I spoke into the cell. “Trevor, you there?”

“Yeah,” he whispered.

“Has that guy left the garage yet?”

“No.”

“The moment he walks out and heads for the house, you let me know.”

“Okay. Nothing yet. Maybe he’s— Hang on, the side door’s opening up. He’s coming out! He’s going into the house.”

“Is he holding a gun?”

“Uh, I don’t, I don’t think so!”

I figured it wouldn’t take him any more than ten or fifteen seconds to get from the house door to the room we were in now. I positioned myself against the wall, by the doorframe. I could hear Blondie’s steps coming down the hall, stop, then the knob turned and the door began to open.

“I was—” he started to say, but then he felt the cold ring of metal against his temple.

“Don’t move,” I said.

“No problem,” he said.

“Come in very slowly.”

He quickly took in the scene, assessed it. His partner on the floor, bleeding. Bullock not moving, standing behind a very damp desk. Angie standing on the other side of the door, her gun trained on Bullock.

“Nice frisking job,” Bullock said to him.

“Where’s your gun?” I asked.

“Tucked into the back of my pants,” he said. I looked around, saw it, couldn’t help but think that he had a butt sticking out of his butt. Funny how the mind works.

I moved slightly behind him, keeping the gun close to his head, then took the gun from the back of his pants with my left hand. Now that I’d given Pockmark’s weapon to Angie, I could slip this new one into my now empty left pocket.

“Now step into the room and lie facedown on the floor,” I said.

Blondie did as he was asked.

I got back on the phone. “Trevor, go into the garage.”

“Gotcha.”

I could hear him running across the property, then the sound of a door opening and closing.

“See my car?”

“Yeah. Shit, it’s all in pieces.”

“It’s mostly the inside door panels. Don’t worry about that. See if the keys are in it.”

“Hang on, yeah, they’re here.”

“See if it’ll start.”

I listened. The Virtue was so quiet, I wasn’t sure I’d hear it come on even if it did. “No, it won’t.”

I could hear my heart pounding in my temples. “Turn the key ahead, move the shifter back and forth a couple times, try it again.”

I heard some noise in the background. “Okay, it’s on. You’re a genius.”

I let out a breath. “Just leave it running. There should be a button somewhere that opens that middle garage door.”

“Just a minute. Okay, yeah, I think this is it. Yep, the garage door is going up.”