Hoolihan turned to them slowly, nodded toward Mia and Juliet, eyed Tommy. “You freaking feds always travel in packs, don’t you? This one”—he shook his head in Sherlock’s direction—“tells me the New York City mayoral candidate Alex Harrington is not only a suspect, along with the guy who’s in surgery with two bullets in his back, but that candidate Harrington himself might have even been the one who shot him, afraid the guy would roll on him? Let’s give the poor schmuck a name—Kent Harper. As to her”—he gave Sherlock a dismissive glance—“I hope you’re going to tell me you’ve never seen her before and she’s barking nuts. Yeah, sure, I know who she is, who cares?” He ran his hand over his bald head, a longtime habit, back from when he had hair.

Tommy said calmly, stepping closer to look Hoolihan in the eye, “If you know about Agent Sherlock, you know she’s brave as a lion, which should make you realize there had to be circumstances outside her control. I also overheard you’ll be calling your lieutenant, who will of course contact his captain, and up it goes to police commissioner—”

Hoolihan looked pained as he said, “Up to the freaking current mayor.” He glanced at Sherlock. “Circumstances? She admitted she screwed up.”

Tommy continued, “You probably would have, too, if you’d been on her watch and in her shoes.”

“She shouldn’t have been alone!”

Sherlock said, “Detective Hoolihan is right. I should have known it was possible, Tommy, but I didn’t think it through. If Harper dies, it’s on my head.”

Mia wasn’t about to remind her that both she and Juliet had wanted to go with Sherlock and she’d been appalled to think of taking two civilians on a stakeout. Would there have been a different outcome? Very likely not.

Tommy said simply, “Then it’s on our heads as well; none of us gave a thought to there being a real threat, just Harper running. What’s done is done. Stop wallowing or I’ll call Savich and he’ll read you the riot act.”

“I already did,” Sherlock said, frowning. “I got his voice mail and that’s never happened before.”

Tommy turned back to Hoolihan. “There’s going to be a huge ruckus and the mayor will decide how to deal with it. He needs as much warning as he can get.” Tommy looked down at his watch.

Hoolihan wanted to punch this good-looking kid who looked to be younger than his own son. “When I get back, the four of you better be here.” He wagged a finger at all of them, turned on his heel, and marched out of the room, cursing under his breath, his cell phone in his hand.

Tommy said, “Sherlock, tell us what happened before our charming Detective Hoolihan comes back.”