"I pray to God not." Mike was sincere in his wish, one maniac was bad enough. "Hopefully we can get something once the lab is done processing the van. It's actually owned by the school, I got the call just before I pulled up here. It's being towed in so Charlie and the boys can do their magic. Any word on when they will be out to dust the apartment?"

"We got lucky there," Steve responded. "Slow day, someone should be here within the hour. Now what?" He already knew the answer Mike was going to give him.

"We need positive ID on the victim. Do you want me to take her in while you wait for the lab guys?"

Steve was grateful to Mike and severely tempted by the offer, but ultimately decided he should be the one to tell her. "No, thanks, I'll take her in. After that, I think we need to figure out if Pam ever made it to the opening last night and if she did, when and who she left with. There was a gal at the door with a guest list, so it should be easy track. If she did turn up, she couldn't have stayed long with a time of death around midnight. Lizzy and I left about 10:45."

"Your certain you want to take her to the morgue?"

"Yeah. It's ok. I also want to see if Bernie is positive about the time of death. If he is, I think we have a problem."

"How's that?"

"I had eyes on Walters until almost 11 and Vince was manning the counter here until just before midnight. Seems like a stretch that either one of them could have killed her under that time constraint. We know she hadn't turned up at the gallery before we left, but if she did turn up later…" He hated to admit it, but if either man was the killer of the first three victims, Pam's death was more than likely caused by someone else.

Mike got up and went to front door of the deli, locked the door and flipped the sign to closed. Steve walked around behind the counter and passed through the door into the back room, which was a combination of storerage, kitchen and walk in refrigerator. Mrs. Molinaro and Lizzy were sitting on stools. It appeared as if Lizzy had calmed the matronly woman with a combination of hot tea, Kleenex and a sympathetic ear. He removed the ice pack from his jaw and dropped it in the sink.

"What happens next? As much of a creep as Vince is, he is her son." Lizzy kept her voice at a whisper.

Steve matched her tone, in consideration of the older woman, although she really wasn't paying attention to what was being said. "He'll be booked and questioned, once I get back to file the charges. Then he will go in front of the judge. That has to happen within 48 hours here in California. The judge will decide if he will be held over for trial, if he can be bailed out, or if the charges should be dropped. Simple Assault is a misdemeanor, but since I'm a cop, well, that changes things. He's going to need a lawyer for sure and he's going to be in lockup for a while. Does she have any other family?"

Lizzy shook her head and gathered her Nonna in a hug. Mrs. Molinaro's tears began in earnest again. Steve felt bad, her son was an adult and none of this was her fault. His sympathy did not extend to Vince. He put his hand on his chin, stretched open his mouth, and shifted his aching jaw. As annoying and painful as the situation was, He was glad to have a reason to keep their suspect was under wraps for now.

The pressing question was how to extricate Lizzy from her role as dutiful adoptive granddaughter. He didn't want to mention Pam's potential demise in front of Mrs. Molinaro. She was already upset. The death of one of her girls would just exacerbate the situation. Mike entered the storeroom and observed the awkward tableau.

"Mrs. Molinaro, is there someone we can call? We are going to need Miss Grisko to go up with the lab team when they arrive to investigate the break in."

Steve turned to Mike with a question in his eyes. Lizzy did the same.

"Fr. Tony." She squeaked out. "Lizzy get the number for Fr. Lombardi at St. Francis of Assisi, he's a nice boy."

Lizzy retrieved the number and made the call. "He'll be here in 20 minutes, Nonna."

There was an official sounding knock on the outer door. Mike peeked through the entrance to see a uniformed technician flashing a badge. Perfect timing. He addressed his next comment to Steve.

"Inspector Keller, can you take Miss Grisko and let the lab team in upstairs? I will stay here with Mrs. Molinaro until Fr. Lombardi arrives."

"Sure." Steve finally caught on. He let Lizzy go first and trailed her toward the door. "Thanks." He mouthed.

"Good Luck." Mike said in a barely audible tone as Steve swept past.

When they exited the deli, Steve asked Lizzy to wait by the car.

Lizzy looked at him with a wary expression. "What's going on? You didn't say anything about me being up there when they check the apartment."

"I'll tell you in a minute, I need to let these guys in."

He pointed the team to the stairs and then jogged up to unlock the door, handing the key to the technician. "Dust and photograph the whole place. I don't know if anything is missing. We'll have the tenant check it out after you're done." He was about to walk away when he remember one more detail, "Make sure you put a security hasp and padlock on the door before you leave. We don't know who has keys to the place, and we want to make sure the scene is secure. You can drop the keys with Lt. Stone before you leave."

Steve walked back down the steps more slowly, stalling. The time had come to give Lizzy the bad news.

