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Shaw, along with Travers and Chief Garner, stood along the side of Route 4 beside the Beckford PD SUV watching an ambulance take away the injured female cop. Chief Garner sighed as its red running lights receded and then disappeared around a distant curve in the empty country road.

As the three of them looked at each other, from somewhere an owl hooted and in the silence that followed, they could hear the humming gush of the nearby falls.

“She has a concussion,” Chief Garner said.

Who cared, Shaw thought.

“She’s lucky to be alive,” Travers said.

Not the only one , thought Shaw as he remembered the roof landing on the BearCat’s windshield.

They looked at each other again. There was a feeling in the air like after losing a football game.

And it was Shaw himself who had blown it. He was the one who’d blown the crucial end zone tackle and let a runner slot through the gap.

They had gotten the Irish beauty, but the cop was nowhere to be seen. He was in the wind.

“Any description of the van they left in before Blondie didn’t do her job?” Shaw said.

“None,” said Chief Garner with a scowl.

“Where’s Doherty?”

“At police headquarters,” Garner said.

The cop had cut out on her, Shaw thought. After all that tough talk, too. Typical. Talk was cheap.

Or maybe he had drowned in the water? Shaw thought, suddenly hopeful. A body would wash up in a day or two? He had successfully shot apart the cable and the fall into the river was a doozy.

As if he could be so lucky with this snake bit job, Shaw thought.

“And we’re positive she doesn’t have a video on her? A phone? Maybe a thumb drive?” Shaw said.

“Positive,” Garner said. “I frisked her myself.”

Shaw allowed himself a groan. He’d been through the ringer all right. And not just mentally either, he thought as he rubbed his shoulder where the Barrett had kicked it. It felt sore, tender. The skin there, no doubt, was already black and blue. He’d once dislocated an elbow and now he wondered if he’d done the same to his shoulder.

He was exhausted and had the beginning of a splitting headache.

Smooth this job was not.

Shaw looked at Chief Garner, who was staring at him.

“Sorry for getting overheated with you back there, Chief,” Shaw said. “You, too, Travers.”

Garner gave a sweeping gesture with his hand.

“Forgotten. We’re all stressed out. Now what?” he said.

Shaw crossed his arms and held a fist to his chin like The Thinker .

Oh, well. They had failed. It happened. He wasn’t a miracle worker. Besides, this wasn’t over. Just round one of however many rounds it took.

They would have company analysts on the cop now, evaluating any and all possibilities. They had access to all the databases.

Shaw would pay the cop a visit soon enough. Or one of his relatives. It was a matter of when not if. They’d get back the evidence whatever it was. They always did.

“We keep getting calls from Doherty’s law firm,” Garner said. “They want to know what the hell is going on.”

Suddenly, they all looked up as there was a sound. The rotor chop of a helicopter approaching became louder and louder.

“I wouldn’t worry about that,” Shaw said. “Just stonewall them. Money will change hands. It always does.”

“And the press?”

“Same deal. They can use money, too, last time I checked. There’s nothing to be nervous about. It’s all negotiable. We did our bit. Let the higher-ups do theirs.”

“What should we do with her?”

“Doherty?”

“Yes.”

“Get rid of her.”

They looked at each other. Then back at him.

“My job is getting after the cop,” Shaw said. “So, you boys are going to have to do the mop-up yourselves. We all have to pitch in on this one.”

They heard the helicopter louder now.

Travers’s and Garner’s jaws dropped as the Sikorsky Shaw had arrived in landed right in the middle of Route 4.

“That’s my ride, boys,” Shaw said, giving them a salute. “Pleasure working with you again. See you around.”