This was all news to me. "So, Jamal was a tagger. You're saying Papa Danwe squeezed him to steal his way of doing graffiti magic."
Rashan nodded. "There can be no other explanation."
"But why? Jamal was good, okay, but he's not the only tagger in town. It seems like it'd be a lot easier to just recruit a guy, even if he needed a little training. Why take the risk of hitting a connected guy?"
"Two connected guys," Rashan corrected, "which is why I called you in. Jimmy Lee's body was found floating in a storm runoff this morning."
I'd been expecting another body to turn up, but I hadn't been expecting it so soon. "Damn," I said. "No skin?" Rashan nodded.
"I don't know this guy, boss. What was his thing? Another tagger?"
"No. Jimmy Lee was a warder-defensive magic. He designed protections, locks, alarms, minor defensive spells, that kind of thing."
I arched my eyebrows. "Important stuff?"
Rashan shook his head. "No, in that respect, Jimmy Lee was rather like Jamal. A valuable asset, but not a critical one."
"It's a pattern," I said. "Jamal was a tagger. He tapped and flowed juice on the outfit's territory. Jimmy Lee was a defensive guy. Put the two together. Papa Danwe is going after our defenses. He's making a move."
"It is the beginning of a pattern, Dominica. Tragically I expect there will be more bodies, and with each one, more of the pattern will be revealed."
"Both of the victims' names begin with J," I suggested. "Jamal's last name is James and Jimmy is short for James."
Rashan just looked at me.
"Okay, but I'm on the right track, yeah? The first part, I mean. What other reason could there be to hit Jamal and Jimmy Lee, two guys with those specific talents?"
"The problem with your hypothesis is that it overestimates the importance of the deceased. I have a lot of taggers and warders in the outfit. As far as our operational security is concerned, they will not be missed. These were low-level guys. Jamal's tags weren't responsible for tapping a significant amount of juice. Jimmy Lee's wards were not protecting anything of great importance."
"So it still doesn't make any sense."
"Not yet. Truly, it's not a bad plan, in principle. If you could squeeze assets in critical positions, and if you could move quickly enough that your enemy couldn't react in time, it's not a bad way to initiate hostilities against a rival outfit."
"But that's not what's happening here. Papa Danwe is hitting low-level guys. He doesn't seem to be in any big hurry about it, either. If I were doing it, I'd hit them all at once, or one right after the other, at least. I wouldn't take my time about it."
"Just so. Which is why I suggested you have discovered only part of the pattern."
"Okay, but whatever it is, the fact remains that Papa Danwe has given us time to react. So what's our play?"
"First, tell me about Jamal. I assume you've made an effort to contact him."
"Yeah, but the Haitian is blocking me." I told him about my efforts to reach Jamal, and my attempt the night before to summon his ghost from the Beyond.
"If Papa Danwe did, in fact, send those creatures to kill you, perhaps his plan is unfolding more quickly than we imagined."
"Any idea what they were? You ever know the Haitian to use something like that before?"
Rashan shrugged. "Just about every culture on earth, living or dead, has some kind of ghost dog or hellhound. In the north of England, they were called barghests, or town ghosts, and they were thought to stalk lone travelers at night. They are denizens of the Beyond, and for that reason they are usually associated with death and appear as minions or messengers of the underworld."
"Well, yeah, I got that much from Wikipedia."
Rashan arched his eyebrows. "I'm sorry, Dominica, I am old but I am not a scholar. If you think it might aid you to know more about them, I encourage you to pursue it."
"The point is, I haven't been able to contact Jamal, and it's pretty obvious Papa Danwe doesn't want me to. But what's the point of keeping Jamal quiet if the Haitian has to launch overt attacks against the outfit-against me-to do it?"
"It seems likely that Papa Danwe isn't aware that you've connected him to Jamal's murder. If he prevents you from contacting Jamal he keeps that connection hidden, from his point of view. And, after all, you have no real evidence that he was responsible for the attack on you."
"It was him."
"Have you found any other connections between Jamal and Papa Danwe, besides the murder?"
"I'm not sure. I don't think Jamal was working both sides. If Papa Danwe needed Jamal's craft for something, maybe he was trying to recruit him. When Jamal wouldn't go for it, they squeezed him."
"It fits what little we know, but of course, we don't know enough. The question remains, for what purpose did Papa Danwe want Jamal?"
"Does it really matter, boss? Papa Danwe hit Jamal and Jimmy Lee. He probably means to squeeze more of our people. He sent those ghost dogs after me. He's making a move. Shouldn't we start hitting back?"
"I am loath to launch a war against a rival organization unless it is absolutely necessary. One doesn't get as old as I am by courting violent conflict impulsively."
"I get that, boss. I'm not Sonny Corleone. We need a measured response, but we do need to respond."
"What I am suggesting, Dominica, is that there is precious little to be gained for either Papa Danwe or myself from a war between our organizations."
"The Haitian obviously thinks he has something to gain."
"Perhaps. Very well, find out what Papa Danwe is up to. You have my blessing to act directly against his interests and his organization, but make every effort to do so in a proportional way."
Seeing how the Haitian was responsible for two murders and a magical attack against me, that would give me plenty of leeway.
"I'm on it, boss. What else?"
"We can begin making certain preparations, quietly. For example, if there is to be war, we need to know which of the others will stand with us. We also need to know where we are vulnerable, should Papa Danwe launch an overt attack."
Rashan got up and went into a back room, returning with a rolled-up parchment. He spread it out on the table. It was a map of Greater Los Angeles and looked hand-painted, almost archaic. Rashan touched an area in South Central and it expanded above the table into a three-dimensional image, like the holograms in sci-fi movies and CNN.
"This is Crenshaw. It is the area where our territory borders most closely with Papa Danwe's."
"Which just happens to be where Jamal lived and worked." A thought occurred to me. "What about Jimmy Lee, also Crenshaw?"
Rashan shook his head. "No. Jimmy Lee lived in Chinatown and did most of his work in East L.A.-your old stomping grounds, Dominica."
"Well, maybe Papa Danwe is making a move on both Crenshaw and EasLos." I looked at the map. It was a stretch.
"Perhaps you will find out. However, I think it's clear that the most likely place for Papa Danwe to attack is here, in Crenshaw."
"I'll tell Chavez to beef up the security there. We can put more guys on the street, get some surveillance up."
"Tell him also to get the taggers working. He can bring in help from other neighborhoods if he needs it. I want all our rackets working at full capacity, and I want enough tags that we can channel the juice anywhere in Crenshaw at a moment's notice."
"What about police? The increased activity is going to be obvious to anyone who looks. We don't need Five-oh getting in the way, taking guys off the street."