Delusional

Prologue and Chapters 1-5

Deep in the woods near Millwood, New York, Thomas Wayne Owens works at his porch workbench on a summer day, surrounded by homemade electronic bug zappers and the tools of his solitary trade. His MIT master's in engineering is put to use building improvised devices, and he lives a deliberately isolated life, imagining himself like the Unabomber, trading tractor repairs for venison, trapping squirrels for dinner, and keeping the government far away from his property. A monitor beeps, showing a red Chevy pickup coming up his gravel driveway. Owens doesn't move, doesn't look up.

Three visitors emerge: a young blond woman named Kimmy, a clean-cut man in a colorful IZOD shirt named Ellis Warrenton, and a giant, greasy-haired man with old acne scars named Pry, puffing on a cigar. Owens tells him not to smoke it there. Ellis is friendly, even ingratiating, claiming they saw Owens's YouTube videos of him destroying a van and a shed with homemade explosives, videos Owens took down long ago after they made him enough money to buy his cabin. Ellis flatters him further, mentioning a magazine article Owens wrote about the government and Big Tech controlling people. Pry starts rummaging through the workbench, and Owens tells him not to bother anything. Kimmy settles in close to Owens, her bubble gum scent filling the air, and Owens lets her, enjoying the rare proximity to a woman.

Ellis makes his pitch: the world has two kinds of people, those who want to blow it up and those content to watch it burn. They're kindred spirits, he says, interested in fighting the same system, and change follows chaos, and explosions cause chaos. With Owens's help, they could make changes. Pry reaches for something he shouldn't, and the flash and pop of a blasting cap Owens had rigged in an old milk carton sends Kimmy jumping to Owens's side and Ellis ducking below the porch rail. Owens calmly explains, "That's why." Pry's two fingers land on the porch a few feet away. The big man cries out in pain, but his friends keep their cool, and Owens takes that as a good sign.

Months later, in the freezing wind of a lower Manhattan winter, NYPD Detective Mike Bennett stands outside a city annex building with his young partner, Rob Trilling, deliberately waiting before entering the crime scene. Bennett ribs Trilling about the cold, noting that Trilling is from Montana and should be used to it. Trilling is quiet as always, but he admits he doesn't know why they're standing outside in the freezing wind when the crime scene is inside. Bennett wants to give the technicians and Bomb Squad room to work, especially because this bombing may be connected to another one almost five months ago: NYPD patrol sergeant Rose Vega was blown up in her squad car in Queens, in front of her family. The brass fears a serial bomber, and the fact that two city employees have now been targeted makes that impossible to ignore. Bennett also tries to puzzle out why someone would bomb the Office of Technology and Innovation, an obscure office with no obvious rationale for an attack.

Detective Jolynn Nelson of the Violent Crimes Task Force steps out to make a phone call and then greets Bennett. She shares what she knows: one person is dead, a young clerk named Abby Boyd who worked for the city only nine months. The security system was hacked, the rear door was pried open with a pry bar, and whoever did it wore surgical gloves. But there is one clue: whoever left the smudge on the door is missing the middle and index fingers on their left hand.

Inside the blast area, Bennett surveys the damage: cracked windows, overturned desks, scorch marks, and a giant bloodstain against the wall. Nelson points out that someone put glitter in the bomb, a detail that gives Bennett pause. The device was sophisticated, far more so than the crude bomb that killed Sergeant Vega, which only killed her because it ignited her cruiser's gas tank. A group claiming to fight tyranny took credit for the Vega bombing, but no one has been able to confirm it. Trilling speaks up, suggesting the target might have been the parking ticket office, which would fit a "tyranny" narrative better than the Office of Technology. Nelson approves of his thinking. The bomb detonated at 8:10, just ten minutes after the office opened, and the surveillance went offline at 5:45 a.m. Trilling's phone chirps, and he rushes off, uncharacteristically distracted, and returns saying, "We need to talk."

In the hallway, Sergeant Paul Lester, an old colleague of Bennett's, ambles over and shares a bit of news: someone burglarized Picatinny Arsenal in New Jersey, taking C-4 and black powder that the CO used for hunting. Lester says it's probably not related, but Bennett files it away. Then Trilling asks for time off. He's reluctant, not wanting to leave Bennett shorthanded, but there's a family problem back home. His brother Gary runs a car lot outside Bozeman, Montana, started by their grandfather. Someone is trying to buy it, and Pops refuses to sell, and Gary is freaked out by the guy trying to buy it. Trilling explains that the car lot is in a tiny town his great-grandfather incorporated in the fifties, named Palm Island just to see the looks on people's faces when they discovered it wasn't an island and had no palm trees. Bennett grants the leave, telling Trilling not to worry about the case.

