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sp; “I said ‘ordinarily,” Wohl said. “There’s always an exception.”

“Because I was with him? Or because I’m with WCBL-TV?”

‘ ‘How about a little bit of both?” Wohl replied evenly. “In this case, what I’m going to do is have an officer drive you home.”

I have the authority to let her get away from here, to send her away, Wohl thought. The commissioner said, “Do what you have to do about the woman,” but I didn’t have to. I wonder why I did?

“I’m not going home,” she said. “I’m going to the studio.”

“Yes, of course,” he said. “Then to the studio, and then home. Then, in an hour or so, when things have settled down a little, I’ll arrange to have some officers come to the station, or your house, and take you to the Roundhouse for your statement.”

“I don’t need anybody to drive me anywhere,” Louise said, almost defiantly.

“I think maybe you do,” Wohl said. “You’ve gone through an awful experience, and I really don’t think you should be driving. And we owe you one, anyway.”

She looked at him, as if she’s seeing me for the first time, Wohl thought.

“I didn’t get your name,” she said.

“Wohl, Peter Wohl,” he said.

“And you’re a policeman?”

“I’m a Staff Inspector,” he said.

“I don’t know what that is,” she said. “But I saw you ordering that captain around.”

“I didn’t mean to do that,” he said. “But right now, I’m the senior officer on the scene.”

She exhaled audibly.

“All right,” she said. “Thank you. All of a sudden I feel a little woozy. Maybe I shouldn’t be driving.”

“It always pays to be careful,” Wohl said, and took her arm and went to the door and caught Captain McGovern’s attention and motioned him over.

“Jack, this is Miss Louise Dutton, of Channel 9. She’s been very cooperative. Can you get me a couple of officers and a car, to drive her to the studio, drive her car, too, and then take her home?”

“I recognize Miss Dutton, now,” McGovern said. “Sure, Inspector. No problem. You got it. Glad to be able to be of help, Miss Dutton.”

“Have you caught the other one, the boy?” Louise asked.

“Not yet,” Captain McGovern said. “But we’ll get him.”

“And the other one, the one who shot Captain Moffitt, was it a girl?”

“Yes, ma’am, it was a girl,” Captain McGovern said, and nodded with his head.

Louise followed the nod. A man in civilian clothing, but with a pistol on his hip, and therefore certainly a cop, was stepping around the body, taking pictures of it from all angles. And then he finished. When he did, another policeman (a detective, Louise corrected herself) bent over and with a thick chunk of yellow chalk, outlined the body on the parking lot’s macadam.

“Where’s your car, Miss Dutton?” Wohl asked.

Louise could not remember where she had left it. She looked around until she found it, and then pointed to it.

“Over there,” she said, “the yellow one.”

“Would you like to ride in your car, or in the police car?” Wohl asked.

Louise thought that over for a moment before replying, “I think my car.”