And that’s what Devlin was deliberately keeping from Levine and the others now. The Seville showed no evidence that Sal or his Bolivian minion had come anywhere near it. On Devlin’s arrival downtown, a moment had passed before he realized that the tire hadn’t been changed—and then it was an explosion inside him. All Devlin knew was that someone had stopped at Eileen’s and picked up his apartment keys. Anyone who knew the Seville was disabled wasn’t interested in cleaning out Devlin’s apartment. The tire was changed now because Harry Levine had told the bomb disposal squad to do it.

“I won’t have to see anybody until ten o’clock tomorrow,” Levine said. “You have until then, barring further developments, and after that, maybe you get no warning.” He turned in the seat so he could see the two cops behind him. “You get this? If you two young monks want to save our church, St. Frank here isn’t the guy to fight the crusade over.”

“Fuck you,” McQuaid said cheerfully. “That’s funny, coming from an Arab like you. I think Devlin’s guilty as original fucking sin. I wouldn’t piss in his cuffs to keep him from blowing away with the wind.” McQuaid used the back of the front seat to pull himself forward to get closer to Devlin. “I’m not kidding, you old piece of shit. I think you set this up because Jack Brennan owed you something that he was going to pay back after he was in the Senate, something you didn’t want to collect. You haven’t convinced me of a fucking thing, and I’m going to continue to develop evidence no matter who has to eat it.”

“I don’t agree with his opinion, Frank,” John said calmly. His tone contained a message that Devlin had already deciphered: McQuaid was an excitable guy.

Devlin said, “I think the two birds who played the roles of the Quinns are going to turn up dead. That could be in Jersey … anywhere. You have their descriptions. I’ve told you everything I know about Lederer. If anything comes in that vaguely matches what I’ve told you, at the least check it out.”

McQuaid snorted. “What you meant to say was, let you know it. I won’t interfere with you. Those phone calls from your place are accounted for by someone working with you, someone you left in your apartment after you went to work. What’s the big deal? What’s so tough about that?”

“Kevin,” John said, “I was in the man’s company every day when all this was supposed to have taken place. It won’t wash.”

“We’ll see,” McQuaid said, watching Devlin. A movement of Levine’s eyes told Devlin to get out of the car.

“I’ll be in touch,” Devlin said.