7th Heaven Part 3

Chapter 55.

THE GIRL WAS HEAVY.She was sitting at the picnic table on campus, right outside the Jamba Juice Bar, facing White Plaza, sipping her Strawberry Whirl through a straw. She was wearing tent clothes: a long prairie skirt and a big red sweats.h.i.+rt. Her skin was rough and her hair was mousy, and she was, in fact, perfect.Hawk lifted an eyebrow in her direction. Pidge nodded. They walked over to the picnic table and took seats, Hawk sitting next to the girl, Pidge sitting opposite.Hawk made a phone with his thumb and pinkie."Ba-rinnng," he said, making a telephone ring tone."Hal-lo," Pidge said, answering the call with his own thumb-and-pinkie phone."Pidge. You get outta here, man. I saw her first.""But I like her better, dude. I told you how much I like this woman."The girl looked up, puzzled by the conversation going on around her. She looked at Hawk, sitting to her left, turned her head, and looked at Pidge. Then she dropped her gaze back to her laptop, where she was blogging an entry in Mys.p.a.ce."I don't think she likes either of us, dude," Hawk said into his phone. "You think she's a sn.o.b?""Let me talk to her," Pidge said. He put his "receiver" down on the table, said to the girl, "Hi. I'm Pidge. I'm a senior. Computer sciences." He pointed to the Gates Building. "My buddy wants to ask you out, but I was telling him that even though he saw you first, I like you better.""Yeah, yeah," the girl said. "I'm sure you're not just playing me. Some kind of goof you're doing with each other."Hawk reached out, touched the girl's forearm. "Ow, that really hurts. You've got us wrong," Hawk said. "I saw you in the library, don't you remember? I'm not that good at meeting a girl by myself.""That's the truth," Pidge said. "Hawk's shy. I'm just helping out as his wingman. But when I saw you just now, I thought - and this is the truth now - you're more my type than his.""What kind of type is that?" the girl asked, warming now to the attention. Herds of bikes whizzed by. The smell of bread baking at Subway floated over the plaza. The sun warmed the top of her head. It was a beautiful day, and now it had gotten better."You're creative, right? I have a feeling that you must be creative. You're a writer, I'll bet.""I'm in hum bio.""Human biology? Cool," said Hawk. "Actually, I'm a writer. What's your name?""Kara. Kara Lynch.""I'm Hawk, Kara Lynch. This is my friend Pidge.""What do you write?" she asked Hawk."Pidge and I are working together on a novel," said Hawk. "May I get you another one of those?" he asked. "Strawberry Whirl?""Yes. Thanks, Hawk," Kara said, smiling.When Hawk left, Pidge leaned across the table, said to the girl, "Seriously, Kara. He's not your type. Sure, he's a fuzzy, but I'm a computer genius. Top of my cla.s.s. If I told you my real name, you'd recognize it. But look, when Hawk gets back, you've got to be ready to choose. Either you've got to step up and ask Hawk out. Or you've got to ask me."It's got to be one or the other, so that the two of us don't fight. That wouldn't be good. That would be cruel."Kara s.h.i.+fted her eyes to Hawk as he came back to the table with the smoothie. Kara thanked him, then said, "I was thinking, Hawk, maybe we could hang out sometime."Hawk smiled. "Oh, wow, Kara. And I was just thinking you're much more Pidge's type than mine. He's famous at Gates. You'd never forgive yourself if you turned him down."Kara turned dubiously to Pidge. He rewarded her with a blinding smile. "You have to step up, Kara," he said."Uh-huh. Kiss my a.s.s," she said, blus.h.i.+ng, putting her eyes back on her laptop.Pidge said, "I can't do that, Kara. Hawk saw you first." He laughed."Ba-rinnng," Hawk said."Hal-lo?""Like either one of us would go out with a fat slob like her," Hawk said, making sure he said it loud so that Kara and the students at the other picnic tables could hear him. The two boys laughed, made a big deal of holding their sides, falling off the benches to the ground.Pidge recovered first. He stood and tousled Kara's hair playfully. "Mea culpa, Kara mia," he said. "Better luck next time."He took a bow as tears slid down her cheeks.

Chapter 56.

CONKLIN PARKED OUR CAR on the narrow, tree-lined road in Monterey, a small coastal town two hours south of San Francisco. On my right, one wing of the three-story, wood-frame house remained untouched, while the center of the house had burned out to the framing timbers, the roof open to the blue sky like a silent scream.Conklin and I pushed through the clumps of sidewalk gawkers, ducked under the barricade tape, and loped up the walk.The arson investigator was waiting for us outside the front door. He was in his early thirties, over six feet tall, jangling the keys and change in his pocket. He introduced himself as Ramon Jimenez and gave me his card with his cell phone number printed on the back. Jimenez opened the fire department lock on the front door so we could enter the center of the house, and as the front door swung open we were hit with the smell of apples and cinnamon."Air freshener explosion," Jimenez said. "The crispy critters were found in the den."As we followed Jimenez into the fire-ravaged sh.e.l.l, I thought about how some cops and firefighters use jargon to show that they're tough - when in fact they're horrified. Others do it because they get off on it. What kind of guy was Jimenez?"Was the front door locked?" I asked him."No, and a neighbor called the fire in. Lots of people don't bother to set their alarms around here."Broken gla.s.s crunched under my shoes and water lapped over the tops of them as I slogged through the open s.p.a.ce, trying to get a sense of the victims' lives from the remains and residue of their home. But my knack for fitting puzzle pieces together was blunted by the extent of the destruction. First the fire, then the water and the mop-up, left the worst kind of crime scene.If there had been fingerprints, they were gone. Hair, fiber, blood spatter, footprints, receipts, notes - forget all of that. Unless a bomb trigger or trace of an accelerant was found, we couldn't even be sure that this fire and the others we were investigating had been set by the same person.The most conclusive evidence we had was the similarity of the circ.u.mstances surrounding this fire and those at the Malones' and Meachams' homes."The vics were a married couple, George and Nancy Chu," Jimenez told us. "She was a middle school teacher. He was some kind of financial planner. They paid their taxes, were law-abiding, good neighbors, and so forth. No known connections with any bad guys. I can fax you the detectives' notes from the canva.s.s of the neighborhood.""What about the ME's report?" I asked.Conklin was splas.h.i.+ng through the ruins behind me. He started up the skeletal staircase that still clung to the rear wall."The ME wasn't called. Uh, the chief ruled the fire accidental. Nancy Chu's sister had the funeral home pick up the bodies, ASAP.""The chief didn't see cause to call the ME?" I shouted. "We're looking at a string of fire-related, probable homicides in San Francisco.""Like I told you," Jimenez said, staring me down with his dark eyes. "I wasn't called either. By the time I got here, the bodies were gone and the house was boarded up. Now everyone's yelling at me.""Who else is yelling?""You know him. Chuck Hanni.""Chuck was here?""This morning. We called him in to consult. He said you were working a couple of similar cases. And before you say I didn't tell you, we might have a witness."Had I heard Jimenez right? There was a witness? I stared up at Jimenez and pinned some hope on the thought of a break in the case."Firefighters found the Chus' daughter unconscious out on the lawn. She's at St. Anne's Children's Hospital with an admitting carbon monoxide of seventeen percent.""She's going to make it?"Jimenez nodded, said, "She's conscious now, but pretty traumatized. So far she hasn't said a word."

