Well, that’s great. Just great. I heard it was a dead end.”
“Not from me, you didn’t,” Renna said.
“From other sources.” He looked at me, his smile dazzling. “Was that your work?”
“An associate’s,” I said.
He pumped my hand again. “Frank said you knew your way around the Orient. I’m delighted. Well-done, gentlemen. Keep it up. I’m looking for a swift resolution to this tragic affair.”
“We all are,” Renna said.
“Fine, just fine. I’m going to have Gail or Bob stop by a couple times a day for the latest, if you don’t mind.”
“Not a problem,” Renna said.
“Excellent, excellent,” the mayor said, and shook my hand again, then the entourage departed as quickly as it had arrived.
“Expressive guy,” I said.
“Yep, but don’t be fooled. He has sharp teeth. They all do. Gail in particular. She’s a former VP from a Silicon Valley startup, Bob’s asales yak and self-made millionaire, and Calvin made his bucks with a chain of barbecue joints in the East Bay, mostly in Oakland, Fremont, around there. Birds of a feather, the lot of them. Rumor has it Hurwitz is grooming Gail and Bob for the election after next. Her for deputy and By-the-Book Bob for the mayor’s seat after Hurwitz vacates. Keep it in the family.”
I shrugged. “It could be worse, I suppose.”
“True.” Renna tossed down the rest of his coffee like he wished it were something stronger. “That reminds me. The lab boys dug up a tidbit.”
“What?”
Renna’s face dimmed. “It’s not going to improve your appetite any.”
“Can’t get any worse.”
“Oh yeah,” he said. “It can. You know anything about spatter?”
“No.”
“A.k.a. blood patterns . With all the firepower on the streets these days, it’s a ballooning science. Almost an industry.”
“You don’t say.”
“I do. When each bullet exits the body, it sends out a spray trail. Multiple entries produce multiple trails. The sprays fall in a precise progression, later over earlier. Directions are different. Blood types are different. Water on water blends, but blood on blood layers because it’s thick like oil. When new drops fall on old, they make circles or half-circles, and don’t mix completely because blood begins to coagulate the instant it hits the air. By charting the location of the sprays and taking enough blood samples at the points where the spray trails intersect, the lab jocks can determine who was shot first.”
My heart seemed to slow. “And?”
“All five victims were gunned down in seconds. Probably five or six. Seven, tops. Good groupings. No wasted shots. But there’s always an order, even if you’re splitting seconds. The shooter stepped in close and caught the big male in the back first, raked high for the adults, father followed by mother, left to right, then swung back low, right to left, for the children.”
Seven seconds, tops . We were silent for quite a bit longer than it took for someone to eradicate the entire Nakamura family. I felt the embers of a smoldering heat jump-start my blood flow.
“Very, very cool,” I said softly.
“You got that right. Knocked out the biggest threat first.”
“So what’s that tell us?”
Renna took a long deliberate breath. “Two things. First, any way you look at it, it was an execution.”
I hesitated before asking the unavoidable: “And the second?”
“We have less time than I thought. So get a move on.”
I nodded guardedly. “Sure thing.”
As it turned out, acceleration would be the least of our worries.
CHAPTER 18
I SPOTTED him on the afternoon of the second day.
With lunchtime approaching and my leg on the mend, I curbed the Cutlass in front of the shop, then hoofed it the five blocks to Sweet Heat, a feisty Tex-Mex restaurant on Steiner. I ordered my usual chicken burrito with extra salsa and actually came close to finishing it, despite my lackluster appetite since Japantown. I paid the bill and ambled up Steiner toward
“Not from me, you didn’t,” Renna said.
“From other sources.” He looked at me, his smile dazzling. “Was that your work?”
“An associate’s,” I said.
He pumped my hand again. “Frank said you knew your way around the Orient. I’m delighted. Well-done, gentlemen. Keep it up. I’m looking for a swift resolution to this tragic affair.”
“We all are,” Renna said.
“Fine, just fine. I’m going to have Gail or Bob stop by a couple times a day for the latest, if you don’t mind.”
“Not a problem,” Renna said.
“Excellent, excellent,” the mayor said, and shook my hand again, then the entourage departed as quickly as it had arrived.
“Expressive guy,” I said.
“Yep, but don’t be fooled. He has sharp teeth. They all do. Gail in particular. She’s a former VP from a Silicon Valley startup, Bob’s asales yak and self-made millionaire, and Calvin made his bucks with a chain of barbecue joints in the East Bay, mostly in Oakland, Fremont, around there. Birds of a feather, the lot of them. Rumor has it Hurwitz is grooming Gail and Bob for the election after next. Her for deputy and By-the-Book Bob for the mayor’s seat after Hurwitz vacates. Keep it in the family.”
I shrugged. “It could be worse, I suppose.”
“True.” Renna tossed down the rest of his coffee like he wished it were something stronger. “That reminds me. The lab boys dug up a tidbit.”
“What?”
Renna’s face dimmed. “It’s not going to improve your appetite any.”
“Can’t get any worse.”
“Oh yeah,” he said. “It can. You know anything about spatter?”
“No.”
“A.k.a. blood patterns . With all the firepower on the streets these days, it’s a ballooning science. Almost an industry.”
“You don’t say.”
“I do. When each bullet exits the body, it sends out a spray trail. Multiple entries produce multiple trails. The sprays fall in a precise progression, later over earlier. Directions are different. Blood types are different. Water on water blends, but blood on blood layers because it’s thick like oil. When new drops fall on old, they make circles or half-circles, and don’t mix completely because blood begins to coagulate the instant it hits the air. By charting the location of the sprays and taking enough blood samples at the points where the spray trails intersect, the lab jocks can determine who was shot first.”
My heart seemed to slow. “And?”
“All five victims were gunned down in seconds. Probably five or six. Seven, tops. Good groupings. No wasted shots. But there’s always an order, even if you’re splitting seconds. The shooter stepped in close and caught the big male in the back first, raked high for the adults, father followed by mother, left to right, then swung back low, right to left, for the children.”
Seven seconds, tops . We were silent for quite a bit longer than it took for someone to eradicate the entire Nakamura family. I felt the embers of a smoldering heat jump-start my blood flow.
“Very, very cool,” I said softly.
“You got that right. Knocked out the biggest threat first.”
“So what’s that tell us?”
Renna took a long deliberate breath. “Two things. First, any way you look at it, it was an execution.”
I hesitated before asking the unavoidable: “And the second?”
“We have less time than I thought. So get a move on.”
I nodded guardedly. “Sure thing.”
As it turned out, acceleration would be the least of our worries.
CHAPTER 18
I SPOTTED him on the afternoon of the second day.
With lunchtime approaching and my leg on the mend, I curbed the Cutlass in front of the shop, then hoofed it the five blocks to Sweet Heat, a feisty Tex-Mex restaurant on Steiner. I ordered my usual chicken burrito with extra salsa and actually came close to finishing it, despite my lackluster appetite since Japantown. I paid the bill and ambled up Steiner toward
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