"Lizzy, I need you to come with me." He opened the car door for the young woman.

"Are you going to tell me why?" She was getting annoyed and even more anxious about the mysterious request.

Steve slammed the door and walked around to the driver's side door. He slid in and before he turned over the car, he looked at Lizzy. "There's no good way to say this, so I'm just gonna lay it on you. I am so sorry, but we found another body this morning."

Lizzy breath caught as she looked at Steve, saying nothing.

"And, um," his professionalism fractured as he looked in her terrified eyes. "Um, I, um, we think it might be Pam. Her parents are in Africa, so I, uh, need you to, um, identify her at the morgue."

Lizzy shut her eyes. A single tear trailed down the side of her face as she opened them again and gazed blankly out the windshield.

He hated this part. Seeing people at the worst moments of their lives. You could never tell how they would reacted. He'd seen it all: anger, fear, denial. He had even seen people laugh at the news when emotions short-circuited the brain. Lizzy just stared, with slow tears randomly sliding down her face and onto her sweater. She wiped her eyes with the back of her hand. He didn't even have a handkerchief to offer; his was blood-covered and discarded back in the store.

Steve started the car. He was surprised by a small voice as he threw the vehicle into gear and pulled away from the curb. "How long were you going to wait to tell me, coward?"

00000

Neither said a word on the drive to Bryant Street. Steve knew she really didn't mean what she said. Grief and shock had momentarily taken over her mouth, but he also knew that he probably deserved the epithet, seeing as he had put off telling her until he had no other choice. He parked and walked around the car, opening the door.

"Do you think you can handle this?" What a question to pose to someone who had lost a friend. No one could or should have to handle this. It was an absurd thing to ask anybody to do. He asked anyhow and at that moment, he despised what he was.

She nodded as he led her to the waiting area outside the morgue. Steve grabbed a box of tissues from the receptionist's desk and dropped it on the couch next to Lizzy.

"I'll be right back."

She didn't even react. He exited through the double doors searching for Bernie, locating him in his office.

"Steve."

"Bernie. You got our "Venus" ready? I have the roommate out in the lobby."

"Yeah, give me 5 minutes to pull her out of the fridge and put her in the viewing room. How's the girl holding up?"

"Good question. I have no idea. She hasn't said a word in 20 minutes." Bernie let out a tired breath.

Steve walked back into the lobby. Lizzy hadn't budged. Her tears still fell but she was so numb, she hadn't even bothered to grab a tissue. Steve pulled a few from the box and pushed them into her hand, tossing the box off to the side and sitting down next to her.

"It will be about 5 minutes. Do you need anything?"

Lizzy shook her head, trying to hold it together. She wanted to scream. She wanted to cry. She wanted to imitate Vince and take a swing at the man sitting next to her who had shattered her reality. She wanted to run as far away from there as possible. She did nothing, closing her eyes and willing the nightmare to be gone when she reopened them.

It didn't happen. She heard the door squeal and someone cleared their throat. Steve put his hand on her arm. She flinched and opened her eyes.

"Let's do this." Lizzy got up and walked toward the door.

00000

Mike sat with Mrs. Molinaro until there was another knock at the door. He walked out of the back room to find a 30-something man in a clerical collar gently rapping on the glass.

"Father Lombardi?"

"Yes, and you are?"

"Lieutenant Mike Stone, San Francisco Police, Homicide." Mike flashed his credentials.

"Homicide? I thought Vince got arrested for assault?"

Mike proceeded to explain the situation with Vince, the break-in and the probable death of Mrs. Molinaro's "Venus."

"Where is the other girl, the one who called the rectory? I know she tries to take care of Mrs. M."

When Mike explained that she had gone down to identify the remains, the priest made the sign of the cross.

"That's awful, no 20 year old should have to do that. Tell me this, was Pam the one found on Nob Hill last night?"

"I'm afraid so." Mike was stunned, until he saw the late afternoon edition of The Chronicle under the young priest's arm. The news of the latest victim had already hit the papers. He remembered the appearance of Joe Randolph at the park as they pulled out.

"Have you told Mrs. Molinaro?" Fr. Lombardi knew she would take the new hard, especially coming on the heels of Vince's arrest.

"No, we were holding off until she got a chance to digest the arrest. We also need to notify the next of kin first and they are out of the country, so it could take a while."

The priest shook his head. "Such a waste. Well, let me get Mrs. M next door, calm her down and then get Vincenzo a lawyer. You will let us know about the other matter soon, Lieutenant?"

"As soon as we can." Mike handed the priest his card, "And Father, just a heads up, this might get a whole lot worse before it gets better."