Chapter 57.

A TELEPHONE RANG repeatedly in some corner of the second floor of George and Nancy Chu's house. I waited out the sad, echoing bell tones before asking Jimenez the name and age of the Chus' daughter."Molly Chu. She's ten."I scribbled in my notebook, stepped around a mound of water-soaked rubble, and headed for the stairs. I called out to Rich, who was already starting down. Before I could tell him about Molly Chu, he showed me a paperback book that he held by the charred edges.Enough of the book cover remained so that I could read the t.i.tle: Fire Lover, by Joseph Wambaugh.I knew the book.This was a nonfiction account of a serial arsonist who'd terrorized the state of California in the 1980s and '90s. The blurb on the back cover recounted a scene of horror, a fire that had demolished a huge home improvement center, killing four people, including a little boy of two. While the fire burned, a man sat in his car, videotaping the images in his rearview mirror - the rigs pulling up, the firefighters boiling out, trying to do the dangerous and impossible, to knock down the inferno even as two other suspicious fires burned only blocks away.The man in the car was an arson investigator, John Leonard Orr, a captain of the Glendale Fire Department.Orr was well known and respected. He toured the state giving lectures to firefighters, helping law enforcement read the clues and understand the pathology of arsonists. And while he was traveling, John Orr set fires. He set the fire that had killed those four people. And because of his pattern of setting fires in towns where he was attending fire conferences, he was eventually caught.He was tried, convicted, and stashed in a small cell at Lompoc for the rest of his life, without possibility of parole."Did you see this book?" Conklin asked Jimenez.Jimenez shook his head no, said, "What? We're looking for books?""I found it in the master bathroom between the sink and the toilet," Conklin said to me.The pages of the book were damp and warped, but it was intact. Incredibly, books rarely burn, because of their density and because the oxygen the fire needs for combustion can't get between the pages. Still holding the book by the edges, Rich opened the cover and showed me the block letters printed with a ballpoint pen on the t.i.tle page.I sucked in my breath.This was the link that tied the homicides together.The Latin phrase was the killer's signature, but why did he leave it? What was he trying to tell us?"Hanni was here," Conklin said quietly. "Why didn't he find this book?"I muttered, "Got me," and focused on the handwritten words on the flyleaf, Sobria inebrietas. Even I could translate this one: "sober intoxication."But what the h.e.l.l did it mean?

Chapter 58.

CONKLIN AND I had never had a serious fight, but we bickered during the entire two-hour drive back to the Hall. Rich insisted it was significant that a pro like Hanni had missed "the only clue in the whole d.a.m.ned crime scene."I liked Chuck Hanni. I admired him. Rich didn't have the same history, the same attachment, so he could be more objective. I had to consider his point of view. Was Hanni a psychopath hiding in plain sight? Or was Conklin so desperate to close the Malone case that he was turning an oversight into a major deal?I saw that Chuck Hanni was with Jacobi in the gla.s.s-walled corner office when Conklin and I entered the squad room. As we wove around the desks toward Jacobi's office, Conklin said to me, "Let me handle this, okay?"Jacobi waved us into his small office, and Conklin leaned against the wall inside the door. I took a side chair next to Hanni, who squirmed in his seat in order to face me."I was telling Jacobi, the Chu fire looks like the work of the same sick a.s.shole who set the others," Hanni said. "Don't you think?"I was looking at Hanni's familiar face and thinking of the time he'd told me about spontaneous human combustion."It's like this, Lindsay," he'd said over beer at MacBain's. "Biggish guy is drinking beer and smoking cigarettes in his La-Z-Boy. Falls asleep. The cigarette drops between the cus.h.i.+ons and catches fire. Biggish guy's fat is saturated with alcohol. The chair catches fire and so does the guy, like a freakin' torch."After they've been incinerated, the fire extinguishes itself. Nothing else catches, so all that's left is the metal frame of the chair and the guy's charred remains."There's your so-called spontaneous human combustion."I had said "Ewwww," laughed, and bought the next round.Now Conklin said from behind me, "Chuck, you were at the Chu scene and you didn't let us know about it. What's up with that?""You think I was keeping something from you?" Hanni bristled. "I told Jimenez to notify you guys as soon as I saw the victims' bodies."Conklin took the paperback book from his inside jacket pocket. He reached over me, placed the book, now enclosed in a plastic evidence bag, on top of the pile of junk on Jacobi's desktop."This was inside the Chu house," Conklin said, his voice matter-of-fact, but there was nothing innocent about it. "There's block lettering on the first page, in Latin."Hanni looked at the book in silence for a moment, then muttered, "How did I miss this?"Jacobi said, "Where'd you find it, Rich?""In a bathroom, Lieutenant. In plain sight."Jacobi looked at Hanni with the hard-boiled stare he'd perfected in twenty-five years of interrogating the worst people in the world. He said, "What about it, Chuck?"

Chapter 59.

