The 9th Judgment

My partner shook his head no and said, "Looks like a hundred bucks in the victim's wallet. This wasn't a robbery. This was an execution. Two of them."

Questions were flooding my mind. Why hadn't gunshots been reported? Why had the killer targeted these people? Was it random or personal? Why had he killed a child?

I turned toward the sound of an engine's roar and saw the coroner's van heading toward us, tires screeching as it braked twenty feet away.

Dr. Claire Washburn got out of the van wearing blue scrubs and a Windbreaker-black with white letters spelling out MEDICAL EXAMINER front and back. Despite the odds of a black woman succeeding in her profession when she first got started, Claire had done it. In my opinion, she's the finest forensic pathologist west of the Rockies. She's also the friend of my heart, and although we work three flights and eighty feet away in adjoining buildings, I hadn't seen her in more than a week.

"Jesus God, what is this? " she asked as she hugged me and took in the scene over my shoulder.

I walked Claire toward the RAV4 and stood next to her as she looked into the car and saw the dead woman in a crouch, half facing her baby.

Claire jerked back as she took in the sight of the dead child, her face reflecting the same horror the rest of us were feeling, maybe more. "That baby is the same age as my Ruby," she said. "Who kills a baby too young to tell what happened?"

"Maybe it's payback for something. Drug deal. Gambling debt. Or maybe the husband did it."

I was thinking, Please let it be something like that.

Claire took her Minolta out of her kit and fired off two shots of Barbara Ann Benton from where we stood, then went around to the other side of the vehicle and took two more.

When she started shooting pictures of the baby, I saw the tears in her eyes. She wiped them with the back of her hand. I couldn't remember the last time I'd seen Claire cry.

"Mom let the killer get this close," Claire said. "Gunpowder stippling is on her cheek and neck. She tried to shield her baby with her body, and still the bastard shot the child in the head. And here's something new: I don't recognize this stippling pattern."

"What does that mean?"

"Means WCF has some rare kind of gun."

Chapter 10

THE BENTONS ' HOUSE was a modest two-bedroom on 14th Avenue, blue with white trim, spray-on Fourth of July decorations still on the picture window and a pull toy on the steps. Conklin rang the bell, and when Richard Benton opened the front door, I knew that we were seeing the last happy moment of the man's life.

When a married woman is killed, her husband is involved more than half the time, but I found Richard Benton believably devastated when we told him the shocking news-and he had an alibi. He'd been home with his five-year-old when the shooting took place, had roasted a chicken for dinner, and had sent a constant stream of e-mail to his office during that time.

Benton was at first disbelieving and then shattered, but Conklin and I talked to him anyway, about his marriage, about Barbara's friends and coworkers, and asked if there'd been any threats against her. He said, "Barbara is nothing but love. I don't know what we're going to do..." And then he broke down again.

I checked in with Jacobi at nine. I told him that until I ran Richard Benton's name through NCIC, he was in the clear, and that Benton didn't know the initials "WCF."

"Barbara was a nurse's aide," I told Jacobi. "Worked at a nursing home. We'll interview the others on her shift first thing in the morning."

"I'm going to hand that job off to Samuels and Lemke," Jacobi said. He had a strangled sound in his voice for the second time in as many hours.

"Hand it off? Excuse me? What's that about?"

"Something new just came in, Boxer."

Honest to God, I was running out of gas, going into my thirteenth straight hour on the job. Behind me, in a room shimmering with anguish, Conklin was telling Richard Benton to come to the ME's office to identify the victims.

"Something new on the Benton case?" I asked Jacobi. Maybe the husband had a record for domestic violence. Maybe a witness had come forward, or perhaps CSI had found something inside the RAV4.

Jacobi said, "No, this just happened. If you want me to give it to Chi and McNeil, I will. But you and Conklin are going to want in."

"Don't be too sure, Jacobi."

"You've heard of Marcus Dowling?"

"The actor?"

"His wife was just shot by an intruder," Jacobi told me. "I'm on my way over to the Dowling house now."

Chapter 11

THE DOWLING HOUSE is on Nob Hill, a sprawling mansion taking up most of the block, ivy growing up the walls, potted topiaries on either side of the large oak door. It couldn't have been more different from the Bentons ' humble home.

Before Conklin could reach for the bell, Jacobi opened the door. His face was sagging from stress. His eyelids drooped, and he almost looked older tonight than he had when we'd both taken bullets on Larkin Street.