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“You figured that out all by yourself, did you?” he asked.

Then he closed his briefcase and stood up.

There is a price, Wohl thought, for being appointed police commissioner.

Commissioner Czernich waited until the mayor had left the conference room. Then, his face still showing signs of the flush that had come to it when Carlucci had humiliated him, he pointed at Lowenstein and Wohl.

“That’s the last time either one of you will pull something like that harebrained scheme you pulled this morning without coming to me and getting my permission. The last time. Am I making myself clear?”

“Yes, sir,” Wohl said.

“Whatever you say, Commissioner,” Lowenstein said.

“And I want Highway in on the protection of Mr. Monahan, Wohl. We can’t take any chances with him.”

“Yes, sir.”

Commissioner Czernich looked sternly at each man, and then marched out of his conference room.

“Remember that, Peter,” Coughlin said. “No more harebrained schemes are to be pulled without the commissioner’s permission.”

“Jesus,” Wohl said, and then laughed, “I thought that’s what he said.”

“Well, it made him happy,” Lowenstein said. “It gave him a chance to give an order all by himself.”

“Two orders,” Coughlin replied. “You heard what he told Peter. He wants Highway in on protecting Monahan.”

“That’s the exception proving the rule. That makes sense.”

“I’m not so sure,” Wohl said.

“Now you’re not making sense,” Lowenstein said.

“The first priority, agreeing with the commissioner, is to protect the Monahans. The second priority is to make the Monahans feel protected. I decided the best way I could do that, during the day, when Mr. Monahan’s at work, is with two plainclothes officers in an unmarked car. A blue-and-white sitting in front of Goldblatt’s all day would give people the impression we’re afraid of the ILA—” He interrupted himself. “That’s dangerous. Did you hear what I said?”

“I heard,” Lowenstein said.

“I called these scumbags the ILA. I don’t want to get in the habit of doing that.”

“No, we don’t,” Coughlin agreed.

“There is another car, a blue-and-white, with uniformed officers, at his house,” Wohl went on. “There will be one there, twenty-four hours a day, from now on. That will reassure Mrs. Monahan, and if an associate of these felons should happen to ride by the Monahan house, they will see the blue-and-white.”

“Okay,” Lowenstein said. “I see your reasoning. So what are you going to do?”

“Obey the order he gave me,” Wohl said. “Have a Highway car meet Washington and the unmarked car at Goldblatt’s and go with them when they bring Mr. Monahan here to the Roundhouse. Unless I heard the commissioner incorrectly, he only said he wanted ‘Highway in on protecting Mr. Monahan.’”

“You’re devious, Peter. Maybe you will get to be commissioner one day.”

“I’m doing the job the best way I can see to do it,” Wohl said.

“I think you’re doing it right,” Coughlin said.

“We won that encounter in there, Peter,” Lowenstein said. “I think Czernich expected both of us to be drawn and quartered. I think Czernich is disappointed. So watch out for him.”

“Yeah,” Wohl said.

“I’d appreciate being kept up-to-date on what’s happening,” Coughlin said.