I said, “Yes. If my people don’t get named and don’t have to testify.”

He nodded. “It looks like there’s more than one officer involved. It looks like there might be several with Kennedy security who took part.”

I nodded back at him. “I sort of figured that.”

Rollie smiled at Karen again and then he and Max walked back to the little group around Charlie DeLuca’s body. There was more talk and the bald guy liked it even less and made more of the sharp gestures until one of the women he had ridden out with said, “Oh, shut the fuck up, Morton.”

The feds and the people from the two AG offices came to the car for Pike and me and walked us around the site asking us questions. Most of the questions were about Charlie DeLuca and the Jamaicans and the cop I had followed to the Queens precinct house. I didn’t mention Charlie DeLuca’s secret account, or that he was doing something that Sal didn’t know about, or the Gambozas. The Jamaicans probably didn’t know whose dope they were stealing and neither, probably, did the cop. If they did, and if they told, that was between the DeLucas and them. You do what you can.

When the AG people were finished with their questions, they brought us back to the car. None of them looked at Karen Lloyd or Peter Alan Nelsen, or spoke to them. It was as if they weren’t there. One of the women and one of the feds went with a couple of Staties to the pumpkin field. They weren’t gone long. After they got back, there was more talk and then Roland George came back to us. He said, “I think we’ve done about all we can do here. You can go now.”

Karen Lloyd said, “Is that all?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“You don’t need to question us? You aren’t going to take us in?”

Peter said, “Karen.”

Rollie George smiled and walked away.

Karen looked at me. “They’re keeping us out of this? Even with people dead?”

“Yes. Start the car and let’s get out of here.”

We drove to Karen Lloyd’s house in silence and parked in the drive beneath the basketball hoop until Peter had his story straight. The people from the AG’s office were going to release Dani’s body to him with no questions asked, but he would need to know what to tell Nick and T.J. and the press. Peter Alan Nelsen’s bodyguard had been murdered and there would be questions. He was going to have to lie, and he was going to have to maintain the lie for the rest of his life. He said, “I can do it.”

Karen said, “You’d better.”