Dirty Blonde by Lisa Scottoline Page B

see if it was in order, a homeowner’s impulse. She straightened two magazines on the glass coffee table and sat down on the soft tan couch. “Please, take a chair.”
    “Thanks.” Russo eased heavily into the side chair, looking around. “This is a lovely house. How long have you lived here?”
    “About six years.”
    “Nice.” Russo looked around again, and in the light from the Waterford lamp on the end table, Cate could see the pain in his eyes.
    “I saw you in the courtroom today. Why were you there?”
    “I just wanted to go back, I guess, like it was a crime scene. I’m still trying to figure this whole thing out. Simone, dead. Rich, a fugitive.” Russo’s voice softened with naked emotion. “I can’t believe he would do that. I can’t believe it all came to this.”
    “I know exactly what you mean.” Cate paused. “Let me say something that might not be standard procedure.”
    “Go right ahead.” Russo chuckled, his heavy shoulders shifting once in the jacket. “My coming here sure isn’t procedure.”
    “I’m very sorry about the way the case came out. I ruled the way I had to, not the way I wanted to. That’s probably all I should say on the subject. It’s not more than I said in open court.”
    “I understand.” Russo’s full lips went tight. “I guess it’s just hard to swallow.”
    “I know.” Cate felt sad for him. Detective Russo had had a dream, too. He would have been an equal partner with Marz, and unlike Marz, he wasn’t a young man any longer.
    “Sometimes, what gets to me is, you can never get over. You know what I mean? No matter how hard you try, and how much you work, and even how good you are, you can never get over. We played by the rules and we played with honor, and in the end, we didn’t win. That’s the worst to me. When you work that hard, and you still don’t win.” Russo fell silent, seeming to examine his hands on his lap.
    “I know it must be hard,” Cate said, when the silence became almost uncomfortable.
    “It’s like, when I was a uniform, a beat cop, I’d risk my ass to collar some knucklehead, some lowlife. Then, a judge would come along and let him off, on a technicality.” Russo looked down. “That’s what this is like. Like they got off on a technicality.”
    Cate shifted uncomfortably. “I feel for you, and for Rich Marz. I hope he turns himself in soon. Have you spoken with him?”
    Russo looked up, shaking his head. “Not since yesterday.”
    “I know they have him on videotape, but it’s so hard to believe he did it.”
    “I don’t know what I believe, Judge.” Russo kept shaking his head, his cheeks slack. “I can’t figure this out. It stinks to high heaven. I don’t know who the hell’s on that tape.”
    “You don’t think it’s him?” Cate asked, mystified.
    “You tell me.” Russo got up abruptly and crossed to the entertainment center. “This your VCR?”
    “Yes. Why?”
    Russo withdrew a black cartridge from his jacket pocket and slid it into the VCR. “I want to know what you think of this, Your Honor. I value your opinion.”
    “You have the tape ?” Cate’s mouth dropped open. “How did you get that?”
    “I’m a detective, remember?” Russo turned on the TV and pressed the button for the video. “Hey, I got the same TV.”
    “But I thought this was Nesbitt’s case, and the other detective’s.” Cate got up slowly, regretting she had let him in. “I don’t want to see that tape. I don’t think I should. It’s not right. It could compromise the evidence or—”
    “No, it won’t.”
    “Detective, I don’t want to see it.”
    “Come on, tell me what you think. I can’t gure this out, and you’re so much smarter than me. Sorry. Than I .”
    “But a man was killed.” Cate recoiled, as the tape started, grainy and fuzzy. “I don’t want to see that. Please don’t turn it on.”
    “Look, Judge.” Russo pointed at the image on the screen, which wasn’t Marz and Simone at all. It