“God! God!” Rhoad shrieked as she doggedly followed his every move, on his heels, killing him. “Let go! Please! Please! Ahhhhhhhhh! AHHHHHHHH!”

The crowd was frenzied.

“Go, girlfriend!”

“Yank it hard!”

“Get him!”

“In the nuts! Hooo-a hooo-a hooo-a!”

“Hey! Punch her! Man, fucking poke her eyes out!”

“Yeah! Knock her nose to the back of her head so she can smell her ass!”

“Pull that banana off the tree, girlfriend!”

“Shift him into neutral, baby!”

“Let go, fatso!”

“Untie his balloon!”

“Go, girl!”

The crowd cheered on as a gleaming black stretch limousine and two unmarked black Caprices with multiple antennas floated across Broad Street. The convoy pulled off to the side of 10th Street, making way for two cruisers with flashing lights and screaming sirens. Other police cars were screeching in from Marshall and Leigh. A fire truck wailed and rumbled along Clay.

• • •

Jed was desperate to jump out of the limousine and get involved. The cops must be after a fugitive, someone on the FBI’s ten most wanted list, maybe a serial killer. Clearly, the fat lady was a psycho of some sort, and it was obvious that the uniformed officers could not restrain her.

“What’s going on?” Governor Feuer inquired over the intercom.

“Some wacko woman, probably high on PCP or crack. Wow, look at her go, like a damn pit bull! She’s got half a dozen cops playing Ring Around the Rosie and falling on their butts!”

The governor made his way to the other side of the black leather horseshoe-shaped seat that could comfortably accommodate six. He strained to see over the back of Jed’s big head.

Governor Feuer was startled by the obese woman flying after a tall, rather elderly skinny cop. A pair of handcuffs dangled off one of her wrists and her free hand was shoved up the poor fellow’s crotch. She was twisting and crushing, cursing, kicking. She was whirling and swinging the loose handcuff like a numchaku, scattering arriving troops.

“Wow!” Jed exclaimed.

“How awful,” said the governor. “How perfectly awful.”

“We need to do something, sir!”

Governor Feuer agreed, his anger rising. There was nothing funny about this. There was nothing entertaining about violence. He jerked open his car door. Before Jed or EPU police could stop him, the governor popped the trunk and snatched out a fire extinguisher.

He ran into the melee and to the astonishment of all blasted Patty Passman with Halon 1301. Shocked, she released Rhoad. Cops tackled her to the ground. Four EPU police officers quickly escorted Governor Feuer back to his limousine.

“Way to go, sir!” Jed was very proud of his commander-in-chief.

The governor checked his black cashmere pinstripe suit for a Halon residue, but the miracle extinguisher left not a trace. He watched the cuffed, crazed woman as she was stuffed into the back of a patrol car. The poor officer was on his knees in the middle of the street, clutching himself and crying. The media was rolling in, advancing with television cameras and microphones like drawn swords.