Harry Turtledove - Supervolcano - All Fall Down

“I heard. . something about that,” Lucy said. Colin wasn’t surprised. A police department was like any other small town. News got around fast. The cops smoking in the parking lot had heard Mike Pitcavage melt down. Their stories wouldn’t have shrunk in the telling.

Once Colin’s brain started grinding away, it didn’t want to stop. “Remember how, when we were at poor Mrs. Mandelbaum’s house, he knew his way around like he’d been there before? He, uh, darn well had.”

“I do remember!” Lucy Chen exclaimed. “I didn’t think much of it then, but I do. I just thought he’d been in a hundred places like it, so he’d kind of know where all the rooms were.”

“Uh-huh. Exactly what I figured, too,” Colin said. “He was a cop for a long time. Of course he’d seen places like that before. Right. He sure had.”

“Hadn’t he, though?” Lucy clicked her tongue between her teeth. “Where. . Where do we go from here?”

Colin didn’t answer directly, not right away. “Who else knows, besides you and me?”

“As soon as I was sure, I told Dr. Ishikawa and showed him the results,” she said. “He told me to call you.”

I owe the coroner one, Colin thought. Yes, Ishikawa would have told Lucy to call him because he’d been chasing the South Bay Strangler so long. But Colin judged that wasn’t the only reason. Ishikawa would also know what was going on in the department. Nobody could blame Colin for the chief’s sudden shuffling off this mortal coil now.

He made himself come back to the business immediately at hand. “Okay. Good, even,” he said. “But this will have to get out. Not just to us-to all the other departments who’ve been after the Strangler.” He let out a long, regretful sigh. “It’ll have to get out to the TV and the papers, too. The suicide already has. San Atanasio’s gonna be in the news for a while. So will I. And so will you, I’m afraid. Get used to it.”

Lucy winced. “Can I go on vacation for about the next three years?”

“You wish!” Colin said. By her expression, Lucy did. You didn’t go into her racket because you wanted your mug on TV. You didn’t go into geology for the media exposure, either. Kelly’d survived it, back when the supervolcano was warming up for the big show. Colin was sure Lucy also would. He went on, “For now, though, give me enough time to get back to my desk, then call Neil Schneider and ask him to come in. I’m not gonna say boo. Let somebody else get the word out.”

“Okay.” She sent him a shrewd look. “He’s one of the people who aren’t real happy with you right now, isn’t he?”

“Yup.” Colin didn’t waste time pretending he didn’t know what she was talking about. “I don’t even know whether he’d believe it hearing it from me. He will from you, though. He’d better.”

“All right, Lieutenant. I’ll do that, then.” Lucy spread her hands. “This is gonna be pretty horrible, isn’t it?”

“It won’t be anywhere near that good,” he answered. She laughed as if he were joking. They both knew too well he wasn’t.

As soon as he came back into the central office, the dueling cones of overdone greetings and angry silence surrounded him again. He sat down at his desk and tried to do some useful work on the home-invasion robbery. The clock on the wall insisted he’d been in the lab less than twenty minutes. It only felt like years.

Sergeant Schneider’s phone rang. He talked for a moment, then got up and headed for the door Colin had just used. Colin watched him out of the corner of his eye. As far as he could tell, he was the only one who did. When he himself moved around, everybody’s gaze followed him. Maybe he could shed that, too.

For now, he waited. When Schneider came back in, he looked like someone who’d taken a left hook right on the button. He headed straight for Colin’s desk. That made people stare at him, all right. Talking with the enemy, was he?

He was. He sat down on-sank down onto-the chair by the desk. Like a spooked horse’s, his eyes showed white all around the iris. “My God!” he said.

“Yeah.” Colin nodded. He saw no point in gloating. He didn’t want to gloat. He wanted to cry, and he couldn’t do that, either. He wondered if Caroline Pitcavage would be able to cry when she found out. That would be for later. More collateral damage, he thought miserably.

“Lieutenant, I’ve been kind of mad at you since. . since. . Well, you know since when,” Schneider said. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry as hell. It wasn’t your fault, not in any bad way.” He held out a hesitant hand.

Colin took it. “Thanks, Neil. Don’t worry about it. I know how you felt. Lord, I felt the same way myself half the time. I did.” His voice hardened. “But I sure don’t any more.”

“I hope not! Neither do I. Neither will anybody, once I talk to a few people and they talk to some people, too. But I wanted to come to you first.”

“Well, thanks. Some of them won’t want to believe you, you know.”

“Hey, I didn’t want to believe Lucy, either. Who would? But there’s the DNA.”

“Uh-huh. There’s the DNA. I still don’t want to believe it. It all fits together too well not to, though,” Colin said.

“It does, doesn’t it?” With some effort, Schneider got to his feet. As he’d said he would, he started talking to people. Some of them did believe him. Some stormed off to the lab to see if he was making it up. Some who’d been angry at Colin came over to his desk to apologize-some, but not all. Well, in a world full of human beings, that was as much as you could hope for.

Not quite half an hour after Sergeant Schneider started spreading the word, Colin’s phone rang. “Grab that for me, will you, Josie?” he called-he was talking with two cops and a secretary.

“Sure thing,” she answered proudly. She’d been on the right side all along. A moment later, she said, “Lieutenant, it’s a reporter from Channel Two. He wants to talk to you. Right away, he says.” By her expression, she was trying to tell him it wasn’t her fault.

Colin knew that-not that it would help. He sighed one more time. “Thanks, Josie. Put him through.” Yes, it was beginning.