McGrath played around some more with his Blackberry, his right eyelid twitching as he stared at the glowing screen. "I told you, I don't follow boxing. It's too violent." Thumbs flying like a twelve-year-old video-gamer chalking up kills on G.o.d of War, he added, "You should see all the great features on this thing."

Pinero raised his magazine again, recrossed his feet on top of his desk. "You're gonna get radiation poisoning from all those gadgets of yours," he warned, taking some satisfaction in his partner's stricken expression.

Pinero was young, liked to wear his clothes flashy, gel his jet-black hair into a subtle Mohawk. But despite all that, he considered himself old-school, less concerned with the geeky forensic fantasies of criminal investigation, than the pavement-pounding, door-dusting street solving of it. And he was good at it, like his father had taught him.

"Pretty soon we'll be able to break cases without ever even leaving the office," McGrath stated. "Like fighting a war by remote control." He tilted his empty mug against his lips, almost choked on the plastic stir straw.

McGrath was well past the age when most cops were puttering around their Victoria condos, bald as a bagel and just as rubbery. But he'd carved out a niche for himself in the Department by becoming a tech-savvy guru, an indispensable computerized tool in the 21st-century a.s.sault on crime.

The men's mutual loathing went back to the first day they'd been paired together in Homicide. Pinero despised McGrath's foul coffee breath and chronic health whining, his holier-than-Intel att.i.tude. While McGrath didn't envy Pinero his smooth good looks and muscular physique; he detested him for them, in fact. And the young detective's apparent indifference to all things chip-driven earned him a special place of contempt in McGrath's ebook.

Pinero was two weeks away from transfer-bait for trolling John's with the Vice Unit and both men were counting the days, one on his Dukes of Hazzard wall calendar, the other on his Outlook software.

Sergeant Bugler walked into the Squad Room, barked, "McGrath, Pinero!" They looked up. "Got a job for you two." They waited. "Lenny 'The Rat' Laymon's been found dead."

It was a skid row bungalow bordered by a boozecan on one side and a crack house on the other; smack-dab in the middle of the sour armpit of Vancouver the downtown eastside. Inside: the nude body of Lenny Laymon, curled up in a fetal ball on the bottom of his bathtub, like a rat in its hole.

Pinero stared at the hunk of limburger on the toilet lid, gestured. "That a joke?"

McGrath slurped java out of a paper cup. "Air freshener, more likely."

Constable Mullings laughed. "The Rat did like his cheese."

The two detectives and the uniformed cop looked down at Lenny's sunken body. The water had still been running from the showerhead when the girl had discovered him, both he and the water ice-cold by then. Even with the long soak, Lenny still looked dirty, the yellow skin on his hairless body going blue, backbone spined like a Stegosaurus. His eyes and mouth were wide-open, back of his blonde-fringed head a b.l.o.o.d.y mess.

"When'd the girl find him?" Pinero asked Mullings.

"'Bout an hour ago," the Constable replied, wiping a big, red nose with a big, red hand. "She couldn't reach him on the phone all of yesterday, so she decided to pay him a visit this morning."

"How old is she, anyway?"

"Fourteen."

"How'd she get in?"

"Had her own key."

Pinero mauled a hunk of bubblegum. They could hear the girl, Kristal, crying away in the next room, lamenting a life gone down the drain: a con artist, fraud artist, sneak thief, pickpocket and stool pigeon.

"Look what I found when I made her empty her pockets," Mullings added, pulling something out of his jacket. He held it up. It sparkled in the light of the bare bathroom bulb.

"A diamond ring," McGrath said, taking it from the Constable and examining it.

"Rock's gotta be at least one-carat," Mullings guessed. "She claimed Lenny gave it to her like anyone'd believe The Rat was gonna pop the question, eh then finally admitted she'd found it on Lenny's dresser and palmed it, after she found the guy soaking in the tub."

"It's got ZJ stamped on the inside of the band," McGrath stated.

"Zammy Jewelers," Pinero responded. "They've got a store in the Centre Mall-make their own rings. And right now I'm betting they're at least one bauble short of a glitter palace."

