“You haven’t talked to them yet?” the investigator asked.

“No. I just got here. Where are they?”

“Last I knew they were loading Grandma up in the ambulance. Shot in the leg and refused medical treatment. They finally convinced her to go, but on the condition that the kid went with her.”

“I’ll see if I can catch them,” Jensen said. It was always better to get info at the crime scene than after witnesses had time to think about things. “Get me a full report right away.”

“Will do,” the investigator said, picking up a severed toe.

Jensen made his way to the door. “Found something interesting,” Wallace said.

“Can it wait? I’ve got to catch the ambulance before it takes off.”

“I’ll walk with you.”

“Fine,” Jensen said. Wallace was obviously anxious to impress one of his superiors. They exited the house. There were flashing lights and a gathering of reporters. It was a mess. Half the neighborhood was standing outside the yellow police tape.

“Both of the bodies—the intact ones, I should say—had medallions around their necks,” he said, scurrying along at Jensen’s side.

“Medallions?”

“Yes. Really strange-looking ones. Here, I took a Polaroid of one.” He stuck out the picture.

Jensen took it and held it at an angle to catch some of the streetlight. A large gold dragon, curled upon itself, held a double-armed crucifix in its sharp claws. The cross bore several words. Latin, from the looks of it. “Any idea what it means?”

“I’m glad you asked,” Wallace said. “I looked it up. You see, my phone has an Internet connection, and I just had to—”

“What does it mean?”

“Um. Sorry. The words on the right side—oh, it’s Latin, but the way—”

“I knew it was Latin.”

“It means ‘Oh, how merciful is God.’ And the words on the left mean ‘Just and Faithful.’”

Ahead of him, Jensen could see a woman being loaded into the ambulance. She seemed to be arguing with one of the EMTs. A boy—her grandson, he guessed—stood resolutely beside her. “So do you have any idea what the medallions mean?”

“Maybe.”

“Maybe? Well, what is it?”

“It’s just that . . . it seems a little weird.”

“Weird? Weird is a body being split into a billion little pieces. We’re way beyond weird, so tell me what you know.”

“This is only the first thing I found. I could only do a quick, limited search with my—”

“Wallace!”

“Okay. Sorry. The medallions were worn hundreds of years ago by an organization called the Order of the Dragon.”

“Sounds like a cult.”