'Why'd you shoot them?' the first cop said.
'They tried to shoot me.'
'You know who they are?'
'No.'
'You see this, lady?'
'Yes,' Susan said.
'I'm with him. We were walking Pearl when these two men and another one came at us and tried to kill him.'
'Pearl's the dog?'
'Yes.'
'Where's the other shooter?'
'He got away in a waiting car,' Susan said.
The first cop stepped away from me. He was older than his partner with longish gray hair, wearing the kind of translucent eyeglasses that they used to issue in the army.
'Three guys come to shoot you, two of them get killed and the third one runs away,' the older cop said.
'Don't usually happen that way.'
'It was exciting,' I said.
'I'll bet it was,' he said.
'You got a permit for the piece?'
'Yes.'
'ID?'
'Yes, in my wallet, left hip pocket.'
He took out my wallet, found my licenses: gun, private, and driver's. He studied them. He looked at my ID picture in the car headlights and then looked at me carefully. Then he put everything back in my wallet and slipped the wallet into my back pocket. A second patrol car came down the mall from Exeter Street, a third one pulled in behind the first one from Dartmouth Street, and Frank Belson got out of an unmarked car parked on Dartmouth Street and walked up the mall toward us. The scene was now lit like an opera set. Belson spoke to the older of the first two cops.
'I was in the area. Whaddya got, Chick?'
'Guy shot two guys, claims self-defense, girlfriend's a witness.'
Belson looked at me.
'Oh shit,' he said.
Then he looked at Susan and Pearl and walked over and patted Pearl's head.
'Excuse my language,' he said to Susan.
'I will not,' she said.
'It's fucking disgusting.'
Belson nodded and grinned at her and turned.
Chick said, 'You know him, Frank?'
'Yeah.'
'He's a private detective.'
'I know. You can take the cuffs off.'
'He shot two guys,' Chick said.
'You got him under arrest?'
'No.'
'You gonna arrest him?'
'I'll leave that up to you.'
'Take off the cuffs.'
Chick unlocked the cuffs, and put them back in their little case on his belt. I resisted the temptation to rub my wrists, too trite.
Susan and Pearl came over to stand beside me. I put an arm around her shoulder. Belson turned to the other detective who had walked down behind him.
'You better get Quirk,' he said.
The dick nodded and headed back to the car. Belson turned toward Chick and his partner.
'You should probably have your hats on when Quirk gets here,' he said.