CHUCK HANNI'S CHAIR sc.r.a.ped the floor as he pushed back from Jacobi's desk. He'd been caught off guard and was now indignant. "What? You think I'm like that Orr p.r.i.c.k? Setting fires so I can be a hero? . . . Oh, and I planted that book to point suspicion at myself? Look! I gave the ATF a standing ovation when they brought John Orr down."Conklin smiled, shrugged.I felt sweat beading up at my hairline. Hanni couldn't be what Conklin was suggesting, but so many kind-faced seeming do-gooders had been convicted of ma.s.s murder, I had to know. I kept my mouth shut and let the scene play out."Why didn't you tell us about the Christiansen fire?" Conklin said, calmly. "Two wealthy people died. Their stuff was stolen -""Christ," Hanni interrupted. "I don't sit around reminiscing about old cases - do you? Bad enough I see them in my dreams -""But the MO was the same," Conklin insisted. "And so I'm wondering if the killer can't kick the habit. Maybe he's still at it, and now he's leaving clues at the crime scene. Like a book inscribed with a few words of Latin."I watched Chuck's expression, expecting him to bolt, or punch out at Rich, or break down.Instead he frowned, said, "What do you mean, the killer can't kick the habit? Matt Waters confessed to the Christiansen fire two years ago. He's doing time at the Q. Check it out, Conklin, before you start slinging accusations around."My face got hot.Had Cindy gotten this wrong? The Christiansen fire had happened far from San Francisco, but still, I should have double-checked Cindy's research.Jacobi's intercom had buzzed a few times during this meeting, but he hadn't picked up. Now Brenda Fregosi, our squad a.s.sistant, barged into the office, ripped a pink square of paper from a pad, handed it to Jacobi, saying, "What's the matter, Lieutenant? You didn't hear me ring?"Brenda turned and, swinging her hips, walked back across the gray linoleum to her desk. Jacobi read the note."Molly Chu is responding to the hospital shrink," he told us. "She might be ready to talk."Chuck got out of his chair, but Jacobi stopped him."Let's talk, Chuck. Just you and me."

Chapter 60.

MY HEART LURCHED when I saw the little girl. Her hair was singed to an inch of frizzed, black fuzz sticking out from her scalp. Her eyebrows and lashes were gone, and her skin looked painfully pink. We approached her bed, which seemed to float under a bower of s.h.i.+ny helium balloons.Molly didn't look at me or Conklin, but two Chinese women moved aside and a white-haired woman in her seventies with rounded features and sapphire blue eyes stood up and introduced herself as Molly's psychiatrist, Dr. Olga Matlaga.The shrink spoke to the little girl, saying, "Some police officers are here to see you, sweetheart."Molly turned toward me when I said her name, but her eyes were dull, as if the life had been sucked out of her, leaving only a stick-figure representation of a child."Have you found Graybeard?" she asked me, her voice whispery and slowed by painkillers.I cast a questioning look at Dr. Matlaga, who explained, "Her dog, Graybeard, is missing."I told Molly that we would put out an APB for Graybeard and told her what that meant. She nodded soberly and I asked, "Can you tell us what happened in your house?"The child turned her face toward the window."Molly?" Conklin said. He dragged over a chair, sat so that he was at the little girl's eye level. "Have lots of people been asking you questions?"Molly reached a hand toward the swinging arm of the table near her bed. Conklin lifted a gla.s.s of water, held it so the child could sip through the straw."We know you're tired, honey, but if you could just tell the story one more time."Molly sighed, said, "I heard Graybeard barking. And then he stopped. I went back to my movie, and a little later I heard voices. My mom and dad always told me not to come downstairs when they had guests.""Guests?" Conklin asked patiently. "More than one?"Molly nodded."And they were friends of your parents?"Molly shrugged, said, "I only know that one of them carried me out of the fire.""Can you tell us what he looked like?""He had a nice face, and I think he had blond hair. And he was like Ruben's age," Molly said."Ruben?""My brother, Ruben. He's in the cafeteria right now, but he goes to Cal Tech. He's a soph.o.m.ore.""Had you ever seen this boy before?" I asked.I felt Dr. Matlaga's hand at my elbow, signaling me that our time was over."I didn't know him," Molly said. "I could have been dreaming," she said, finally fixing her eyes on me. "But in my dream, whoever he was, I know he was an angel."She closed her eyes, and tears spilled from under those lashless crescents and rolled silently down her cheeks.

Chapter 61.

"HANNI IS IN THE CLEAR," Jacobi said, standing over us, casting a shadow across our desks. "He was working the scene of a meth lab explosion the night of the Meacham fire. He said he told you."I remembered.He'd told us that the Meacham fire had been his second job that night."I've spoken to five people who were at that meth scene who swear Chuck was there until he got the call about the Meachams," said Jacobi. "And I've confirmed that Matt Waters is doing life for the deaths of the Christiansens."Conklin sighed."Both of you," said Jacobi. "Move on. Find out what the victims have in common. Boxer - McNeil and Chi are reporting to you. So make use of them. Concentrate on the Malones and the Meachams. Those are ours. Here's the name of the primary working the Chus' case in Monterey. Conklin, you might want to smooth things over with Hanni. He's still working these cases."I was looking at Rich as Jacobi stumped back to his office.Conklin said, "What? I have to buy Hanni flowers?""That'll confuse him," I said."Look, it made sense, didn't it, Lindsay? The book was about an arsonist who was an arson investigator and Hanni missed it.""You made a courageous call, Richie. Your reasoning was sound and you didn't attack him. You brought it into the open with our immediate superior. Perfectly proper. I'm just glad you were wrong.""So . . . look. You know him. Should I expect to find my tires slashed?" Conklin asked.I grinned at the idea of it."You know what, Rich. I think Chuck feels so bad about missing that book, he's going to slash his own tires. Just tell him, 'Sorry, hope there are no hard feelings.' Do the manly handshake thing, okay?"My phone rang.I held Richie's glum gaze for a moment, knowing how bad he felt, feeling bad for him, then I answered the phone.Claire said, "Sugar, you and Conklin got a minute to come down here? I've got a few things to show you."

Chapter 62.

