"What you got for us tonight?" Richards asked.
"Three black males murdered execution style. The lab guys saved the bodies for you."
Kirk crouched down next to one of the bodies. His hands were tied behind his back. Richards looked over the other bodies; each had been shot point blank in the back of the head.
"From the looks of it, they were on their knees when they were shot," Sanchez informed them.
"What do you think, Pat?" Kirk asked.
Richards nodded his head. "No sign of forced entry, so the shooters were let in. Judging by the bullet holes in this wall, somebody shot at them. Shooter fired back with superior firepower, I might add."
"You got anything on those guys?" Kirk asked and pointed to where the bodies were found.
"They weren’t on our radar," Sanchez said.
"Anybody canvas the building?" Kirk asked.
"Uniforms."
"And?"
"Nobody saw anything, nobody heard anything. Nobody would even say that there was an operation going on here," Sanchez said.
"Typical," Richards commented.
"Nobody wants to be a snitch," Kirk said.
"There’s been a couple more murders in the last couple of weeks that have the same MO. No forced entry, vic’s were tied up, on their knees and shot in the head," Sanchez told the other detectives.
"Who’s the big player in the game these days?" Kirk asked.
"That would be Bruce Stark."
"Stark," Kirk said and snapped his fingers a few times. "That name rings a bell."
"The Commission," Richards reminded him. Kirk chuckled a little and thought back to the day he and Richards explained the commission and its purpose to Mike Black.
"Do you know a Steven Blake or a Kevin Murdock?" Richards asked that night and handed Black their pictures.
He looked at the pictures and handed them back to Richards. "No, I don’t know either of them. Should I?"
"Their street names are Cash Money and K Murder. You ever hear of them?"
"No."
"What about a guy named Stark or Billy Banner, goes by BB?" Richards continued.
"Never heard of any of them. They sound like cartoon characters to me," Black told the detective.
"Well, they’ve heard of you. In fact they’re so worried that you’re gonna kill them they formed a little group."
"What kind of group?"
"They call themselves The Commission."
"What are they, a rap group or something?"
Kirk remembered how both him and Black had gotten a good laugh at that comment. "No, they’re low-rent drug dealers that used to work for Birdie," Richards said.