“You’re lying.”

By now Carlton was whimpering. “I swear, I’m telling you the truth. I don’t know anything about that.”

“Then tell me what you do know.”

And Carlton did exactly that.

I should have done it long ago, even though it had little chance of success.

I hadn’t wanted to spook Gallagher in the process, but I could no longer worry about that. I hadn’t spoken to him in almost thirty-six hours, and in any event I couldn’t be confident that I would be able to convince him to give Bryan more time.

I needed Barone’s help, and wasn’t positive I could get it, at least not on my terms. But I was waiting in his office to make my pitch when he got in.

“Uh-oh,” he said, when he saw me. Then, “Let’s hear it, fast. Like pulling off a Band-Aid.”

“I need your help.”

“I thought that’s what you’ve been getting.”

I nodded. “And I continue to appreciate it. But we’ve got to elevate it a notch.”

“I’m listening. Reluctantly, but I’m listening.”

“We’ve got to go wide with this.” In our parlance, that meant I was saying that so far the investigation had been limited to the officers in our precinct. Going wide would mean bringing in other precincts.

“How would that help?” he asked.

“I believe he’s in a bomb shelter in one of three counties. I need every cop that can walk going door-to-door, asking people if they know of bomb shelters in their area, so we can check them out. I also got a list of abandoned missile silos from the Defense Department, which we can do as a follow-up if this doesn’t pay off.”

“You know what the odds are of this working?”

“Very slim,” I said.

“What about Gallagher?”

“I want to leave him out of this, for now. I can’t afford to burn that bridge, not while there’s a chance of him seeing the light and letting Bryan go. Or at least extending the deadline.”

“So I’m going to call in the troops, sending them on a wild-goose chase, and conceal information crucial to the investigation? When the commissioner finds out he’ll turn me into a school crossing guard, with a defective whistle.”

“It’s on me,” I said. “If it goes south, you only knew what your people told you, and I withheld the crucial facts. I’ll take the bullet.”

What I was saying was true to a point, but much was left unsaid. Barone would look bad in the process, and he had to know that.

“This is a big ask,” he said.

“Captain, my brother is going to die if we don’t do this, and maybe even if we do. I am asking you to do whatever you can to prevent that from happening, whatever the blowback might be.”

“You know which precincts we’re talking about?”

“I do.” I took a piece of paper out of my jacket pocket, and handed it to him.

He looked at it, and said, “This has to go through the chief.”

I nodded. “He’ll go with your recommendation, as long as you tell him it’s life-and-death.”

“Which is what you’re telling me,” he said, pointedly.

I nodded again. “Which is what I’m telling you.”

He thought for a moment, then went to his desk and picked up the phone, asking his assistant to get the chief on the phone for him. “If he’s not there, find him,” Barone said. “This is Grade One.”

Within twenty minutes we had the authorization we needed and I was on the way out there to organize the operation, which had almost no chance for success.

I was almost there when my cell phone rang. It showed up as “caller unknown,” which gave me hope that it was Gallagher.

It was.

“Stay near this phone,” Gallagher said, instead of “hello.”

“Of course. Why?”

“I may have information you’ll want to hear.”

“Good, but when?” I asked. “Time is running out.”

“I know the timing better than you,” he said. “I just need to confirm something, and maybe save some lives in the process. You’ll be a goddamn hero.”

“I just want my brother alive,” I said. “That’s all.”

“Then hang tight.”

“I will.”

He was quiet for a while, and I thought he might have hung up. “Hello?” I said.

“I needed to know that Steven hadn’t done anything,” he said. Again there was a long period of silence. Then, “I knew, but I needed to know.”

“Please tell me where Bryan is,” I said, but Gallagher ignored my plea.

Instead he said, “Have you ever crossed the line?”

I knew exactly what he meant. “No, I’ve gone to the edge a few times, but never crossed it.”

“Think long and hard before you do,” he said. “Because there is no way back.”

Bryan … we’re making great progress. I just had a conversation with Gallagher that was very promising. He said he was soon going to be telling me information that I’d “want to hear.”

You would have made a great cop, and it’s not too late. All you have to do is give up any hope of ever having a decent house or car, but the upside is that you’ll start getting shot at.

You’re handling this amazingly well, Bryan, and I’m proud of you. You’ve always been miscast as the younger brother, because I’ve always looked up to you.

See you soon …

“What the hell happened here?”

It was the question Tommy Rhodes asked as soon as he walked in, but he had a pretty good idea already. He had seen the car leaving, and gotten a look at the driver.

The door to Carlton’s house had been ajar when Rhodes came in, and the scene was fairly chaotic. William, who had been assisting Carlton throughout this operation, was bleeding slightly from the mouth, and had obviously come in second place in a two-person encounter.

Carlton was doing quite a bit worse. He was screaming in pain, yelling at William to get the car, and holding his arm at an awkward angle. It was obviously broken, and Rhodes saw it as a good bet that the driver who had just left was the source of the break.

“I’ve got a broken arm, that’s what happened.” Then, to William, “Let’s go.”

“Where are you going?” Rhodes asked.

“The hospital, where do you think?”

“What are you going to tell them?”

“That I fell, that I slipped, what the hell is the difference? If you got here on time, maybe this wouldn’t have happened at all.”

He started moving towards the door, but Rhodes closed it.

“What are you doing?” Carlton asked.

“I’m trying to find out what that guy wanted, and what you told him.”

For a brief instant, Carlton’s face reflected some worry along with the pain, but he recovered quickly. “He thought I had Brennan killed.”

“What did you say?”

“That I didn’t, what do you think I said? Damn idiot, he didn’t even know the cops shot the killer.”

“Who was he?”

“I don’t know,” Carlton lied. He wanted Rhodes in the dark as much as possible; he didn’t trust him.

“What else did you tell him?”

“Nothing. This hurts like hell, you understand? If they don’t operate on it right away, it won’t heal right.”

“Carlton, you’re not in this alone, OK? Tell me what else you told this guy.”

“For the last time, Rhodes, I didn’t tell the guy anything. Now get the hell out of the way.”

But Rhodes was no longer looking at Carlton; he had nothing more to say to him. Instead he turned to William, making eye contact without saying anything.

William understood the unspoken question, and slowly shook his head from side to side. Carlton didn’t notice the connection between the two of them; he was already heading for the door.

He got his hand to the doorknob when the three bullets hit him in the back, pushing him into the door, before he slumped to the floor.

“Leave him right here; I want him found,” Rhodes said to William.

“He will be.”

“Just the latest victim of the outraged citizens of Brayton.”

William smiled. “They’re out of control.”