You know, Lou, a lot of guys in my old squad believed IA when they said I was a dirty cop. When I asked them why, they said it was just something they could feel. They went with their instinct, and they turned their back on me. But they were wrong.
You know, one night when we were at the academy, one of our training officers busted me and Clay trying to sneak back on campus after lights out. Now, as violations go, it was pretty serious. Absolute grounds for expulsion. So the TO- he sits us down. Now, this guy was a human lie detector. Never met a suspect he couldn't break. So he says to us, "You two birds better have a damn good reason for breaking curfew. Otherwise, I'm shipping your sorry asses out on the next bus." Now the truth is: we were at a ball game. Went to a White Sox game. The thing goes extra innings, and now we're late. But Clay looked that TO right in the eye and without missing a beat, he says, "I'm sorry, sir. But my cousin he's shipping off in the morning to the Gulf for Desert Shield, and the kid's nervous. He's scared. So Lou and I just figured we'd just take the kid out, show him a good time, you know, get his mind off things. And that way, at least he gets a proper send-off, you know?" The TO looks into Clay's eyes, and after a couple of seconds, he says "Okay. Don't let it happen again." And that was that. I never seen anybody lie with such confidence, such conviction. If you would've hooked Clay up to a polygraph right then and there, I'm telling you, he would've passed it. But it ain't even so much the lying. Clay knew how to play on this man's emotions. This morning, I'm sitting on the bench outside the ME's office, and I'm listening to him tell me how this went down. And he's talking to me, and he's looking at me, and he's looking me right in the eye, and I'm going for it, until my wife shows up. And I get up and step back, and I watched him handle my wife. And that little voice popped into my head saying, "This guy is playing you." He did this. Now, I can't prove it, but I know. And I'm telling you, I know like I know whose name is on my driver's license! He did this. I know it.
