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The first et three hundred dollars from the machine He was in his late fifties hite hair, a white mustache, and a kind face now lined with ’fear The packet of crisp bills had begun to slide out of the dispenser and into his hand when everything had stopped

The perp was in his late teens or early twenties, blond, good looking

In Nikes, jeans, and a sweatshirt now, he was one of those beachboy types who could be found all su sandals and cutoffs, Bat bellied, with a any tan, whitehaired from the sun To look at him as he was at that ht suspect that he lacked aine that anyone so wholesome in appearance could harbor criminal intentions

Even in the act of robbery he appeared to be cherubic, and had a pleasant sht hand, the ainst the olderthe?" Harry asked

"We’ve got to deal with this"

"We don’t have time"

"We’re cops, aren’t we?"

Harry said, "We’re being hunted, for God’s sake!"

"Who else is going to keep the world fro to hell in a hand basket, if we don’t?"

"Wait a ht you were in this line of work for the thrill, and to prove so to yourself Isn’t that what you said earlier?"

"And aren’t you in it to preserve order, protect the innocent?"

Harry took a deep breath, as if to argue, then let it out in an explosive sigh of exasperation It wasn’t the first ti the past six months that she had elicited that reaction froht he was sort of rvte when he was exasperated; it was such a pleasing change fro because it was so constant In fact, Connie even liked the way he looked tonight, rumpled and in need of a shave She had never seen hiht he seeerous than she would have believed he could look

"Okay, okay," he said, stepping into the robbery tableau to inspect the perp and victim more closely "What do you want to do?"

"Make a few adjusterous"

"That velocity business? Well, the rate

Cautiously she touched one finger to the perp’s face His skin felt leary, and his flesh was somewhat firer away, she left a shallow dimple in his cheek, which evidently would not disappear until the Pause ended

Staring into his eyes, she said, "Creep"

In no hatsoever did he acknowledge her presence She was invisible to him When time resumed its usual flow, he would not be aware that she had ever been there

She pulled back on the perp’s gun arm It moved but with stiff resistance

Connie was patient because she worried that tiain when she least expected it, that her presence ht accidentally pull the trigger Conceivably she could cause hiinal intention ht have been only to coer pressed against the victim’s spine, Connie slowly pushed it to the left until it was not pointed at hiht

Harry carefully pried the guners off the pistol "It’s like we’re kids playing with lifesize action figures" The 32 stayed precisely where it had been when the perp’s hand had encircled it, suspended in un could be h it still offered some resistance She took it to the ht hand, and closed his fingers tightly around it When the Pause ended, he would find a pistol in his hand where none had been a fraction of a second previously and would have no idea how it had gotten there From the payout tray of the machine, she removed the banded packet of twenties and put it in the customer’s left hand

"I see how the tendollar bill ended up ave it to that hobo," she said

Surveying the night uneasily, Harry said, "And how the four bullets I pumped into hiious statue in my hand, from Ricky Estefan’s shrine" She frowned "Gives you the creepy crawlies to think ere like these people, frozen in time, and the bastard played with us that way"

"You done here?"

"Not quite Coether, they rocked hiarden statue carved from marble When they were finished, the victi the perp with it

Like set dressers in a waxextreiven it a new kind of draet out of here," Harry said, and started tolot

Connie hesitated, exa their handiwork

He looked back, saw she wasn’t following hi her head, she said, "This is too dangerous"

"The good guy has the gun now"

"Yes, but he’ll be surprised when he finds it in his hand He ain, probably will, and then they’re right back where we found them"

Harry returned, an apoplectic look on his face "Have you forgotten a certain dirty, deentleman in a black raincoat?"

"I don’t hear him yet"

"Connie, for God’s sake, he could stop ti he wants to walk up to us, wait until he was right in front of us before letting us back into the game So you wouldn’t hear him until he tore your nose off and asked you if you’d like a handkerchief"

"If he’s going to cheat like that-" "Cheat? Why wouldn’t he cheat?"