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His partner came up behind him. “Yeah, Jarman and I were both there.” The partner sounded calm, and I think worried about his partner. Good partners look after more than just your physical health.

“And you are?” I asked. I asked it like his partner, Jarman, wasn’t about to pick a fight with everyone in the hallway.

He introduced himself like everything was normal, too. “Jakes.”

“Jarman and Jakes?” I made it a question.

He nodded, smiling. “J and J at your service.”

I felt the tension easing in the big man in front of me. Hard to stay pissed when you’re being ignored, and everyone else is behaving themselves. I pressed my back into Ramirez, trying to urge him to back off. He took the hint, stepping back a little.

Officer Rigby came bounding down the hallway. He’d gone to the car to get something less explosive than his gun. What he was carrying was a Tazer gun. It would send a charge of 30,000 to 60,000 volts through a suspect. Theoretically, it could put someone down for the count without the danger of killing him. Unless you get very unlucky, like the perp has a pacemaker.

Ramirez was shaking his head. “What the hell is that for?”

Rigby looked at the Tazer. “I can’t use my gun so I’ll use this.”

“Rigby,” Jarman said, “a Tazer makes a spark.”

Rigby looked puzzled. “So?”

“If the spark when we fire a gun will set off the oxygen in the room, so will the spark from a Tazer,” Ramirez said.

“Go back to the car and find something else,” Jarman said.

Jakes and I had moved to one side, watching Ramirez and Jarman ream the rookie. No one was mad anymore, derisive, condescending, but not mad. When Rigby had disappeared through the doors at the far end of the hall, Jarman turned to Ramirez. “Is Rigby all Marks gave you for backup?”

Ramirez nodded, then shrugged. “He’ll learn.”

“And get someone killed doing it,” Jarman said.

Jakes held his hand out low, palm up. He was smiling. I gave him a low five. I was smiling, too, but not because his partner hadn’t belted a detective. I was just happy that I’d been wrong. I’d had my fill of corpses for the day. Hell, for the year.

Bernardo was leaning against the opposite wall. He seemed puzzled by my interaction with the cops. I doubt it ever occurred to Bernardo to make friends with them.

The two uniforms had batons stuck in their utility belts. Ramirez looked unarmed except for his gun. “Where’s your baton, Hernando?”

“Oooh, Hernando,” Jakes said.

“Yeah, Hernando,” Jarman said, rolling the name off his tongue, “where’s your baton?” That they were willing to give Ramirez shit meant that under normal conditions he and Jarman got along. There is a different flavor to teasing when it’s hostile. Rigby’s teasing was close to hostile, not quite, as if they weren’t sure if he were really one of them yet.

Ramirez took a short metal rod out of his hip pocket. He made a small sharp movement with his wrist, and the rod telescoped into a solid piece of metal about two feet long.

“An asp,” I said. “I didn’t notice you carrying one when we met. I’m usually pretty aware of weapons.”

He flicked the rod back into its compact size. “An asp is pretty small when it’s put away. How do you know I wasn’t carrying one?”

I opened my mouth, then closed it, and looked at him. He was grinning at me. I debated on whether to rise to the bait, or let it pass. Hell, this was the most fun I’d had all day. “Are you implying that I was staring at your butt?”

“How else would you know I didn’t have something about the size of a pen in my back pocket?” His eyes were sparkling like dark jewels, shiny with humor.

I shrugged. “Just checking for weapons.”

“That’s what they all say.”

Jarman said, “Wanna check me for weapons?”

I looked at him. “I can see your weapon from here, Jarman.”

He puffed his chest out a little, managing to strut without moving his feet an inch. “When you’re my size, it’s hard to miss.”

I looked at every man in turn and had to really fight the urge to linger on Bernardo. I was willing