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I TROTTED OVER to Twelfth Street, where I had parked my new secondhand Explorer, a newer model than my former beloved ride, which had been shot to pieces while I was behind the wheel

The new car had bells and whistles I didn’t need, but the sa, and curve control Add that to its zippy pickup and quiet ride, and this was the perfect vehicle forout, I called Conklin

“I’m about twenty-five minutes out,” I told him

I heard sirens through my phone

“I’est you step on it”

I gunned the engine and headed to Jamestown Avenue, in Bayviehere Connor Grant lived

As it had been the first time I came to his place, the tidy wood-frame house, set back fros, was hemmed in by a formation of squad cars But now, in the dark, its plain, everyday exterior was ani the landscape

Conklin was standing on the front steps of the house talking to Grant I badged the uniforms between me and the front door and joined my partner and the psycho as officially innocent of all charges

If the shooter who had shot out his as watching, he could be on a rooftop or inside a parked car To tell the truth, I didn’ton his porch But I did care about my partner’s safety and mine

I said, “We should go inside”

We followed Grant into hisin close proximity to hi about Grant seemed to be some kind of act From the first time I met him, all starry-eyed in the face of death and destruction, to the tial sharpshooter, Connor Grant didn’t compute

I ain, but ive ma that was Connor Grant

I crossed the living rooh the open doorway to his office There was an even bigger pile of mail than before stacked on the credenza, and next to his armchair were four plastic tubs offor him

Grant interrupted hts

He said, “Well, Sergeant, it took you long enough to get here”