Stay glued to this woman, Dewey. Do not leave her side for any reason. Forget Gleason’s bullshit about Russia, this female is the key to the case.

Manning holds the ambulance to deliver one final directive to me.

MANNING

If anybody shows up at the hospital for her—I mean anybody . . . ID them and hold them till I get there. Feed them any line of bullshit you need to, but don’t let them get away.

Why has Manning been ordered back to the crime scene? He is not only the initial officer on site, and thus technically responsible for securing the scene (which he has failed to do by absenting himself in a vehicle pursuit), but he is also a witness and indeed a participant in the flight of the suspected killer. Manning has grappled physically with this individual. He has received a disabling blow from the perpetrator, the consequence of which was to permit the perp to escape. Beyond this, Manning has accompanied the suspected murderer to the scene as his invited guest. In other words, whether he likes it or not, whether he has asked for it or not, Manning has become the law enforcement epicenter of this catastrophe.

How big is the story of the Rebbe’s murder? By the time my ambulance reaches Maimonides, which is no more than twenty minutes after the actual killing, the tale is headlining on Buzzfeed, Politico, the Atlantic, Reddit, JPost, Breitbart, Upworthy, and Viral Nova. WCBS, WNBC, WABC, WPIX, plus Fox 5, CNN, MSNBC, Amazon, and Al Jazeera have all made it “breaking news” with a banner, a chyron, and its own music sting. Social media is on fire. Both New York senators are being flown in by helicopter, or will be within the hour, to the site of sorrow. A tweet from the mayor vows he’ll be on hand in twenty minutes. By dawn every Jewish, Protestant, Catholic, and Muslim leader in the tri-state area will have either spoken or appeared on TV or via Facebook or Twitter expressing shock, outrage, and grief.

At Maimonides I remain joined to our mystery woman at the hip throughout the admissions process and the initial physical examinations, including X-rays, concussion protocols, EKG, and wheeling her to the ladies’ loo. A female patrol officer from the Six-Six joins me. By the manual, she should be the one to stand sentry over our mystery woman but, heeding Manning’s orders, I refuse to be dislodged.