Chapter 10: Badge

Soren brought the green ledger to the police station himself.

He wouldn't let me wait in the car.

"If something goes wrong in there, I want you close enough to see it," he said.

The Milwaukee homicide squad room had a glass wall facing the hall.

I sat on a plastic bench outside it with Rosalyn beside me, rolling a peppermint around her mouth.

Through the glass I saw Soren cross the room with the ledger under his arm.

Eleven detectives watched him do it.

At the far end, a man in a captain's uniform stood up behind a desk.

He was heavy and grey, with a face.

"Falk," he said. "My office."

"Here's fine," said Soren.

His voice carried through the glass.

"Captain, this is a ledger from a jeweler in Shorewood."

"It proves the earring in the Krebs case was a copy, ordered a year before the murder by the defendant's sister."

The squad room went very still.

"You went outside the chain of command," the captain said.

"You gave a photograph to a defense attorney, and you took the stand against this department. You're done."

"I know."

"Hand over your badge and your weapon."

"I'll hand over my gun," said Soren. "The ledger goes to the DA's office, and Ms. Gillis has copies."

He pulled his sidearm out of its holster, ejected the magazine and laid both on the desk.

Then he unclipped the shield from his belt.

It was gold and a little worn.

He held it for a moment in his palm.

"Fourteen years," he said.

He set it down.

Nobody said anything.

A young detective with a thin mustache stood up from his desk.

He walked across the room, took a coffee mug off the shelf above Soren's chair and dropped it into the cardboard box someone had found.

Then another detective stood.

Then a woman in a navy blazer.

One after another, they came over, and each of them put something into the box.

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