Driving solo to Picatinny Arsenal in New Jersey, Bennett reflects on his partner: Trilling, a quiet Army Ranger veteran with a Bronze Star for protecting a medical unit under ambush in Afghanistan, is currently hiding five Pakistani human trafficking victims in his small apartment, a situation Bennett and his family are now helping with, with assistance from Bennett's grandfather, a priest at Holy Name Church. Criminal intelligence analyst Walter Jackson calls Bennett as he pulls up to the military facility, with Bennett's young friend Trent having hacked his phone to set the Green Acres theme as his ringtone. Walter reports that the ATF and FBI are fighting over jurisdiction at the arsenal, and that the break-in might be connected to an attempted bombing of a bank in Newark months ago, a crude dud that never went off, barely noticed by anyone. At the arsenal, Bennett finds a chaotic scene: local patrol cars, ATF bomb-disposal vehicles, unmarked cars, and live news crews. He shows his badge and follows the flow of people to a windowless storage building.

A woman in jeans and an ATF raid jacket over a Yankees sweatshirt steps out and marches toward him. Special Agent Margaret Chin, called Maggie, immediately claims the scene as hers, but she already knows who Bennett is. They discuss the day's bombing, and Maggie admits she has no answers about a connection. An FBI agent, Josh, appears and tries to sidestep responsibility for evidence, and Maggie cuts him down sharply, dismissing him and his fellow agents as useless. Bennett is impressed, and he and Maggie bond over their backgrounds: she was a combat engineer who used explosives in Afghanistan and Syria, and she's assigned to Newark but lives on Staten Island. She shows him the rear of the building, where someone cut the chain-link fence and pried off a lock, and Bennett notices the same pry-bar method used at the Office of Technology. He wonders if it could be the same people, but the timing doesn't work, they couldn't have planted a bomb in Manhattan and stolen supplies here at the same time. Maggie tells him the theft wasn't even reported until today's bombing prompted the arsenal's security to file a formal report, and the break-in likely happened three to five days ago, during a blind spot in the video surveillance. The inventory isn't finished, but they know what was taken: C-4, a loose artillery round, and a keg of black powder, the kind used for loading old-fashioned rifles.

Chapters 6-11

Tom Owens keeps all the electronics and explosives in his room. He found the group a safe house in Yonkers by hacking into Airbnb rental records and blacking out dates so the property stays empty. He hoards his supplies in a doorless closet: a steel container of C-4 and a big keg of black powder. He understands black powder and knows he can do impressive things with it.

Kimmy shows up at his door wrapped in a blanket and asks to come in. She admires his computer skills and sits on his bed. Owens feels awkward with compliments. He's never been good with people. Pry, the giant man whose real name is Leonard, looms in the doorway and challenges Kimmy for being in Tom's bedroom. Owens nervously says he doesn't mind talking to her. Kimmy pushes back at Pry, reminding him that Tom found them this nice house with heat, unlike the storage locker. Pry growls and stomps off. Owens asks if Pry is her boyfriend. She says no. She sits closer, puts an arm around him, and praises him for the bomb he built and planted at the Office of Technology and Innovation. She calls it genius and says he will do great things. She kisses his cheek, and Owens feels his face flush.

He agrees with her. Their first lesson to society about the dangers of technology was almost flawless, though he's sorry no customers were inside the office. The death of the young clerk, Abby something, has gotten huge media attention, and CNN even speculated about a disgruntled citizen. Owens thinks most New Yorkers are disgruntled, and the media makes little sense. He wonders what he can do to make an even bigger statement: collapse a road? Bring down a building? He glances at his supplies and imagines building a bomb that will truly take over the news cycle.

Detective Mike Bennett is encouraged to work with ATF Special Agent Maggie Chin, trusting her pledge to share results. He leaves Picatinny Arsenal and heads to Brooklyn late in the afternoon to interview Joyce Boyd, the mother of Abby Boyd, the bombing victim. When Joyce Boyd opens the door, she looks exhausted from weeping. Bennett sits and lets her talk rather than rushing. She heartbreakingly tells him she lost her son five years earlier, then asks how anyone could do such a thing. Bennett reflects on his own early days as a cop, discovering a homeless man beaten in an alley and asking the same question. His partner's answer sticks with him: imagine what it would be like without us around. He sees a photo of Abby at sixteen holding a soccer ball, and it reminds him of his own daughters.