Mike left the deli and climbed the stairs to the girl's apartment. When he entered the door, he agreed with Steve's assessment. It certainly looked like the scene of a hasty search. He addressed the lab tech who came out of the bedroom.

"Anything jumping out at you?"

"No sir, we got lots of fingerprints, and I mean lots of fingerprints. Seems these girls weren't very good housekeepers. We'll have to get their prints so we can exclude them."

"You can get one set from Bernie in the morgue. Steve will get the other."

"The morgue?"

"Yeah, we found one of them in the park this morning."

"Nob Hill?"

"Yep. This scene may be related, so we need whatever you can get as fast as possible."

"Yes, sir. As soon as we can."

"How much longer are you going to be?"

"Hour, at least. If you need to go, we'll drop the keys at your office later."

Mike exited the apartment and trotted down the stairs. He was surprised to see a young man entering the door from the other direction.

"Can I help you, son?"

"Yes sir. I'm looking for Lizzy. I saw all this crap going on and I was worried about her. Is she ok? I saw her with a new guy last night. Nothing happened did it?"

"No, not as far as I know." Steve, Mike thought. He really didn't want to tell the young man anything, but did offer, "Somebody tried to break in, nobody was home. You are?"

"Jeff Powers, sir, I'm a classmate of hers. I was supposed to go skiing, but had a change of plans. I wanted to see if she was interested in catching a flick."

"She's downtown with my partner making a statement." Technically true. "I'll let her know you stopped by."

With a terse "Thanks," Jeff turned and left through the street door.

Mike looked at his watch. It was going on 5 pm. He figured the gallery must be opened by this point on a Saturday. They needed the list from last night's event. He also wanted to talk to Campbell about his clipped conversation with Todd Walters.

A young woman with a long ponytail and blue glasses approached Mike as he entered the gallery. She looked him up one side and down before speaking.

"Can I help you, sir?" She amended that when Mike showed her his badge, "May I help you officer?" She said in a tired voice.

She took off her sunglasses to reveal eyes equally as bloodshot as Steve and Lizzy's. At that moment, Mike was thankful Steve had been the one to cover last night's festivities. He was pretty sure he didn't want to know what all went on here last night.

"Yes you can. You had a party here last evening and I understand you had a very specific entrance procedure. Is it possible that I can see your guest list?"

"Well, um, we usually keep that confidential. Some of our guest have a rather high profile."

"Listen Miss…"

"Applebee, but you can call me Lilian."

"Lilian, I can get a court order if you want, that will make the list very public. I'm not really interested in celebrities. I just want to see if a certain person attended the party."

The woman thought it over. "How about this, you give me the name and I will tell you if they turned up or not. Does that work for you?"

"Yes, for now. The name is Pam Woodward."

Lilian went behind the counter and grabbed a clipboard, scanning down a printed page.

"Well she was definitely invited, but no, while I was on the door she never showed. Of course, it doesn't mean she didn't come in the back. Not everybody comes in the front, but I didn't see her."

"Did anybody else cover the front door?"

"Nope, just me and we locked up after one. Her roommate was here, though, and I tell you what, she left with a real looker." She sighed a little, "Friend of Anna Kearns and Ted Brooks. Wouldn't have minded leaving with that one myself."

Mike shook his head and laughed. "One more question Miss. Is Mr. Campbell available?"

"Saturday after an opening? Fat chance. He probably closed the party down about five. For an old guy, he sure does like to have fun."

He laughed again and handed her his card. "Thank you Miss Applebee. If you do see him, can you have him give me a call?"

Mike walked out of the gallery and sat down in the driver's seat of the LTD, preparing to depart, when Todd Walters came down the street and turned into the Gallery. He sat for almost 20 minutes until Walters exited. Todd looked around suspiciously before walking to the corner and entering a cab. Mike put the car into gear and followed the taxi at a discreet distance.

00000

Lizzy sat quietly nursing a cup of coffee, curled up on a chair in Mike's office. Steve sat on the edge of the desk with a cup of his own, battling a newly born headache. Their visit to morgue had been brief. She knew at a glance that her friend was dead.

"When did you see her last?"

"Yesterday. I went back to the apartment at lunchtime. I needed to change into my uniform for work. Shit! I was supposed to be at work at 5. I'm gonna get fired."

"Don't worry. We'll call and take care of it."

Lizzy continued. "Pam was sound asleep on the couch. She went to the Van Morrison concert Thursday night and didn't come in until Friday morning. Her class was canceled because, well, because Ted didn't show up. I didn't have the heart to wake her. She left me the invitation for the opening on the counter and I…" Lizzy stopped short, as if she'd remembered something important.

"What is it?"

Lizzy put her cup on the desk and dug into the pocket of her jeans, producing a small gold key.

"She left this for me in the invitation."