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jacket’s probably loooong and thick . Once we got him all ID’d, multiple multiple drug busts. Jail time, county time, prison, his friends, their jackets also an inch thick. Soon as we find out your real name, we’ll know that you’ve got a jacket.”
    â€œIt’s a cell phone, okay?” Renteria said. “It ain’t mine. I don’t even know how to use it.”
    â€œBack to whoever came in. Front and back.”
    â€œ Pendejo! ” Renteria said. “I’ve told you about that a dozen times, I’m not telling you again.”
    Wraaaack wraaack .
    Wrens, desert trash birds. I hate them, hate their raucousness. The uniform officer standing nearby clanked his baton against the aluminum gutter downspout, but the wrens just went farther up the roof.
    â€œYeah,” Kyle said. “All we want to know, you recognize anybody?”
    Renteria shook his head. He wouldn’t look up.
    â€œHe knows who they were,” Kyle said to me.
    â€œ No, man. I don’t know who they were, okay?”
    â€œDid they all have tattoos?”
    Renteria’s teeth chattered. Kyle offered him thetequila and Renteria took large, thirsty gulps, tequila dripping onto his clothes.
    â€œTattoos,” Kyle said. A very soft, gentle voice. “They had big tats, right? Especially on their faces? Like a number? You know the kind of people I’m talking about, Ramon.”
    â€œ Maras, sure, okay? They’re gonna find out I told you, I’m dead.”
    â€œThey won’t find out.” Kyle turned to me. I’d been studying the GPS history on the cell. “Anything useful there?”
    â€œOne of the best GPS units around,” I said. “A Brunton multi-navigator unit.”
    â€œI’m not a techie,” Kyle said. “What does it do?”
    â€œBarometer, altimeter, compass. And a twelve-channel parallel receiver.”
    â€œSo?”
    â€œYou know those navigation systems in cars?” I said. “Same thing. This gives a simple, one-button to find your way back home, find your way anywhere. Stores up to ten reversible routes, with stops in between start and finish. It automatically records your trip and stores the data.”
    â€œSo?” Kyle said again.
    â€œFour different locations,” I said.
    â€œMeaning?”
    â€œJust that. I can pinpoint three different places here on the south side. One up somewhere in Tucson.”
    â€œDoes that thing show addresses?” He leaned over, I turned the tiny screen so he could read it.
    â€œWithin a few houses.”
    â€œWhat would we find there?”
    â€œNot my job,” I said.
    â€œNope. Sure not your job. Just write ’em down, I’ll send out detectives. This gonzo here. This Ramon. Whaddya think he knows from this GPS thing?”
    â€œDoesn’t matter. I’ve got the locations. Data talks, even if he doesn’t.”
    He waved the uniform over to keep Renteria secure. “You ready to go back in there?”
    â€œHooo,” I said, not meaning to exhale so loud.
    â€œRepellent,” Kyle said. “Not pretty. You want to leave, just walk around the outside of the house. You got the GPS stuff, that’s most important.”
    He waited.
    â€œI’m here,” I said finally. “Let’s do it.”
    He grabbed the assist canes, levered himself to his feet quickly. Fit the metal support bands around his upper arms and moved easily. Slid back the screen door to the dining room, went inside, and I followed.
    Â 
    One body lay across the kitchen floor, a hand pushed against a carport utility door screen with such force the man had shoved the bottom corner of the door open three inches before he died. The CSU techs weren’t finished, so the door stayed open. Flies already swarming inside, feasting on the blood from the stumps where all his fingers had been chopped off. The man’s other hand was nailed to the linoleum