The two of us had a late breakfast at Roma's around the corner. We talked about the case, then I asked her about other cases she'd solved. Jamilla had a lot of confidence, but she was also modest about her contributions. I liked that about her. She definitely wasn't full of herself. When she had finished her omelet and toast, she sat there nervously tapping her finger against the table. She had several tics, seemed wired most of the time. I knew she was on the job again.

'What's the matter?' I finally asked. 'You're holding something back, aren't you?'

She nodded. 'I got a call from KRON-TV. The're close to doing a story revealing that there have been several murders in California.'

I frowned. 'How the hell did they find out?'

She shook her head. 'Who knows? I'm going to give a reporter I know at The Examiner the okay to break the story first.'

'Hold on a second,' I said. 'You sure about that?'

'I'm sure. I trust my friend as much as I trust anybody. He'll ground the story in reality at least. Now help me figure out if there's anything we want the killers to read in the newspapers. It's the least my friend can do for us.'

When we got back to the Hall of Justice there was bad news. The killers had struck again.

Chapter Sixteen

It was another bad one, another hanging. Two hangings, actually.

Jamilla and I split up as soon as we arrived at the murder scene in Mill Valley. We had different ways of doing things, different crime-scene techniques. Somehow, though, I thought we would arrive at the same conclusions about this one. I could see the signs already - all of them bad.

The two bodies were hung upside down from a rack used to hold copper pots. The scene of the murders was a contemporary kitchen inside a large, very expensive house. Dawn and Gavin Brody looked to be in their mid-thirties. Like the other victims, they'd been drained of most of their blood.