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"You been through this?" he asked.
"It goes on for goddamned ever," Matt said, and then added, " Christ, I'll be there all night too, and I didn't even see what happened."
The lieutenant met his eyes.
"You want to go, get out of here, now."
Matt had a quick mental image of Mrs. Glover, who looked to be on the edge of hysteria, getting carried down to the Homicide Bureau, in the Roundhouse, in a district wagon and then sitting around until one of the Homicide detectives had time to take her statement.
"I'm with somebody," Matt said. "A woman."
"Get out of here now, then," the lieutenant repeated. "Homicide, or the brass, will be coming in on this any minute."
"I owe you one," Matt said, and trotted back to where he had left Mrs. Glover lying on the floor.
She was still lying on the floor.
"It's all right," he said, and reached down and helped her to her feet. "Did you see anything? Anything at all?"
She shook her head, no.
"I told them you're with me," he said.
There was confusion in her eyes.
"We can go. Otherwise, you'll be taken to the Roundhouse and be there for hours."
"Are you a policeman or something?" she asked incredulously.
"I'm a detective," he said. "You all right? Can you walk?"
"I'm all right," she said. "What do we do about the groceries?"
"Leave them," he said, and took Mrs. Glover's arm and led her out the front of the store.
"Oh, my God!" Mrs. Glover said. "That's my car!"
And then she was clinging to him, whimpering. She had looked at the ground beside her car, where the second robber Stakeout had taken down was on his back in the middle of a spreading pool of blood. He had taken a load, Matt decided, maybe two loads, of double aught buckshot.
Well, that blows any chance we had to get away from here. Shit!
SIX
"My car's over there," Matt said, and started to lead Mrs. Glover toward it.
Mrs. Glover seemed to want the reassurance of his arm around her, and stayed close to him. He was very much aware of her body against his.
He put her in the car.
"Listen," he said. "We can't leave now. Let me go talk to the lieutenant, and I'll come back."
The lieutenant told him there was nothing he could do now but wait for Homicide and the brass to show up.
That means instead of Mother's western omelet, I will have to find sustenance in a cup of coffee in a paper cup, and if I'm lucky, a stale doughnut.
The first Homicide detective to arrive at the crime scene was Detective Joe D'Amata. Matt knew him. He waited until D'Amata had taken a quick look around inside, and then gone to the body in the parking lot, and then walked up to him.
"Hey, Joe."
