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    What will we do when Leo retires?
Sarah wondered. He always knew how to walk the talk back from the place where sparks might fly.
    Delaney gave a derisive snort and muttered, ‘You got that right.’ He peered at the ceiling light for a while as if it might hold answers up there instead of only dead flies. ‘That was a strange case, all right. But when’s the last time you knew a guy to go off the rails over something that happened to his uncle? Must’ve been something else going on.’
    He closed the jacket. ‘Oh, the crime-scene crew picked up all three of Spurlock’s bullets off the asphalt, did I tell you that? They all went through Lacey so they’re pretty beat up but they think they can ID them. They found one in the street, too, right at the edge of the driveway. Looks like a match for the rimfire casing they picked up earlier beside Lacey’s body. If so it’s almost certainly from Lacey’s Sig Sauer. Except the angle’s all wrong – I don’t see how Lacey could have been that far off with his shot, but … the lab’s got all four of them now. I asked them for a rush job on the one from the street. No use wasting time on it if it isn’t from Lacey’s gun. Well, what else? Ollie’s still at the autopsy, huh?’ He looked at his watch. ‘Let’s all take an early lunch and then start on what we can do in the meantime. Sarah, you’ll be following through with IA, of course …’
    ‘Did most of that Saturday,’ she said. ‘The rest is on hold till the autopsy reports come back.’
    ‘OK, then you’ve got some time? Hold that good thought, I’ll get back to you. Leo, I want you to go back to that bar where the call came from, talk to everybody there, try to find the two guys who called nine-one-one on Saturday. Ray and Jason, you canvass all the buildings around there, both sides of the block, see if you can find anybody who witnessed the shooting.’
    ‘Boss, we’ve got the video,’ Sarah said.
    ‘I know. But juries like eyewitnesses and you never know what’s going to end up in court. And Oscar, you go after Lacey’s wife – or ex-wife, it sounds like, OK?’ There was a funny little frisson around the table – everybody’s head up suddenly, the same expression of disbelief on all their faces. Did Delaney really mean to say that to Oscar? Or give him that job? Sarah saw Jason nudge Ray’s elbow.
    Oscar Cifuentes was famous throughout the department for two things: his prowess with the ladies, and how close he had come to losing his spot on the homicide crew when his first case there had collided with his colorful romantic life.
    ‘Find her,’ Delaney said, his preoccupied face innocent as a choirboy’s, ‘and get her take on the marriage and why they broke up. It won’t be the whole truth, of course, no divorce story ever is, but it’s a place to start. Well, um, and Sarah, since you’re free for now, see if you can find any more of Lacey’s family and ask them what they think happened to Ed. Did they see the wreck coming? Can they explain what made a good cop go nuts like this? Anything you can find.’
    He looked around. ‘That goes for all of you. Look for neighbors, colleagues in clubs, drinking buddies … Jason, see if you can find out where he was selling his copper wire and the rest of the trash, will you? Keep picking every brain you can find because I smell a bad story coming and I’d like to see us get a handle on it before the TV guys start having fun with it.’
    Gathering up papers, he sailed into his office, leaving a momentarily speechless crew behind him.
    Oscar Cifuentes walked into the break room as Sarah started on the second half of her sandwich and said, ‘Well, Sarah, you brown-bagging again today?’
    ‘Today and forever, probably,’ she said, getting up when the kettle whistled, pouring water for tea. ‘Will and I bought an old house and we need to completely remodel the kitchen. We hope to get it done before the hot water heater