The squirrel rocketed out of the alley and took a quick turn down the gutter, falling now to all fours as she went.
Just as he reached the corner, the Emperor saw the trail of the tiny pink dress disappear down a storm sewer, followed closely by the intrepid Bummer. The Emperor could hear the terrier's bark echoing out of the grate, fading as Bummer pursued his prey into the darkness.
RIVERA
/> Nick Cavuto sat down across from Rivera with a plate of buffalo stew roughly the size of a garbage-can lid. They were having lunch at Tommy's Joynt, an old-school eatery on Van Ness that served home-style food like meat loaf, roasted turkey and stuffing, and buffalo stew every day of the year, and featured San Francisco sports teams on the TV over the bar whenever anyone was playing.
"What?" said the big cop, when he saw his partner roll his eyes. "Fucking what?"
"Buffalo almost went extinct once," Rivera said. "You have ancestors on the Great Plains?"
"Special law enforcement portions - protecting and serving and stuff requires protein. "
"A whole bison?"
"Do I criticize your hobbies?"
Rivera looked at his half a turkey sandwich and cup of bean soup, then at Cavuto's stew, then at his runt of a sandwich, then at his partner's colossus of a stew. "My lunch is embarrassed," he said.
"Serves you right. Revenge for the Italian suits. I love going to every call with people thinking I'm the victim. "
"You could buy a steamer, or I could have my guy find you some nice clothes. "
"Your guy the serial-killing thrift-store owner? No thanks. "
"He's not a serial killer. He's got some weird shit going on, but he's not a killer. "
"Just what we need, more weird shit. What was he really doing when you had that shots-fired report?"
"Just like it said, I was going by and a guy tried to rob him at gunpoint. I drew my weapon and told the perp to halt, he drew down on me, and I fired. "
"Your ass. You never fired eleven shots in your life you didn't hit the ten X ring with nine of them. The fuck happened?"
Rivera looked down the long table, made sure the three guys sitting down at the other end were engaged in the game showing on the TV over the bar. "I hit her with every shot. "
"Her? Perp was a woman?"
"I didn't say that. "
Cavuto dropped his spoon. "Partner? Don't tell me you shot the redhead? I thought that was over. "
"No. This was a new thing - like - Nick, you know me, I'm not going to fire unless it's justified. "
"Just say what happened. I got your back. "
"It was like this bird woman or something. All black. I mean fucking black as tar. Had claws that looked like - I don't know, like three-inch-long silver ice picks or something. My shots took chunks out of her - feathers and black goo and shit everywhere. She took nine in the torso and flew away. "
"Flew?"
Rivera sipped his coffee, eyeing his partner's reaction over the edge of the cup. They had been through some extraordinary things working together, but if the situation had been reversed, he wasn't sure he'd believe this story either. "Yeah, flew. "
Cavuto nodded. "Okay, I can see why you wouldn't put that in the report. "
"Yeah. "
"So this bird woman," Cavuto said, like that was settled, he totally believed it, now what? "She was robbing the Asher guy from the thrift shop?"
"Giving him a hand job. "