Slow morning. At least he'd be at his desk quicker. Unless Captain Trunk wanted him for some reason.
"Hammer!"
What was he thinking. Of course Captain Trunk would want him for some reason. The guy adored Hammer, after all. Not an hour went by the Captain wasn't begging Sledge to bail him out of one mess or another.
"Coming, dear," Sledge said. Oh, wait. That was what he was supposed to say when his ex-wife yelled "Hammer!"
"Coming, Captain!"
Whatever.
Doreau was already in the office when Hammer got inside.
"What, didn't you arrest anybody this morning?" Hammer asked her.
"Hammer, I never got to go home last night."
"What, we're doing sleepovers at the station, and I wasn't invited? Look, Captain, I'll move into the precinct. Give me a room, and I'll save on the gas driving here."
"Hammer," said Captain Trunk, "The only way you'll ever get to sleep here is when I lock you up in a cell. But don't worry. That may be before the end of the day."
"We've been trying to contact you," said Doreau.
"Oh, was that you? I've been screening my calls lately. I've been getting a lot of calls from admirers in the middle of the night."
"Calls from admirers?"
"You know, women's groups and stuff." said Sledge, "'You're the most violent, sadistic monster on the face of the whole earth, yadda, yadda, yadda.' I figure if they want to say nice things about me they can write me fan mail like everybody else."
Doreau didn't seem impressed. She just went back to her paperwork.
"So what's the theme of this all-night party?" asked Hammer. "Maybe I can make up some banners."
"Hammer, this is serious," said Doreau. "There's been a string of murders of some of the top officials in the city government. They've been turning up dead every two or three hours. You really haven't seen this on the news?"
"Doreau, I don't read the news. I make it."
"At the rate they're dying," said Captain Trunk, "The entire staff of city hall will be dead by tommorrow night."
"No, I think a couple of murderers are going to be dead by tommorrow night," said Hammer, pulling out his gun. "Aren't they amigo?"
"Captain," said Doreau, "Can you give me the list we made of the murder victims, in the order they were killed?"
"It's right there," said Trunk, hardly looking up.
"No, this list is in alphabetical order by last name. Anderson, Campbell, Davis . . ."
"Let me check that," said Trunk. "It is in alphabetical order."
Doreau's eyes got wide. "Would the murderer really be that brazen? To kill these people in order? As soon as we figured out the pattern, we'd know who he was going to hit next."
Trunk shrugged. "It isn't much, but it's all we have to go on. Hammer, you go with Doreau to see Councilman Kilgore--he's the next one alphabetically. We've already assigned patrolmen to all of these people, so there should already be men there watching her. Your job is to catch the murderer."
"We're on it, Captain," said Hammer.
"And Sledge," said Trunk, "bring him back alive. For questioning."
"You got it, Captain," said Hammer. The only thing he enjoyed more than shooting vermin was questioning them.