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the sake of being thorough, he checked their alibi. The waiter at the restaurant remembered them. He confirmed they were there when the murder took place. The time span of the movie was well past the time of the incident, so was inconsequential.
    He drove to the precinct, mulling over what he knew. He had little at this point, the victim’s car being the best piece of evidence. He still needed to get the forensic report, which might give him something to go on, and less likely, the ME’s report. Both should be available later today, but he made a note to check with CSI.
    He parked his Chevy in the back lot, rounded the building, and went up the set of steps to the RHPD precinct. When he stepped inside, he was relieved to find it was a lot quieter than the evening before. The drug squad had finished congratulating each other on the prior day’s bust, and was settled in to work on their next undertaking.
    Everything was back to normal—whatever normal was.
    Detective King moped around, perhaps jealous he was removed from the drug squad to work homicide as Hank’s partner. Hank wasn’t sure what Diego’s thinking was on that decision. Perhaps he wanted to see where King worked best. Hank’s opinion was King didn’t fit in comfortably anywhere except maybe the occasional undercover job. He fit in pretty well with a lot of the riffraff on the streets, with a way—that Hank frowned on—of getting information from the criminal element.
    Hank sat his briefcase beside his chair and crossed the precinct floor to Officer Callaway’s desk. The young cop glanced up as Hank approached and slid a file folder over, handing it to the detective.
    “Some interesting stuff on Werner Shaft there for you. He’s got a record.”
    “Thanks, Callaway.” Hank took the folder back to his desk and sat, pulling his chair in.
    He opened the folder and studied its contents. Werner Shaft was an ex-con. He’d served time for burglary several years ago, had a short record before that, but was clean since being released from prison. Shaft had either gone straight, or gone smart and never got caught.
    Either way, he was dead now, and his record might have something to do with it.
    Shaft’s accomplice in the burglary case was another ex-con by the name of Michael Norton, also with no record since his release. There was no further information on Norton, Callaway’s report concentrating on Shaft.
    Hank spun his chair around and wheeled over to Callaway’s desk. “If you have a minute to spare, I need a complete file on Michael Norton.”
    “Right away, Hank.”
    Back at his desk, Hank perused Shaft’s file more thoroughly. As Maria had said, he was employed at Richmond Distributing. Hank made a note to drop by there and talk to some of his coworkers.
    Callaway dropped a sheet of paper on Hank’s desk. “Here’s everything I could find on Norton.”
    Hank scrutinized the paper, flipped it over, ran his finger down the page, and stopped. Norton owned a 2012 Honda Accord registered in his name—white. It fit the description of the vehicle the gunman drove, according to the witness.
    That information, along with his association with Shaft, was enough for them to bring Norton in, and maybe some serious questioning would result in a confession.
    Hank got on the phone and called lead CSI, Rod Jameson. “Do you have anything for me yet?”
    “We’re still processing everything, Hank,” Rod said. “I just got the ballistics report back and I’ll get it to you right away.”
    “Anything enlightening in there?” Hank asked.
    “Not much. Gunman used a .38-caliber. We recovered ballistic evidence in the ground under the victim’s head and ran it through our ID system. It turned up negative, so it wasn’t used in a crime before as far as our system could tell. That doesn’t mean it wasn’t, it’s just not in our system.”
    “Anything else?”
    “We found some shell casings on the street as well as a handful in places around the