"That would work fine, sir."

"Then please see that it's done," the mayor said. "I'll look for you here about quarter to three. Thank you, Commissioner. "

[ONE] Inspector Wohl and Detective Payne were alone in Wohl's office at the Arsenal. Payne's laptop was on Wohl's coffee table, and Payne was bent over it, using it as a notebook, as he reported to Wohl on his investigation of the sudden affluence of Captain Cassidy.

Wohl held up his hand to Detective Payne to stop; he was about to answer his cellular phone.

He picked the cellular up from his desk and answered it. "Wohl."

Then he slipped the cellular into a device on his desk, which activated a hands-off system.

"Are you there, Inspector?" Jason Washington's deep, resonant voice came from the speaker.

"Just putting the phone in the whatchamacallit, Jason."

"Lieutenant Washington reporting for duty, sir."

"Do I have to tell you this wasn't my idea, Jason?"

"I understand it was the mayor's inspiration of the day," Washington said.

"Well, just for the record: Lieutenant, you are designated the senior investigating officer for the mayor's task force investigating the murders at the Roy Rogers. You will report directly to me. Now, is there anything you feel you need to facilitate your investigation?"

"No, sir."

"If there is, you will promptly let me know?"

"Yes, sir."

"We now go off the record," Wohl said. "Who told you?"

"The commissioner. Off the record. He also told me about Matt. I thought Matt would have called me."

"Me, too," Wohl said. "Detective Payne, why didn't you telephone Lieutenant Washington and inform him of your spectacular performance?"

"He's there?" Washington asked.

"Bright-eyed and bushy-tailed. Well, Detective Payne?"

"I thought," Matt said, raising his voice so the microphone on Wohl's desk would pick it up, "Tony would tell you."

"As indeed he did. When can we expect your services, Sergeant?"

"Homicide's wastebaskets need emptying, do they, Jason?" Wohl asked, innocently.

"I'm not a sergeant yet."

"You will be, as I understand it, at approximately nine-thirty tomorrow morning. May I assume that you will report for duty immediately thereafter?"

"Your wastebaskets must be overflowing," Wohl said.

"I have nothing so mundane in mind for Sergeant Payne, Inspector. His first duty will be to supervise Detective Harris, and Harris's team."

Matt thought:That will be a blind man leading the guide dog around.

"Tony's somehow fallen from grace?" Wohl asked.

"Actually, Peter, it was Tony's idea. He figures Matt can keep other people from looking over his shoulder. And we all know what a splendid typist Sergeant Payne is."

Wohl considered that-the problem of how rookie Sergeant Payne will fit into Homicide has been solved. Jason said it was Tony's idea, but I suspect Jason was involved. Matt will follow Harris around, relieve him of as many administrative details as possible, and since he is both bright and aware of his massive ignorance of Homicide procedures, he will keep his mouth shut, do whatever Tony "suggests"- which will include making sure that the rest of Tony's team does what Tony wants them to do, and when- and in the process learn a hell of a lot-and grunted his agreement.

"Tony hasn't come up with anything on the doers?" Wohl asked.

"They're out there somewhere, Peter," Washington said. "I think it highly unlikely that the mob imported two professionals from New York to stick up a Roy Rogers."

Wohl chuckled.

"One distinct possibility, Peter, is that these two master criminals, once they have gone through the-best estimate- less than fifteen hundred dollars they earned on this job, will do it again."

"Yeah," Wohl agreed, seeing both the likelihood of a second or third or fourth robbery before they were-almost inevitably-caught, and the likelihood that once they were arrested, they could be identified in a lineup as the Roy Rogers doers.

"There is an obvious downside to that," Washington went on. "Their willingness to use their weapons…"

"Compounded by the fact they know they are already facing Murder Two," Wohl interjected.

"… and there will be no greater penalty if they use them again," Washington finished for him.

"Or they may really go underground," Matt said, "knowing they're wanted for Murder Two."

"The cheap seats have been heard from," Wohl said.

"I was about to make reference to wisdom from the mouths of babes," Washington said. "Except, of course, he's right."

"God, don't tell him that. His ego needs no buttressing."

"Actually, Peter, he will bring a fresh approach, which may very well be useful. Yesterday, when Tony walked Coughlin and our new sergeant through the Roy Rogers, Matt wondered aloud why Doer Two put his revolver under Charlton's vest. Tony was somewhat chagrined that question hadn't occurred to him."

"Is that significant?"

"Never leave a stone unturned…" Washington began.

"… or the stone under the stone," Wohl finished.

"You were, as I recall, an apt pupil," Washington said. "It might be. It opens avenues of inquiry. 'Is Doer Two a cop hater?' for example. 'Is he someone who knew, and intensely disliked, Kenny Charlton?' 'Did Stan Colt-which brings us to that-use the under-the-vest technique in one of his cinema fantasies?' "

"Yeah," Wohl agreed. "What about Stan Colt?"

"The commissioner didn't mention that Sergeant Payne's services will be required in Dignitary Protection when Stan Colt comes to our fair city?"

"No," Wohl said, simply. "He didn't."

"He apparently made a very good impression on Monsignor Schneider," Washington said, "as incredible as that might sound. I am to lose his services temporarily whenever the Colt people think they need him."

"Can't you get me out of that?" Matt asked.

On the other hand, that would give me a lot of time with Terry.

"No," Washington said. "Peter-Tony just walked in, shaking his head ruefully-you asked if there is anything I need. I just thought of something."

"It's yours," Wohl said.

"I'm a little short of wheels. Sergeant Payne, obviously, will no longer be needing his sparkling new Crown Victoria."

"Okay," Wohl said. "And to prove what a fully cooperating fellow I am, I will even have Sergeant Payne deliver it to you, tomorrow when he reports for duty."

"It's always a pleasure dealing with you, Inspector," Washington said, and the line went dead.

Peter removed the cellular phone from the hands-off system, laid it on the desk, and turned to Matt.

"Now, where were we?"

The telephone on his desk buzzed, and Wohl answered it.

The conversation was very brief.

Wohl said "Yes, sir" three times, "Yes, sir, at three" once, and "Yes, sir" one final time.

He looked at Matt again. "The commissioner thinks it would be a very good idea if I were to be at the Monti Funeral Home at three," he said, "to coincide with the visit of the mayor, and his announcement that he has formed a task force to quickly get the Roy Rogers doers."

Matt nodded.

"Now, where were we?" Wohl asked again.

[TWO] When the Hon. Alvin W. Martin got out of the mayoral limousine at the Monti Funeral Home on South Broad Street in Yeadon, just outside the city limits, he paused long enough on the sidewalk to tell the press that he would have an announcement to make as soon as he had offered his condolences to Mrs. Charlton and the Charlton family.

Then he made his way into the funeral home itself, where he found the long, wide, carpeted central corridor of the building about half full of men with police badges on their uniforms, or hanging from breast pockets of suits, from chains around the necks, or on their belts.