The 6th Target

Te

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.

Te

Te

The rat dog was completely still.

As Te

Rest in bloody peace.

Chapter 51

THREE DAYS HAD PASSED since Madison Tyler had been taken from Scott Street and her na

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 na

"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 na

"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.

"Ke

"Come wherever you like, Sergeant." Klassen smirked, holding the hose gun in front of himself as if it were cocked and ready to go.

"Shut up, asshole," Conklin said mildly.

"Joke, Officer," Klassen said, gri

We followed Klassen up the front steps; through an oaken door, a spiffy foyer, and a contemporary parlor; and out to a glass conservatory extending off the kitchen. Ferns, gardenias, and large pots of cacti abounded.

Klassen offered us wicker-basket chairs suspended by chains from overhead beams, and a Chinese man of indeterminate age appeared at the edge of the room, crossed his left hand over his right wrist, and waited.

"Can Mr. Wu get you anything, Officers?" he asked.

"No, thanks," I said.

"So what brings you into my life on this otherwise magnificent morning?"

I balanced uncomfortably on the edge of the basket chair and got my notebook out as Conklin walked around the conservatory, picking up the odd piece of erotic statuary, moving potted plants a couple of inches here and there.

"Make yourself at home," Klassen called out to Conklin.

"Where were you on Saturday morning?" I asked.

"Saturday," he said, leaning back, patting his hair, a look coming over his face as though he were remembering a particularly sweet dream.

"I was making Moonlight Mambo," he said. "Shot it right here. I'm directing a series of twenty-minute films. What I call 'bedroom shorts.' " He gri

"That's just great. I'd like the names and phone numbers of everyone who can vouch for your whereabouts."

"Am I suspected of something, Sergeant?"

"Let's just say we think of you as a 'person of interest.' "

Klassen leered at me as though I'd paid him a compliment. "You have lovely skin. You don't spend a pe

"Mr. Klassen, don't screw around with me. Names and phone numbers, please."

"No problem. I'll print out a list."

"Good. Have you seen this child?" I asked, showing him the class photo of Madison Tyler that I'd kept in my jacket pocket for the last three days.

I hated to let Klassen pass his slimeball eyes over Madison's lovely face.

"That's the newspaper guy's kid, right? I've seen her on the news. Look," Klassen said, smiling, nearly blinding me with his sparkling choppers, "I can make this very easy for all of us, all right? Come with me."