“Anyone know you took it from the crime scene?”

“No, I was alone.”

“What about the gun’s owner?” Woodhouse asked.

“Dead. I took it before the techs got there.”

“Can it be traced to a dealer? There’ll be a bill of sale.”

“Not without a serial number.”

“You’ll get blowback on your clothes.”

“I’ll throw them out.”

“What if someone walks up while you’re doing it? You shoot them, too? A hundred things can go wrong. Partridge sees you and drives away. You miss. You hit him and don’t kill him. He falls on the car horn.”

“That won’t happen,” Mahler said.

“It could. Haven’t you sat across the table from a hundred idiots who thought what you’re thinking? They always screw up. You’ll screw up.”

“That’s just it. They don’t always screw up. Look at Partridge. We never found a single piece of direct evidence. He killed those girls, maybe more, in daylight in a public park.”

The smoker dropped his cigarette on the sidewalk and stepped on it. The man leaned back and looked up at the night sky. Mahler wanted to be him, looking as far into the sky as he could.

“Guess who’s going to be lead investigator?” Woodhouse said. “You are. You’ll have to pretend not to know what you know. A hundred chances to say something wrong.”

“It’s not that complicated.”

“Rivas and Coyle, and this new smart one, Eden Somers, will be on the case, too. They know you want this guy. What’s your story going to be? Where were you at the time of the killing, Lieutenant Mahler?”

“I’ll be at Tristan’s every night,” Mahler said, “watching a game at the bar. That night I’ll leave my spot at the bar at nine thirty and go to the can. Be back by ten fifteen.”

“You’re screwed. You’ll spend the rest of your life in prison, with every dirtbag you sent there.”

Mahler shrugged. “But Partridge’ll be dead.”

“Can’t argue with that. But what if you’re wrong? What if he’s not the guy? Then what? It’s okay because he’s a worthless piece of shit?”

“Come on, Tommy. You know he’s the guy.”

“Maybe, but that doesn’t give me the right to kill him. What gives you that right? Because you’re a cop? Because you have the skills?”

“Because I saw the girls.”

“I saw them, too. And forty others. Still doesn’t give me the right. After this, you’ll never look at suspects the same.”