Pike studied the pictures. He said nothing, but thought, this is how your love was repaid.

Pike left her as he found her, went outside, and sat in one of the lawn chairs under the awning. The air was good and cool, and not filled with death. Pike exhaled with his diaphragm, pushing out the bad stuff. If death was in him, he wanted to get rid of it.

Pike phoned John Chen, who answered from the lab at SID in a hushed, paranoid whisper.

“I can’t talk. They’re all around me.”

“Just listen. In a couple of hours, SID will roll to a murder site in Willowbrook. They’ll find three deceased males, a deceased female, three nine-millimeter pistols, and spent casings from a fourth gun.”

Chen’s voice grew even softer.

“Holy Christ, did you kill them?”

“Comp their guns with the casings and bullets you have from the Meyer house. They’re going to match.”

“Holy Christ again! You got the crew who killed the Meyers?”

“The spent casings in Willowbrook will probably match with the casings you found in Ana Markovic’s room. The man who killed Ana probably committed the Willowbrook murders.”

“The fourth man?”

“Yes.”

“Waitaminute. You’re saying one of their own guys killed them?”

“Yes.”

Pike broke the connection, then phoned Elvis Cole.

“It’s me. You alone?”

“Yeah. I’m at the office. Just dropped her off.”

“She have anything?”

“She showed me three condo complexes and gave me a lecture on how Darko runs his call-girl business, but whether it’s true or helps us, I don’t know. I’m having a title and document search run, but I won’t have the results until later. I’m about to get started on her sister.”

“You won’t need to trace Rahmi’s calls.”

“You found Jamal?”

Pike did not mention George Smith by name, but described how someone with inside information connected Michael Darko with a D-Block Crip named Moon Williams, who lived down in Willowbrook. Then Pike described what he found.

“You think they were killed the same night Meyer was murdered?”

“Within hours. We’ll know if these are the same guns when Chen runs the comps, but they’re going to match.”

Pike told him about the bib.

Cole said, “But why would Darko kill them after they delivered his kid?”

“Maybe they didn’t deliver the kid. Maybe they tried to hold him up for a bigger payoff, or maybe he just wanted to get rid of the witnesses.”

Cole said, “What are you going to do?”

“Call the police. I can’t leave these people like this. Little kids live around here. They might find the bodies.”

Even as Pike said it, the pit bull growled, and Pike saw two L.A. County sheriff’s cruisers coming toward him up the street. An unmarked car was behind them.