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He eyed the doctor a little wearily.“Um… What else did Alec tell you?”

“Oh, that you are a valuable addition to our police force, that’s all,” said Tex amiably as he leaned back and folded his hands behind his head. “We can definitely use a good man like you, Detective. There might not be a lot of crime in this town, but tourism is increasing by leaps and bounds, and trust me when I tell you that those whippersnappers are capable of a lot of mischief.”

“Yeah, Alec told me,” said Chase with a grimace. He leaned forward and appeared a little flustered. “Listen, Doc, um, the reason I’m here is because, well, I need a new prescription since I’m all out of meds.” At this, he placed a piece of paper on the desk between the two men.

“And what prescription would that be?” Tex asked, snapping up the piece of paper and placing a pair of glasses on his nose to give it a closer look.

I pricked up my ears and so did Dooley. I was pretty sure we were on the verge of discovering yet another damning secret about Chase Kingsley. One that would permanently turn Odelia against him.

Tex was still frowning at the slip of paper, then placed it on his blotter.“You having trouble sleeping, son?”

“Amongst other things,” Chase admitted. “My doc in New York gave me those to take the edge off and to help me sleep. I…” He hesitated.

“Anxiety attacks can be extremely debilitating,” Tex said with a nod as he placed his glasses on his desk. “Especially in your line of work, Detective.”

Chase nodded morosely, then rubbed his face with his hands. Finally he looked up, and I saw he suddenly looked extremely tired.“I don’t know if…”

“Trust me, son,” said Tex with his deep, sonorous voice that had the effect to put his patients immediately at ease. His bedside manner was impeccable. “Whatever you tell me stays between us. You have my word on that.”

“Well, that’s not necessarily true,” Dooley muttered next to me.

“The thing is, Doc, is that I find myself in a real quandary.”

“Oh? Does it have something to do with the mayor’s wife?”

Chase seemed surprised, and so was I. The mayor’s wife?

“I see that Alec told you the story already.”

“He did tell me a few things.”

“Then you also know that I was set up?” asked Chase.

“I’m afraid Alec didn’t go into a lot of detail. All he told me was that you ran afoul of the mayor’s wife, who launched a scandalous story about you in retaliation, which forced you out of the NYPD. He also told me that none of the rumors about you are true and that you’re a decent man and a great cop.”

Chase smiled.“Alec’s proven a true friend these last couple of months.”

“He was a friend of your father, right?”

“Yeah. They went to police academy together. In fact Alec’s my godfather, and when my dad died—killed in the line of duty—he kept dropping by the house occasionally, effectively becoming like a surrogate father. He’s one of the few people who know the truth about my resignation.” His lips thinned.

“If you want, you can tell me,” Tex offered. “Like I said, my lips are sealed.”

“Thanks, Doc. It’s nice to be able to talk to someone. If I could, I’d tell the whole world what happened, but that would get me into more trouble than it’s worth. The thing is…” He shuffled uncomfortably in his chair for a moment. “I had the misfortune of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. A couple of months ago I was working a very sensitive case, reporting directly to the commissioner, when I happened to barge into his office one afternoon, to discover he wasn’t alone. Politely put, he was in a state of undress with the mayor’s wife. In fact they were all over each other.”

Tex barked out an incredulous laugh.“The mayor’s wife?”

“None other than Malka Putin,” Chase confirmed with a rueful smile. “And she wasn’t glad to see me, let me tell you that. I apologized for the intrusion, of course, but Mrs. Putin decided she couldn’t leave it at that. Even though the commissioner swore me to secrecy and I agreed, she wouldn’t let it go. I explained I wasn’t interested in spreading gossip about other people’s personal affairs, and that as far as I was concerned Mrs. Putin could do the horizontal mambo with whomever she chose, it was none of my business.”

“But Mrs. Putin wasn’t satisfied, I take it,” said Tex.

“Nope. She was afraid I’d talk. She’d heard stories about how cops like to gab, and she was sure that pretty soon the whole town would know about her affair with the commissioner, and then the entire country, and her husband, of course. So she convinced the commissioner to make sure I wouldn’t talk.”

“And he agreed?” asked Tex, surprised.