14th Deadly Sin

CHAPTER 48

TWO MEN SAT in a darkened car on Texas Street, two houses in from the corner of Eighteenth, one block away from a commercial strip. Potrero Hill was a pretty area with a view of the bay from higher on the hill, but lower, in front, all you could see were the facades of the somewhat run-down Victorian houses, the intermittent trees, and the rats’ nest of telephone wires overhead.

The guys in the car were watching one house in particular, a quaint, middle-class house that was light green with dark green trim, fronted with a short brick wall and a walk of cement pavers leading up to an unpainted wood-panel front door.

At about midnight, a silver Camry backed into a spot between a couple of scruffy trees. The man who got out of the car was white and had dark hair with a balding spot at the back of his head. He was wearing a dark-blue SFPD Windbreaker. As he locked up his car, his phone rang. He leaned against his car and spoke and listened.

Then he pocketed his phone, walked up to the front door, and let himself in with his keys. Lights went on in the downstairs hallway and then the kitchen. Those two lights went out, and another went on in the second story, in a front room, probably a bedroom. Within the next half hour, the only light in the house was the blue light from the TV.

And then the TV went off, too.

One of the men in the car said to the other, “I’ve never liked these old houses. I look at them. All I see is maintenance.”

“When you have a family, you like a deck in back. A yard. Barbecue and whatnot. Christ. How long we been waiting here?”

“Take it easy,” said the first man. “After we say hello to Inspector Calhoun and his family, we can go get something to eat.”

“I’m way ready,” said the second man.

“You’re sure you don’t want to sit here and count stars?”

The second man scoffed. One of them was going to take the front door while the other went to the back.

“See you inside,” said the first man.

“Don’t get anything on you,” said the second man.

They both adjusted their guns and got out of the car.