“Don’t you?” Siegel said.

“No comment.” I popped the lid on my second coffee. “Most cops do, though. Perfect crime anyway.”

After another long pause, he said, “How about this: if you could take someone out — someone who really deserved it — and you knew you could get away with it, would you be torn?”

“No,” I said. “That’s too slippery a slope for me. I’ve thought about it.”

“Come on.” Siegel laughed and leaned back on the car door to look at me. “Say it’s just you and Kyle Craig alone in some dark alley. No witnesses. He’s all out of ammo and you’ve still got your Glock. You’re telling me you don’t pull the trigger now and ask questions later?”

“That’s right,” I said. The Kyle reference was a little weird, but I let it slide. “I might want to, but I wouldn’t do it. I’d take him in. I’d like to bring him back to ADX Florence.”

He looked at me, grinning as if he were waiting for me to break.

“Seriously?” he said.

“Seriously.”

“I don’t know if I believe you.”

I shrugged. “What do you want me to say?”

“That you’re a human being. Come on, Alex. You can’t get by in this business without at least a little walk on the dark side.”

“Absolutely,” I said. “Been there, done that. I’m just saying, I wouldn’t pull the trigger.” Whether or not it was true, I really wasn’t sure. I just didn’t want to go there with Siegel.

“Interesting,” he said, and turned back to face the front door of the Midlands. “Very interesting.”

Chapter 103

ALEX WAS LYING through his teeth. He was a good liar, but he was lying. If he had any idea he was sitting across from Kyle Craig right now, that Glock would be out in a heartbeat, and one round shy a second later.

But that was the whole point, wasn’t it? Cross didn’t have a clue. Any doubts about that were well behind them. This couldn’t possibly be more delicious, could it? No, it could not.

Kyle sipped his coffee and went on. “That’s what this is all about, isn’t it?” he said offhandedly. Interesting — Siegel’s speech and inflection were now more natural to him than his own.

“What do you mean?” Cross asked.

“The whole ‘foxes in the henhouse’ thing. The good guys and the bad guys, all mixed in together. The line between good and evil isn’t so clear anymore.”

“That’s true,” Cross said. “More for the Bureau than the PD, though.”