I shoved Thaler out of the way with my right arm, and kept my gun on him while I yanked Rolff’s weapons out of his hands. Dinah turned the lunger loose.

He took two steps toward the dining room door, said wearily, “There is no⁠—” and collapsed on the floor.

Dinah ran to him. I pushed Thaler through the hall door, past the still sleeping Jerry, and to the alcove beneath the front stairs, where I had seen a phone.

I called Noonan, told him I had Thaler, and where.

“Mother of God!” he said. “Don’t kill him till I get there.”