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Department.

    "I saw the suspect and made pursuit. I lost him in the woods about a mile east of here." Theo decided he wasn't going to mention what he'd actually seen. His credibility was thin enough with the sheriff's department.

    "Why didn't you call it in? We should have units all over the area."

    "I did. You do."

    "I didn't hear the call go in."

    "I called it in on my cell. My radio's broken."

    "Why don't I know about it?"

    Theo raised his eyebrows as if to say, Perhaps because you're a big no-necked dumb-ass. At least that's what he hoped the gesture said.

    Metz looked at the radio on his belt, then turned to disguise his action as he turned a switch. Immediately the voice of the dispatcher came on, calling out for the shift commander. Metz keyed the mike clipped to the epaulet of his uniform shirt and identified himself.

    Theo stood by, trying not to smile as the dispatcher reported the entire situation again. Theo wasn't worried about the two units that were headed to the woods up by the chapel. He was sure they weren't going to find anyone. Whoever the guy in black was, he had a way of disappearing, and Theo didn't even want to think of the means by which he did it. Theo had gone back to the chapel, where he'd caught a glimpse of the blond man moving through the woods before he was gone again. Theo had called home to make sure that Molly was okay. She was.

    "Can I talk to the kid?" Theo asked.

    "When the EMTs are done looking at him," Metz said. "The mother's on the way. She was out to dinner with the boyfriend in San Junipero. Kid seems okay, just real shaken up, some bruises on his arms where the suspect picked him up, but no other injuries I could see. Kid couldn't say what the guy wanted. There's no property missing."

    "You get a description?"

    "The kid keeps giving us names of characters from video games for comparison. What do we know from 'Mung-fu, the Vanquished'? You get a good look at him?"

    "Yeah," Theo said, forcing a lump out of his throat, "I'd say Mung-fu is pretty accurate."

    "Don't fuck with me, Crowe."

    "Caucasian, long blond hair, blue eyes, clean-shaven, six foot two, one-eighty, wearing a black duster that goes to the ground. I didn't see his shoes. Dispatch has it all." Theo kept thinking of the deep gouges in the blond guy's cheeks. He had started to think of him as the "ghost-bot." Video games – right.

    Metz nodded. "Dispatch says he's on foot. How'd you lose him?"

    "The woods are thick up there."

    Metz was looking at Theo's belt. "Where's your weapon, Crowe?"

    "I left it in the car. Didn't want to scare the kid."

    Without a word, Metz stepped over to Theo's Volvo and opened the passenger-side door. "Where?"

    "Pardon?"

    "Where in your unlocked car is your weapon?"

    Theo felt the last of his energy flow out of him. He just wasn't good at confrontation. "It's at my house."

    Metz smiled now like the bartender had just announced pitchers all around, on the house. "You know, you might be the perfect guy to go after this suspect, Theo."

    Theo hated it when the sheriffs called him by his first name. "Why's that, Joseph?"

    "The kid said he thought the guy might be retarded."

    "I don't get it," Theo said, trying not to grin.

    Metz walked away shaking his head. He climbed into his cruiser, then as he was backing past Theo, the passenger window whirred down. "Write up a report, Crowe. And we need to get a description of this guy to the local schools."

    "It's Christmas break."

    "Dammit, Crowe, they'll be going back to school sometime, won't they?"

    "So you don't think your guys will catch him, then?"

    Without another word Metz whirred up the window and whipped the cruiser out of the driveway as if he'd just received an urgent call.

    Theo smiled as he walked up to the house. Despite the excitement and terror and outright weirdness of evening, he suddenly felt good. Molly was safe, the kid was safe, the Christmas tree was up at the chapel, and there was just no rush that