“Lemme get up,” Donofrio said.

The four squadmen stepped closer to Donofrio as he tried to lift himself from the floor. He made it to his knees and Heeley put a hand on his shoulder, holding him down.

“Please lemme get up,” Donofrio wheezed. “Lemme have him one more time. I’ll get it out of him.”

“No you won’t,” McDermott told the Italian. “You’re gonna let me handle this. You interfere again, I’ll take you apart. I mean that.”

Donofrio lowered his head. He shut his eyes tightly and let out another wheeze. Then he was quiet.

Corey said to McDermott, “What is all this? I don’t get none of this.”

“You want it explained?” McDermott said mildly.

“I wanna know where I’m at,” Corey said. “I’m beginning to think this is room number five in the Crazy House.”

“This is room 529 in City Hall,” McDermott said. “We got you here for interrogation.”

“Concerning what?”

“You don’t know? You really don’t know?”

“There’s nothing I can tell you, Sergeant. You’re gonna hafta tell me.

“All right,” McDermott said quietly. “What happened, we got a phone call. I’d say around eight-thirty. Or maybe closer to nine. I’m not sure. Anyway, it was nobody we knew. She wouldn’t give her name.”

“She?”

“Maybe a he-she, but I don’t think so. Anyway, that don’t matter. It’s only what she said that matters. She said she wanted Night Squad. I tell her to go ahead and she says there’s a member of the Night Squad getting shot at in the swamplands just off Sixth and Ingersoll. I tell her to go get her head examined and she says the squadman’s name is Corey Bradford and he’s outnumbered and if we don’t hurry he ain’t gonna come outta there alive.”

“That’s what she said?”

“That’s exactly what she said. Then she hung up. We jump into a car and make it to Sixth and Ingersoll and then we’re in the swamplands and we hear the shooting. We move in. We get in closer, we see them. But first they musta seen us, or heard us coming in. It’s five of them and they don’t wanna know from conversation. All they wanna do is get outta there. We gave them a warning shot and they kept moving. So then we really start shooting and they shoot back. We got two of them. They got Ferguson.”

Corey was looking at the wall behind the desk. He told himself to look directly at the detective-sergeant. He tried, but couldn’t do it.