“I want you to call him, actually. Tell him that Mike was run down by a reckless driver and is going to be needed as a material witness. ”
“You know I can’t do that. ”
“Sure you can. ”
“We’ll never find whoever tried to run him down. The kid’ll never be called as a witness, you know that. ”
“Sure. I know it, and you know it, but Vic Wingate doesn’t know it. But if he thinks that the cops are going to want to talk to Mike occasionally, he might be a little less likely to slap the kid around. At least for a little while. ”
“I just don’t know…. ”
“Oh, come on, Terry. You’re a politician, lie to the man. It’s no skin off your nose, and it might keep the kid from having some of his skin belted off. ”
“Oh…okay, okay. Whatever. Darn it, Crow, one of these days all that spillage from your bleeding heart is going to drown you. ”
“Yeah, yeah, yeah. You’ll make the call or not?”
“Yeah, I’ll make the call, but listen, Crow, you get your behind out to that hayride. We’ve got to get those kids out of there. The smelly stuff is really flying around here tonight. ”
“They still haven’t caught the psychos yet?”
“No, and I’m hip-?deep in Philly cops. It seems,” Terry said, dropping his voice, “that these psychos are the real deal. Not just some clowns running from a stickup at a Wawa. These are some serious bad boys, m’man. ”
“What do you mean?”
Terry’s voice dropped even lower. “One of the guys is some madman named Karl Ruger. ”
“Never heard of him. ”
“Yes, you have. ”
“No, I—”
“Ever heard of the Cape May Killer?”
“Yeah. Who hasn’t?”
Terry said nothing, letting Crow work it out. It didn’t take long. “Oh my God!”
“Uh-?huh. ”
“I mean…oh my God!”
“Yep. ”
“Christ, Terry, are you sure?”
“He was ID’d by the Philly cops. ”
“Oh. My. God. ”
“Yeah. So,” said Terry, “did you remember to bring your gun?”
“Huh? Oh…yeah, I got it. ”
“Is it loaded?”
“Of course it’s loaded. ”