Devlin hit him, clubbing the side of his head with such force that he startled himself. The guy hit the pavement as if dead. The other guy went for the Lincoln’s glove compartment. Devlin poked the gun through the open door and fired. The compartment door folded like a beer can and the guy yelled, backed up, and began to wet his pants. Devlin’s own bladder opened a bit. Swell, he thought. His eyes still on the guy, Devlin pulled the mangled door open. A .25 revolver, a ladies’ gun. Now Devlin’s hands were full. With his little finger Devlin pulled the Lincoln’s ring of keys from the ignition. “Around the front of the car. Come on, where I can see you.” He backed up so he could get the front door in his field of vision. “All right, pick him up.”

The guy bent halfway. “Aw, look at the size of him. I can’t do it alone.”

“I don’t give a shit. Get him on his feet.”

“He’s bleedin’. You hurt him bad.”

“Up!”

A woman yelled from across the street, “I’m gonna call the cops!”

Devlin didn’t look around. “I am a cop!”

“I can see the blood!” she answered. “That ain’t right. I’m callin’!”

He looked around. She wasn’t in sight, doing her yelling from any one of a dozen windows. When Devlin looked back, the guy was breaking into a grin.

“You were just talking about me,” Devlin said.

“We decided you’re nuts, and I don’t mind telling you.”

“I don’t want to be fucked with!”

“You’re an asshole.” He glanced at the little revolver. “You don’t know how you’re making it worse—”

Devlin brought the butt of Lederer’s .45 down on the bridge of the guy’s nose, flattening it like an eggshell, the bone crunching almost audibly. The guy fell backward with a whimper, eyes rolling as he lost consciousness. Devlin pulled fat wallets from the jackets of the two men, then stepped toward the rental, the front of which was deeply harelipped. Was there some other trouble he could cause? As he backed up, he committed the Lincoln’s license plate number to memory. The wallets contained dozens of credit cards. He had their names, he could identify the car and driver in Major’s murder. If he lived.