“Sure looks that way. Anything I can do for you, Inspector?”
“No. I just thought I’d better check on what was going on. Mr. Monahan is very important.”
“Well, we’re sitting on him good. There’s either a Highway or a district RPC by here every fifteen to twenty minutes. Or a supervisor, or both. Sergeant Carter drove through the alley just a couple of minutes ago.”
“But nothing out of the ordinary?”
“Not a thing.”
“Well, then, I guess I can go. Good to see you. I’m sorry you have to march around in the snow and ice, but I think it’s necessary.”
“I’ve been telling myself the guys in Traffic do this for twenty years,” the cop said. “Good evening, sir.”
Wohl smiled, rolled up the window, and drove the rest of the way down the alley, looking at the rear of the Monahan house as he went past.
He turned left from the alley onto Sanger Street, and then left again onto Sylvester Street. He would stop and say hello to the two cops in the car.
Now there were two unmarked cars on Rosehill Street.
That’s probably Sergeant Carter.
The cop with the Renfrew of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police cap got—surprisingly quickly, Wohl thought—from behind the wheel and stepped into the street, signaling him to stop.
Christ, I hope they’re not stopping every car that comes down the street!
This time there was no recognition in the cop’s eyes when Wohl rolled the window down and looked up at him.
“Sir,” the cop said, “you’re going the wrong way down a one-way street. May I see your driver’s license please?”
Wohl took his leather ID folder from his pocket and passed it out the window.
“Maybe you could give me another chance, Officer,” he said. “I’m usually not this stupid.”
“Oh, Jesus, Inspector!”
“I honest to God didn’t see the one-way sign,” Wohl said. “Who’s that in the back of the RPC? Sergeant Carter?”
“Lieutenant Malone, sir.”
“Let me pull this over—turn it around, I guess—I’d like a word with him.”
“Yes, sir.”
Wohl turned the car around and parked it, and then went and got in the back of the unmarked car.
“We all feel a little foolish, Inspector,” Malone said when Wohl got in the backseat of the RPC. “We should have recognized you.”
Wohl saw that Malone was in civilian clothing.
“You don’t feel half as foolish as I do,” Wohl said. “If I had been doing ninety in a thirty-mile zone, that I would understand. But going the wrong way down a one-way street—”
“I’ll let you go with a warning this time, Inspector,” the cop who had stopped him said, “but the next time, right into Lewisburg!”
Everyone laughed.
“Something on your mind, Inspector?” Malone asked.
“Just wanted to check on Monahan, that’s all.”