He pulled a couple of Kleenex's, a pair of latex gloves out of his pocket. He set the Kleenex carefully down on the grimy tile floor and knelt beside the tub, dressed his hands in the throwaway gloves. He ran a finger along the bottom of the tub, up to and around Lenny's body. He poked the corpse.

McGrath turned his head and spoke to the two guys from the Fire and Rescue Service who were lounging in the doorway, "Looks like an accident, huh?"

They nodded.

"If it was anyone but The Rat, we wouldn't even be here," he grumbled, fingering what he suspected was a cellphone tumor growing behind his right ear. "Hey, I heard you guys get Workers' Comp now, if you develop lung cancer, or have a heart attack twenty-four hours after a fire. That right?"

The guy with the Stalinesque mustache nodded, smiled a self-satisfied smile. "You're darn right it is. The Union got the legislation pa.s.sed a couple of months ago, eh."

"I just started smoking again myself," the other firefighter joked.

"Cops should have something like that," McGrath groused. "I'm sure I'm getting cancer from using my computer and cellphone all day, in the line of duty. My doctor even said-" He halted his grievance when he saw his partner tilt Lenny's stiffened body face-up, so he could check out The Rat's other profile.

Pinero dug around in Lenny's right ear. "Gimme a pair of tweezers, someone."

He was handed a pair, and everyone watched as he pulled something out of Lenny's oversized ear. He held the small, brown object up for inspection. "How many guys take a shower with their hearing aid still in?" he asked.

McGrath was working his wireless keyboard like the Chicago Stadium organist when Pinero reemerged from Robbery. "There was a heist at the Zammy Jewelers store in the Centre Mall last night alright," he informed his partner. "Estimated loss: four hundred grand."

McGrath whistled. "Lenny pulled a couple of jewel s.n.a.t.c.hes back in the day, didn't he?"

"Yeah, with a little help from some friends-turned enemies." Pinero glanced at the piece of paper in his hand. "The last one that we know of was the Big Rock Diamond Mountain store on Granville-five years ago. The Rat weaseled out of heavy jail time by squealing on all his partners, including the inside guy, the fence, a couple of US Customs slobs, and half the local h.e.l.l's Angels starting line-up."

The phone on Pinero's desk rang. He scooped it up, growled, "Yeah?"

"Detective Pinero, Dr Rampersand, Coroners Office."

"Yeah, Doc?"

"Yes, you wanted us to phone as soon as we had some preliminary results from our examination of Leonard Laymon."

"The Rat. Yeah, go, Doc." Pinero snagged a pad and pencil.

"Yes, well, cause of death appears to be a single blow to the back of the head-blunt force trauma-as you no doubt observed for yourself. Time of death was approximately two to four a.m., the morning of 16 November."

Pinero glanced at his watch, the comely picture of Daisy Duke: 2:10 p.m., Wednesday the 17th. "What else?"

The doctor cleared his throat. "Well, not much, I'm afraid. There appear to be no other untoward signs of trauma on the body, other than the usual a.s.sortment of bruises, burns, cuts, scabs, pimples, and warts that come from a bad diet and a life lived close to the streets. We found soap sc.u.m, lime scale, and tile grains in the wound, consistent with someone knocking their head on the edge of a bathtub after losing their footing."

"Thanks, Doc." Pinero hung up, thought for a moment, then reconnected. "Hey, Doc, forgot to ask what about the hearing aid?"

"It's a completely-in-the-ca.n.a.l type of hearing aid, very small. It's not waterproof, of course, but someone could well forget about it when taking a shower."

"Thanks, Doc." Maybe The Rat had actually gone out the same way he'd come in-accidentally, Pinero thought. He relayed the information to his partner.

McGrath's cellphone chimed the alien greeting from Close Encounters of the Third Kind. He plucked it off his belt. "Okay, we'll be right down." He stood up and reholstered his cell, swallowed dregs and said to Pinero, "The Lab's got something for us to see."

The two men trotted on down to the bas.e.m.e.nt.