CLAIRE LOOKED UP when Rich and I banged open the ambulance bay doors to the autopsy suite. She wore a flower-printed paper cap and an ap.r.o.n, the ties straining across her girth. She said, "Hey, you guys. Check this out."Instead of a corpse, there was a bisected tube of what looked like muscle, about seven inches long. The thing was clamped open on the autopsy table."What is that?" I asked her."This here's a trachea," Claire told us. "Belonged to a schnauzer Hanni found in the bushes outside the Chu house. See how pink it is? No soot in the pooch's windpipe and his carbon monoxide is negative, so I'm saying he wasn't in the house during the fire. Most likely he was in the yard, raised the alarm, and someone put him down with a blow to the head."See this fracture here?"So much for the APB on Graybeard. Whose sad task would it be to tell Molly that her dog was dead? Claire went on to tell us she'd spent the day getting George and Nancy Chu's bodies from the funeral home."It's not our jurisdiction, not our case, but I finally got permission from the Chus' son, Ruben. Told him that if I have to testify against the killer and I haven't examined all the victims' bodies, I'll get diced into pieces by the attorney for the defense."I murmured an encouraging "uh-huh" and Claire went on."Ruben Chu was a mess. Didn't want his parents to 'suffer any more indignities,' but anyway . . . I got the release. Both bodies are at X-ray now," Claire added."What was your take?" I asked."They were burned pretty bad, a few extremities fell off during their travels, but one of George Chu's ankles still had several wraps of intact monofilament fibers on it. So that, my friends, is evidence that they were absolutely, positively tied up.""Great job, Claire.""And I got enough blood for the tox screens.""You gonna keep us guessing, girlfriend?""You're saying I live to frustrate you? I'm talking as fast as I can." Claire laughed. She squeezed my shoulder affectionately, then removed a sheet of paper from a manila envelope, put it down on the table next to the dog's trachea.She ran her finger down the column of data. "High alcohol content in their blood," she said. "Either the Chus had been drinking a lot, or else they'd been drinking high-octane stuff.""Same as Sandy Meacham?""Very much the same," said Claire.I flashed on the inscription in the book. Sobria inebrietas. Sober intoxication. I autodialed Chuck Hanni on my cell phone. If I was right, it would explain why he didn't detect the odor of ignitable liquids at either of our fire scenes."Chuck? It's Lindsay. Could those fires have been set with booze?"

Chapter 63.

THE SUN WENT DOWN and someone in the night crew snapped on the bright overhead lights. Rich and I were still wandering around in the dark. Somewhere, a very smug killer was having his dinner, toasting himself on his success, maybe planning another fire - and we didn't know who he was or when he would strike again.While Chi and McNeil reinterviewed the Malones' and the Meachams' friends and neighbors, Conklin and I sat at our desks, going over the murder book together. We reviewed Claire's findings, the photos of rubberneckers at the fire scenes, the handwriting expert's comparison of the inscriptions in each of the books left at the fire scenes, and the expert's opinion: "I can't say one hundred percent because it's block lettering, but looks like all the samples were written by the same hand."We reviewed our own eyeball tours of the crime scenes, trying to reduce all of it to a few illuminating truths, speaking in the kind of shorthand that you use with a partner. And I felt that other connection, too, the one I wouldn't let Rich mention but sometimes just arced across our desks. Like it was doing now.I got up, went to the bathroom, washed my face, got a cup of coffee for me and one for Conklin, black, no sugar. Sat back down, said, "Now, where were we?"As the night tour walked and talked around us, Rich ticked off on his fingers what we had: "The couples were all in their forties and well-to-do. The doors to all the houses were unlocked, and the alarms weren't set. No sign of gunfire. The couples all had a child of college age. They were all robbed, but the killer took only jewelry and cash.""Okay, and here are a few suppositions," I said. "The killer is smart enough and unthreatening enough to talk his way into the houses. And I'm going to also say that it seems probable that there were two a.s.sailants; one to tie up the victims, one to hold a gun."Rich nodded, said, "He or they used fis.h.i.+ng line as ligatures because they'd burn off quickly in the fire. And they used an untraceable accelerant. That's careful. They don't leave evidence, and that's smart."But I don't think Molly Chu was in the plan," Rich added. "This is the first time another person was in the house with the victims. I'm thinking Molly had already pa.s.sed out from smoke inhalation when her 'angel' found her and subsequently carried her out. Kind of heroic, wouldn't you say?""So maybe the killer thought she didn't see him," I said. "And so he felt safe carrying her out of the house. Yeah, I don't think he wanted the little girl to die, hon."Rich looked up, grinned at me."I, uh. Didn't mean - s.h.i.+t.""Forget it, babe," said Conklin. "Means nothin'." He grinned wider.I said, "Shut up," and threw a paper clip at his head. He s.n.a.t.c.hed it out of the air and went on."So," he said, "let's say Molly saw one of the killers, okay? And let's say he's a college-age kid as Molly suggested. The Malones, the Meachams, the Chus, and that couple in Palo Alto, the Jablonskys - they all had kids in college. But their kids all went to different schools.""True," I said. "But a kid, any kid, comes to the door and looks presentable, Mom and Dad might open it."Rich, maybe that's the con. When I was in school, I was always bringing people home that my mom didn't know. So, what if a couple of kids come to the door and say they're friends with your kid?""That would be easy to fake," Rich said. "Local newspapers do stories on kids at school. So-and-so's daughter or son, attending such-and-such school won this-or-that award."Rich drummed his fingers on the desk, and I rested my chin in my hand. Instead of feeling on the brink of a breakthrough, it seemed that we'd just opened the field of potential suspects to every male college-age kid in California who knew high school Latin - and, by the way, was into robbery, torture, arson, and murder.I thought about the puzzle pieces. Providence favoring the killers' actions, and money being the root of all evil. There was the sci-fi book Fahrenheit 451, and now a book about a high-placed fire official who'd set fires. When John Orr was caught, he'd said, "I was stupid, and I did what stupid people do."These killers weren't making Orr's mistakes.They were going out of their way to show just how smart they were. Was saving Molly Chu their one miscalculation?Rich's phone rang and he swiveled his chair toward the wall. He lowered his voice and said, "We're working on it, Kelly, right now. It's all we're doing. I promise, when we know something, I'll call you. We won't let you down."

Chapter 64.