Mrs. Boyd tells him Abby had dated a nice young man named Jimmy Pinter for most of the past year, but they broke up last month. Jimmy took it hard. He even came by with roses and was shaken to find Abby out. Bennett asks what Jimmy does for a living. Mrs. Boyd says he's some kind of construction manager on bigger sites in Manhattan. That gives Bennett pause. Who controls explosives on big construction sites? Usually a construction manager. He has his first lead.

Jimmy Pinter's company has three active sites in Manhattan: one small, one halted due to OSHA violations, and one sprawling site in lower Manhattan near the FDR. While crossing the Manhattan Bridge, Bennett gets a call from Terri Hernandez, the Bronx-based homicide detective he loves working with. She has just been cleared of a complaint about being too aggressive during an interview. Bennett asks for her help, and she agrees. When they meet at the construction site, Hernandez asks about his partner, Rob Trilling, and Bennett explains he had a family issue and is on leave. Hernandez still grumbles about the young officer being green, but she admits he has good reflexes, remembering how he saved an old woman and her granddaughter from a speeding van.

The construction site is busy and loud. Construction workers shout and whistle at Hernandez as they search for Jimmy Pinter. None of the workers they ask gives them a straight answer. One man makes a rude sexual gesture at Hernandez, and this pushes her over the edge. She grabs the heavyset man by the collar, spins him around, and dresses him down without raising her voice, calling him a douchebag and shaking him like a dog with a toy. Terrified, the man blurts out that Jimmy Pinter likes to eat at a sandwich shop called Mr. Submarine. Hernandez makes him swear not to warn Pinter, then lets him go. She never even had to say she was a cop. Bennett asks if it's always like this. Hernandez says this is particularly bad, and she has already trained most of the men in the Bronx not to act that way. Bennett can only admire her.

By the time Bennett gets home, he is deeply exhausted. Rodney, the doorman, greets him and asks if he was involved in "that foolishness downtown," mentioning a web series on modern politics and philosophy his girlfriend subscribed him to. Bennett hands Rodney an untouched turkey sub from Mr. Submarine. Rodney mentions Larry, the rail-thin former custodian, called in sick after going overboard on his birthday. Rodney plans to have a conversation with him later. Bennett heads upstairs.

At home, dinner is over, and the kids are doing homework. He greets each of his ten children plus his wife, Mary Catherine, who is pregnant with their first child together. His three youngest are working on math. He can manage Shawna and Chrissy's homework and barely keep up with Trent's. The twins Fiona and Bridget are doing algebra, and no matter what Bennett suggests, they explain why he's wrong. Mary Catherine rescues him, and he slinks away. He sits beside her on the couch and jokes that Sister Sheilah sends extra algebra to frustrate him. Mary Catherine, with her Irish accent, teases that the Catholic Church wants him to regret not studying more.

Juliana, his college-aged daughter, bursts in and demands to know why he didn't tell her Rob was going to Montana. She and Rob have been dating, though Bennett is still unsure how serious it is. Juliana is frustrated that Rob called from the airport and she didn't get answers. She hopes he's back for the opening night of her new show. Ricky, playing video games with Eddie, mockingly calls it "Burning Cat on the Ceiling," and Juliana glares. She tells them she's going to help Rob's roommates with doctors' appointments tomorrow, and Mary Catherine lets her take the van. Bennett watches the bond between his daughter and his wife and feels lucky to have this family.

Later that night, after the younger kids are in bed, Bennett sits at the dining room table with Mary Catherine, Juliana, and his oldest son, Brian, who still wears his uniform shirt from All City Air-Conditioning and Heating. They ask about the bombing, which has been on the news all day. Mary Catherine wonders if it's related to the car bombing in Queens over the summer. Bennett says there are similarities, but Sergeant Vega's car bomb was crude, while this one was sophisticated, despite the glitter. An unnamed group claimed responsibility for Vega's killing, but no one has come forward for this bombing. Maybe it's not even an organized group. Mary Catherine asks why the glitter. Juliana suggests they're showing off, trying to show they're not afraid of anything. Bennett jokes that her psychology classes are paying off. Mary Catherine asks if the same people could have gotten better at bomb making. Brian points out that you can find all kinds of bomb-making videos on YouTube, and even plans for a nuclear weapon if you know where to look. Bennett is impressed and notes that even police training uses YouTube videos, so they'll take that seriously. He tells his kids they could both go on the payroll. Their smiles show they still value their father's praise.

