"I have a kid in seventh grade who walks on that canal bank every week with her friends when they go to the mall to hang out. And my wife takes a walk on the canal bank every day."

He smiled, but put nothing into it, relaxed his hand.

"That's the same canal I told you something had happened on last night, when you called me this morning to change the meeting time."

Lawless nodded.

"Anyway. She always walks in the morning after the kids have gone to school and I've gone to work. Sometimes she takes a second walk, in the afternoon or evening, depending on how hot it gets."

He rubbed the knuckles on one hand, like an arthritic trying to massage pain out of swollen joints.

"I told her not to walk by the canal anymore, at least not for a while, and to tell our daughter to stay away from it. She asked why. I didn't know what to tell her so I just told her some strange shit had been happening by the canals and it's not safe to be around them right now."

"That's not far from the truth," Jensen said. "Did she say yes?"

Baskel nodded. "I'm going to have to explain it to her, though. She likes her routines."

Jensen looked relieved.

"Did you check out that thing by the canal, the one I told you about this morning?" Baskel asked Lawless.

"Yeah. It's different from the other scenes, but possibly an attack. Maybe it decided to eat everything this time."

"We sent a second pair of uniforms out there this morning," Baskel said. "They found a wallet. ID turned out to be fake, but very high quality. Professional. They also found a small kit of burglar tools. Again, quality stuff. And there was a rental car parked on the street in the neighborhood next to the canal. The renter's name didn't match the wallet id, but when we showed the clerk the picture he ID'ed the man as his renter. Looks like we're missing a professional thief."

"Sounds like number five," Jensen said, dread in her voice. "The last two in town."

No one spoke for several seconds.

"Have you checked to see if such a ... huge snake even exists?" Baskel asked. "Maybe someone had a pet they turned loose in the canals."

Lawless said, "We haven't checked, but it's something to do. The DNA samples taken off the bodies being the same, though..."

"Yeah, but if something like that exists, it'd be a place to start. We could get a picture or a description. Maybe somebody gave it steroids or something and it got too big."

"Could be. Can you guys look into that?" Lawless didn't think that was the case, but it would be good to have Modesto PD doing something, anything, to help. He was sure the canal monster was not a snake, but Baskel wasn't. And the metal teeth, what kind of steroids did Baskel think could do that?

"What about something else that's real, like an alligator or a crocodile? What about that?" Baskel asked.

"We didn't think of that either. Do you think either of them could bite through a human, though?"

Baskel shrugged. "Just looking at everything. What about killers with some kind of big trap-like thing? An animal trap? Maybe the killers use the canals to move around in, kill with the trap and throw their vics off a boat. Something like that."

Lawless shook his head. "Imagine how powerful it would have to be to cut through a human in one stroke. That much power, it would have to be huge. Someone would have seen it. Also, canals would be poor navigation routes because they go under so many roads. They'd be constantly getting out of the water to carry the boat to the other side. Wouldn't exactly be a fast getaway, and they would be seen for sure. And why would they cut holes in all the grilles if they were using a boat?"

"Maybe they use scuba gear, swim away after they kill. Maybe your witness saw someone in scuba gear, using the trap-thing." Baskel was desperate to transform the canal monster into something that fit his world.

Lawless frowned. "Seems like an awful lot of trouble to go through just to kill people at random. It'd be simpler and safer to shoot a guy in the head. Why drag a huge gadget around just to kill an old lady walking her dog, or some turkey cutter smoking dope by a canal?"

Baskel gave up. "Who else have you told about your giant snake theory? Does Sheriff Wisehart know?"

"We haven't told anyone but you," Jensen said. "I'm sure you can understand why."

Baskel looked down at his hands, playing with them. "I can't go to the captain with this. We need something more, something real. A picture would help. If we found a picture of a giant snake and pitched the mutation angle, it might fly. Or the alligator-crocodile thing, those're real."

Lawless got a little excited. "Hey, you're right. The big snake story just might work. I could go to the sheriff with that, maybe get some resources if it was pitched right. Let's do that."

Baskel smiled, also excited. "I'll get someone looking into snakes on Monday."

"Monday's too late," Jensen said. "It's been killing at least once a day since Tuesday. More people will be dead by Monday."

"Shit," said Baskel, picturing more bloody corpses. "I can't ask anyone to pull overtime for this, not yet. I guess I can work on it myself, go out on the Internet."

"I hate to bring this up," Jensen said. "But is there some way we can get people to stay away from the canals without starting a panic? I mean, if you felt you had to call your wife, shouldn't others be warned as well?"

Lawless said, "We talked about this. We tell the public there's something in the canals and half of them will head straight for the water with their video cameras."

"Maybe Detective Baskel can come up with something. We can't just do nothing and let it pick off whoever it wants."

Lawless grumbled, pulled on his ear, and looked at Baskel. "What do you think?"

Baskel thought, and rubbed his chin enthusiastically, like Aladdin trying to free the Genie. "Why don't we just say what I told my wife, that people are being killed around the canals so everyone should stay away from them for a while?"

Lawless and Jensen nodded, and Jensen said, "That should do it. Even the video nuts wouldn't want to mess with that."

"I'll call the reporter who wrote today's story," Lawless said, making a note. "I spoke to him a couple of days ago."

"One last thing," Baskel said. "Assuming you're right about the snake creature, do you have any ideas about how to catch or kill it?"

"We think catching it's probably impossible," Lawless said, draining the last of his Pepsi. "If it can bite through steel bars, what cage could hold it? We have a couple of ideas for finding it, though."

"What?"

