"That's the good news?" she asked almost lightheartedly.
"No. The good news is that you get to ride down there in my car. I drive a Jaguar XK-120. It's amuch nicer car than that piece of German junk your boyfriend drives."
"I have this strange feeling you're not kidding," Amanda said.
"Do I look like a kidder?"
"Yes, you do," Amanda said, laughing. "What kind of a cop are you, anyway?"
"Depending on who you ask, you can get a very wide range of responses to that question. Are you ready to go?"
"That's the understatement of the year," she said.
He held the door open for her, and she walked out of the interview room.
"Just a moment, please," he said, and walked to Lieutenant Mikkles.
"Your men tell me they found nothing in Officer Payne's car. Is there any reason he can't have it back?"
"No, I don't suppose there is."
"Try 'No, sir,' Mikkles," Captain Pekach said, flaring.
"No, sir," Mikkles said.
"Do you think it would be a good idea, Lieutenant, if you went with Officer Payne to reclaim his car?" Wohl asked evenly.
"Yes, sir. I'll do that."
"Ask him to meet me in Homicide, please. Tell him I'm driving the young lady."
"Yes, sir," Mikkles repeated.
Wohl waited until Mikkles had left the room before speaking to Pekach.
"Run down Sergeant Dolan and find out what he thinks he has," Wohl said. "And then meet us at Homicide. When you're in your car, get word to Lucci where I am."
"Yes, sir."
"And before I forget: On your way out, if that young cop is still out there, talk to him and see if you think he'd be useful to us in Special Operations. He struck me as pretty bright."
It was quarter after eleven before Homicide had finished taking the statements of Officer Matthew Payne and Miss Amanda Spencer, and Captain Pekach had not yet returned from meeting with Sergeant Dolan.
Wohl, who was ninety-five percent convinced that what had happened was that Dolan, for any number of reasons-ranging from a fight with his wife to resentment about a cop wearing formal clothes and driving a Porsche to plain stupidity-had gone off the deep end, but he was reluctant to turn Payne and, for that matter, the girl, loose until he heard from Pekach.
He walked to where they were sitting, on folding chairs against the interior wall.
"Am I the only undernourished person in the room? Did you two get dinner?"
"I'm not especially hungry," Payne said.
"I'm starved," Amanda said. "I haven't had a thing to eat since lunch."
"They serve marvelous hoagies at the 12^th Street Market this time of night," Wohl said.
"I just got hungry," Matt Payne said.
"I'd like to know how Penny is," Amanda said.
"I checked a little while ago," Wohl said. "She's listed as ' critical but stable.'"
"What does that mean?"
"That she's hanging on," Wohl said.
"You know where I mean, Matt?" Wohl asked. "In the 12^th Street Market?" Matt nodded. "Take Amanda there. I'll meet you. I want to get word to Pekach where we'll be."
In the elevator Amanda said, "He's very nice."
"What was that business about you riding in his car?" Matt asked.
"You're jealous!"
"Oh, bullshit!"
"You are!" she insisted.
"The hell I am."
She smiled at him triumphantly.
"Whatever you say, Officer Payne," she said.
"Thanks for getting us out of there," Matt Payne said to Peter Wohl.
They were sitting at a tiny table in the 12^th Street Market, on fragile-looking bent-wire chairs. Three enormous hoagies on paper plates, a pitcher of beer, and three mugs left little room for anything else.
Peter Wohl finished chewing a large mouthful before replying.
"My pleasure," Wohl said.
"How'd you find out?" Matt asked.
"Lieutenant Natali called me. He thought I ought to know."
"Am I in trouble?" Matt Payne asked as he poured a mug half full of beer.
"Why did you take your car away from the crime scene without permission?"
"I didn't know I needed permission. It was blocking the exit ramp. I moved it out of the way of the wagon when they took Penny Detweiler to Hahneman. And then, when I went to the Union League to tell her parents what had happened, I just got in it and drove off. No one said I shouldn't."
"Who toldyou to notify her parents?"
"There was a 9^th District lieutenant there. I didn't get his name. Great big black guy. I told him I knew her parents, where they were, and he said it was okay for me to tell them. He saw me get in the car, and he didn't say anything."
"Lewis? Lieutenant Lewis?"
"Yeah. I'm sure that's the name."
"Officer Lewis's father," Wohl said.
"Oh! Oh, yeah. I didn't put that together."
"Okay. Let's take it from the top."
"Jesus, again?"
"Don't be a wiseass with me, Matt. The last I heard, not only am I your commanding officer but also I 'm one of the good guys."
"Sorry," Matt said sincerely. "That son of a bitch upset me. The whole thing upset me."
"From the top," Wohl repeated, reaching for the pitcher of beer.
Captain David Pekach walked up just as Matt finished, and a second pitcher of beer was delivered. He took one of the bent-wire chairs from an adjacent table and sat down on it.
"You want a glass? Good beer," Wohl said.
"No thanks. I'm cutting down. Oh, what the hell!"
He got up and went to the stand and returned with a mug.
"What did you find out?" Wohl asked.
Pekach looked at Payne and Amanda and then at Wohl, his raised eyebrows asking if Wohl wanted him to continue in front of them.
"Go on," Wohl said. "I'm convinced that neither Matt Payne nor Miss Spencer shot Tony the Zee or is into drugs."
"Dolan says the Detweiler girl was," Pekach said.
"My God!" Amanda exclaimed.
"What?" Matt asked incredulously. "That's absurd!"
"No, it's not. Dolan is a good cop," Pekach said, responding more to Peter Wohl's raised eyebrows than to Matt Payne. "I believe him. He says that he was following her, that he has reason to believe she went to the Penn Services Parking Garage to make a buy, and that the shooting was tied in with that. And Tony the Zee had a thousand dollars' worth of Coke on him, in a plastic bag."
"Dolan was following her?" Wohl asked thoughtfully. "Where was he during the actual shooting?"
"He said the first he heard of it, he was across the street, watching the entrance and exit, and the other one, who I used to think was a smart cop, was watching the fire exits in the alley."
"Try that again, I'm confused," Wohl said.
"Okay. They followed her to the parking garage. Dolan stayed across the street and watched the entrance and exit ramps. Gerstner, the other Narcotics cop, watched the fire exits on the alley. At least until he heard the sirens and went out on the street to see what was happening. I guess that's when the doers left the building, via the fire escape to the alley."
"So where does Dolan figure Payne ties in?"
"He saw him drive in. Had no idea at first he was a cop but recognized him as someone-him and Miss Spencer-he had seen in the last couple of days. And then he saw him drive his car away from the place later. And apparently figured that's where the drugs-according to him, the Detweiler girl is into cocaine-were."
"That whole scenario is incredible," Matt said.
"No it's not," Wohl said. "If I were the cop on the street, Dolan, that's pretty much how I would see it."
"You don't think I'm into drugs? Or that Amanda is?"
"I didn't say that," Wohl said carefully. "No. I don't think either of you are. But if this Sergeant Dolan has good reason to believe that the Detweiler girl was into drugs, I have no reason to doubt him. And you didn't help matters any by driving away from the crime scene with Miss Spencer."