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vic’s wallet. He’s an officer.” Kim checked his pad. “Lieutenant Dmitri Vlotsky. No cash in the wallet. Could have been a robbery, but I doubt it. Whoever it was butchered him pretty bad.”
    A female voice came up behind me. “Excuse me, I’m looking for Detective Mozambe.”
    “I’m Juno Mozambe.”
    “Hello, I’m Maggie Orzo.” She put her hand out for a shake.
    I shook hands with her. I made it a quick shake, and I made sure to say something at the same time so she wouldn’t notice my quaky hand. “Nice to meet you, Detective Orzo.”
    “You better call me Maggie if we’re going to be partners.”
    Partners. We’ll see about that.
“Maggie it is,” I said.
    I could see right away why Yuan Kim had eyes for her. She was young with a confident smile and her hair was done up in the latest style. She was wearing a stylish outfit that made her look far too nice to be a cop. Cops didn’t wear “outfits.” Her most striking feature was her eyes, which were a stunning sky blue. Her dark hair and olive complexion told me those eyes couldn’t have been her birth eyes. Surely, she’d been born with brown eyes. She had to be rich. How else could she afford replacement eyes? Knowing her eyes weren’t original, I wondered what else wasn’t…maybe that perfect little nose, or maybe those round lips, or how about those nice ample breasts. After taking in the complete package of Maggie Orzo, I decided that I really didn’t care what was original and what wasn’t.
    She said, “Must’ve been quite a surprise to find out you had a new partner.”
    “Yep,” I said without trying to hide my unhappiness. Pretty or not, I didn’t need a partner slowing me down. “We’re just getting started.”
    Maggie Orzo looked at a smitten Yuan Kim. “Hi, Kim.”
    Kim was looking stupid as he pushed his glasses back up. “H-hey, Maggie, this is my partner.”
    “Nice to meet you, Maggie. I’m Mark Josephs. Kim here has been telling me all about you. I think he likes you.”
    Kim looked stupid-angry.
    Maggie Orzo changed the subject. “What have we been able to determine so far?”
    Josephs said, “The coroner is still working the body. Why don’t you come check it out?” He gave me a look as if to say, “Watch this,” then he talked to Maggie, real patronizing. “Now, are you sure you’re ready for this?”
    She was emphatic. “I’m sure.”
    She walked deeper into the alley. We all followed her past some garbage cans and around the corner. Sweat streamed down my face and back. My shirt was soaked through. The ripe smell of the corpse was overpowering in the heat. Blood was pooled on the pavement. Lizards chattered in small groups, waiting for an opportunity to scavenge while flies buzzed around our heads.
    Koba’s head coroner, Abdul Salaam, was hunched over the body. How did he still do it at his age? Down on his knees, with the heat kicking off the pavement like that. Abdul was one of the few guys around who was older than me, in years, that is. In attitude, he must have been half my age. Abdul and I went way back, old friends. “Hey, Abdul.”
    He looked up, squinting through his too-thick glasses. “That you, Juno?”
    “Yeah, it’s me.”
    “What are you doing here?”
    “I’m working this case, with Officer Orzo here.”
    He tried to wave the flies away, his bloodied gloves acting more like a magnet than a repellant. “I don’t get it,” he said.
    “Paul sent me.”
    “Doesn’t he know that you’re too old for this kind of work?” he said with his poker face.
    “Fuck you, old man.” Poker face right back at him. I couldn’t hold it. I broke out in a wide smile that Abdul mirrored back.
    I studied the vic. He was dressed in blood-soaked white linens with good shoes. He couldn’t be poor. Poor people wentbarefoot or wore jellies, not shoes. And there was no way a poor person could afford to get laid at the Lotus. Rich, then? No. His watch had a plastic band. He was strictly middle