Usually when an explosive device is suspected the bomb squad will render the vehicle safe by hauling it away inside a containment vessel. They might use a portable X-ray machine to determine if there’s an explosive device inside, and if so they take out the power source, probably with a water cannon. But what Marino said is true. In the process Hyde probably wouldn’t survive assuming he’s inside the trunk and not already dead.

Rusty and Harold are here and I trot to their van as it bumps through mud. They park and I open the tailgate as they climb out in rain suits. I reach for the borescope, the power drill in their black plastic carrying cases, and then Marino is grabbing them from me.

“I’ll take care of it.” He’s ordering me around the same way he was Officer Dern.

“You realize if she has a remote control or some other means to detonate a bomb …” Benton directs this at him as he walks closer to us.

But Marino isn’t going to listen.

“Someone’s got to do this. If Hyde’s unconscious and maybe bleeding to death then we don’t have time to waste. Maybe he’s suffocating in there and I’m sure as hell not waiting for the bomb squad,” Marino says over my protests but I’m not going to stop him. “And you need to clear the area, Doc.”

“Absolutely not,” I reply. “I think right now might be a good time to have a doctor present.”

“I’m not asking you. Get the hell out of here now!”

“I’m not going anywhere, and you need to wait for the bomb squad. If Officer Hyde is inside the trunk it’s unlikely he went in willingly and is still alive. He may have been in there most of the day. Your life is a sure thing right this minute and his certainly isn’t. Let someone in a bomb suit drill a hole in the trunk. If this is a trap, Marino, you’re walking right into it.”

“And if I don’t who will?” His eyes are wide and glassy, and I can see what passes behind them, the dark shape of finality and fear.

Marino knows this might be it for him. He would risk everything for an officer he barely knows because that’s what cops do. The brotherhood of the badge, I think, and I understand his motivation but I can’t possibly agree with it.

“I’m in charge of this scene and I’m ordering you to leave,” Marino says to me and I continue to ignore him. “Rusty, Harold, you need to back up, maybe pull the hell way back out of the way in case I start drilling and the police cruiser blows.”