“Keep your hands on the ladder and do not turn around.”

“Officer Danny,” she said. She started to turn and he slapped the side of her face with his free hand.

“What did I say? Hands on the ladder and don’t turn around.”

“As you wish.”

He ran his hands through the pockets of her coat and then the folds of her clothing.

“You like that?” she said. “You like feeling me?”

“You want to get hit again?” he said.

“If you must hit,” she said, “hit harder.”

His hand bumped a hard bulge by her groin and he felt her body stiffen.

“I’ll assume you didn’t grow a dick, Tessa.”

He reached down her leg, then ran his hands up under her dress and chemise. He pulled the Derringer from the waistband of her underwear and pocketed it.

“Satisfied?” she said.

“Not by a fair sight.”

“What about your dick, Danny?” she said, the word coming out “deke,” as if she were trying it out for the first time. Although, from experience, he knew she wasn’t.

“Raise your right leg,” he said.

She complied. “Is it hard?”

She wore a gunmetal-lace boot with a Cuban heel and black velveteen top. He ran his hand up and around it.

“Now the other one.”

She lowered her right leg. As she raised the left, she bumped her ass back against him. “Oh, it is. Very hard.”

He found the knife in her left boot. It was small and thin but, he had little doubt, very sharp. He pulled it out with the crude scabbard attached and pocketed it beside the gun.

“Would you like me to lower my leg or do you want to fuck me where I stand?”

He could see his breath in the cold. “Fucking you ain’t in my plans tonight, bitch.”

He ran his hand up her body again and heard her take slow even breaths. Her hat was a broad-brimmed crepe sailor with a red ribbon across the brim tied off into a bow at the front. He removed it and stepped back from her and ran his hand over the trim. He found two razor blades tucked beneath the silk and he tossed them to the alley along with the hat.

“You dirtied my hat,” she said. “Poor, poor hat.”

He placed a hand on her back and removed all the pins from her hair until it spilled down her neck and back and then he threw the pins away and stepped back again.

“Turn around.”

“Yes, master.”

She turned and leaned back against the ladder and crossed her hands at the waist. She smiled and it made him want to slap her again.

“You think you will arrest me now?”

He produced a pair of handcuffs from his pocket and dangled them from his finger.

She nodded and the smile remained. “You are no longer a police officer, Danny. I know these things.”

“Citizen’s arrest,” he said.

“If you arrest me, I’ll hang myself.”