Back in Yonkers, Tom Owens sits with the group in the living room of their old, once-impressive Airbnb, watching the fifth newscast of the day. Pry plops down next to Kimmy and complains, asking for ESPN. He slips his arm around her shoulders. She scoots away slightly but doesn't remove it. Ellis tells Pry to shut up, celebrating Tom's brilliant device and enjoying the reporters blabbing about the tragedy. Pry asks if they're going to send another email through different servers claiming they stand against the government. Ellis sighs and corrects him: they are not standing against the government, but against tyranny, oppression, tech companies that control people, banks that make it impossible to get ahead, and cops who are tools of tyrants. Kimmy quietly pushes back, pointing out that the cop killed in the car explosion was married with kids, and so was the clerk caught by their bomb. Ellis gets flustered and argues that every revolution has collateral damage, then turns to Owens and says Tom is a genius who hacked the city's security system in about a minute. Owens says today worked out, but they need a much broader statement to get the entire country's attention, something even greater than Ted Kaczynski. Ellis asks what he needs. Owens says the supplies from the Army arsenal will help him make more powerful bombs. Ellis asks whether they could blow apart something really strong, like a really big safe. Owens asks why he would want to open a big safe. Ellis just smiles.

Ellis asks about opening a really big safe, and Owens wants to know why he would even want to do that. Ellis smiles, running a hand through his styled hair, and brushes it off as simple curiosity. Then he turns the question around: what would Owens use a big device for? Owens admits he is not sure yet. He has a couple of

Chapters 12-18

Chapters 12-18

Michael Bennett wakes before sunrise, his mind already on the new bombing case. Brian, his eighteen-year-old son, is up early making pancakes for the younger kids. He explains that Juliana is busy helping Rob Trilling's roommates, so he figured he could do his share. Bennett heads out, beating traffic into Manhattan and reaching the office just after seven.

When Bennett approaches Walter Jackson's office, there's a visitor. Maggie Chin, the ATF agent he met yesterday, turns and smiles. She tells him she gave Walter everything on the Picatinny Arsenal break-in and a summary of the failed Newark bank bombing. Bennett bristles slightly when she praises Walter's grasp of the case. He tells her she can help by coming along to find Abby Boyd's ex-boyfriend, Jimmy Pinter. Maggie argues that's not logical: if the ex planted the bomb as revenge, how do they connect it to the arsenal burglary? Bennett himself pointed out the pry bar used on both locks in exactly the same way. Bennett concedes the logic but insists they have to eliminate Pinter as a suspect. Maggie agrees to come along.

Meanwhile, Rob Trilling should be excited to be back in Montana. But his sense of duty makes him regret leaving Bennett on his own. He's impressed by Juliana and can barely believe she seems interested in him. At Bozeman airport, he spots his brother Gary and grandfather Chet waiting by the exit. Gary has a black eye, and when Rob asks what happened, Gary just mumbles, "I'll tell you later."

Lillian Mathis, the family car lot's bookkeeper, drives them in a high-roof van. There's an odd smell in the van, but no one else seems bothered. Lillian jokes that Rob is the smart brother for getting out of town. She asks if he has a girlfriend back in New York. Rob says there's a girl he's interested in, but she's way out of his league. Lillian tells him that's nonsense: "The right girl is the right girl. There are no leagues." Then Rob hears a noise like a giant tire hissing. A snow-white animal with a long neck pops its head through a curtain. "What is that? An alpaca?" Gary chuckles. "He's a llama, not an alpaca. Fido's been standing back there quietly." The llama started as an advertising gimmick, but Gary says Fido has turned into his therapy llama.

Rob lowers his voice so Chet won't overhear. "What's going on out here, Gary?" Gary tells him it's a Los Angeles hotshot who wants to buy the car lot. The guy won't take no for an answer, and Gary can feel something's not right. The black eye came from getting jumped outside Hildebrand's bar. They didn't take anything, just punched him. But men who work with the buyer look like gangsters, and there have been subtle threats. Gary didn't bother filing a report because little incorporated Palm Island isn't high on the sheriff's office priority list. Then Chet stares through the windshield and says there must be a fire on the prairie. Gary corrects him: "That's not the prairie. That's our car lot."

