The Night Crew

won’t be on the job.’’
    ‘‘He doesn’t have to come after you,’’ Wyatt insisted. ‘‘All he has to do is cruise you. And if we keep you out of sight, except when you’re working—he’s gonna cruise you. He’s gonna want to see you. We ran a dozen cars last night.’’
    ‘‘And got nothing,’’ Anna said.
    ‘‘But he’ll come.’’
    They went on for a few more minutes, Wyatt pressing, Anna resisting, until Glass said, ‘‘If you saw me in the truck . . . I could be Anna.’’
    Anna and Wyatt both turned toward her, and she uncurled her legs and stood up. ‘‘We’re about the same size and weight, and our hair color’s the same,’’ she said. ‘‘I could get a pair of wire rims at Woolworth’s and take the lenses out. I’m not doing anything now, except listening to Creek pissing and moaning.’’
    Anna looked at her, then at Wyatt, then back at Glass, tilted her head. ‘‘If you’re willing, that’s a possibility.’’
    Wyatt was skeptical, but finally agreed: ‘‘If that’s the only way we can do it. Damn it, though. What’re you gonna do, Anna?’’
    Anna smiled, just a turn of the lips: ‘‘Jake and I have been trying to spend a little time together, in peace and quiet.’’
    ‘‘Oh.’’ Wyatt nodded. Behind him, Creek rolled his eyes. When Wyatt had gone to call the task force leader, Anna asked Glass, ‘‘What’d you get on Clark?’’
    Glass shook her head: ‘‘Nothing. He had his driver’s license suspended for three speeding tickets in three months. That’s it.’’
    ‘‘Yeah, I knew it,’’ Anna said. ‘‘He’s out of it.’’
    ‘‘He’s not out of it,’’ Creek insisted.
    ‘‘Creek . . .’’
    ‘‘Let’s see what Jake gets,’’ Creek said.
    They talked for a few more minutes, then Wyatt returned: ‘‘It’s all set, but Pam has gotta get to your place without being noticed.’’
    ‘‘I’ll drive her,’’ Anna said. ‘‘She can leave her car here in the hospital ramp.’’
    ‘‘All right. Coughlin will be there at nine.’’ He looked at Glass. ‘‘You be careful.’’
    Glass kissed Creek good-bye, and she and Anna left together, Glass carrying the remnants of the newspaper. Anna caught their reflection in the elevator doors as they waited: side by side, with the slight blurring in the stainless steel, they could have been mistaken for each other. Glass was perhaps an inch taller, Anna had just slightly wider shoulders. Both had short, efficient haircuts.
    So what if the guy came for her, and they took him down, and she wasn’t even there to see it? Anna touched the gun in her jacket pocket, then shook her head. No. They wouldn’t take him that way.
    ‘‘I’d hate to deal with this guy one on one,’’ Glass was saying. ‘‘Most guys, you can manipulate. But you get a guy like this . . . have you ever gotten tangled up with a guy who’s nuts?’’
    ‘‘No.’’ They got in the elevator and pushed a button.
    ‘‘When I was on the street, we got a call about a guy in a halfway house: he’d done some time on some sex offenses, mostly exhibitionism, most of it aimed at little girls,’’ Glass said. ‘‘Anyway, he was drunk, out on the street, flashing everybody who came by. When we got there, we couldn’t find him. He’d walked off. He wasn’t supposed to be dangerous or anything, so me and my partner split up, trying to find him. I walked down to this ice cream shop and stopped to ask some people at a bus stop, and he came out of the shop behind me and saw the uniform and freaked out and came up behind me and wrapped his arms around me and picked me up off the ground and started squeezing.’’
    ‘‘Jeez.’’
    ‘‘Yeah. He was huge. Strong. I felt like an egg, I felt like he could crush me. I couldn’t move my arms, I just kept trying to talk to him, but he was nuts: he had a mind like a little mean kid having a temper tantrum. I couldn’t get him to put me down, and the more I struggled, the tighter he squeezed until I couldn’t breathe.’’
    ‘‘How’d you get loose?’’
    ‘‘My partner came along, called for backup and started whacking the guy with his baton. But the guy kept turning in circles and squeezing me, and then the backup arrived and the three guys got us all down on the ground and pried his arms off. I was black and blue . . . my ribs looked like the American flag, where his arms were. Great big stripes.’’
    The elevator door opened and Anna said,