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John!—and said to its supposed owner, “I see you already moved yours. Where is it, around the corner?” But he did not wait for an answer, putting the cruiser into a slow roll as he spoke. “Okay, now try to keep out of harm’s way for a while.”
    Whether the last was said ironically John could not tell as he turned and saw that, as he had wanted to predict, person or persons unknown had driven Richie’s car away. It might be a routine matter nowadays for the Samaritan to be punished, but it did not usually happen so quickly after the commission of the good deed. For helping the red-haired woman Richie had received an even more negative reward than John had got for coming to
his
aid.
    John ran to the compact. Richie had just climbed in behind the wheel.
    “Somebody stole your car!”
    Richie smiled and said, “Relax.”
    “He can’t have gotten far—”
    The redhead was in the passenger’s seat. She stared at the back of Richie’s head in an apparent mixture of emotions, of which apprehension would seem to be one. Now she asked, “Does it run? If it does, I can take it from here.”
    Richie ignored her. To John he said, “Then somebody did me a favor. You saw the trouble I had with that piece of crap. Now I can claim the insurance.” He winked. “Come on, climb in.”
    “Yeah,” said the young woman, straining to be seen. “Come on along.
Please?
”
    “I can’t,” John told them. “I have to get home. I don’t have any business being here in the first place.” It seemed like hours since he had answered the knock on the door. While at home on his day off, he never wore a watch, so he now did not know the precise time, but he had been away long enough for Joanie to wonder what had become of him, perhaps even to worry.
    “See,” said Richie, jerking his head in reference to the woman, “everybody wants you.”
    It occurred to John that the redhead might have madeRichie the same proffer she had presented to himself. In truth, it would only be fair: he had certainly saved her bacon with the cop. But perhaps she now had second thoughts. Richie irritated him, but being the more physically powerful, John hardly felt threatened. A woman, however, might have another point of view.
    “Do you live near here?” he asked her. “Or are you going someplace nearby? If it’s close, I’ll ride along. But then I definitely am going home.”
    Instead of answering him, the woman anxiously addressed the back of Richie’s head. “Listen, give me that summons. I’m not going to let you pay for what I did.”
    Richie said to John, “You’ve
got
to let me give you that lift home. Your leg is getting worse.”
    He was quite right, and John was amazed, even flattered, that the man could notice such a matter in the midst of what had happened—when even John himself had been distracted from it. Nevertheless, he intended to part company without further compromises.
    “On second thought,” he said, “I think I’ll just get a cab.” But so as not to be too stark, he asked, with a smirk of incredulity, “Are you really just going to let your car be stolen like that?”
    Richie made a speculative moue. “It’s already been done. I wouldn’t have any idea where to look by now.”
    Behind him the woman was gesturing forcefully at John, but John did not know what she wanted except perhaps to inveigle him into an uncomfortable situation. His conscience was clear: she had not bothered to answer his question.
    To Richie he said, “I meant, at least report it to the police?”
    “The
police?”
Richie asked derisively. “They are probably the ones who stole it! That little skunk talking to me, it was probably his partner who sneaked over there and drove itaway.” He slapped the steering wheel with his elongated fingers, which gave the impression of having more knuckles than most. “John, you and I both know it’s the police who commit most of the crime these days.”
    There was no reason to respond in any way