Cameron took his eyes off the sheet, folded it and took a deep breath, knowing through experience that it wasn't nearly enough for the media machine and now he'd have to start tap-dancing to both the obvious and the unanswerable questions.

A television guy in the front asked, "Joel, we heard a report on the radio of an officer down. Were any officers or detention deputies wounded?"

"No," Cameron said. "No law enforcement or detention deputies were injured."

"How many shots were fired?" asked another.

"That's still under investigation."

"Was it a drive-by?"

"That's still under investigation."

"Is that the dead guy back there?" asked a newspaper reporter from Nick's main competition.

Cameron took a long breath, let the question sit there while the group went quiet with professional embarrassment.

"Well, we don't usually put yellow sheets over their faces if they're still alive," said Cameron, raising his eyebrows, while the rest of the news folk tried to hide their sniggering.

"Yes, that's him, Jean. And the M.E. will be removing the body as soon as the investigators are through."

Jean was known for stating the obvious at crime scenes, and took an unspoken derision from her street cohorts for being a bit ditzy. But everyone also knew she probably had an editor who demanded a source for every line she wrote. If she stood here and watched the body lie outside for three hours she would still have to quote an official saying the body lay out here for three hours.

While the others tossed questions at Cameron that Nick knew would not be answered, he focused on Hargrave. At times the detective would move out of sight, blocked by the transport van. Then he would step back into view. Nick watched him kneel next to the body, lifting the sheet as the M.E.