Have you read these things?

Enough to know what you're doing. I pushed this thing because I thought you were protecting him.

Now you know you were wrong. You should have just let it go, but no, you couldn't mind your business.

Yvonne Bennett made it my business, Marx. So do the Repkos and Ida Frostokovich and the other families you've lied to. You told those people it was finished. They've buried their children, but they're going to have to dig them up again. What in hell were you thinking?

He hooked a thumb at Pike.

How many people besides you and this one know what we're doing?

A few.

Poitras is probably helping you, isn't he?

Poitras doesn't know anything.

We need their names.

Forget it, Marx. There's no chance in hell.

Munson had gone to the sliders.

Sweet. You got your privacy, you got your view, you have your stolen police property. Not everyone would have the balls to break into a deputy chief's house.

You have me confused with someone else.

Munson laughed. He was probably a pretty good guy and I would probably like him if he was someone else.

Please, Cole. Really. Who else could it be, the way you've been dogging us. Now we have this problem.

Pike, floating between the dining room and kitchen, said, We don't have a problem.

Munson hit Pike with the grin.

Look at Pike here. Pike looks like he wants to shoot it out. What do you say, Chief? We could kill'm, say they resisted arrest.

Bastilla glanced up from stacking the files.

You're not helping.

That was humor. They know I'm kidding.

Marx looked at me with the unfocused eyes of someone who had considered it and hadn't been kidding.

We could have gotten the warrants and brought along some boys from Metro, but we didn't. I can't force you to cooperate, but we have to contain this. If Wilts finds out, we may never be able to make the case. That meant lying about our investigation, but now this is where we are, and you're here with us.

You believe Wilts killed those women.

Yes.

Then why close the case on Byrd? Why tell those families it was over?

Because that's what Wilts wants us to think.

Munson pulled a chair from the table and swung his leg over it like he was mounting a horse.

We believe he engineered Byrd's death so we would close the Repko case probably because he was scared we might find something on the security disk. He forced our hand with this damned death book. When we realized that's what he wanted, we gave him Byrd to buy ourselves more time.

Pike said, Why Byrd?

Munson shrugged.

Byrd was already connected to one of the victims Yvonne Bennett. He's gotta be thinking, when we find Byrd with this picture of Bennett, we'll think it's a slam dunk. If you're asking how Wilts and Byrd are connected, we don't know. Wilts might have picked him because of the Bennett connection, but maybe they knew each other.