The department had never been able to pull so many resources together this quickly. Then again, the city had never faced killers so deadly. As homicide and narcotics took up their positions, sharpshooters from the SWAT team lay prone on rooftops across the street.

Twenty-fourth district wagons were stationed at both ends of the block, cutting off traffic just one minute before Mann uttered the key word.

“Go,” Mann said, and the narcotics officers scrambled out of the van, easily battering down the dry-rotted front door. The homicide detectives did the same in the back.

The two teams moved methodically up the stairs to the second floor, each man covering the officer in front of him. When they made it to the second-floor apartment, they found the door ajar and smelled a strange odor coming from inside.

“Police!” Coletti shouted as he stood on one side of the door.

Mann, who was on the other side, gave a hand signal, and the two of them went in, their guns pointed at either side of the room. Six officers from homicide and narcotics came in behind them, and the eight men conducted a quick search of the two-bedroom apartment.

There were needles and thin rubber hoses scattered across the worn carpet. Spoons with black stains on the bottom and dried residue on the top were on every table. Small plastic bags—hundreds of them—were in corners and on chairs, on the TV stand and on the stove.

It was there, in the kitchen, that Coletti found the source of the odor.

Holstering his gun, he called his partner inside. “Mann,” he said, the frustration evident in his voice. “Take a look at this.”

Mann came in and saw a small nonstick pan on the stove with the fire burning underneath.

“They must’ve just left,” Coletti said, turning off the fire. “Otherwise, the place would be full of smoke.”

One of the narcotics officers called from the bedroom in the back. Coletti and Mann both ran to the room and looked out the open window at a pile of trash that was high enough to cushion a fall.

“Here’s how they got out,” the narcotics officer said to Coletti.

“Somebody warned them,” Coletti said, “but they couldn’t have gotten far.”

Mann grabbed his radio. “This is Dan 61,” he said quickly. “Flash information on two white males wanted for investigation in multiple homicides. The males are both around five foot ten and in their early twenties. They may be on foot in the area of Kensington and Allegheny and dressed in black. These males answer to the names Steven and Gabe, and both should be considered armed and dangerous.”

Five seconds of static filled the room before someone spoke up over the radio.

“This is 2411,” a patrolman said. “I think I have a visual on one of those males walking north on H Street from Westmoreland.”

“Twenty-four command,” the shift lieutenant said. “I’m en route to that location.”