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He nodded. “Until the chief got this letter from the DA, I was under strict orders not to have any contact with you.”

“The courtesy of a note to that effect would have sufficed.”

“I realize that now. But I also don’t like to blame others for what I have to do.”

“Did you agree with Chief Murphy?”

“Under the circumstances, yes. But I was wrong. And I apologize. If you want to work with someone else on this, I’ll understand.”

When a man like Lieutenant Tracy apologizes, you know he means it. I felt the steam of the indignation I had been stoking slowly deflate. I shook my head. “No. I accept your apology.”

“Thank you.”

I waited a moment. “You already know pretty much what I know about Saunders. But when this letter arrived, I took it upon myself to question him.” I picked up the several pages of printout and held them by both hands. “This is an account of that interview. I was about to make a copy and send it over to Mr. Duff.”

The lieutenant nodded. A gleam of eagerness had come into his eyes.

“You should also know that I may have some evidence pertaining to the Sterl case.”

“Go ahead.”

I allowed myself a small smile. “I will turn over to you this and evidence I have just received pertaining to the Sterl case on two conditions.”

“I’m listening.”

“First, you and Chief Murphy are to do everything in your powers to have the charges against me dropped. My lawyer tells me they are completely spurious. I wouldn’t be so anxious, but I have a meeting of the Board of Governors on July twenty-fourth. If I am still out on bail, I will be forced to resign.”

“I’ll do everything I can.”

“Second, I want credit for what I’ve done in any statements to the media by the Seaboard Police Department.”

“Agreed.”

I hesitated.

“You’ve got my word.”

I pondered awhile longer. I called Doreen and asked her to make a copy of my interview with Saunders for the lieutenant.

Then I positioned my laptop so that we could both see the screen. He leaned forward. I clicked the icon for the Stella Fox sequence. He watched with a keen concentration. Then he turned to me, shaking his head. “Amazing. This could help us considerably.”

“You’ll need a forensic lip-reader,” I ventured.

“More like a Serbo-Croatian forensic lip-reader.”

“Really?”

“She’s from Croatia originally. A place called Split. I think he might be as well. Could you play it again?”

I clicked the icon.

“That’s you, isn’t it? Checking her out.”

“That’s me.”

“Can I get a copy …?”

I handed him one of the disks in a cover. Doreen came in just then with copies of my interview with Saunders. I gave him one.

He stood up smiling, took my hand and shook it warmly. “This will get the chief on your side. Duff listens to him. And I’ll make sure you get full credit if this breaks the case.”

Finally, I thought, after he left, things were starting to go my way. The tide had turned. If the DA’s office dropped the charge, the board could not fire me. But I knew I was still vulnerable.

So that, even armed with an edge of self-confidence and with Harvey Deharo in tow, I faced the Oversight Committee meeting with the “Neanderthal Issue” at the top of its agenda in a state of some foreboding. I wanted to ignore them, but I remained vulnerable.

Not that it didn’t feel like cheating, showing up with Harvey as an expert witness, so to speak.

All the usual suspects were there when Chair Constance Brattle began by thanking me for agreeing to attend the meeting to discuss what she called “this very important issue.” Adjusting her bifocals, she went on, “I know you hold that this committee has no sway in matters involving the Museum of Man. Suffice it to say that the Chair and many members of the committee disagree with that assumption. And it may not be long before that misconception is cleared up.”

I did not rise to the bait, but sat impassively, more relieved than ever to have Harvey there.

The Chair then read from the Bugle’s account. “ ‘Despite criticism from experts on the need for diversity in role modeling, officials at the museum … will be spending several hundred thousand