Intelligence flashed on his craggy face.
Lumberingly, like a man about to lift a heavy log, he crossed the squad room walking directly to where Virginia Dodge sat. He seemed ready to pick her up and hurl her into the corridor.
"What is this, Virginia?" he said, and there was the tone of a father in his voice, a rather angry father speaking to a fifteen year-old daughter who'd come home too late after a dance.
"What does it look like, Lieutenant?"
"It looks like you've blown your wig, that's what it looks like. What the hell's the gun for? What are you doing in here with ..
"I'm going to kill Steve Carella," Virginia said.
"Oh, for Christ's sake," Byrnes said in exasperation.
"Do you think that's going to help your husband any?"
"Nothing's going to help Frank any more."
"What do you mean?"
"Frank died yesterday. In the hospital at Castleview Prison."
Byrnes was silently meditative. He did not speak for a long while, and then he said only, "You can't blame Carella for that."
"Carella sent him up."
~Your husband was a criminal."
"Carella sent him up."
"Carella only arrested him. You can't-" "And pressed the DA. for a conviction, and testified at the trial, and did everything in his power to make sure Frank went to jail!"
"Virginia, he-" "Frank was sick! Carella knew that! He knew that when he put him away!"
"Virginia, for Christ's sake, our job is to-" "Carella killed him as sure as if he'd shot him.
And now I'm going to kill Carella. The minute he steps into this squad room I'm going to kill him."
"And then what? How do you expect to get out of here, Virginia? You haven't got a chance."
Virginia smiled thinly.
"I'll get out, all right."
"Will you? You fire a gun in here, and every cop in ten miles will come barging upstairs."
"I'm not worried about that, Lieutenant."
"No, huh? Talk sense, Virginia. You want to get the electric chair? Is that what you want?"
"I don't care. I don't want to live without Frank." Byrnes paused for a long time. Then he said, "I don't believe you, Virginia."
"What don't you believe? That I'm going to kill Carella? That I'll shoot the first one who does anything to stop me?"
"I don't believe you're fool enough to use that gun. I'm walking out of here, Virginia. I'm walking back to my office ..
"No, you're not!"
"Yes, I am. I'm walking back to my office, and here's why. There are four men in this room, counting me. You can shoot me, maybe, and maybe another one after me but you'll have to be pretty fast and pretty accurate to get all of us."
"I'll get all of you, Lieutenant," Virginia said, and the thin smile reappeared on her mouth.
"Yeah, well I'm not willing to bet on that.
Jump her the minute she fires, men." He paused.
"I'm going to my office, Virginia, and I'm going to sit in there for five minutes. When I come out, you'd better be gone, and we'll forget all about this.
Otherwise I'm going to slap you silly and take that gun away from you and dump you into the detention cells downstairs. Now is that clear, Virginia?"
"It's very clear."
"Five minutes," Byrnes said curtly, and he wheeled and started toward his office.
With supreme confidence in her voice, Virginia said, "I don't have to shoot you, Lieutenant."
Byrues did not break his stride.
"I don't have to shoot any of you."
He continued walking.
"I've got a bottle of nitroglycerin in my purse."
Her words came like an explosion.
Byrnes stopped in his tracks and turned slowly to face her, his eyes dropping to the big black bag in her lap. She had turned the barrel of the gun so that it pointed at the bag now, so that its muzzle was thrust into the opening at the top of the bag.
"I don't believe you, Virginia," Byrnes said, and he turned and reached for the doorknob again.
"Don't open that door, Lieutenant," Virginia shouted, "or I'll fire into this purse and we can all go to Hell!"
He thought in that moment before twisting the doorknob, She's lying. She hasn't got any soup in that purse, where would she get any?
And then he remembered that among her husband's many criminal offenses had been a conviction for safe-blowing.
But she hasn't any soup, he thought, Jesus, that's crazy. But suppose she does?
But she won't explode it. She's waiting for Carella. She wouldn't..
And then he thought simply, Meyer Meyer has a wile and three children.
Slowly, he let his hand drop. Wearily, he turned to Virginia Dodge.
"That's better," she said.
"Now let's wait for Carella."
Steve Carella was nervous.
Sitting alongside Teddy, his wife, he could feel nervousness ticking along the backs of his hands, twitching in his fingers. Clean-shaved, his high cheekbones and downward-slanting eyes giving him an almost Oriental appearance, he sat with his mouth tensed, and the doctor smiled gently.
"Well, Mr. Carella," Dr. Randolph said, "your wife is going to have a baby."