YUKI WAS AT the Whole Foods Market six blocks from her apartment, looking over the produce, thinking about a quick stir-fry for dinner, when she thought she glimpsed a familiar figure down the aisle. When she looked again, he was gone. She was hallucinating, she thought, so tired she could conjure up bogeymen anywhere. She dropped a head of broccoli into her cart and moved on toward the meat section.There she selected a shrink-wrapped tray of tiger prawns -and got the feeling again that Jason Tw.i.l.l.y was only yards away.She looked up.And there he was, dressed in navy blue pinstripes, pink s.h.i.+rt, wearing a full smirk and standing near the pile of frozen free-range turkeys. Tw.i.l.l.y waggled his fingers but made no move toward her, though he didn't turn away. He had no cart, no basket.The b.a.s.t.a.r.d wasn't shopping.He was stalking her.Yuki's sudden fury gathered power and momentum, so that she saw only one possible course of action. She shoved her cart to the side of the aisle and marched toward Tw.i.l.l.y, stopping a few feet from his st.u.r.dy English shoes."What are you doing here, Jason?" she said, stretching her neck to look up at his crazy-handsome face with the eight-hundred-dollar eyegla.s.s frames and lopsided smile."Leave the groceries, Yuki," he said. "Let me take you out to dinner. I promise I'll behave. I just want to make up to you for our misunderstanding the last time -""I want to be very clear about this," Yuki said, cutting him off, using her clipped, rapid-fire style. "Mistakes happen. Maybe the misunderstanding was my fault, and I've apologized. Again, I'm sorry it happened. But you have to understand. I'm not interested, Jason - in anyone. It's all work, all the time, for me. I'm not available, okay? So please don't follow me again."Jason's odd, twisted smile blossomed into a full-blown laugh. "Nice speech," he said, clapping his hands, an exaggerated round of mock applause.Yuki felt a little shock of fear as she backed away. What was wrong with this guy? What was he capable of doing? She remembered Cindy's warning to her to be careful of what she said around Tw.i.l.l.y. Would he dirty her reputation when he wrote about the Junie Moon trial?Whatever."Good-bye, Jason. Leave me alone. I mean it.""Hey, I'm writing a book, remember?" Tw.i.l.l.y called out to her as she turned her back on him. She heard his voice as she pushed her cart down the aisle.She wanted to hide. She wanted to disappear."You're a key player, Yuki. Sorry if you don't like it, but you're the star of my whole freakin' show."

Chapter 65.

WE WERE GATHERED on the deck of Rose Cottage, outside of Point Reyes, feeling the blessed night breeze on our cheeks. Yuki flipped on the heater for the hot tub, while Claire tossed a giant salad and made burgers for the grill.This impromptu getaway was Cindy's idea. She had corralled us in a conference call only hours before, saying, "Since our first attempt at a Women's Murder Club Annual Getaway Weekend was canceled due to someone answering a call to return to work, we should grab this opportunity to drop everything and go now."Cindy added that she'd booked the cottage and that she would drive.There was no saying no to Cindy, and for once I was glad to turn the wheel over to her.Yuki and Claire had both slept in the backseat during the drive, and I'd ridden shotgun with Martha in my lap, her ears flapping in the wind. I listened to Cindy talk over the car's CD player, my mind floating blissfully as we neared the ocean.Once we'd arrived at the rose-covered hobbit house with its two snug bedrooms plus picnic table and grill in the clearing at the edge of a forest, we'd slapped each other high fives and dropped our bags on our beds. Yuki had left her box of files in her room and come with Martha and me as we took a short run up a moonlit trail to the top of a wooded ridge and back again.And now I was ready for a meal, a margarita, and a great night's sleep. But when we got back to Rose Cottage, my cell phone was ringing. Claire groused, "That d.a.m.ned thing's been ringin' its b.u.t.tons off, girlfriend. Either turn it off or give it to me and I'll stomp it to death."I grinned at my best friend, pulled the phone from my handbag, saw the number on the caller ID.It was Jacobi.I stabbed the send b.u.t.ton, said h.e.l.lo, and heard traffic noise mixed in with the wail of fire engine sirens.I shouted, "Jacobi. Jacobi, what's up?""Didn't you get my messages?""No, I just caught this ring on the fly."The sirens in the background, the fact that Jacobi was calling at all, caused me to imagine a new fire and another couple of charred bodies killed by a psycho looking for kicks. I pressed my ear hard to the phone, strained to hear Jacobi over the street noise."I'm on Missouri Street," he told me.That was my street. What was he doing on my street? Had something happened to Joe?"There's been a fire, Boxer. Look, there's no good way to say this. You have to come home right now."

Chapter 66.

JACOBI DISCONNECTED the phone call, leaving static in my ear and a G.o.d-awful gap between what he'd said and what he'd left out."There's been a fire on Missouri Street," I announced to the girls. "Jacobi told me to come home!"Cindy gave me the keys and we piled into her car. I floored the accelerator and we b.u.mped down the twisting roads of the backwoods of Olema and out to the highway. I called Joe as I drove, ringing his apartment and mine, and I rang his cell, pressed redial again and again, never getting an answer.Where was he? Where was Joe?I don't ask G.o.d for much, but as we neared Potrero Hill, I was praying that Joe was safe. When we reached Missouri at Twentieth, I saw that my street was roped off. I parked in the first empty spot, gripped Martha's leash, and dashed up the steep residential block, leaving the girls to follow behind.I was winded when I caught sight of my house, saw that it was fenced in by fire rigs, patrol cars, and bystanders filling the narrow street. I frantically scoured the faces in the crowd, saw the two female students who lived on the second floor and the building manager, Sonya Marron, who lived on the ground floor.Sonya reached through the crowd and gripped my arm, saying, "Thank G.o.d, thank G.o.d." There were tears in her eyes."Was anyone hurt?""No," she said. "No one was home."I hugged her then, relieved at last that Joe had not fallen asleep in my bed. But I still had questions, a ton of them. "What happened?" I asked Sonya."I don't know. I don't know."I looked for Jacobi, but I found Claire shouting at the fire captain, "I under-stand it may be a crime scene, but she's a cop. With the SFPD!"I knew the fire department captain, Don Walker, a thin man with a prominent nose, weary eyes peering out from the soot on his face. He threw up his hands, and then he opened the front door. Claire gathered me under her wing, and along with Yuki, Cindy, and Martha, we entered the three-story apartment house that had been my home for ten years.

