Ed McBain: He Who Hesitates

From the Publisher:
In this city the innocent rub shoulders with the malevolent. Madmen and Samaritans cross paths. Sometimes the cops of the 87th Precinct come between the criminal and his crime. Sometimes they get there too late...

He Who Hesitates
Outside the 87th Precinct a stranger stands in the falling snow. A big man with big hands, Roger hesitates: He knows he should go in and tell a policeman about what happened the night before; about Molly, the homely girl he met in a bar and brought back to his rented room. But then again...

The snow falls on the city. Pushers, pimps, and working stiffs come and go. Roger tries to make up his mind. And every second that he hesitates takes him one step farther away from the 87th Precinct station, as another second ticks away on an innocent woman's life...

Ed McBain: He Who Hesitates. 87th Precinct. Warner Books, ISBN: 0446601470 (November, 1996), 160 p., $5.99