“An eighteen-year-old soap opera is a weak motivation for this murder,” Oliver said. “I still vote for Shockley.”

“I like Waterson and the bikers,” Webster said. “You know why I like the bikers?”

“Why do you like the bikers?” Marge asked.

“Because of the weird MO—the shooting and the stabbing. More than one person. Bumping both Leonard and Decameron off would be too much work for one man—either Shockley or the priest.”

Decker said, “Unless the one man just broke in and shot them both first.”

Webster stated, “By the position and quantity of the spatter marks, the deputy coroner told Bert and me that he thought that one of the stab wounds broke a main chest artery in Decameron.”

“Descending vena cava,” Martinez clarified. “Big one right after the aorta.”

Webster said, “Since it squirted that much blood that far, he reckoned that the victim had been alive when he was stabbed. Meaning someone didn’t take ’em out first with a gun.”

Marge said, “Not necessarily, Tom. Decameron’s heart might still have been beating even though he’d been plugged through the head. If he’d been stabbed then—brain dead but his beating heart still sending blood through his vessels—there would have been arterial spatter marks.”

“But you’re stretching,” Webster said.

“Not really—”

“But Decameron certainly could have been alive when he was stabbed.”

“Of course.”

Webster said, “Look, I got no stake in pinning the homicides on any specific individuals. I am trying to examine this logically. And my logic says more than one bad guy. And to me that spells Sanchez and Sidewinder.”

“I’m trying to be logical, too,” Oliver said. “What do all three victims have in common, Tom?”

“Curedon.”

“Exactly. If this was something personal with the Sparks family, why was Leonard bumped?”

“Then what’s the priest doing with bloody clothes?” Webster said.

“What does the priest have to do with bikers?” Oliver said.

Webster said, “Maybe through Waterson, Bram contracted with the bikers to blow Decameron away.”

Marge said, “Because of an eighteen-year-old grudge?”

Webster shrugged helplessly.

“I like the idea that Leonard was whistle-blowing to Decameron,” Marge said. “But suppose his finking wasn’t the reason behind his homicide. He wasn’t the intended victim. Decameron was. For Leonard, it was just bad timing. A case of wrong place at the wrong time.”

“I like that,” Decker said.

“Then where is our Curedon Fisher/Tyne-FDA data?” Oliver said. “Decameron was going to show it to us. It isn’t in his office, it isn’t at his house. Where the fuck is it?”

“If someone was looking for data,” Martinez said, “why wasn’t Decameron’s office trashed?”

Decker said, “Because his files were nicely laid out, Bert. A scientific thief, knowing what he was looking for, could easily lift the proper folder without tossing the place.”

Oliver said, “Be great if we could get that data—”