Chapter 67.

I WAS WEAK-KNEED as we mounted the stairs, but my mind was sharp. The stairs hadn't burned, and the doors to the two lower apartments stood open. The apartments looked untouched by fire. This made no sense.But it all became clear at the top of the stairs.The door to my apartment was in shards. I stepped through the shattered door frame and saw the stars and the moon where my ceiling used to be. I lowered my eyes from the night sky, finding it hard to take in the grotesque condition of my little nest. The walls were black, curtains gone, the gla.s.s in my kitchen cabinets blown out. My crockery and the food in my pantry had exploded, making the place smell crazily like popcorn and Clorox.My cozy living room furniture had melted down into hunks of sodden foam and wire springs. And then I knew - the fire had taken everything. Martha whined and I bent to her, buried my face in her fur."Lindsay," I heard someone shout. "Are you okay?"I turned to see Chuck Hanni coming out of the bedroom.Did he have something to do with this?Had Rich been right all along?And then I saw Conklin right behind Hanni, and both of their faces were sagging with my pain.Rich opened his arms. I held on to him in the smoking black ruins of my home, so glad he was there. But as I rested my head on his shoulder, the stark realization hit me: if Cindy hadn't called with her impromptu getaway plan, I would have been home with Martha when the fire broke out.I ripped myself away from Rich and called out to Hanni.My voice was trembling."Chuck, what happened here? I have to know. Did someone try to kill me?"

Chapter 68.

HANNI SNAPPED ON the portable lights inside what was left of my living room, and in that blinding moment, Joe burst through my splintered door frame. I flung myself at him, and he wrapped me in his arms, nearly squeezing the air out of me.I said, "I called and called -""I turned off my d.a.m.ned cell at dinner -""From now on, you've got to put it on vibrate -""I'll wear an electric shock collar, Linds. Whatever it takes. I'm sick that I didn't know you needed me.""You're here now."I broke down and cried all over his s.h.i.+rt, feeling safe and lucky that Joe was okay, that we both were. I only vaguely remember my friends and my partner saying good-bye, but I clearly recall Chuck Hanni telling me that as soon as it was daylight, he'd be all over the building, looking for whatever caused the fire.Don Walker, the SFFD captain, took off his hat, wiped his forehead with his glove, saying that Joe and I had to leave so he could secure the building."Just a minute, Don, okay?" I said, not really asking him.I went to the bedroom closet and opened the door, stood there in a daze, until I heard Joe say behind me, "You can't wear any of this, honey. It's all a loss. You've got to walk away from it."I turned and tried to take in the utter ruination of my four-poster bed and photo alb.u.ms and the treasured box of letters that my mother wrote to me when I was away at school and she was dying.And then I focused my mind and scanned every inch of floor, looking for something specific, a book that might be out of place. I found nothing. I went to my dresser, pulled at the k.n.o.bs of the top drawer - but the charred wooden drawer pulls crumbled in my hands.Joe strong-armed the dresser and the wood cracked. He gripped the drawer and heaved it open. I pawed through my underwear, Joe saying patiently behind me, "Sweetie, forget this. You'll get new stuff . . ."I found it.I palmed the velvet cube in my right hand, held it into the light, and opened the box. Five diamonds in a platinum setting winked up at me, the ring that Joe had offered me when he asked me to marry him only a few months ago. I'd told Joe then that I loved him but needed time. Now I closed the lid of the box and looked into his worry-creased face."I'd sleep with this under my pillow - if only I had a pillow."Joe said, "Got lots of pillows at my place, Blondie. Even got one for Martha."Captain Walker stood at the door waiting for us. I took one last look around - and that's when I saw the book on the small telephone stand just inside my front door.I'd never seen that book before in my life.That book wasn't mine.

Chapter 69.

I STARED IN SHOCK and disbelief at the large 8 by 11 paperback, tomato-red with thin white stripes running crosswise beneath the t.i.tle: National Guide for Fire and Explosion Investigation.I started screaming, "That's evidence. That's evidence."Captain Walker was worn out and he was also out of the loop. He said, "The arson investigator will be back in the morning, Sarge. I'm boarding up your place so it'll be perfectly safe, you understand?""NO," I shouted. "I want a cop. I want this thing locked up in the evidence room tonight!"I ignored Walker's sigh and Joe's hand on the small of my back. I dialed Jacobi's number on my cell, already decided that if he didn't pick up, I would call Clapper and then I would call Tracchio. And if I didn't get Jacobi or CSI or the chief, I would call the mayor. I was hysterical and I knew it, but no one could stop me or tell me I was wrong."Boxer, that you?" Jacobi said. His voice crackled from a poor connection."I found a book in my apartment," I shouted into the phone. "It's clean. It didn't burn. There could be prints. I want it bagged and tagged, and I don't want to do it myself in case there's any question down the road.""I'm five minutes away," Jacobi said.I stood in the hallway with Joe and Martha, Joe telling me that Martha and I were moving in with him. I held tightly to his hand, but my mind was running a slide show of all the fire-razed houses I'd walked through in the last month, and I was feeling the searing shame of having been so professional and so removed. I'd seen the bodies. I'd seen the destruction. But I hadn't felt the terrible power of fire until now.I heard Jacobi's voice and that of the building manager downstairs, then Jacobi's ponderous footsteps as he huffed and wheezed up the stairs. I'd ridden thousands of miles in a squad car with Jacobi. I'd been shot with him, and our blood had pooled together in an alley in the Tenderloin. I knew him better than anyone in the world, and he knew me that way, too. That's why when he arrived at the top landing, all I had to do was point to the book.Jacobi stretched latex gloves over his large hands, gingerly opened the red cover. I was panting with fear, sure that I'd see an inscription inside, another mocking Latin saying. But there was only a name printed inside the front page.The name was Chuck Hanni.

Chapter 70.

