

Pittman looked my way, then answered. “A woman he was seeing disappeared while they were on a trip together in Bermuda. Since that time, he’s been distracted and distant, quick to anger, not himself.”

Suddenly I wanted to speak up in the courtroom. Pittman didn’t know the first thing about Christine and me.

“Chief Pittman, was Detective Cross ever a suspect in the disappearance of his girlfriend, Mrs. Christine Johnson?”

Pittman nodded. “That’s standard police procedure. I’m sure he was questioned.”

“But his behavior on the job has changed since her disappearance?”

“Yes. His concentration isn’t the same. He’s missed days of work. It’s all a matter of record.”

“Has Detective Cross been asked to seek professional help?”

“Yes.”

“Did you ask him to seek help yourself?”

“I did. He and I have worked together for a number of years. He was under stress.”

“He’s under a lot of stress? Is that fair to say?”

“Yes. He hadn’t closed a single case recently.”

Halpern nodded. “A couple of weeks before the Hampton homicide, you suspended some detectives he was friendly with.”