He placed both hands on his hips. “Bad news, guys. The fighting between the Russian gangs in the Inner Richmond area has intensified. Boss wants me to head up a joint task force aimed at curtailing this ongoing war. I’m off the thrill kill case. Sorry, I must get started on it.” Sokolov left, closing the door behind him.
“Well, that sucks,” I said, not caring whether it was appropriate to say.
“Cavanagh did it on purpose,” Kang said. “He considers you an extra body and doesn’t think he needs three personnel on this case.”
“But I don’t work for him.”
“He doesn’t care. He wants to look good for the top brass. There’s usually some type of political motivation behind every decision he makes. This Russian thing must be a hot button.”
“We’ll have to make do.” I continued working on the list but stopped when I heard Kang chuckle to himself.
“What’s so funny?”
“Nothing.” His growing smile disagreed.
“Come on; give it up.” He had tickled my curiosity enough that I stopped writing.
“Well, since it’s the two of us and our last names are kind of similar…”
“I don’t think they’re similar.”
“They totally are. How about we go by ‘Kang and Kane: crime-fighting duo’?”
“Kang and Kane? Why not Kane and Kang?”
“Wait, how about the Asian Ks?” Kang painted an invisible marquee with his hands.
“Nuh-uh.”
“Double K?”
“I don’t think we need a nickname.”
“Capital K and Lower K? Get it?” he said, moving his hand up and down.
“I wish I didn’t.”
He returned to his list, and I to mine.
“Kan-Kan?”
I nearly threw my pen at him. Inside, I giggled like a schoolgirl, but I wasn’t about to let Kang know his stupid jokes made me laugh. Men think that, because they make me laugh, I must be into them. Next thing I know, they’re hitting on me — all because I giggled. This relationship would remain completely professional. I wanted nothing more than to solve the case and return to the daily routine I had grown to like.
It didn’t take long for us to make our lists. We had plenty of help from various tourist and travel websites, what with San Francisco being a top travel destination in the U.S. and all. After pinning up everything we wrote down, we took a step back and stared at the writing. It was overwhelming, to say the least.
“I’m thinking we need to pare this down somehow,” Kang said.
“You think?”
To make sense of it all, we settled on the most popular and iconic themes, shooting for a mix of celebrity, sites, and city culture/history. I figured even the killer would need to keep his options limited and focus on only a few. In the end, our list looked like this:
Victorian homes
Chinatown
Redwood trees
Ghirardelli Square
Gold Rush
Cable cars
Golden Gate Bridge
Pier 39/Fisherman’s Wharf
Golden Gate Park
The Big Earthquake
Alcatraz Island
Coit Tower
Lombard Street
Gay/lesbian capital
We included the three places the killer had already struck in hopes that our list would more closely resemble his. We stepped back and took another look at our board.
“Seems manageable,” I said.
“I only have one question.”
I turned to Kang. “What’s that?”
“Now what?”
Chapter 18
The next day, Kang offered to take me to the location of the first crime scene where they had found the pan full of gold teeth. He’d said he would pick me up at my place since he lived nearby. I waited outside and watched him pull up in a dark blue Crown Vic. I saw that he had taken my advice—“Lose the suit for a day”— and dressed casually in jeans and a button-down.
“We’re practically neighbors,” he said, as I sat inside his car.
“Oh?”
“Yeah, I’m in Russian Hill — Hyde and Pacific. Took me five minutes to get here.”
I nodded again and changed the subject. That morning, my mind was in case mode, and I wasn’t about to let small talk snap me out of it. “This crime scene, it’s near Fisherman’s Wharf?”
“Pier 39 to be exact. Right off to the side is a small public space.”
“Yup, I know the spot you’re talking about.”
A few minutes later, we were parked and walking toward our destination. I tried to focus on the case, but Kang continued to derail my thought process with chitchat, until I finally asked him to give it a break. He didn’t seem bothered by my remark: just smiled pleasantly as he shut up.
“It’s right over here,” he said, leading me past a ticket booth for boat tours on the Bay.
The public space was a paved area with multiple flowerbeds surrounded by seating. One of them was fairly big and had a centerpiece of roses.
“There.” He pointed. “The area right in front of the rose bush.”
We both climbed up the stone seating and onto the raised plot of grass.
“Who found the teeth?”
“A city worker hired to maintain the landscaping discovered it around ten in the morning. He thought it was a joke at first, until he realized the teeth were real.”
“And it was just the pan and the teeth?”
“There was a little dirt and water to make it look like someone had just panned it.”
“And the body?”
“Body was found floating near Pier 33 where the Alcatraz boat launches. It was almost completely hidden under the dock. Forensics confirmed that blood splatter on the dock was consistent with splatter that would exit the type of neck wound found on the victim. He was killed at that location and tossed into the water.”
“But not before his teeth were pulled, right?”
“Yeah, time of death was estimated to be about one in the morning. We actually found the body first. Teeth were second.” Kang turned to me. “Yesterday, you mentioned that our guy was a thrill killer. Why bother pulling the teeth? If I’m understanding this correctly, the rush is associated with the actual kill, right?”
“Normally, but not every killer fits neatly into that space. My guess is that our guy is confident enough with his kills, meaning he doesn’t think he’ll get caught and is comfortable enough to show off what he did. He also might have discovered that it prolongs the high he gets from killing.”
“Well, if he wants to stroke his ego, why not utilize the body? It’s a bigger visual.”
“Good question. But if we’re right about the symbolism—”
“Then he needs to connect the kill to San Francisco somehow. The gold teeth connect to the gold rush.”
“Exactly. This killer has evolved beyond the actual kill, which tells me he’s been at it for a while. He’s smart, he knows what he’s doing and he’s perfecting his method. The positive in this is that they get cocky, which leads to sloppiness. I’m actually surprised he hasn’t tried to start a rapport with the media. I’m sure he’s wondering why they aren’t reporting more on the discovery of the body. Do the media know about the teeth or the finger?”
“No, we withheld that information. We needed something to turn away all the freaks who come forth saying they did it.”
I clucked my tongue repeatedly as I rocked on my heels. Around us, families were beginning to show up. Most were concerned with taking pictures of their kids in front of anything that looked remotely interesting; I doubt any of them would have even noticed the pan and the teeth.
“What are you thinking?” Kang shoved his hands into his front pockets.