Back in New York, Bennett and Maggie huddle with Walter Jackson, going over what little they have on Jimmy Pinter. Bennett's boss, Lieutenant Harry Grissom, calls him into his office. Harry is in a foul mood. He's still annoyed Bennett approved Trilling's leave request. He tells Bennett that command staff wants him on the bombing case full-time. Bennett throws him a bone: the ATF agent in Walter's office, Maggie Chin, might have linked the bombing to the arsenal burglary. Harry asks about the plan. Bennett briefs him on everything, finishing with the need to find Jimmy Pinter. Harry asks the same question Maggie did: if the arsenal theft is linked, why waste time on an ex-boyfriend? Bennett explains the game: they have to eliminate the boyfriend as a suspect and show they weren't overly focused on a single theory. Harry pauses, then looks up: "I'm not gonna call Trilling back. But I was thinking about it. I'm not gonna give you any more shit either. Because I need you to run with this at full speed." Bennett mentions they're also searching for local nuts with the skill set to build sophisticated bombs. Harry's reply is grim: "This is New York. There's a lot more of everybody than we thought."

Lillian handles the van at high speed, tuning out Gary's shouts to go faster. Her final turn toward the car lot is erratic, the van nearly going up on two wheels. She mashes the brakes in front of the lot's office. A red Corvette sits on a pedestal, its interior on fire, spewing noxious black smoke. Rob and Gary bail out. Fido kicks wildly in the back. Gary grabs a garden hose, but it runs out fifteen feet short of the burning car. Lillian shouts that there's a fire extinguisher inside. She tosses Rob the keys. He sprints, grabs the extinguisher, jerks the safety ring out, and squeezes the handle. Nothing happens. Gary pants, "It's been a while since I had the extinguishers inspected." Rob smashes the end of the extinguisher against the asphalt. The top snaps off and white foam spouts out. He aims it at the fire. Behind him, a car horn blares. Fido is trotting down the middle of the street, causing a pickup to swerve. Chet is trying to catch up with the llama. The foam smothers the flames, and Gary beats out the last remnants with a soaked towel.

Rob chases after Fido and Chet. A pretty young woman with long jet-black hair emerges from the nearby gas station holding a large cup, and Fido turns toward her. She calmly takes hold of the loose rope on his collar. She tips out popcorn from her cup, and Fido eats from her palm. She introduces herself as Cindy. Rob says he's Gary's brother. "The New York cop? I was hoping to meet you one day." Chet strolls over and says she made a good save. She smiles and says he looks good today. Chet cocks his head. "What's your name?" She tells him, then hands him Fido's rope. As Chet calmly walks the llama back across the street, Cindy tells Rob, "He pretty much asks me my name every day."

Cindy walks back to the car lot with Rob. She knows her way around, greeting Gary and Lillian casually. Lillian explains she helps her family run the gas station when she's home on breaks from Boise State. Gary takes Fido into the office, stroking his white fur and murmuring softly. Rob feels a sting watching his brother fawn over the llama. Lillian tells Cindy about the fire. Gary asks Cindy if she saw anything. She suggests he check the security cameras out front. Lillian pulls up two feeds. Both show the same thing: a nondescript Ford pickup, and someone tossing a can with a burning rag sticking out of it into the Corvette from the passenger-side window. Gary asks Rob if he sees anything usable. Rob carefully considers: no license plate, no visible people, no distinguishing characteristic. It would be hard to make a case against anyone based on this video, but they should file a report with the sheriff's office. Cindy and Lillian both laugh. Cindy says, "Maybe we don't need any of the local cops if we've got Rob. He's a big-city detective. He'll figure something out." Rob has trouble meeting her hopeful gaze.

Harry didn't seem to be in the right mood for an introduction to Maggie Chin, and Bennett lets it go. Maggie is unlike any federal agent he's worked with: high-energy, high-focus. They climb into his car and head toward the construction site where Jimmy Pinter might be working. Maggie inspects the photos of his children on his keychain, touches every scratch on the dashboard, and fidgets in the passenger seat. She touches the Saint Christopher medal hanging from his rearview mirror. "Are you Catholic?" Bennett says he has ten children, which should tell her something. She laughs and points out she already knows all ten are adopted, so the joke doesn't land. He tells her he is a practicing Catholic. Maggie says she was raised Catholic too, but only attends at Christmas and Easter. She calls it a little hypocritical. Bennett says church isn't for everyone, but he's found it's something he can depend on.

