Page 25 of NYPD Red 7: The Murder Sorority

“That’s where I was going with this,” she said. “I don’t want Shane to be the next stopgap boyfriend for Kylie while she’s waiting for Spence to come home.”

“Gosh, I never thought of myself as astopgap boyfriend, but thank you for enlightening me, doctor. This session is really helping me deal with mylow-self-esteemissues.”

“Zach, I’m trying to have a serious conversation.”

“Then start off by taking a serious look at your flawed analogy. How can you compare what’s going on today with something that happened a lifetime ago? Back then Kylie and I were two young kids in the Academy. We ignited in an instant, and as soon as the first love of her life reappeared, we crashed and burned like theHindenburg. She’s changed since the Dark Ages. She’s acard-carryingadult now, and she’s not going to buy Spence’s bullshit if he comes back yet again and swears that this time he’s changed for good.”

She looked at me, her dark eyes intense. “Don’t... be... so... sure,” she said, her tone filled with purpose. “Do you have any idea how many cops I’ve talked to who keep going back to their same toxic relationships because they think that this time they can make it work?”

“No.”

“Lots.”

“Male cops or female cops?”

“Both, but it skews more toward women. They go back because they think this time they’re going to get it right. Or they feel guilty because they’ve decided that they didn’t try hard enough the last time around.”

“And how many of these women have met a great guy like Shane and still go back anyway?”

“Kylie met you, and she went back to Spence.”

“At the risk of repeating myself, ouch.”

“I don’t mean to open up an old wound, but did you ever stop to think that maybe Kylie went back to Spence because youwerea great guy? I know it’s difficult to understand, but some people actually get off on the pain and the instability of an unhealthy relationship. It’s familiar. It’s what they know.”

I sat there in silence.

“I’m sorry,” she said. “Professional hazard. I think like a shrink.”

“Not always,” I said. “You think like a shrink when you’re dealing with your patients. But this time, you’re thinking like the person who set Shane and Kylie up at the behest of your aunt Janet. I know how much she would like her world populated with lots of little Shanes, and if it happens, it happens. But until then, here’s myunprofessionalopinion. Tell Aunt Janet that her baby boy is agrown-assman now. It’s time for her to let him make his own damn life decisions. And as for you, you did your part. Stopsecond-guessingyourself, and let Kylie and Shane work this weird fucking relationship out on their own.”

“Wow,” she said. “Are we having a healthy discussion, or are we fighting?”

“I don’t know what you call it, but I sure as hell hope it’s a fight.”

She smiled. “Are you serious? Youhopeit’s a fight? Why?”

“Because, Dr. Robinson, healthy discussions don’t end in hot, crazy,mind-blowingmakeup sex.”

She stood up. Even at this hour, with no makeup and wearing shorts and one of my old shirts, she was absolutely breathtaking to look at.

“In that case, Detective Jordan,” she said, unbuttoning her shirt and walking toward the bedroom, “this session is officially over.”

CHAPTER 18

At seventhe next morning, Kylie and I were in Selma Kaplan’s office. The two of us looked worn out but happy. For the same reason, I suspect. I didn’t ask.

Selma got right to it.

“I woke up yesterday morning thinking I was going to send Warren Hellman to prison,” she said. “A few hours later, justice takes it up the wazoo, there’s a shooting outside my courthouse, and suddenly I’m dedicating my life to finding the people who killed a cop killer and his equally soulless brother who let an innocent young girl die on a godforsaken desert road.

“And then you two top off my evening by telling me that Brooke Hellman, the one person who my boss, your boss, and the entire city’s boss wants us to tiptoe around, may have funded both murders. So if I seemed a little cranky when you called last night, that ought to explain it.”

To some, that might have sounded like an apology. Kylie and I knew better. Selma Kaplan is the first to own her mistakes, but she has never once apologized for herborn-and-bred-in-New-York approach.

“I don’t know who your source is,” Selma said, “but he, she, or it is someone you should cultivate. When you first said Curtis OD’d on insulin, I thought, hell, that shit happens all the time. There’s no doctor, no nurse involved. The man administers his own shots. Nobody’s fault but his own if there’s too much insulin in the syringe. Turns out there’s a lot more to it than that. Not only are there different brands of insulin from different pharmaceutical companies, but there are different strengths.”

She brought up a Google Images page on her computer. It was filled with pictures of insulin vials.

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