Page 64 of NYPD Red 7: The Murder Sorority

“I’ve got a bunch of murders to solve. You may have read about them. It was in all the papers.”

“No. You weren’t thinking about work when we were talking to Theo. You spent most of the time just staring at him and ruminating about something.”

“I don’t ruminate,” I said. “Sometimes I cogitate. Occasionally, I muse or ponder. But I never ruminate. I’m not that deep.”

She laughed, which is what I was hoping for, but she didn’t let up. “And sometimes,” she said, “when you don’t want to deal with the question, you try to sidetrack the conversation with your rapier wit and your sexual prowess, but you’re not that funny, and sex is off the table, so I repeat the question. What’s going on inside your head?”

I let go of her hand, rolled onto my side, and propped myself up on one elbow. “Remember back before we were dating?” I said. “You were Dr. Robinson, I was Detective Jordan, and sometimes we’d meet for a drink after work, and you’d probe my psyche just the way you rummaged around Theo’s brain tonight.”

She turned and faced me. “Probe your psyche?You’re giving me way too much credit. It was more like I knew my marriage to Fred was heading south, and I totally had the hots for you. But I also knew that you hadn’t had a single serious relationship since Kylie. So I asked you a few innocent questions to see if you were emotionally available for something besides a roll in the hay.”

“Not to put too fine a point on it, but you only get to call them innocent questions if we were contestants onThe Dating Game. But when you’re a department psychologist asking me how I felt about the woman who dumped me and married another guy, I’d say that borders on analysis.”

“Fine,” she said, sitting up and clasping her hands around her knees. “So using my professional facade as cover, I probed your psyche, lured you into my web, cast a spell over you, and here I am more than a year later, in your bed and more in love with you than I could ever have imagined. Clearly, my plan worked, but I still can’t figure out what you were cogitating, musing, or pondering about when we were talking to Theo.”

“I was thinking about one of thosealcohol-infusedtherapy sessions you and I had back then. I told you a secret I never told anyone before or since.”

“I hear a lot of secrets in my line of work. Remind me which one was yours.”

“I told you that Kylie wasn’t the first to break my heart.”

“Oh, I remember that night,” Cheryl said, her voice warm, almost nostalgic. “I can picture the two of us sitting in the back room of JG Melon, and you told me about the girl you met the summer before you went off to college.”

“She wastwenty-three—incrediblyself-sufficientand worldly for her age. More of a strong young woman than a girl. I was eighteen, working a summer job in construction out in the Hamptons, and she was working for a family who lived two blocks away. We met in June. She was way out of my league, but somehow, bam!” I smacked my fist into the palm of my hand. “By the time I left for college in September, I was totally in love with her, and I thought it was mutual. She said she’d call, but she didn’t. I tried her, left messages, but no response. She just disappeared. For nineteen years, I had no idea what happened to her... until today. She died.”

“Oh, Zach,” Cheryl said, sliding closer and putting her hand on my shoulder. “I am so sorry. Who told you?”

“Theo.”

She stared at me, trying to put the puzzle pieces together. “How would Theo...”

“She was his mother,” I said. “Her name was Sylviane LeBec. I saw her picture in Theo’s room. There’s no question. It’sher.”

“What an amazing coincid—” She put her hand to her mouth. “Oh, my God...Zach.”

“I know,” I said. “I did the math. Hecouldbe my son. I don’t know if he is, but I do know that Travis, the man who raised him, isn’t his birth father. Sylviane didn’t tell anyone who her son’s real father is.”

“That would explain why she never calledyou.”

“I don’t understand,” Isaid.

“She was atwenty-three-year-oldwoman. You were a kid. Why would she tell you? What would you do? Drop out of college and marry her? Dragging you into the picture would only make her life more complicated than it already was. It makes sense, Zach. A lot of women get pregnant and decide to have the baby on their own. Sylviane was lucky. She met Travis. He was older, he was stable, and from the way Theo talks about him, he’s a terrific dad.” She paused. “Have you told anybody else aboutthis?”

“If you mean, have I told Kylie, definitely not. She’s my partner in crime. You’re my partner in life. I don’t need people speculating. All I need is hard evidence, and that means a DNA test. I took one of Theo’s toothbrushes, but I can’t run it through the department. I’ll have to find an outside service.”

“I know someone,” Cheryl said. “Let me do it. I’ll have them send the results directly toyou.”

“Thanks. It’s been a hell of a day, Cheryl. I think I’m going to turn in and hope for a better tomorrow.”

“One more question,” she said. “What will you do if he is yourson?”

“Are you asking as my girlfriend or as my shrink?”

“Girlfriend.”

I shook my head. “I have noidea.”

“I changed my mind,” she said. “I’m asking as your shrink.”

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