"The Zammy Jewelers' cameras, all the mall cameras, went blank as a blacked-out Canucks game at midnight for ten minutes," Cordweider explained.

"Covered up?" Pinero asked the lab technician.

"Naw. Off-line," Cordweider snorted, "along with the alarm system. Everything came back up like the new programming day at 12:10 a.m. But by the time the security company got there, the jewelry store was a whole lot less sparkly."

"Did the cameras see anything interesting before they blinked off?" McGrath asked, fondling the bag under his left eye and staring at the bank of monitors.

"Indeed," Cordweider teased. "We've been running the mug-shot file against the surveillance camera facial shots, looking for matches, and you wouldn't believe who turned up."

"Who?" Pinero gritted impatiently. He and Cordweider had gone a few rounds during a late-night stakeout once, when bad food and conversation had turned decidedly personal.

Cordweider grinned. "Take a look at this, hot-shot." He pointed to a blank monitor, pressed a b.u.t.ton. People started walking in and out of quadruple doors. "That's the entrance to the mall on West Georgia. Note the date and time."

Pinero and McGrath noted: 16 Nov 2005, 2103:44 and counting.

Cordweider pressed another b.u.t.ton and the picture froze. A guy in a bulky jacket was coming through the door. Cordweider fingered a roller ball, locked on the guy's face, clicked. The face jumped up and filled the screen, unmistakable.

"Lenny 'The Rat' Laymon," McGrath exhaled.

Back in the Squad Room, the detectives went to work. What had been a simple slip-up in the tub-one more bad guy washed away was now something strangely different. If the Coroner was right and he had a lucrative book deal and speaking calendar to attest to his brilliance then the unanswered question was: how could a Rat lying dead in a bathtub early Tuesday morning slink into a shopping mall late Tuesday night, with the intent, it seemed, of knocking over a jewelry store?

It didn't make sense. And when something doesn't make sense, you work some sense into it. Pinero hooked up with Forensics, while McGrath mined Lenny's computer for pertinent information.

"Tolmeyer speaking?"

"Pinero. What'd the boys in Forensics get off the crime scene?"

Tolmeyer laughed. She had a soft spot for Pinero-right between the legs whenever he wanted it. "We 'boys' are still on scene. But so far, everything looks pretty clean from a crime perspective, that is, not a housekeeping one. No signs of forced entry, lots of fingerprints-Lenny's and the girl's nothing else unusual, so far."

"No Athabaska Terrier hairs? Albino herb roots native only to Cape Breton Island? Poisoned tea bags? Furry creature suits with DNA-identifiable sweat?"

Tolmeyer laughed again. "You've been watching too many TV shows, Detective."

"What about the tub? Any evidence someone dusted it with a Zamboni-made it extra slippery for the bathing beauty?"

"In my professional opinion, that bathtub hasn't been cleaned since it was installed. And n.o.body greased the soles of Laymon's feet, either, before you ask."

Pinero grunted, shelved the phone as Tolmeyer was enquiring about his dinner plans for the evening.

He was chewing things and a wad of gum over when McGrath pointed at his computer screen. "Take a look at this," he said.

Pinero strolled over, looked at the listing up on the LCD flat screen.

"This is Lenny's email history," McGrath explained, his hand stroking his optical mouse with caffeine jitters. He highlighted the first message listed after a backlog of p.o.r.n and p.e.n.i.s enlargement spam. It was dated Monday, 15 November, from [email protected], subject: "Ready to go to work?"

McGrath looked at Pinero. Pinero looked back. They both knew The Rat didn't work-honestly, anyway. McGrath clicked on the message. It read: "Job's a go. Come prepared."

"Did The Rat respond?" Pinero asked.

"Not by email, no."

"Who's Meatman? J.M. Schneider?"

"Don't know." McGrath admitted. "The account information's as phony as a three-dollar coin. But I ran a trace on all Internet activity a.s.sociated with the account, and found something fairly interesting."

"Give."

