Marge remembered Duralt as having put up quite a fight that day in Booking, swinging his fists at whatever got in his way. Of course, he’d been really pickled that day. Then again, he might be nursing last night’s hangover, no telling what kind of mood that would put him in. If he ran, the back and side doors and windows needed to be covered. If he should try to duke it out, she’d need plenty of men to control him fast.

And someone to get the kid.

“We gonna do something soon?” Benko finally asked her.

“Just waiting until we’re sure everyone is in position,” Marge answered.

“You know, Dotty wanted to come up to the door with us—”

“No.”

“Yeah, that’s what I told her. Doug’s violent as hell, who knows what the sunnabitch may try? But she really wanted to do it. She wanted to spit in his face.”

“Well, she’ll just have to control herself,” Marge said.

“You’re sure he’s in there?” Benko said.

“Positive,” Marge said. “And so is Heather—you told Dotty they’ve renamed her Laurie, didn’t you?”

“Yeah.”

“The kids are the problem,” Marge said. “We don’t want him doing something crazy with either Heather or the baby—”

“I don’t understand why you didn’t just grab the kid when you saw it was her,” Benko said. “That’s what the sunnabitch did. Just grabbed the kid. You should have just grabbed her back.”

“Mr. Benko—”

“I know, I know.” Benko waved her off. “System doesn’t work that way. You need papers, you need warrants, you need some asshole judge telling you, yeah, it’s okay to do to the sunnabitch what the sunnabitch did to you. You couldn’t have done it. But I could have. You should have called me as soon as you found out.”

“I thought about that, Mr. Benko—”

“Charlie.”

“I thought about it, Charlie, but I wanted to do this the right way, the legal way.”

“You wanted a bust.”

“That’s a really low thing to say,” Marge snapped.

Benko looked contrite. “Yeah, you’re right. Guess I’m a little nervous for Dotty and all.” He let out a jittery laugh. “Good scam you worked out, huh? Diapers for sale. I’m gonna use that.”

Marge said, “Be my guest.”

A crackling voice came through the police radio.

“What’d he say?” Benko asked.

“Shhh,” Marge said. A moment later, she looked at Benko. “We’re ready to roll.”

“Finally.”

“Sure you want to do this with me?” Marge said.

“Hell, I wanted to do this without you.” Benko stuck out his hand. “Nice goin’, Detective.”

“Thanks.” Marge shook his hand, pulled on the door handle, and pushed out the door. “Let’s do it.”