Free Mr. Monk and the New Lieutenant by Hy Conrad Page B

released.”
    â€œThat’s good. Are you really quitting the force?” It was something I had to ask. Straight out.
    â€œI am quitting, yes.”
    We had arrived at the elevator bank and I faked pushing the down button, hoping she wouldn’t notice. “How can you leave? You can’t.”
    â€œMy uncle and cousins are officers in Boston. The force there is actively recruiting women for the major crimes division. I know I seem tough, Natalie.” She ran a hand through her spiky black hair. “But the ordeal I went through with the warehouse shootings, it made me think about family. I miss them. I would have come through something like that better if I’d had some family around.”
    â€œI understand that,” I said. “I meant, how can you leave now? With the captain in the hospital and someone trying to kill him?”
    â€œI’m on leave,” said Devlin. “I couldn’t help if I wanted to.”
    â€œDon’t you care about him?”
    â€œOf course I care. He’s been a great mentor, like a dad.And more patient than my real dad, believe me. But he has you and Monk and the whole department. Look, if you need me for anything, I’ll be around for another week. Call me. But the captain’s in good hands. Don’t sell yourself short.”
    When the elevator dinged, it startled me. I still hadn’t pushed the button.
    â€œNatalie. Devlin. How’s the old man doing?” It was Lieutenant A.J. Thurman. Amy’s replacement stepped out of the elevator, holding forth a grocery store bouquet.
    â€œAnother reason for you not to leave,” I whispered in Devlin’s ear. She shot me a sympathetic grin before stepping past him into the elevator. Would I ever see her again? Of course, I told myself.
    â€œTake care of yourself,” Amy said just before the doors closed.
    I escorted A.J. back to the room, all the while thinking how the captain’s ex-partner had come to visit before his current partner. “I didn’t find out until I showed up at the station,” A.J. said, almost reading my mind.
    â€œI guess you got left out of the loop.” I didn’t mean for it to sound quite that dismissive.
    The captain seemed genuinely glad to see A.J. walk in. I busied myself arranging the tiny bouquet in a milk glass while Monk went back and forth between the two windows getting the venetian blinds to line up just right.
    â€œHow is your dad doing?” asked Stottlemeyer. He had more interest in talking about other people’s health than his own.
    â€œHanging in there,” said A.J. “It’s just a matter of time. We’ve talked to the doctors about a heart transplant. But thewaiting list is so long. And he probably wouldn’t survive the operation.”
    â€œI’ll come by the house as soon as they let me out.”
    â€œGood,” said A.J. “Dad would like that. He keeps talking about the old days, you know, about the fraternity. How your father owned a bar and how you all used to sneak in and drink the hard stuff and refill the bottles with colored water. Is that true?”
    Stottlemeyer smiled. “We just fiddled with the cheap stuff. My pop was a real connoisseur, not just a bartender. The man knew his whisky. We’d do summer vacations visiting the best distilleries. Even to Inverness, Scotland, one year. So I knew better than to go near the good liquor.”
    â€œSounds like a character, your pop. And you guys never got caught?”
    â€œI think he knew. His customers must have figured it out. But I think that was his way of keeping tabs on our drinking, checking the bottles the next day and not saying anything. The year we all turned twenty-one, Pop threw us a party. Nothing but cheap stuff. We all had such hangovers the next day, we swore we’d never drink again. Not that the resolution lasted, mind you, but it was a good lesson.”
    â€œThe lesson was