"We could affix some kind of motion detector gizmo over the holes in the grilles. When it goes through the hole, we know what canal it's in."

"Then what?" Baskel said. "Wait for it to poke its head out of the water and arrest it? Ask it to stop eating people?"

"No. We shoot the shit out of it."

Baskel slumped in his chair. "We'd need a lot of manpower for that. Overtime. A lot of standing around. What's your second idea?"

"Drain the canals and expose it. Then shoot the shit out of it."

Baskel brightened. "That's not a bad idea. That'd be fast and cheaper. We could do that next week."

"It's not that easy," Lawless said. "It's the middle of irrigation season. The MID guy said it would take an act of Congress to drain the canals now. Think our case is strong enough to move Congress?"

"Let's run with the sensor idea, then," Baskel said. "You going to do that?"

"I'll get started today, if our tech guys haven't gone home."

Baskel looked at his watch. "I've had enough Twilight Zone for one day, and we've got work to do."

They recapped their plan, such as it was, and exchanged cell numbers. Baskel gathered his things and left.

Lawless looked at his watch: a quarter to five, lots of daylight left.

"Think he's really on our side?" Jensen asked.

"Seems like it. He's pretty shell-shocked but at least he agreed to help. I'm just worried nothing's going to get done until Monday, if then." He looked at his watch again. "We gotta go, see if the tech guys are still at HQ."

They got there at five to five, perfect time to brief the sheriff on their plans to notify the Bee: he would have his keys in hand, one foot out the door, and wouldn't bother Lawless with silly questions like how come he didn't let Kellerman handle the press.

"Sounds fine detective," the sheriff said, distracted. "How's it going with the boys at Modesto PD? You working with them on this?"

"Met with Detective Dave Baskel this afternoon."

"Good, good. Keep me informed."

The sheriff wasn't listening, had somewhere else on his mind; a crab feed at some lodge or a barbecue at a crony's ranch.

Lawless and Jensen agreed to eat at her place and Jensen went home.

The tech guys had already left for the day. Lawless looked up their numbers so he could call them later.

Tommy Wu was at his desk, playing tough reporter.

"If you want this in the paper, you need to give me something more. People are going to wonder why the Sheriff's Department is asking them to stay away from the canals and it's my job to give them what they want."

Lawless just wanted it done, so he was willing to make something up for Wu.

"Several people have been killed when walking or working by canals lately, isn't that reason enough?" He stalled, looking for an angle.

"That was in today's paper. Our readers already know that. I need something new. Have you made any progress on solving the murders?"

"If I told you about our progress, it would compromise our investigation."

They continued the back-and-forth for five minutes before Lawless came up with a hook.

"You can't print this, but we think there's something to one of the vic's shoes being red." He waited to see if Wu would take the bait.

Wu bit. "You think gangs are involved?"

"Who knows for sure? But anything anyone might have seen could help us."

Wu was up against a deadline, anxious to rewrite tomorrow's story. He said, "Were other gang colors left at a scene? Is that why you suspect gang involvement?"

"Can't comment on that, Tommy." Reeling him in.

"Can you tell me which gangs?"

"I'm sure you know which gang uses red. Gotta go, Tommy. Talk to you Monday."

He hung up and went home, hoping Kellerman wouldn't get too steamed because he talked to Wu. Maybe he could tell him the sheriff okayed it.

Wu had ideas and called his editor.

Lawless sat on his bed in his underwear, looking at his phone: none of the tech guys had answered. How dare they go out on a Friday night? He left his cell number on answering machines but doubted anyone would call back tonight.

He left, calling Jensen on the way to see if she wanted take-out. She already had pizza. She wasn't the only one who would get fat if they kept eating like this; burgers, fast-food breakfasts, chips and salsa, booze. And now pizza. Good thing he had the foresight to bring along a couple bottles of decent red wine; she probably had nothing but beer or white in the fridge.

They ate and drank in front of the TV, watched a Friends rerun until he suggested they turn it off and talk about the day. So much had happened.

They were on their second bottle of wine, relaxed, talking about the homeless man pushing the grocery cart, when Lawless's cell phone chirped. He glanced at his watch: almost seven.

"Lawless."

"Detective?" Lawless could hear the distinct sounds of a bowling alley in the background. "This is Stan Schultz. You left a message on my answering machine to call you tonight." Schultz was the newest member of the tech team.

"Yes, Stan. Thanks for calling me back so soon."

"Well, you did say call tonight. How can I help you, Detective?"

Lawless heard a thunderous cheer in the background. "Is it your bowling night?"

"Yes sir, Friday's league bowling night. We're up by eighty. What's up?"

Lawless explained what he wanted to do.

"I don't think the sensor would be much of a challenge," Schultz said, after a thinking it through. "They're sophisticated enough now that they could all be rigged to a single command center. How many would you need?" Another roar in the background.

Lawless hadn't thought of this. "Maybe a hundred, give or take twenty or thirty. I'm not sure."

Schultz whistled. "They're pretty expensive. A hundred would cost twenty or thirty thousand, not to mention the installation hours."

"How quickly could a system like that be set up?" Lawless asked, ignoring for now the low probability that such an expensive project would ever be approved.

"We could probably start installing them next week."

"By Wednesday?"

"Maybe Thursday or Friday, if we can get enough units that quick." Schultz sounded hopeful, thinking that spearheading such a project would be fun, and might get him noticed.

"How long would it take to install, say, fifty units?" Lawless asked.

"I dunno, three or four weeks. Hard to say until we do a few of them."

Not good news. A hundred people could be dead in three or four weeks.