"You search him?" Arthur said.

"We got people to do that, don't we?"

"Sure, State ME will inventory everything."

"So why don't we let him search?" Suit said. "'Less you want to?"

"Search him?"

"Yeah."

"We can let the ME do it," Arthur said.

The siren faded as the ambulance pulled up and two EMTs got out. One was a woman. Her name was Annie Lopes.

"Whaddya got?" she said.

"Looks like a murder," Arthur said.

Suit said, "Unless he shot himself in the head and then climbed into the back and pulled the tailgate shut."

"That how you found him?" Annie said.

"Yep."

The two EMTs went and looked at the body. Annie put her hand to his throat and put her hand on his face. She picked up his right arm and let it fall.

"He's already starting into rigor," she said.

"So he is dead," Arthur said.

"Mostly they are," Annie said, "when they're in rigor." The second EMT was a guy named Ralph.

"Find any keys?" Ralph said.

"Nope."

"How'd you open the back?" Ralph said. "Car was unlocked," Suit said. "I popped the tailgate." Annie laughed softly.

"Wow," she said.

"Cops have their ways," Suit said.

More sirens sounded across the causeway.

3

ONE MEMBER of the Renewal is a kid named Cheryl DeMarco. She just turned eighteen, and her parents want me to get her out."

"Whether she wants to get out or not?" Jesse said.

"I explained that if she didn't want to leave," Sunny said, "there wasn't a lot I could do."

"And?"

"They asked if I knew anybody who could remove her forcibly."

"Which of course you do," Jesse said.

"I told them I didn't," Sunny said.

"A white lie," Jesse said.

Sunny smiled.

"True," she said. "But I thought I'd rather not conspire in a kidnapping."