IT WAS 1:03 A.M. and sixty-eight degrees outside.I was lying next to Joe tucked inside the cool, white envelope of his six-hundred-thread-count sheets, wearing one of his T-s.h.i.+rts, staring up at the time and temperature projected onto his ceiling by a clock made for insomniacs and former G-men who needed to have this critical info the second they opened their eyes.Joe's hand covered mine. He had listened to my fears and my ranting for hours, but as he drifted off, his grip loosened, and now he was snoring softly. Martha, too, was in the land of nod, her fluttery breaths and dream-yips providing a stereophonic accompaniment to Joe's steady snores.As for me, sleep was on the far side of the moon.I couldn't stop thinking how the fire skipped the first two floors but had torched my apartment out to the walls. It was undeniable. I was the target of a vicious, premeditated killer who'd already deliberately burned eight people to death.Had he thought I was home? Or had he watched me leave with Martha and sent me a warning? How could Chuck Hanni be that person?I'd had meals with Chuck, worked crime scenes with him, confided in him. Now I was reconfiguring him in my mind as a killer who knew everything there was to know about setting fires. And everything there was to know about getting away with murder.But why would a man who was this smart leave his d.a.m.ned calling card in my apartment?The signature of a killer was actually his signature?It made no sense.The pounding in my temples was building up to a five-alarm headache. If there'd been anything in my stomach, I would have heaved it up. When the phone rang at 1:14, I read the caller ID and grabbed the receiver on the first ring. Joe stirred beside me. I whispered, "It's Conklin," and Joe mumbled, "Okay," and dropped back down into sleep."You got something?" I asked my partner."Yeah. You're not going to like this.""Just tell me. Tell me what you've got," I half whispered, half shouted. I got out of bed, stepped over Martha, and walked out into Joe's living room with its night view of Presidio Park, its tall eucalyptus trees swaying eerily in the moonlight. Martha's nails clacked on hardwood as she followed me, slurped water from a bowl in the kitchen."About the book . . ." Rich said."You found Latin written inside?""No. It's Chuck's book, all right -""Man oh man.""Let me finish, Linds. He didn't leave it in your apartment. I did."

Chapter 71.

MY MIND SCRAMBLED as I tried to understand what Conklin was telling me. "Say that again," I demanded. When he answered, his voice was contrite."I left the book at your place.""You're kidding me, right?"He had to be. I couldn't imagine any circ.u.mstances under which Conklin would leave a fire and explosion manual in my fire-ravaged apartment."What happened is, I got together with Chuck, like you said to do," Rich told me in measured tones. "We had a no-hard-feelings dinner and I picked up the tab. And I told him I'd like to learn more about fire investigation from him. I mean, he's the pro."Rich paused for breath and I shouted at him, "Go on!""We went out to his car, Lindsay, he practically lives in that thing. Pop-Tarts wrappers all over the seats, his computer, clothes hanging from the -""Rich, for G.o.d's sake!""So, just as he finds the fire investigations manual to lend me, Jacobi calls and tells me your apartment went up. I told Hanni, and he said, 'I'll drive,' and I was still holding that book when we entered your place.""You put it down on the telephone table.""Didn't think about it again until Jacobi called me," Rich said miserably."Has Jacobi already spoken to Hanni?""No. He wanted to talk to me first. Hanni knows nothing about this."It took long seconds for me to sort it all out, put Chuck Hanni back into his role as friend, and realize that the essential truth hadn't changed. I was s.h.i.+vering, and I wasn't cold."Linds?" I heard Rich say."We still don't know who set fire to my place or to any of the others," I said. "We still don't know anything."

Chapter 72.

THERE HAD BEEN a whole blessed week's break while Judge Bendinger returned to physical rehab for his replaced knee. But the break was over. Bendinger was back. And Yuki now felt the tsunami effect of the whole freakin' Junie Moon circus starting all over again, the out-of-control press, the pressure to win.At nine o'clock sharp, court was called into session.And the defense began to put on its case.L. Diana Davis didn't look up as her first witness came through the gate, pa.s.sing so close she must have felt a breeze as his herringbone jacket nearly grazed her arm. Yuki saw Davis lean in and speak behind her hand to her client, all the while panning the gallery with her eyes. The TV cameras were running, and the reporters were packed in the rows at the back of the room.Davis smiled.Yuki whispered to Len Parisi, "There's no place Davis would rather be. n.o.body she'd rather defend."Red Dog smiled. "That beast is inside you, too, Yuki. Learn to love it."Yuki watched Davis pat her client's hand as Lieutenant Charles Clapper, head of CSU, was sworn in. Then Davis stood and greeted her witness."Lieutenant Clapper, how long have you been head of the San Francisco Crime Scene Unit?""Fifteen years.""And what did you do before that?""I started with the San Diego PD right outta school, worked vice for five years, homicide for five. Then I joined the Las Vegas CSU before moving to San Francisco and joining the CSU here.""In fact, you've written books on trace evidence, haven't you?""Yes, I've done a couple of books.""You appear on TV a few times a week, don't you? Sometimes even more times than me," Davis said, smiling widely, getting the laugh she wanted from the gallery."I don't know about that," Clapper said, smiling too."Very good. And how many homicides have you investigated in the last twenty-five years, Lieutenant?""I have no idea.""Take a wild guess.""A wild guess? Maybe a couple of hundred a year.""So it's reasonable to say you may have investigated as many as five thousand homicides, is that right?""Roughly.""I think we can accept 'roughly,' " Davis said, good-naturedly. "And as well as investigating fresh crime scenes, you investigate crimes that happened months or even years ago, is that correct?""I've investigated cold cases, yes.""Now, in April of this year, were you called to the home of the defendant?""I was.""And did it have the appearance of a crime scene?""No. The rooms were orderly. There was no evident disturbance, no blood or sh.e.l.l casings, et cetera."Davis said, "Now, were you told that a man may have been dismembered in the bathtub of the defendant's house?""I was.""And you did all the normal tests for trace evidence, did you not?""Yes, we did.""Come up with anything evidentiary?""No.""Find any evidence that showed that the blood had been cleaned up?""Nope.""No bleach or anything like that?""No.""Lieutenant Clapper, let me just give you the whole laundry list at once and save a little time here. The walls hadn't been repainted, the rugs hadn't been cleaned? You didn't find an implement that could have been used to dismember a body?""No.""So it's fair to say that you and your team did everything you could do to ascertain the manner in which a crime was committed - or even if a crime was committed?""We did.""Based on your experience and your examination of the so-called crime scene, please tell the jury - did you find any evidence, direct or indirect, that links Junie Moon to the alleged murder of Michael Campion?""No.""Thank you. That's all I have for this witness, Your Honor."