Maggie shifts gears. She tells Bennett she talked to an FBI profiler. Her husband is an assistant US attorney for the Southern District of New York, so between his job and her ATF work, she can get pretty good access. "So what'd the profiler say about our bomber?" Maggie says the main reason someone would put glitter in a bomb like the one used at the Office of Technology and Innovation would be to show off and potentially wait in the area to see the results. Bennett tells her his daughter figured that out last night.

Maggie proposes checking security footage from the area immediately after the bomb detonated, watching for someone milling about and trying to get a look into the office. Bennett reassures her that Detective Jolynn Nelson is working the bombing case and keeping him fully updated—she's already procuring every second of footage from every building on the block. "Sounds like you trust her," Maggie says. Completely, he tells her.

Chapters 19-24

Mike Bennett and Maggie head south on the Henry Hudson, and the sight of the DEA building makes him flinch. He and Rob Trilling recently disrupted a major DEA operation, and Mike is still embarrassed about it. Maggie jokes that her husband is inside that building this week helping prepare for trial. When Mike asks if she wants to stop and say hello, she shakes her head: "I see a little too much of him as it is." Mike laughs, and her sense of humor tells him she'll fit in just fine.

They drive to the same construction site in lower Manhattan where Mike once came with Detective Terri Hernandez, hunting for information on Jimmy Pinter. The same worker recognizes him, then glances at Maggie and asks where "the really mean one" is. Mike only has to suggest bringing her back down, and the guy scurries off to find Pinter's whereabouts. Less than a minute later he returns, nearly sprinting: Jimmy is at a class at LaGuardia Community College for the rest of the day. Maggie asks what made the guy so cooperative. Mike explains it was all Hernandez, who taught him how impolite it is to harass women.

As they cross the site, another worker gives Maggie a long look. "Nice curves, baby." She doesn't say a word, doesn't change pace, doesn't even look at him. She just stiff-arms him like a running back, and he stumbles backward into a deep puddle, landing on his ass. Mike bites his lip to keep from smiling, even as water splashes up to his head. Maggie keeps walking like nothing happened.

Then the theme to Green Acres plays from Mike's phone. It's Juliana, her voice strained: "Dad, I might've messed up. We need your help." She assures him everyone is okay, and they're in Queens, a few blocks from Mount Sinai Queens. Mike knows better than to ask too many questions of his oldest daughter, who Mary Catherine always calls one cool cucumber. He pulls away from the curb abruptly.

Trouble in Queens

Blue flashing lights greet Mike a couple of blocks before the free health clinic where Juliana is waiting. A tall young uniformed officer stands by, and a second officer is off to the side with a disheveled white man in his early forties, blood running from his nose and a cut over his eye. On the other side of the patrol car, Juliana stands with the five Pakistani women who live with Rob Trilling: Sylvia, Sabiha, Ayesha, Katie, and Fareeha. They all look fine.

Mike approaches the young officer, pulls out his badge, and explains his daughter is with those women. The officer's broad smile throws him. "You don't recognize me, do you?" Mike looks closer, then places him: Scott Sharp, son of a retired cop. Mike saw his dad at Lou Sanvos's funeral. Scott is a rookie, only seven months on the job. Mike steers things back to Juliana, and Scott explains: the man over there pinched the bottom of one of the girls. Her friends all turned on him. The man denies it and is furious about being beaten up by women; three of them, including Juliana, say they saw him do it.

Mike checks in with Juliana, who confirms Ayesha was harassed and the others came to her defense. They all just want to go home. Mike walks over to Ronald Pittman, who snarls, "You the detective coming to investigate these animals for assault?" Mike replies that he's looking into a sexual assault followed by a fight. Pittman calls the women savages. Mike keeps his voice calm: "Think about what you did. Consider this a learning experience." Pittman, still stewing, says the NYPD always sides with the immigrant and demands someone in charge. Mike hands him a business card, notes the multiple witnesses, and asks if Pittman really thinks these young women are a gang planning to attack passersby. Pittman growls that this isn't over.

