In the meantime, though, the river police had looked me up and found Bobby’s outstanding warrant on me. They cuffed me, and told me I had the right to remain silent, but as we rode downriver I kept repeating Bobby’s cellphone number and telling them to call Bobby before they booked me and left Dornick free to flee their jurisdiction. Petra’s insistence that it was Dornick who’d been threatening us made them decide to give me at least enough of the benefit of the doubt to call Bobby, who ordered them to bring all of us in.

At the Grand Avenue Landing station, they transferred us from the launch to a paddy wagon. It was one of the old beat-up ones, without springs or shocks. Dornick was beside himself with rage. Him, the head of Mountain Hawk Security, a twenty-year veteran, in the wagon with common criminals.

“I’m not a common criminal, Mr. Dornick,” Petra said. “And neither is Vic. And Elton sure isn’t. So please be quiet.”

Elton was having the toughest time of all of us, being crammed in with so many people. He was sweating, and his teeth chattered. And each time we hit a pothole, he seemed to think it was a grenade, and he’d try to hit the floor but was held to the seat by his handcuffs. “That one was close. Charlie’s closing in. Move your big feet,” he muttered.

“Elton. We’re in Chicago. It’s Vic. You saved my life.” I leaned as close to him as I could in my handcuffs. “Mine and Petra’s. We’ll get your house repaired. Hold on for another hour. We’re going to make it.”

“That’s right, Elton. You’re the best. It’s Petra—your girl Petra—remember?” my cousin chimed in.

Elton stopped mumbling to himself long enough to say, “You’re a good girl, Petra. We’ll get out of here alive, you trust me for that one.”

Dornick said, “Trust you, you drunken rat? Shut up! I’ll deal with you later.”

“George, you’re the rat in this van, and you are finally going to go into that big old rattrap where you belong. You know how much fun they’re going to have with you in Stateville when they learn you’re the man who tortured Johnny Merton’s boys? I do hope your will is up-to-date.”

Dornick lunged across the seat at me, but the cops riding with us held him back.

Petra huddled next to me on the narrow seat. Under her police blanket, she was still wet from the river. I clasped her hands with my own cuffed ones.

“So how did you get all these boys in blue to show up in time to save my life?” I asked.