Then he moved toward the door. It still stood open, and he strained to hear anything that might give away Rasmussen’s position. The floorboards, which had creaked and groaned every time Hazard moved, were now silent. Another minute ticked by. Then another. Then the clock gonged, and music played softly, just a short snatch of sound marking the half hour.

From the stairs came the soft click and whiz of someone spinning a revolver’s cylinder. Hazard didn’t bother with quiet; he grabbed the empty twin bed and shoved it in front of the door; it coasted easily over the linoleum, and as soon as it was in place, Hazard grabbed Dulac and dragged the younger man to the floor. Hazard dropped down next to him, both of them lying flat, Hazard on his belly with the Blackhawk aimed at the door.

The door rattled in its frame; she was jiggling the handle. Then it opened an inch, caught up against the bed, and stopped. A sliver of light showed from the room beyond.

“Son,” Rasmussen said in the same rough-and-tough voice Hazard remembered from the hospital, “you are fucked.”

“I’ve already called the police. They’re on their way.”

Rasmussen sighed. “I bet you’ve got a gun in there with you, don’t you?”

Hazard settled lower onto the floor, his chin grinding against particles of dust on the linoleum.

“And what are the police going to think when they get here?” Rasmussen said. “I live here; what’s your excuse?”

Hazard tried to pin down where she was standing. Directly behind the door? It seemed unlikely she’d make such a poor tactical decision, but then, she was a nurse, not a soldier. Maybe she wasn’t as cool as she sounded. Maybe she was panicked. Her voice sounded like it was coming from directly behind the door, so Hazard lined up the shot and waited.

“The way I see it,” she said, “you broke in here, you and your buddy looking for dope. You knew I was a nurse, so you thought maybe I’d have something around the house. Your buddy shot up just before I got home, and you lost your mind. Barricaded yourself in here and threatened to kill me. I’m a single woman; I live alone. Of course I’ve got the means to protect myself, officer. I just never thought I’d have to use it. I’ll tell them you were coming out of the room, of course. I’ll tell them I feared for my life.”

“They’ll be here in ten minutes,” Hazard said. “And I’ve got video footage of you taking Dulac from his apartment.”

The silence that followed lasted ten seconds, maybe fifteen.

“Damn it,” Rasmussen said. “You make one wrong choice, and the rest of your life, you’re trying to get out from under it.”

Then she fired. The muzzle flare was muffled by the door, but it still lit up the room. The clap of the gunshot was deafening in the small space. The bullet punched a hole through the door’s paneling, leaving a hole the size of a grape. Through that hole, Hazard could see the dark shape of a body.