On the other hand, if someone wanted to neutralize him, scaring him into immobility was probably the best way short of murder to do it.

And while Devlin was playing mind games with himself, the someone or something infiltrating his life, decade by decade, year by year, down to the days and minutes, every breath he took, like some kind of horror movie, was going to pass through the very molecules of Devlin’s existence. Mind games: they wanted him to doubt himself, wonder what was wrong with him, until finally he was telling himself that in his sleep he was creeping through backyards and poisoning kittens’ milk so that children could find them dead.

When the train passed out of the station, Devlin studied the people on the platform for little signs of interest in him. Nothing. No one.

He was beginning to hurt all over.

6:37 P.M. …

6:37 P.M. …

From his position facing the statue of Father Duffy of the Fighting Sixty-ninth in the center of Times Square, Devlin surveyed the crowd. Every fifty feet, it seemed, strolled a pair of uniformed officers, male, female, black, white, all young, in nearly all shapes and sizes, most out of condition, a few improperly dressed: maybe they fooled the yokels, but not anyone who knew what a big city cop was supposed to look and act like.

No matter, Devlin thought, with a smile. He was on the job. He was looking for what professional gamblers called the “tells,” little signs that gave away what people really had on their minds. Nothing was so obvious as a facial tic, or a fluttering of the hands; more possibly a barely audible deep breath, a slight movement of the eyes, interested, maybe wary, searching for opportunity. Psychologists observed patients for clues to the real inner life, salesmen kept one eye on buyers, and closer to home for Devlin, customs agents matched incoming travelers against memorized checklists of giveaway behavior. A street crimes specialist watched loiterers, people who watched the passing crowd, others who seemed too consciously purposeful as they went about their business, strollers staying close to others they didn’t seem to know—partners: while one distracted the mark, the other lifted his wallet.