"Meatman is a 'member' of an adult dating site-kinkyluvers.com. The profile is of a thirtysomething guy with a peccadillo for morning toe jam, I kid you not. No picture, though. And the membership contact info is limited to the email address."

"Don't you need a credit card or something to sign up to those sites?"

"Not this one. It's run free of charge by The Friends of Fetish a government-subsidized think-tank operating right here in the downtown. Anyway, I already sent Meatman a message-with an attachment." McGrath clicked, and Pinero ogled a busty brunette with black-stockinged, red-ribboned legs long enough to span Burrard Inlet, her silky feet close-up displayed in open-toed, patent-leather red pumps. Her hair covered up her face, if she had one.

"Just call me Clarissa," McGrath chuckled, coughed. He took his hand off the mouse long enough to pour himself a mouthful of mocha.

The two detectives kept at it, logging frustration and overtime at time-and-a-half. Pinero ran a check on Lenny's known a.s.sociates; McGrath and the lab techs continued to pour over Lenny's hard-drive and the mall surveillance video.

Lenny's "a.s.sociates" were the sc.u.m de la sc.u.m of the Vancouver crime scene. "Rainy Day" Izzo: part-time drug dealer, full-time drug user; ratted out by Lenny on a heroin deal that went bust; parole records stated that he was currently weaving hemp into saleable product in Nelson, four hundred miles due east. Sylvia Wojawoski, aka "Skye Flowers", so named because she was always on her back, looking up at the sky: Stanley Park prost.i.tute and bit player MILF in locally-lensed p.o.r.n; cohabitated with Lenny for five years; currently suing the deceased rodent for child support-three kids that he denied were his despite their enormous overbites; busted on a low-track sweep Sunday night, now cooling her high heels in lock-up. John Jorossismo, aka "Jarhead", aka "Jason" (of Friday the 13th movie fame): US Marines deserter and h.e.l.l's Angels patch prospect, weapons smuggler, loansharker, goalie in an industrial beer league, and recent Vancouver Port Authority employee of the month; stiffed out of a grand and stooled on by Lenny the Big Rock Diamond Mountain job; current whereabouts a gated subdivision in White Rock. And . . .

"Matthew Kolvin," Pinero and McGrath spoke as one.

They looked at each other. "Why'd you say-" they both said.

McGrath pointed a shaky digit at his computer screen. Pinero trucked on over, stared at a picture of a bare-chested Matthew Kolvin, shaved head gleaming, blue eyes glinting hard as diamonds, thick lips curled into a smirk, torso tanned and rugged as Desert Storm khaki.

"Clarissa received a response to her email," McGrath said, grinning triumphantly.

Pinero recited the file he'd just been looking at: "Matthew Kolvin: strong-arm specialist, extortionist, cigarette, alcohol, and Lotto ticket smuggler and sometime jewel thief; handed a ten-year sentence for his role in the Big Rock Diamond Mountain job; served half, release date: 10 November-one week ago today."

"Maybe you, me, and Clarissa should pay Matthew Kolvin a visit," McGrath added unnecessarily.

The detectives rousted Kolvin and an underage hooker out of bed at the fleabag rooming house address he'd given his parole officer. He was spitting mad. Pinero calmed him down only slightly with a shot to the groin.

"I never robbed no G.o.dd.a.m.n jewelry store!" he gasped. "Don't know nuthin' about any dead Rat, neither!"

"Listen, Meatman," McGrath countered, knocking back a caffe latte and eyeballing a laptop, scanner, camcorder, and printer huddled together on a ratty couch, along with the hooker. "We've got an email that you sent Lenny talking about a 'job' a day before Lenny did a back flip in his bathtub and a day-and-a-half before the Zammy Jewelers store was. .h.i.t."

Kolvin glared at the men.

"You hated Lenny's guts, didn't you for ratting you out on the Big Rock Diamond Mountain job?" Pinero stated. "But not bad enough to turn your nose up at another good heist, team up with the guy again?"

Kolvin's incisors glinted silver. "I ain't talked to that b.u.m in five long years."

"How do you explain the email then?" McGrath asked.

"I don't," Kolvin growled.

Silence.