"Send her in," he said evenly.

He caught his assistant's blink of surprise and realized he wouldn't have been expected to know that Dr. Cameron was a woman. The doctor had never been to his office before. They had never met anywhere, in fact. But he knew about her. She was part of the whole Brand situation.

The office door opened again, and Robin Cameron entered. He took a second to look her over. She seemed younger than he'd expected, and there was an air of calm determination about her. He wasn't sure he liked that.

"Please have a seat, Doctor. I assume this is regarding Sergeant Brand."

She took the chair in front of his desk. "That's right."

"Didn't show up for his appointment, did he?"

Her eyebrows lifted. "How did you know?"

Wolper sighed. "I've known Sergeant Brand for a lot of years. I have a pretty good idea how he'll behave."

"He was supposed to see me at one. Never arrived. I called his home number and his cell phone. No answer."

"He's off today. Guess he's not answering his phone."

"He's off? I was led to understand that he would be scheduled for therapy during his normal working hours."

"Called in sick." He kept his tone neutral.

"Did he?"

"That's right."

"So he's ill."

Wolper hesitated. "I said he called in sick. The actual state of his health is another matter."

"Meaning?"

"It's not the first time he's taken a sick day since amp;"

"Since the shooting."

"Bingo." Wolper winced at himself. Cops were always saying bingo in the movies. He wished he hadn't picked up the habit.

"You're telling me Sergeant Brand hasn't been coming in for work?"

"Not reliably. Not like he used to."

"So you don't think he's sick."

"I'm not a doctor. I guess that would be your diagnosis to make."

"It's hard for me to render a diagnosis when I can't find the patient."

"I guess that's true. Sorry. Wish I could help."

"But you can't?"

Wolper spread his hands. "If he's not there and he's not answering his phone amp;"

She leaned forward in her chair. "You wouldn't happen to have any idea where Sergeant Brand goes on his sick days?"

"How could I?"

"You said you've known him for years. You know how he'll behave, you told me."

"That doesn't mean I keep tabs on his whereabouts."

"Why do I have the feeling you're holding out on me?"

Wolper tried a smile. "You sound like a cop interrogating a suspect."

She didn't smile back. "I'm just a doctor trying to get some information. I think you can help me. Why won't you?"

A moment passed as he squeezed the ball a few times and considered several responses. "Let me be honest with you, Doctor. I'm not too happy about the idea of Brand's participation in this program of yours. Using the same treatment on cops that you've been using on criminals amp; it doesn't sit well with me."

"The only connection is the nature of the syndrome. Post-traumatic stress doesn't discriminate between good guys and bad."

"That's not how the media will see it. They'll jump all over this. You know the angle they'll play upcops who are so shell-shocked, they're one step away from being hardened cons themselves. The department doesn't need that kind of publicity. We've gotten enough black eyes over the last few years as it is."

"Black eyes? I guess that's one way to put it."

He knew what she meant. Since the Rodney King arrest, there had been an unbroken string of public relations disasters for the LAPDthe riots of '92, the O. J. Simpson debacle, the succession of failed chiefs, and the overshadowing scandal of the antigang cops in Rampart Division, who had turned into a drug-dealing gang themselves.

"How would you put it?" he asked, though he really didn't care.

"According to the Christopher Commission report"

"The Christopher Commission report was a politically motivated smear job."

"Was Rampart a smear?"

"The Rampart scandal was blown out of proportion. It was a few bad cops. The department overreacted, and the media jumped all over the story."

"But you don't deny there were abuses, that people were framed by their arresting officers, that cocaine was stolen out of evidence rooms, that police officers perjured themselves"

"What is this, a Sixty Minutes interview?"

She took a breath. "Sorry. We're getting offtrack. The point is, the media need never know about this. My work with my patients is completely confidential."

"Nothing is confidential in this town." Wolper rubbed his forehead. "Ever since the orders came down from Parker Center, I've known this was going to be a pain in the ass. Brand doesn't want to cooperate, most of his fellow officers agree with him, and I get to play the bad guy, the enforcer."

"All you're enforcing is an opportunity for Sergeant Brand to get better."

"That's not how the rank and file see it."

"No? Why not?"

Wolper leaned back in his chair. "Brand's a street cop. He never wanted to be anything else. Some guys get into this work to be civil servants. They put in their twenty years, then cash out. They hate the street. They'll take a desk job as soon as it comes up. No one ever got killed riding a desk. It's nice and safe back here. We call them pogues."

"Pogues?"

"Pogues. I don't know where the term comes from, but it means a commanding officerlieutenant, captainwho knows all about paperwork and has zero street IQ. Not exactly admired by the rank and file. Brand's never aspired to a desk job. He's only happy when he's pushing a black-and-white, chasing the radio. It's what he lives for. He has no wife, no kids, nothing at all outside the job."

"Doesn't sound like a very well adjusted personality, does he?"

Wolper fought back his irritation. "My point is, he's the kind of cop that other cops respect. Any officer who's ever worked with him trusts Brand to watch his backor take a bullet for him if necessary. Men like Brand are the guts of this police force. We've already lost too many of them to early retirement or transfers to other cities. We can't afford to lose any more."

"That's a nice speech, Lieutenant. But the fact is, you've already lost Brand, haven't you? He's not showing up for work. He's showing other symptoms of post-traumatic stress also. I know. I've talked with the psychiatrist who's been treating him. If he's as important to the department as you say, then you ought to want him to get over this problem that's keeping him off the job."

"I do want him to get over it."

"Then why are you shielding him from me?"

He flattened the squeeze ball again. "I'm not shielding anybody."

"That's not how it looks from here."

Wolper took a moment to compose a reply. "Being a cop amp; it's a lot like joining a fraternity. We all go through the same initiation, the same hazing. We earn our street degree. We look out for each other."

"You're supposed to look out for the public."

"We do that also. The two aren't mutually exclusive."

"Aren't they?"

He knew she was thinking of the scandals. Baiting him.

He was tired of being on the defensive with this woman. He set aside the squeeze ball and stared her down.

"Look, if Brand needs to work off his emotional baggage by doing some things I wouldn't do, hanging out in places I wouldn't go" He stopped.

"What places?"

Damn. He hadn't meant to say that much. "Even if I told you, Doctor, you wouldn't want to go there. Take my word for it."

"What places?" she asked again.

"I have no idea. I was speaking hypothetically."

"No, you weren't."

"Let's just say I was." He showed her a hard smile.

"Let's just say I'll go over your head to Deputy Chief Wagner. If he asks you, maybe you'll give a straight answer."

So she was playing hardball. Great.