"His 'adoptive' father, you said?"

"Yes, sir. His father was a Philadelphia cop. A sergeant. Killed in the line of duty. His mother remarried Payne, and Payne adopted the boy."

That would stick in your mind, Davis thought, a street cop killed in the line of duty.

"I wonder why he became a cop?" Davis wondered aloud, and then, without waiting for a reply, asked, "You say he was the man who shot the serial rapist?"

"Right, Chief. In the head, with his service revolver. Blew his brains all over the inside of his van."

And that, too, would stick in your mind, wouldn't it, Isaac?

"I seem to remember seeing something about that in the papers," Davis said. "But as I was saying, Wohl, once he'd made his annoyance with me quite clear, was very cooperative.

He's going to photocopy everything in his files and have this Payne fellow bring it over here tomorrow."

The three A-SACs nodded their understanding.

"I just had a thought," Davis went on. "Do you happen to recall precisely why Payne failed the Marine Corps physical?"

Isaac Young searched his memory, then shook his head. "No."

"Can you find out?" Davis ordered. "The FBI is always looking for outstanding young men."

"Right, Chief," Isaac Young said.

"And when Officer Payne delivers the material from Inspector Wohl, I think one of us should receive it. Tell the receptionist. Make sure she understands. Show him around the office."

"Right, Chief," Young said.

I mean, after all, Davis thought, why would a bright young man of good family want to be a cop when he could be an FBI agent?

And if that doesn't turn out, it can't hurt to have a friendespecially a kid like that, who must hear all sorts of interesting things in the Department.

Matt Payne, feeding documents into the Xerox machine, jumped when Peter Wohl spoke in his ear.

"I have bled enough for the city for one day," Wohl announced. "I am going home and get into a cold martini or a hot blonde, whichever comes first."

"Yes, sir." Matt chuckled. "I'll see you in the morning."

"One of the wounds from which I'm bleeding has to do with what you're doing-"

"Sir?" Matt asked, confused.

"I just got off the phone with Commissioner Czernick," Wohl went on. "I don't know what Davis's agenda really is, and I wondered why he came to me with the request for all that stuff. One possibility was that he didn't want the commissioner to know he was asking for it. With that in mind, I called the commissioner and told him where and with whom we had lunch-" He saw the confused look still on Payne's face and stopped.

"I'm-I don't follow you, Inspector," Matt said.

"For reasons I'm sure I don't have to explain, we are very careful what we pass to the FBI," Wohl said.

I haven't the faintest idea what he's talking about.

"Yes, sir."

"Nothing goes over to them unless the commissioner approves it. Denny Coughlin or Matt Lowenstein might slip them something quietly, but since career suicide is not one of my aims, I won't, and Davis must know that."

"So why did he ask you?"

"Right. So I called the commissioner. The commissioner told me I had done the right thing in calling him, and that I should use my good judgment in giving him whatever I felt like giving him."

"Okay," Matt said thoughtfully.

"Two minutes after I hung up, Czernick called back. 'Peter,' he said, 'I've been thinking it over, and I think I know why Davis went directly to you.' So I said, 'Yes, sir?' and he said, 'It's because you and the Payne kid look more like FBI agents than cops. Hahaha!' And then he hung up."

"Jesus!" Matt said.

"It may well be Polish humor," Wohl said. "But I'm paranoid. The moral to this little story is that I want you to clearly understand you are to pass nothing to the FBI, or the feds generally, unless I tell you to. Clear?"

"Yes, sir."

"Okay. Then I will say good night."

"I'll see you in the morning, sir."

"God willing, and if the creek don't rise," Wohl said solemnly, and walked out of the room.

Matt Payne finished making copies of the documents he had taken from the file, stuffed the copies into a large manila envelope, and then returned the originals to their filing cabinet.

It was quarter to four. He would still have to see Detective Tony Harris, and then go downtown to Homicide and see if their files contained something he hadn't found, or would get from Harris. He would not be able to quit at five.

Tony Harris was not in the closet-sized office he shared with Detective Jason Washington. Washington, he knew, had taken the day off; he had a place at The Shore that always seemed to need some kind of emergency repair.

He really should, he thought, talk to Washington about the file Wohl wanted to pass to the FBI. Washington had worked with Harris on the Nelson job. He remembered overhearing Washington telling Wohl he would be back sometime in the afternoon.

The tour lieutenant, Harry Jensen, a Highway guy, said that Harris was out on the street somewhere. Both he and Washington were running down increasingly less promising leads to find whoever had shot down Joe Magnella, the young 22^nd District cop. Wohl, Matt thought, had not really been kidding when he had said he had bled enough for the city for one day; the pressure on him to find the Magnella doers was enormous.

Payne went to Special Operations communications and tried to raise Harris on the radio. There was no reply, which meant that Harris was either working and away from his car, or that he had hung it up for the day.

That left Homicide, and opened the question of how to get there. He could go to the sergeant and get keys to one of the Special Operations cars. Or he could see if he could catch a ride downtown in either a Special Operations car or a Highway car. In either case, when he was finished at the Roundhouse, that would leave him downtown and his personal car here.

There was no reason for him to come back here, except to get his car, because it would be long past quitting before he finished at Homicide and finally ran Harris down, if he managed to do that.

He went back to Lieutenant Jensen and told him that if Inspector Wohl called for him, to tell him that he had gone to Homicide in his own car, and was going to quit for the day when he finished there.

"The inspector know where to reach you?"

"I'll either be home or I'll call in," Matt said.

"But youare going to Homicide?"

"Yes, sir."

Lieutenant Jensen, Matt suspected, was one of a large number of people, in and out of Highway, who nursed a resentment toward him. That a rookie should have a plainclothes assignment as administrative assistant to a division commander was part of it; and part of it, Matt knew, was that he had about as powerful a rabbi, in the person of Chief Inspector Dennis V. Coughlin, as they came.

He had once discussed this with Detective Jason Washington, who had said it was clear to him that the only option Matt had in the circumstances was to adopt a "fuck you" philosophy.

"You didn't ask for the assignment, Matt, the mayor set that up. And it's not your fault that Denny Coughlin looks on you as the son he never had. If people can't figure that out for themselves, fuck 'em."

In time, Matt hoped, the resentment would pass.

He drove downtown via North Broad Street, and was surprised, until he considered the hour, to find a spot in the parking area behind the Roundhouse.

If I were a cynical man, he thought, I might be prone to suspect that not all of the captains, inspectors, and chief inspectors who toil here in The Palace scrupulously avoid leaving their place of duty before five P.M.

He entered the Roundhouse by the rear door, waved his ID at the corporal behind the thick plastic window, and the corporal pushed the button that triggered the solenoid in the door to the lobby.