“Found it halfway up the block,” the sergeant said. “Right in the perp’s flight path.”

“That’s not department gear,” Mike said. “It’s a gas mask. Military style.”

It was a black rubber helmet, with two holes for the eyes, and a broad snoutlike respirator that would fit over the mouth, with a long hose attached.

“Couldn’t see a damn thing,” Billy said. “It covered his entire face.”

“What did the cops do?” Mike asked.

“I led them down to the basement. They knocked on Tina’s door and one of them identified himself, said they were police. That’s when she started yelling at them to leave her alone. I mean screaming at them. Freaked out. Sounded like she collapsed-maybe fell onto the floor-crying the whole time.”

“What makes you think she’s alone in there?”

“We’re guessing,” Mercer said. “She’s the only one to make a sound-no scuffling, no struggling, no other voices. But that’s another reason ESU won’t leave.”

Mike prodded my side with his fingers as we started up the front steps. I went back in the vestibule toward the basement staircase.

“One of the cops told Tina he just wanted to make sure that the fire hadn’t affected her,” Billy said, drawing a handkerchief from his pocket to wipe his smoke-fogged glasses. “Asked her if she could stand up and look through the peephole at his badge, for identification. She went wild.”

“What do you mean?” Mike asked.

“Tina screamed at the cop. Told him that’s how the guy got in. The fireman. That he showed her his badge and she opened the door.”

“It was the fireman who was inside her apartment? You knew, Coop?”

“That’s why Mercer called me. We don’t know who the man was, why he was using such an elaborate disguise, why he went inside, and what he did to this woman. Okay? Don’t come any closer, Mike. Let me talk to her.”

I walked the short corridor to the rear of the hallway, glass crunching under the soles of my shoes.

“Tina? It’s Alex Cooper. We’re all still here. The police officers won’t leave until I convince them that you’re unharmed. I’ll keep them outside the building if you’ll let me in for just a few minutes.”

“I’d rank that a toss-up,” Mike said. “Ten minutes with you or the quick punch of a battering ram? Tough call.”

“You think this helps? You think she can’t hear you?” I threw up my arms in frustration as I turned to Mike. “Mercer, please take him upstairs.”

The men marched back to the first floor as I made another attempt to persuade Tina Barr to let me in.

“I’m the only one in the basement now, Tina. The men are all outside. I don’t want them to break down your door any more than you do. But they’re worried that you’ve been injured. There was a lot of smoke down here. Can you just tell me if you’re hurt?”

There was no answer for more than a minute. Then a soft voice spoke a word or two, which sounded as though the woman was still sitting or lying on the floor inside. I couldn’t understand her, so I crouched beside the door and put my ear against it.

“Sorry. What did you say?”

“Not hurt. I’ll be okay.”

She spoke haltingly, her words caught in her throat.

“Tina, are you having trouble breathing?”

No answer.

“We can give you oxygen, Tina. Is it the smoke? Is there still smoke in your apartment?”

“No.”

“The man who was dressed like a fireman, did you let him come into your apartment?”

She was crying again as she tried to speak. “No, no, I didn’t let him in.”

“But you told the police officer that-”

“I only opened the door because he showed me a gold badge and told me there was a fire. I could smell the smoke and then saw it. I believed him.” Tina Barr’s words came out phrase by phrase, embedded in sobs. “He forced his way inside. I didn’t let him in.”

“You can trust us, Tina. Now you know that man wasn’t actually a fireman. His badge wasn’t real.” Mercer had already checked that with the department and had been telling that to Barr before I got there. “The cops think the man started the fire himself in order to break in to your apartment.”

She was taking deep breaths on the other side of the door.

I took one, too, and tried to get at what had so far been un-spoken. “I work with victims of sex crimes, Tina. That’s all I do. It’s why the police thought I might be able to help. I deal with the most sensitive cases you can imagine,” I said, closing my eyes, which burned from the lingering smoke. “Did this man assault you tonight?”

She coughed again.

I didn’t know how long he’d been within the apartment before Billy Schultz saw him running from the building at twelve-thirty in the morning.

“Did he awaken you when he knocked, Tina?”

“No.”

“Do you know what time it was when you first went to the door?”

“Five,” she said.

“Five o’clock in the afternoon?” She must have been confused. “Look, I’m going to have to let the police work on your door, or the back window in your kitchen, Tina. You may be a little woozy. He couldn’t have been inside there that long.”

There was a noise before Tina Barr spoke next, as though she shifted her position. She had gotten to her feet, perhaps angered by my comment. I stood up, too, as she pounded on the door. “I know exactly what time it was when the man knocked, do you understand? It wasn’t the middle of the night, Ms. Cooper. It was five o’clock.”

All the cops and I had assumed the events had occurred within minutes of Schultz’s arrival home. Fast, like most break-ins, and while the smoke bombs were steaming. We were wrong.

“I apologize, Tina. That’s even more reason for me to know what he did to you.” I didn’t want to suggest the word rape to her. I needed her to reveal to me what had occurred.

“I don’t want to talk to any cops, Ms. Cooper. I’ll tell you what happened if that will make them go away.”

“I’m alone down here now. The men won’t come in.” I paused before I spoke again. “I give you my word.”

Tina Barr sniffled, then was quiet. I heard the dead bolt turn.

The door opened a few inches and I could see the young woman peering out from behind it, clutching the lapels of her white chenille robe with one hand. Her dark brown hair was disheveled, her eyes reddened from at least an hour of crying, and what looked to be remains of adhesive tape forming a rectangle on the skin around her mouth, where she had probably been gagged.

I reached out a hand to her, hoping to comfort her with a touch, but she recoiled at the movement in her direction.

“You’re mistaken if you think this was about a sex crime, Ms. Cooper. He wanted to kill me,” Tina Barr said. “That man left me for dead.”

“I don’t want to press charges.”

Tina Barr was seated in an armchair in the cramped living room of her apartment, and I was opposite her on a small loveseat that was sorely in need of reupholstering.

“That’s not even an issue right now, Tina. I’d like to know what happened to you. We don’t have a suspect, so there’s no one to prosecute.”

“You told me you wanted to make sure I was all right. You see I’m not hurt, so now you can leave.”

She was unnaturally pale and rested her forehead in her hand, as though she needed that support to keep it upright.

“A couple of minutes ago you told me a man tried to kill you. You told me he was with you in here for more than six hours. How can I walk away from this? You don’t look well, Tina. You must be terribly frightened.”

“I’m nauseous. I just want to lie down.”

I tried to make eye contact with her, but she was staring at the floor.

“Who did this to you, Tina? Do you know that?”

Her entire body trembled. “No idea. There was some horrible black mask covering his face.”

I didn’t want to press her, to cross-examine her, but it seemed unlikely that her attacker had had the mask on for so many hours. “The whole time he was here? Didn’t he ever take it off?”