Dinner came from a street cart or corner joint. A hoagie, chow mein, whatever he could eat with one hand before the 8:40 rolled up. He stabbed the noodles out of a grease-stained box, tossed the carton in a bin without breaking stride. He hopped on the bus and hoped off at the fifth stop. By 9:45, he was home. After a quick shower, ten minutes at most, he pulled on his grey sweats and a white T-shirt. Now it was time for tea.
In the kitchen, he pulled out a small radio from a drawer, turned the dial to 106.8, and stuck it on the counter above the sink.
"No veils, no tricks. That's my game," said Jackman Wolf, "news tumbling out of the troughs in Little Saigon, guess the big hogs found out the smaller ones ain't sharing the slop."
The kettle clanked against the stove. Todd yawned. He leaned his back against the counter. Wolf's voice carried at his back, reading the news off the grapevine.
"Out of Crime Alley, we got an update on Old man Carter. Seems the night gave him orders which he broke. Talk or time. Those were his options. Wise old Carter chose to talk. He breaks even the hard-edged, ladies and gents."
Todd watched the kettle warming, a slow trail of steam escaping. Then a voice slipped in beside him.
"The X's on your map."
He flinched and turned, expecting to see him standing behind him, instead a figure stood in the doorway to his bedroom.
The cape wrapped him whole. In the dark he looked less like a man than a piece of shadow pried loose from the room. Then the cape parted, a gloved hand tossed a map in the air. Todd grabbed it.
Todd opened the map then explained their meaning. "Some of the homeless under the Turn said that girl crawled out of the rocks near the river. Figured she came from that outlet. I went into the sewers, found cracks that lead to tunnels. Got close enough to look, but I didn't push through."
The kettle whistled. Todd removed it from the burner. When he looked back, the figure was not in the doorway.
"You marked one at Luke's Cathedral."
Todd flinched, then turned, expecting him at his back. Instead the man waited beyond the counter. The light took the edge off the illusion, yet his white eyes still burned with something darker that hungered for pain.
"I talked to some guy there with blue hair, he said there was an entrance to some tombs beneath the cathedral. It's just under the alter. I checked it out, but couldn't find an entrance to the tunnels."
His cape parted again. His glove extended out, holding a necklace. Todd reached for it, examining the torn chain.
"J.J.?"
"My mother's nickname for me," he said, glancing at the pendant. A pain took over, it was slight but a reminder that he was alone. "The cop I met in the sewers, Detective Gordon, you know him, right?"
He didn't answer.
"The tunnels you found are the catacombs. Your coworker and Annh Le—the girl pulled from the dumpster—were likely kept there. We find where, we get more answers."
"We?" said Todd
"Trouble is a high probability."
Todd didn't have to think about it. He knew his answer. A chance to find out what happened to Trinh and to work alongside him.
"When do we go?" he said.