The 6th Target

his mind like a chain of firecrackers.

The lock bar on the exit door opened against his forearm. He stood for a minute in the sunshine, getting his bearings. Then he turned the brick corner of the building, heading toward the patio of keystones and the planters that were added since the building's conversion.

Seeing Tenning coming toward him, Barnaby started yapping. He lunged at the leash connecting his collar to the chain-link fence.

Beside him was the baby carriage, where Oliver Glynn fretted in the dappled shade. He was howling, too.

Tenning felt a flame of hope rush through him.

Two birds with one stone.

Clutching the valve-capped pipe, he edged along the side of the building toward the shrieks and howls of the Nasty Little Animals.

Just then, Margery Glynn, her bland blond hair knotted up and stabbed into place with a pencil, stepped out of her apartment. She bent low, displaying several square feet of milky-white thigh, and lifted Oliver out of his carriage.

Tenning watched, unseen.

The baby quieted instantly, but Barnaby only changed his tune, his excited yips stabbing, stabbing, stabbing.

Mistress Margery shushed him, put one hand under the baby's ass, and pressing his wet face to her deflated bosom, carried him inside her apartment.

Tenning advanced on Barnaby, who paused midyowl and licked his chops, hoping for a pat perhaps or a run in the park. Then he sent up his yapping alarm – again.

Tenning lifted his club and swung it down hard. Barnaby squealed, made a feeble grab for Tenning's arm as the club rose high against the cloudless sky and then slammed down a second time.

The rat dog was completely still.

As Tenning stuffed its body into a garbage bag, he thought, RIBP.

Rest in bloody peace.

Chapter 51

THREE DAYS HAD PASSED since Madison Tyler had been taken from Scott Street and her nanny murdered only a few yards from Alta Plaza Park.

We were all in the squad room that morning: Conklin, four homicide inspectors from the night tour doing overtime, Macklin, a half-dozen cops from Major Crimes, and me.

Macklin looked around the small room and said, 'I'll make this quick so we can get to work. We've got nothing. Nothing but the talent in this room. So let's keep doing what we're doing, good solid police work. And for those of you who pray – put in a word for a miracle.'

He handed out assignments, asked for questions – got none. Chairs scraped as everyone scrambled. I looked over the new list of pervs Conklin and I were assigned to interview.

I got up from my desk and crossed the scuffed linoleum floor to Jacobi's office door.

'Come in, Boxer.'

'Jacobi, there were two people involved in the abduction. There was the guy who did the coercing and then there was a driver. Pretty odd, don't you think, for a pedophile to partner up?'

'Got any other ideas, Boxer? I'm wide open.'

'I want to go back to square one. The witness. I want to talk to her.'

'After all these years, I can't believe you want to double check an interview of mine,' Jacobi groused. 'Hang on. I have her statement right here.'

I sighed as Jacobi moved his coffee, his Egg McMuffin, his newspaper, lifted a pile of manila folders. He sorted through those, found the one he was looking for, flapped it open.

'Gilda Gray. Here's her number.'

'Thanks, Lieu,' I said, reaching for the folder. I felt a pang, as if I'd made a slip of the tongue. I'd never called Jacobi 'Lieu' before. I hoped he'd missed it, but no. Jacobi beamed at me.

I smiled at him over my shoulder, walked back to the face-to-face desk arrangement I have with Conklin. Dialed Gilda Gray's number and got her on the phone.

'I can't come in now. I've got a presentation with a client at nine thirty,' she protested.

'A child is missing, Ms. Gray.'

'Look, I can tell you everything in about ten seconds over the phone. I was walking our dog on Divisadero. I was following her, getting the newspaper into position, when the little girl and her nanny crossed the street.'

'Then what happened?'

'My attention was on Schotzie. I was looking down, lining up that newspaper, you know? I thought I heard a child call out – but when I looked up, all I saw was someone in a gray coat sliding open a door to a black minivan. And I saw the back of the nanny's coat as she got inside.'

'Someone in a gray coat. Gotcha. Did you see the person at the wheel?'

'Nope. I put the newspaper in the trash, and I heard the van turn the corner. Then, like I've said, I heard a loud pop and saw what looked like blood splattering against the back window. It was horrible…'

'Anything you can tell me about the man in the gray coat?'

'I'm pretty sure he was white.'

'Tall, short, distinguishing features?'

'I didn't pay any attention. I'm sorry.'

I asked Ms. Gray when she could come in and look at mug shots, and she said, 'You've got mug shots of the backs of people's heads?'

I said, 'Thanks anyway,' and hung up.

I looked into Conklin's light-brown eyes. Got lost there for half a second.

'So we're still on perv patrol?' he asked.

'Yeah, we are, Rich. Bring your coffee.'

Chapter 52

KENNETH KLASSEN WAS WASHING his silver Jaguar when we parked on the uphill slope outside his home on Vallejo.

He was a white male, forty-eight, five ten, your average-to-good-looking porno auteur with artificially enhanced features: good hair weave, quality nose job, aquamarine contact lenses, dental veneers – the works.

According to his sheet, Klassen had been caught in an online chat-room sting setting up a date with someone he thought was a twelve-year-old girl – turned out to be a forty-year-old cop.

Klassen had cut a deal with the DA. In exchange for ratting out a child pornographer, he got a lengthy probation and a hefty fine. He was still making adult porn, which was completely legal, even in the upscale neighborhood of Pacific Heights.

A look of delight brightened Klassen's face as Conklin and I left our Crown Vic on the curb and came toward him.

'Well, well, well,' he said, shutting off the hose, looking from me to Conklin and back to me. Sizing us up.

Then his smile hardened as he made us as cops.

'Kenneth Klassen,' I said, flashing my badge, 'I'm Sergeant Boxer. And this is Inspector Conklin. We have some questions for you. Mind if we come inside?'

'Come wherever you like, Sergeant.' Klassen smirked, holding the hose gun in front of himself as if it were