The Professor's Interference

After confirming the women are free to leave, Mike heads back to the car. Maggie says she'd have liked to meet his daughter and her friends. Mike explains those friends are actually his partner's roommates, and Maggie pieces together what that means. He tells her the whole story: how the women were smuggled into the country, how Trilling refused to send them to a holding facility, how he now houses all of them in his one-bedroom apartment. Maggie says she'll never sit through an immigration hearing again without feeling guilty. "Sounds like you're surrounded by exceptional young people," she adds.

They still have a suspect to chase. Jimmy Pinter is only a few miles away at LaGuardia Community College. A security guard points them toward the building, and when classes break, people spill out. Mike spots Pinter from his driver's license photo, a chunky man heading toward the vending machines. He intercepts him, shows his ID, and asks about Abby Boyd. Pinter swallows hard, voice shaky, and says he'll help any way he can.

Then from behind, a voice shouts, "No, no, no way. Don't answer any of their questions." A tall man in a light jacket and cheap tie storms over, the hair he has left combed hard across his scalp. He tells Pinter not to talk to cops without representation. Maggie asks if he's Pinter's attorney, because if not, this looks like interfering with an investigation. The man calls them jackasses. Mike watches Maggie change, and he positions himself between her and the loudmouth, even though it means moving away from a suspect. He tells the man to step away if he isn't a lawyer. The man threatens to call campus security. Mike says that's probably a good idea, then turns his back on him completely.

On a bench away from the noise, Pinter explains himself. Abby meant everything to him. They broke up, but they'd been talking recently. Then the horror hits him: "You don't think I had something to do with that bombing, do you?" He wasn't even in town. He was in Baltimore, only got the train back last night. He shows his electronic ticket, photos he took, and his boss's number. Then he starts to sob, and Mike, who admits comforting people isn't his strength, lets Maggie take the lead.

A Black woman in a security guard uniform approaches, and Mike intercepts her before she reaches the bench. She introduces herself as Jeannie Cartes, and says Dr. Lemm insisted she talk to them. She has an enchanting smile, and Mike knows immediately this won't be a problem. When she asks why the man is crying, she holds up a hand, checks that the loudmouth is out of earshot, and explains: Dr. Lemm is a whack job, a political science professor already on probation for trying to spray ROTC cadets with a hose. She doesn't need an explanation, but since Dr. Lemm is watching, she'll make it look good. She points dramatically toward the parking lot, stamps her feet, shakes her head, and in a perfectly pleasant voice says she's sorry the pinhead bothered them. Mike plays along, hanging his head like he's been scolded. "Oh, that is a really nice touch," she whispers, then stomps away. "Have a blessed day."

The Widower's Story

Jimmy Pinter is now firmly off the suspect list. Mike is sorry they left him more upset than they found him; grief is hard enough without a cop stirring things up. But they have a little free time in Queens, and Mike keeps coming back to the bombing that killed Sergeant Rose Vega. He's read the file, but he has no feel for the crime scene or her family, and her neighborhood isn't far. Maggie agrees: it's a tough assignment, but it has to be done.

The Vega house sits in a quiet, typical Queens neighborhood of small Tudors and colonials. The carport next to the house is still melted and distorted, its support posts rising like old, arthritic fingers. No plants or grass grow near where the explosion and fire happened. A minivan sits in the driveway, so Mike and Maggie approach the front walkway slowly, giving whoever is inside a chance to see them coming.

A man in his mid-thirties answers, wearing blue surgical scrubs and holding a beautiful toddler. He's Armando Vega, Sergeant Vega's husband. He puts the little girl down for a nap and explains that he has to head to work soon, and his mother will watch the kids. He has a dazed look, barely hanging on even five months after his wife's death. Mike understands completely; he's been there himself.

Maggie takes the lead with her questions, starting with the police cruiser. Armando explains that Rose would drive her cruiser home if she had a special assignment early in the morning. He walks them through that morning: he kissed her good-bye at the back door and watched her walk to the car. The kids were running through the kitchen to see her one more time when she opened the patrol car door. Armando pauses, leaning down with his forehead in his hands. Finally he continues: there was a huge flash. The heat knocked him back, and he was barely conscious enough to grab the kids before they ran out the door. When he got back on his feet, there was nothing but a giant wall of flames. Maggie asks if he heard anything before the blast, like a scraping or scratching sound. He slowly shakes his head. Maybe a pop, but