“No shit. You gonna bake me a cake?”

Deets fingered open the ruck, then frowned.

“He’s got four ten-pound bags of flour in here.”

“That’s what he told you, didn’t he? C’mon, let’s stay on topic.”

Terrio put away his badge.

“Don’t touch the fanny pack, okay?”

Pike nodded.

“You know a man name of Frank Meyer?”

A chill spread through Pike’s belly. He had not seen Frank Meyer in years, though he frequently thought about him, and now his name hung in the mid-morning air like a frosty ghost. Pike glanced at their car. The woman was still watching, and still on the phone, as if she were reporting his reaction.

“What happened?”

Deets said, “Have you seen him in the past week or so?”

“Not in a long time. Ten years, maybe.”

“What if I told you I have a witness who claims you were with Meyer recently?”

Pike studied Deets for a moment, and read he was lying. Pike turned back to Terrio.

“You want to play games, I’ll keep running.”

“No games. Meyer and his family were murdered in their home two nights ago. The boys and the wife were executed. A woman we’ve identified as their nanny survived, but she’s in a coma.”

No part of Joe Pike moved except for the rise and fall of his chest until he glanced at the tattooed woman. An older woman in a dingy robe had come out of her house, and the two of them were watching from the door.

Deets said, “That your girlfriend?”

“I don’t know who she is.”

Pike faced Terrio again.

“I didn’t kill them.”

“Don’t think you did. We believe a professional home invasion crew killed them. We believe that same crew has hit six other homes in the past three months, murdering a total of eleven people.”

Pike knew where they were going.

“You don’t have any suspects.”

“Nothing. No prints, pix, or witnesses. We don’t have any idea who’s doing this, so we started looking at the victims.”

Deets said, “And guess what, Pike? Turns out we found something the first six have in common. Three were drug traffickers, one was a pornogra pher who laundered money for the Israeli mob, and two were jewelry merchants who fenced stolen goods. The first six were as dirty as yesterday’s socks, so now we’re seeing what’s up with Meyer.”

“Frank wasn’t a criminal.”

“You can’t know that.”

“Frank had an import business. He sold clothes.”