Just after we set him down, his car erupted with a gash of fire slicing through the day, and I bent over his face and torso to protect him from the wave of heat. Then, while I did what I could to quell the bleeding in the driver’s leg, Greer handcuffed Mannie, who didn’t struggle or put up a fight.

What is going on with this guy? Is this a trap? Is Blake here somewhere?

I glanced around. The woman I’d been chasing was gone. No sign of Blake.

I attended to the injured man until the EMTs showed up and took over for me, quickly and efficiently fitting him with a cervical collar and getting him on a gurney and into the back of the ambulance.

Resuming my search for the woman, I scanned the forest, both sides of the road, and the path leading down to the brownstones, but there was no sign of her, so I returned to Greer’s SUV, where he now had Mannie in the backseat. The behemoth filled most of it by himself.

Greer was leaning over the window, questioning him. “What are you doing here?”

Mannie didn’t reply.

“Where’s Blake?”

Silence.

“Mannie.” I noticed how much of the driver’s blood had gotten onto my hands, and I wiped them without much effect on my pants. “Thank you. For helping there.”

He said nothing, but nodded.

I was no psychologist, but I did know something about human nature: wanted fugitives do not usually surrender themselves so promptly and without incident to law enforcement unless they feel their life is at risk. “You could’ve gotten away a few minutes ago. Whatever you were doing up here, you chose to stay and help that man, but you must know, based on what we have on you, that you could be facing decades in prison.”

“I’m aware of that.”

“Then why? Why did you stop?”

“Because he was dying and he didn’t deserve to and I could do something about it.”

I thought back to one of the first times I’d encountered this man. He’d helped save the life of a police officer even though he’d been shot himself in the process.

Was Mannie pure evil? Certainly not. This was at least the second time he’d saved someone’s life when given the chance, and both times it had cost him dearly. However, he was no saint either. From what we could tell, he helped facilitate Blake’s human trafficking and illegal arms deals. Motives are fibrous and tenuous things. And the human heart is all too often a contradiction to itself.