In the left-hand pocket of his jeans I found what I’d been looking for – a half dozen zip-lock plastic baggies, the small ones that are called “snack size”. Each bag was about half full with a gray-looking granular powder.

I slipped the bags into my jacket pocket and finished the search, but none of his other pockets contained anything interesting. Then I took the handcuffs off my belt.

As I pulled his hands behind his back, one at a time, I said, “Roger Gillespe, you are under arrest on suspicion of trafficking in illegal substances.”

He tried to look at me over his shoulder. “But that’s not… I mean, I don’t….”

“Shut up and face front,” I said.

When the cuffs were locked in place, I said, “You have the right to remain silent,” and went on with the rest it, reciting the same Stoker warning that I must’ve said a thousand times over the years.

“Do you understand these rights as I have explained them to you?” I asked him. That’s part of the routine, too – even if it didn’t apply in Roger’s case.

“Yeah, sure,” he said, “But you don’t–”

“I sure as hell do,” I said. “Come on – get in the car.”

A few seconds later he was in the back seat, I was in front, and Karl had us rolling out of there.

We didn’t take Roger Gillespe back to the station house for booking and interrogation. We skipped the booking entirely, and the interrogation took place behind the loading dock of a warehouse that I knew wouldn’t open for business until 8 o’clock.

As soon as Karl shut off the engine and killed the lights, Gillespe said, “What’re you guys doin’? This ain’t the police station! What the fuck’s goin’ on?”

I took off my seat belt and twisted around so that I was facing him. “This is us, giving you the chance to stay out of jail, Roger.”

“Jail? They can’t send me to jail – that stuff you took off me is legal. Ask anybody!”

“Oh, we will, Roger,” I said. “But first my partner here has a couple of questions for you.”

“I don’t need to answer no fuckin’ questions – you already said so. I want a lawyer!”

“Look at me when I talk to you, Roger,” Karl said quietly. He’d tilted the steering wheel up to give himself room and was turned facing the suspect now.

Roger made eye contact with Karl and started in surprise – but he didn’t look away.

“Listen to me, Roger,” Karl said. “You hear only my voice, and you’re going to do exactly as I say. Aren’t you?”

Roger swallowed a couple of times. “Yeah, sure. Whatever you say.” His voice was calmer now, and he kept his eyes on Karl.

Karl had told me a while back that he’d been practicing with the mental-control ability that vampires call Influence, and said he was getting pretty good at it. I saw now that he’d been telling the truth.

“That Slide you’ve been selling,” Karl said. “Where do you get it?”

“I buy from a guy called Larry.”

“What’s his last name?”

A shrug. “He never said. I never asked.”

“How’d you meet him?”

“At a party – at some guy’s house in Dunmore.”

“When was this?”

“’Bout four months ago.”

“How did he approach you?”

“He already knew my name, and my job at the deli. He asked if I wanted to start making some real money.”

“Selling Slide.”

“He called it HG, but yeah. He said when supes get a taste, they always want more. And there’s lots of supes in this town.”

“You try it yourself?”

“Larry said it has no effect on, like, humans.” Another shrug. “I snorted some, anyway. All it did was make me sneeze.”

“How much do you get for it?”

“Fifty bucks an ounce. That’s what one of them little bags holds.”

“What do you pay Larry for the stuff?”

“Twenty-five an ounce.”

“How do you take delivery?” Karl asked him.

“I meet him every Friday, in the food court at the mall. Noon sharp. He always sits near Taco Bell.”

“What happens at the food court?”

“I slip him an envelope with the cash in it – enough to pay for last week’s supply. He fronts me the money, a week in advance. He’s got a bag with him, from one of the stores in the mall. He puts it on the table. We shoot the shit for a couple of minutes, then he gets up and leaves. He don’t take the bag.”

“What store is the bag from?”

“It ain’t always the same.”

I muttered to Karl, “Description of Larry.”

“What’s this Larry look like?” Karl asked.

“Black hair, dark eyes. ’Bout average height. Looks like he lifts weights some.”

“How old you figure he is?”

“Pretty old – at least forty.”

Karl gave me a look, eyebrows raised. He was asking if I still wanted to end this the way that we’d discussed. I nodded.

He turned back to Gillespe and said, “Roger, that Slide that you were carrying is gone – you can’t remember what happened to it.”

“Can’t remember.”

“And Larry – he’s gonna be pretty pissed when you can’t pay him for last week’s supply.”

“Yeah, he’ll be pissed. Real pissed.”

“He might do something bad to you, when he finds out.”

“Something pretty bad.”

“Your best bet is to leave town, before he finds out.”

“Gotta get out of Dodge – quick.”

“You’re gonna pack a couple of bags, throw them in your car, and start driving – west.”

“Drive west. Yeah.”

“And you’re never coming back to Scranton,” Karl told him. “It’s not safe for you here anymore.”

“Can’t come back. It’s not safe.”

“And you’re gonna forget everything that happened since you came out of your building this morning. You never met us. This little talk never happened.”

“Yeah, sure. Never happened.”

We dropped Roger Gillespe back where we had picked him up. He got out of the back seat and slammed the door without giving us a second glance. Then he walked toward the entrance to his apartment building – moving quickly, like somebody with a lot to do in a short time.

“We’d better do some hustling ourselves,” I said to Karl as he drove us away from there. I looked at my watch. “The sun’ll be up in–”

“Nineteen minutes,” he said calmly. “Plenty of time.”

When we were a block away from the station house, he said, “Well, we got one Slide dealer off the street. Didn’t even have to arrest him – for real, anyway.”

“We got more than that,” I said. “We also have six ounces of his product, obtained at no cost.”

“Just think of the money we saved. It’s better than coupons.”

Once Karl was on his way home, I went back up to the squad room. I needed to tell McGuire what we’d learned at the bombing scene and at Renfield’s.

When I’d finished, McGuire sat back in his chair and said, “Doesn’t give us a lot to go on, does it?”

“My thoughts exactly,” I said. “But I did get one thing.”

“What’s that?”

“Six ounces of Slide, divided into one-ounce packets.”

His eyes narrowed. “Do I even want to know where that came from?”

“Not to worry, boss,” I said. “It’s not like I was carrying heroin. Slide’s legal, remember?”

He made a face, like I’d just reminded him that he was going to die, someday. “So, why are you carrying it around at all?”

“I want to have Louise send some to the State Police Crime Lab for analysis. If we can figure out what the shit actually is, maybe we can get a handle on where it comes from.”

“What good you figure that’s gonna do?”

“Maybe none – but I won’t know until I get some answers. I’m also thinking about sending some over to a couple of profs I know at the U. One’s a biologist, and the other one’s in the Chem department.”

“How come? The crime lab’s pretty good.”

I shrugged. “Second opinion – and quicker results, too, probably. I’m also going to leave some with Rachel. She said she’d take a look at it, see if magic might have any effect on its addictive properties.”

“Not a bad idea,” he said. “Can’t do any harm, anyway.”