Butters said. ''Don't see no bone.''

''Yeah, but there's an in-and-out…''

''What?'' LaChaise asked.

''You just got nicked, but there's a hole, in-and-out, besides the groove. Maybe cut you down to the ribs, that's the pain. The holes gotta be cleaned out.

They'd be full of threads and shit from the coat.''

''Get Sandy down here,'' LaChaise said. ''Call her-no, go get her. I don't know if she'd come on her own… She can do it, she used to be a nurse.''

Martin looked at Butters and nodded. ''That'd be best, she might have some equipment.''

''Some pills,'' Butters said.

''Get her,'' LaChaise moaned.

THE SANDHURST WAS A YELLOW-BRICK SEMIRESIDENTIAL hotel on the west edge of the business district. The building was three stories higher than anything else for two blocks around, and easily covered. The clients were mostly itinerant actors, directors, artists and museum bureaucrats, in town visiting the Guthrie Theater or the Walker Art Center.

Lucas and Sloan brought Weather in through the back, down an alley blocked by unmarked cars. Two members of the Emergency Response Team were on the roof with radios and rifles.

''… everything I've been trying to do,'' Weather was saying. Lucas's head was going up and down as he half-listened. He scanned each face down the alley.

His hand was in his pocket and a. 45 was in his hand. Sloan's wife was already inside.

''It won't be long,'' Lucas said. ''They can't last more than a couple of days.''

''Who? Who can't last?'' Weather demanded, looking upat him. ''You don't even know who they are, except this LaChaise.''

''We'll find out,'' Lucas said. ''They're gonna pay, every fuckin' one of them.'' His voice left little doubt about it, and Weather recoiled, but Lucas had her arm and marched her toward the hotel.

''Let go of my arm,'' she said. ''You're hurting me.''

''Sorry.'' He let go, put his hand in the small of her back, and pushed her along.

The two hotel entries, front and back, met at the lobby: Franklin and Tom Black,

Sherrill's former partner, sat behind a wide rosewood reception desk, shotguns across their thighs, out of sight. The largest cop on the force, a guy named

Loring, read a paperback in one of the lobby's overstuffed chairs. He was wearing a pearl-gray suit and an ascot, and looked like a pro wrestler who'd made it small.

In the entry, a uniformed doorman turned and looked at them when he saw movement down the back hall. Andy Stadic raised a hand, and Lucas nodded at him and then they were around a corner and headed down toward the elevators.

''You know, anybody could find out where we are,'' Weather said.

''They can't get in,'' Lucas said. ''And they can't see you.''

''You said they were Seed people, and Seed people are supposed to be in these militias,'' Weather said. Weather was from northern Wisconsin, and knew about the Seed. ''What if they brought one of those big fertilizer bombs outside?''

''No trucks are coming down this block,'' Lucas said. ''We got the city digging up the streets right now, both sides.''

''You can't hold it, Lucas,'' Weather said. ''The press'll be here, television. ..''

Lucas shook his head: ''They'll know you're here, but they won't get inside. If they try, we'll warn them once, then we'llput their asses in jail. We're not fucking around.''

He took her up to the top floor, and down the hall to a small two-room suite with walls the color of cigar smoke; the rooms smelled like disinfectant and spray deodorant. Weather looked around and said, ''This is awful.''

''Two days. Three days, max,'' Lucas said. ''I'd send you up to the cabin but they know about us, somehow, and I can't take the chance.''

''I don't want to go to the cabin,'' she said. ''I want to work.''

''Yeah,'' Lucas said distractedly. ''I gotta run…''

FOR TWO HOURS AFTER THE KILLINGS, ROSE MARIE Roux's office was like an airport waiting room, fifty people rolling through, all of them weighed down with their own importance, most looking for a shot on national television. The governor stopped, wanted a briefing; a dozen state legislators demanded time with her, along with all the city councilmen.

Lucas spent a half hour watching Sloan and another cop interrogate Duane Cale, who didn't know much about anything.

''But if Dick is here, I'd get my ass out of town,'' Cale said.

The interrogation wouldn't produce much, Lucas thought. He locked himself in his office with Franklin, away from the media and cops who wanted to talk about it.

Sloan came in after a while, and started making calls. Then Del wandered in, his clothes still dappled with his wife's blood.

''How's Cheryl?'' Lucas asked.

Del shook his head: ''She's out of the operating room, asleep. They put her in intensive care, and won't let me in. She'll be there until tomorrow morning, at least.''

''You oughta get some rest,'' Lucas said.

''Fuck that. What're you guys doing?''

''Talking to assholes…''

Between them, they called everyone they knew on the street who had a phone.

Lucas tried Sally O'Donald a halfdozen times, and left word for her at bars along Lake Street.

A little more than two hours after the killings, Roux called:

''We're meeting with the mayor at his office. Ten minutes.''

''Is this real?'' Lucas asked.

''Yeah. This is the real one,'' Roux said.

A minute later, O'Donald called back.

''Can you come down and look at some pictures?'' Lucas asked. ''The guy you thought might be a cop?''

''I can't even remember in my head what he looked like,'' O'Donald said. ''But

I'll come down if you want.''

''Talk to Ed O'Meara in Identification.''

''Okay-but listen. I talked to my agent…''

''Your what?''

''My agent,'' O'Donald said, mildly embarrassed. ''She said she might get five thousand dollars if I talked to Hard Copy.''

''Goddamnit, Sally,'' Lucas said. ''If you screw me and Del.. .''

''Shut up, shut up, shut up,'' O'Donald said. ''I'm not going to screw anybody.

What I want to know is, are you gonna take LaChaise off the street?''

''Yeah. Sooner or later.''

''So if I talk, he won't be able to get at me?''

Lucas hesitated, then said, ''Look, I'll be honest. If you talk, and then you bag outa here for a few days, he'll be gone. He won't last a week.''

''That's what I wanted to know,'' O'Donald said.

''But you gotta tell me when you're going on,'' Lucas said.''We'll put a guy on your house-in your house, maybe- just in case LaChaise comes looking.''

''Jeez,'' she said. There was a minute's silence. ''You put it that way… maybe I won't. I don't want to fuck with Dick.''

''Either way, let me know,'' Lucas said. He glanced at his watch. The meeting was about to start. ''Come in, talk to Ed…''

''Wait a minute, wait a minute. I thought of something else you might want to know.''

''Yeah?''

''You ought to look at the ownership of that laundromat.''

''Why don't you just tell me?'' Lucas asked.

''I understand that it belongs to Daymon Harp.'' The name hung there, but Lucas didn't recognize it.

''Who's he?''

''Jeez, Davenport, you gotta get back on the streets a little more. He's a dealer. Pretty big time…''

''A Seed guy?''

''No, no, never. He's a black guy; good-looking guy. Ask Del. Del'll know who he is.''

''Thanks, Sally.''

''You talk to sex?''

''I'll talk to them tonight.''

When he got off the phone, he said to Del, ''Daymon Harp?''

''Dealer-semi-small-time. Careful. Reasonably smart. Came over from Milwaukee a few years back. Why?''

''Sally O'Donald says he owns the laundromat where she saw LaChaise.''