'Especially the new ones,' Stacey said, and tugged at her cloud of blond hair.'A lot of them aren't very bright, but they're dedicated. And they like carrying guns. Plus'—she leaned forward—'there's six or eight more of them tonight. Just high-school kids. Big and stupid and enthusiastic. They scare the hell out of me. And something else. Thibodeau, Searles, and Junior Rennie are asking the newbies to recommend even more. Give this a couple of days and it won't be a police force anymore, it'll be an army of teenagers.'

'No one would listen to us?' Rusty asked. Not disbelieving, exactly; simply trying to get it straight. 'No one at all?'

'Henry Morrison might,'Jackie said.'He sees what's happening and he doesn't like it. But the others? They'll go along. Partly because they're scared and partly because they like the power. Guys like Toby Whelan and George Frederick have never had any; guys like Freddy Denton are just mean.'

'Which means what?' Linda asked.

'It means for now we keep this to ourselves. If Rennie's killed four people, he's very, very dangerous.'

'Waiting will make him more dangerous, not less,'Rusty objected.

'We have Judy and Janelle to worry about, Rusty,' Linda said. She was nipping at her nails, a thing Rusty hadn't seen her do in years. 'We can't risk anything happening to them. I won't consider it, and I won't let you consider it.'

'I have a kid, too,' Stacey said. 'Calvin. He's just five. It took all my courage just to stand guard at the funeral home tonight. The thought of taking this to that idiot Randolph…' She didn't need to finish; the pallor of her cheeks was eloquent.

'No one's asking you to,' Jackie said.

'Right now all I can prove is that the baseball was used on Coggins,' Rusty said. 'Anyone could have used it. Hell, his own son could have used it.'

'That actually wouldn't come as a total shock to me,' Stacey said. 'Junior's been weird lately. He got kicked out of Bowdoin for fighting. I don't know if his father knows it, but there was a police call to the gym where it happened, and I saw the report on the wire. And the two girls… if those were sex crimes…'

'They were,' Rusty said. 'Very nasty. You don't want to know.'

'But Brenda wasn't sexually assaulted,' Jackie said. 'To me that suggests Coggins and Brenda were different from the girls.'

'Maybe Junior killed the girls and his old man killed Brenda and Coggins,' Rusty said, and waited for someone to laugh. No one did. 'If so, why?'

They all shook their heads.

'There must have been a motive,' Rusty said, 'but I doubt if it was sex.'

'You think he has something to hide,'Jackie said.

'Yeah, I do. And I have an idea of someone who might know what it is. He's locked in the Police Department basement.'

'Barbara?' Jackie asked. 'Why would Barbara know?'

'Because he was talking to Brenda. They had quite a little heart-to-heart in her backyard the day after the Dome came down.'

'How in the world do you know that?' Stacey asked.

'Because the Buffalinos live next door to the Perkinses and Gina BufFalino's bedroom window overlooks the Perkins backyard. She saw them and mentioned it to me.' He saw Linda looking at him and shrugged.'What can I say? It's a small town. We all support the team.'

'I hope you told her to keep her mouth shut,' Linda said.

'I didn't, because when she told me I didn't have any reason to suspect Big Jim might have killed Brenda. Or bashed Lester Coggins's head in with a souvenir baseball. I didn't even know they were dead.'

'We still don't know if Barbie knows anything,' Stacey said.'Other than how to make a hell of a mushroom-and-cheese omelet, that is.'

'Somebody will have to ask him,'Jackie said. 'I nominate me.'

'Even if he does know something, will it do any good?' Linda asked.'This is almost a dictatorship now. I'm just realizing; that. I guess that makes me slow.'

'It makes you more trusting than slow,'Jackie said,'and normally trusting's a good way to be. As to Colonel Barbara, we won't know what good he might do us until we ask.' She paused. 'And that's really not the point, you know. He's innocent. That's the point.'

'What if they kill him?' Rusty asked bluntly. 'Shot while trying to escape.'

T'm pretty sure that won't happen,' Jackie said. 'Big Jim wants a show-trial. That's the talk at the station.' Stacey nodded.'They want to make people believe Barbara's a spider spinning a vast web of conspiracy. Then they can execute him. But even moving at top speed, that's days away. Weeks, if we're lueky.'

'We won't be that lucky,' Linda said, 'Not if Rennie wants to move fast.'

'Maybe you're right, but Rennie's got the special town meeting to get through on Thursday first. And he'll want to question Barbara. If Rusty knows he's been with Brenda, then Rennie knows.'

'Of course he knows,' Stacey said. Sounding impatient. 'They were together when Barbara showed Jim the letter from the President.'

They thought about this in silence for a minute.

'If Rennie's hiding something,' Linda mused,'he'll want time to get rid of it.'

Jackie laughed. The sound in that tense living room was almost shocking. 'Good luck on that. Whatever it is, he can't exactly put it in the back of a truck and drive it out of town.'

'Something to do with the propane?' Linda asked.

'Maybe; Rusty said. 'Jackie, you were in the service, right?'

'Army. Two tours. Military Police. Never saw combat, although I saw plenty of casualties, especially on my second tour. Wiirzburg, Germany, First Infantry Division.You know, the Big Red One? Mostly I stopped bar fights or stood guard outside the hospital there. I knew guys like Barbie, and I would give a great deal to have him out of that cell and on our side. There was a reason the President put him in charge. Or tried to.' She paused. 'It might be possible to break him out. It's worth considering.'

The other two women—police officers who also happened to be mothers—said nothing to this, but Linda was nibbling her nails again and Stacey was—worrying her hair.

'I know,'Jackie said.

Linda shook her head. 'Unless you have kids asleep upstairs and depending on you to make breakfast for them in the morning, you don't.'

'Maybe not, but ask yourself this: If we're cut off from the outside world, which we are, and if the man in charge is a murderous nut-ball, which he may be, are things apt to get better if we just sit back and do nothing?'