As he sped back toward headquarters, he dialed the iPhone he’d given to Coletti. The old detective picked up on the second ring. “Hello?”

“They just bagged Gabe’s personal effects, and I think we got something.”

“What?”

“His phone. He got three calls from one number over the last two days, and they all came about fifteen minutes before each murder.”

“What number did the calls come from?” Coletti asked. “It looks like they could’ve come from one of those throw-away phones.”

“Gimme a second,” Coletti said. “I’ve got Petrov’s property receipt right here. If you give me the number I’ll check it against his phone.”

“Okay,” Mann said, pulling out the sheet of paper where he’d written the number. When he read it to Coletti there was a pause.

“That’s not Petrov’s number,” Coletti said.

“Doesn’t mean anything,” Mann said.

“Maybe he used the phone and got rid of it after he made his calls.”

“Or maybe this is all a bit too neat,” Coletti said as a phone began ringing in the background. “Hold on a minute.”

Mann listened as Coletti answered the office phone and grunted a few garbled responses.

When Coletti came back on the line, he was speaking in a tone that was clearly strained. “They found a body at Thirtieth Street Station with a note attached,” he said.

“What did it say?”

“It said, ‘I won’t stop until I get to Mike Coletti.’”

Chapter 18

Steven awakened at the unfinished house on Oxford Street, praying he wasn’t about to experience a repeat of his nightmare. He looked around nervously to see if his dead friend was back, but he soon realized he’d been awakened by his buzzing phone.

It vibrated insistently and repeatedly, like the memories from the night before. By the time it vibrated for the tenth time, his mind went to a place between consciousness and dreams, and his imagination began to take over. It took him on a journey through a heaven he saw only in his mind. There, in his own private heaven, he was a king rather than an addict.

His heaven never lasted, however. In fact, it often turned into hell. As the buzzing phone gathered strength, the vibration was like screaming that cut at his very soul. It rang like a hellish alarm that told him the war was about to begin.

Steven’s eyes snapped open, and he fumbled in his pocket for the phone. When finally he connected the call, he heard the sound of heavy breathing and voices in the background saying words he couldn’t quite understand.

“They’ve found the body,” the angel said in a voice that grated in Steven’s ears.

“Prepare yourself. Take up your weapon. The war is about to begin. Do you understand?”

Steven nodded.