She had missed Brazil by no more than two minutes, and in fact, unwittingly had done so a number of times during the past few hours. She would turn onto one street just before he drove past where she had been. Now he was cruising by the Cadillac Grill on West Trade Street and staring out at boarded-up slums haunted by the rulers of the night. He saw the young hooker ahead, leaning inside a Thunderbird, talking to a man looking for a good investment. Brazil wasn’t in a shy mood, and he pulled up closer, watching. The car sped off and the hooker turned hostile, glazed eyes on Brazil, not at all happy with the intrusion. Brazil rolled down his window.

“Hey!” he called out.

Poison, the prostitute, stared at the one known on the street as Blondie, mockery in her eyes. She started strolling again. This pretty-boy snitch followed her everywhere, had a thing about her and was still working up his nerve, maybe thought he was going to get something more to leak to the police and the newspaper. She thought it was funny. Brazil unfastened his seatbelt. He reached to roll down the passenger’s window. She wasn’t going to get away from him this time. No sir, and he tucked the .380 out of sight beneath his seat, as he crept forward, calling out to her.

“Excuse me! Excuse me, ma’am!” he said again and again. “I need to talk to you!”

• • •

Hammer was rolling past at this very moment, Cahoon following in his Mercedes 600S V-12 sedan, black with parchment leather interior. He wasn’t entirely within his comfort zone in this part of the city, and he checked his locks again as Hammer got on her police radio and told the dispatcher to ten-five Unit 700. Immediately, she and West were on the air.

“The subject you’re looking for is at West Trade and Cedar,” Hammer said on the radio to West. “You might want to head this way in a hurry.”

“Ten-four!”

Officers in the area were perplexed, even a little lost, as they overheard this transmission between their highest leaders. They were still mindful of their chief’s feelings about being followed and harassed. Maybe it was wise to sit this one out for a minute or two until they had a better idea about what exactly was going down. West gunned the engine, racing back toward West Trade.

Poison stopped and slowly turned around, seduction smoldering in her eyes as she entertained notions this snitch in the BMW couldn’t even begin to imagine.

Hammer wasn’t so sure this was the right time to introduce Cahoon to the Presto Grill. Trouble seemed to rise from the street like heat, and she had not gotten where she was in life by ignoring her instincts. Only in her personal life had she looked the other way, turned the volume down low, and denied. She swung off into the All Right parking lot across from the grill and motioned out her window for Cahoon to follow. He stopped by her unmarked car and his window hummed down.