She took a gray linen jacket off the back of a chair and shrugged it on. It lay nicely over the holster. “Nothing yet, though if anything goes wrong, that’ll change. Today’s work is tricky business, and some of it I have to do alone. I need to get a lid on this before Toby finds the lab has been sealed, or has the chance to talk to his boy biochemist and maybe convince him to break his oath and blab. I have to get authorization to lock up a cop. Once I get it, I have to move like hell to get to him before somebody tells him about it. In the meantime, I want to look like business as usual and you’re,” she said apologetically, “unusual.”

“You have to get permission to jail a cop?”

“Yeah.” She smiled that smile that wasn’t amused, and added, “It’s a wonderful world. That’s because none of the stations are in very good communication with any of the rest of the stations, and they say if we mess with each other without some higher office giving the go-ahead, we’ll screw up ongoing investigations. That’s what they say.”

“Might be true.”

“Sure. And maybe you can keep water from boiling by watching it.” She checked the back door lock, and asked, “Where can I find you if I need you?”

“My apartment, on Sentiment.”

“I know where it is.”

Yes, she knew. “Can I drop you someplace?”

She shook her head. “I’ve got a neighbor who used to rent me his bike every time I had to pull the engine on the Triumph. I’ll check with him.”

She let me out the front, and I walked down the stairs alone. So what were the most stressful experiences in most people’s lives? Death, love, job changes, and moving? Well, the job was kind of built in, but maybe I could find a new apartment and complete the set. I told myself that Tick-Tick’s bike was happy to see me; at least it started right up. My God, the first time it didn’t was going to be a landmark bad day.

When I got to my block I stopped at the market, which had been a bar when the World had just been the world, and Bordertown just another city. Now the shelves behind the bar in front of the mirror were the candy counter. Oswald Assai was the only member of the family in the place, though there was a hired kid stocking shelves. Ozzie greeted me noisily, and asked me how I was, and I wished I’d gone for groceries in some part of town where I didn’t know anybody.

“I’m fine, Ozzie. Is there any beer in?”

“Yeah, Fern Hobarth brought in some brown ale yesterday. You want that?”