Chapter 73.

YUKI WAS STILL STEAMING from Red Dog's rebuke. Or maybe she was hot under the collar because he'd been right.Learn to love the beast.Yuki slapped her pen down on her notepad, straightened her jacket as she stood, and approached Charlie Clapper at the stand."Lieutenant, I won't keep you long.""No problem, Ms. Castellano.""You're a member of law enforcement, right?""Yes.""And in the course of your twenty-five-year-long career in vice, homicide, and crime scene investigation, have you been involved in matters concerning prost.i.tutes?""Certainly.""Are you familiar, generally speaking, with the lives of prost.i.tutes and their customs?""I'd say so.""Would you agree that in exchange for a fee, a prost.i.tute engages in s.e.xual relations with any number of men?""I'd say that's the job description.""Now, there are many subsets of that job description, wouldn't you say? From streetwalker to call girl?""Sure.""And some prost.i.tutes work mostly out of their homes?""Some do.""And is it your understanding that Ms. Moon falls into that last category?""That's what I was told.""Okay. And would you also agree that as a matter of hygiene and practicality, a prost.i.tute working at home would do her best to shower after her s.e.xual encounters?""I would say that would be a common and hygienic practice.""Do you happen to know how much water is typically used by a person taking a shower?""Twenty gallons, depending."Yuki nodded, said to Charlie, "Now, based on your general knowledge of prost.i.tutes, and given that Ms. Moon worked at home, would you agree that she probably showered after having s.e.x with each of her tricks, maybe six to ten times a day, seven days a week -""Objection," Davis called out. "Calls for speculation on the part of the witness, and furthermore, I strongly object to the way counsel is characterizing my client.""Your Honor," Yuki protested. "We all know that Ms. Moon is a prost.i.tute. I'm only a.s.serting that she's probably a clean one.""Go ahead, Ms. Castellano," Judge Bendinger said, snapping the rubber band on his wrist. "But get to the point today, will you?""Thanks, Your Honor," Yuki said, sweetly. "Lieutenant Clapper, could you tell us this?" Yuki drew a breath and launched into what was becoming her trademark - an uninterruptible run-on question."If a man was dismembered in a bathtub, and in the three months between the day the crime was committed and the time you examined the bathtub a large amount of soap and shampoo and water pa.s.sed through that two-inch drain - by my calculations, 100 gallons of soapy water daily - and now let's double that for the johns who took a shower before going back to their dorm or office or home to their wives - so even if Ms. Moon practices 'Never on Sunday,' that would still be about 130,000 gallons by the time CSU examined the drains - could that activity have completely cleansed that bathtub of residual trace evidence?""Well, yes, that's very possible.""Thank you, Lieutenant. Thank you very much."Yuki smiled at Charlie Clapper as the judge told him that he could step down.

Chapter 74.

YUKI SAT BESIDE the immense form of Len Parisi as Junie Moon's sleazebag pimp-boyfriend, Ricardo "Ricky" Malcolm, was sworn in.Yuki was fully aware that Davis had hired a bounty hunter to drag Ricky Malcolm over the Mexican border for his court appearance, and as Malcolm swore to tell the whole truth, she wondered if Davis really thought this punked-out, tattooed, and homely creep could persuade the jury of anything. Davis's voice was confident as she asked Malcolm her preliminary questions, getting out ahead of the prosecution by getting Malcolm to say he'd served time for drug possession.Then Davis started her direct examination in earnest."What's your relations.h.i.+p to Ms. Moon?""I was her boyfriend.""No longer?""We're separated," Malcolm said drily. "I'm in Tijuana and she's in jail."t.i.tters arose in little pockets around the gallery."How long have you known Ms. Moon?" Davis asked."Gotta be three years.""And did there come a time last January twenty-first when Ms. Moon called you at around eleven thirty at night and asked you to come to her house because one of her clients was having a heart attack?""No.""Let me get this straight. You're saying Junie didn't call to tell you she needed help with Michael Campion?""No, ma'am. No, she did not.""Did the police question you about the dismemberment and disposal of Michael Campion's body?""Yep. I told them I didn't do it.""Were you telling the truth?"Malcolm started to laugh. "Yeah, yeah, I told them the truth. I never dismembered anybody. I can't stand the sight of blood. I eat steak well-done. It was one of the wackiest things I ever heard.""I agree," Davis said. "Pretty wacky."Yuki jumped to her feet. "Objection, Your Honor. Ms. Davis's opinions are totally irrelevant here.""Sustained."Davis spun on her heels, took a few paces toward the jury, then turned back again. "And yet," Davis said, her voice ringing out across the oak-paneled courtroom, "according to police testimony, Ms. Moon said that she called you because Mr. Campion was having a heart attack, and that when you arrived at her place, Mr. Campion was dead.""It's totally bogus. Never happened," Malcolm said, clearly enjoying himself."The police further testified that Ms. Moon told them that you dismembered Mr. Campion with a knife and that you and Ms. Moon then transported Mr. Campion's remains and disposed of them in a Dumpster."Did that happen?""No way. Crock a' s.h.i.+t. Plus, I've got no skill with anything but power tools.""Okay, Mr. Malcolm. So, in your opinion, why would Ms. Moon say such a thing if it isn't true?""Because," Malcolm said, looking at Junie with his s.p.a.cey green eyes, "she's simple, you know, like a special ed kid. She sucks up romance novels, daytime soaps -""Move to strike, Your Honor," Yuki said. "This whole line of questioning calls for speculation.""Your Honor, Mr. Malcolm's testimony goes to the credibility of the defendant.""I'll allow it. Go on, Mr. Malcolm."Yuki sighed loudly, took her seat again between Gaines and Red Dog as Malcolm continued."Like I was saying, in my opinion, right? When the cops asked her if she'd done the deed with the famous Michael Campion, that was like lighting up a wide-screen, three-D fantasy starring Junie Moon, stupid little wh.o.r.e -""Thanks, Mr. Malcolm. Were you charged as an accessory in this crime?""The cops tried, but the DA knew they couldn't indict me on Junie's flaky confession, especially since she, whatcha-callit, recanted.""Thank you, Mr. Malcolm. Your witness," Davis said with a smirk to Yuki.