The young people in the plaza were milling around like frightened cattle as the first police car came

hurtling down East Palace Avenue and turned left on Lincoln. Officer John Baker, behind the wheel,

followed the pointing fingers of the kids crowding together on the plaza and gunned it down San

Francisco Street. Beside him, Officer Rosario Sanchez sat buckled into the passenger seat, talking on the

radio.

The young people in the plaza were milling around like frightened cattle as the first police car came

hurtling down East Palace Avenue and turned left on Lincoln. Officer John Baker, behind the wheel,

followed the pointing fingers of the kids crowding together on the plaza and gunned it down San

Francisco Street. Beside him, Officer Rosario Sanchez sat buckled into the passenger seat, talking on the

radio.

The screams had stopped. The street appeared deserted. In the distance, they could hear rapidly

approaching sirens as other units converged on the area. Sanchez played the spotlight along the

sidewalks, the beam stabbing into the shadowed recesses of doorways and narrow alleys. Another patrol

car was coming down the street toward them from the opposite direction. It, too, had slowed and began

to play its light along the street.

"Stop!" said Sanchez suddenly.

They had drawn even with an alley. The spotlight beam illuminated what was clearly a dead body lying in

the middle of the alley, about ten to fifteen feet from the entrance. Farther down, there was a dark, robed

figure bending over what appeared to be another body.

"You! In the alley!Freeze !" Sanchez shouted over the car's PA.

Baker grabbed the mike. "All units, all units, Car Seventeen requesting backup. Suspect spotted in the

alley between Galisteo and Sandoval, off San Francisco! Seal off the back entrance on Palace Avenue!"

The other police car coming from the opposite direction suddenly picked up speed and raced toward

them, coming to a stop inches from their front bumper. Both officers inside piled out, weapons held

ready. Meanwhile, Sanchez saw that his challenge had been totally ignored by the robed figure

illuminated in the spotlight's beam. He was still bent over the body, apparently doing something to it.

"Son of a bitch!" swore Sanchez, throwing the door open and drawing his 9-mm semiautomatic.

At the other end of the alley, which opened onto Palace Avenue, Baker saw another patrol car pull up

sharply, blocking the exit. He quickly spoke into the mike.

"Attention unit blocking the alley on Palace! Looks like we've got dead bodies in there! Stay back out of

the way, guys! Watch out for crossfire! Give me a roger on that!"

"That's a roger, Seventeen," the speaker crackled. "We'll keep back. If he comes out this way, we'll get

him."

The cops from the other unit facing them took up position by the wall to the left of the alley entrance, one

holding a revolver, the other a riotgun. Sanchez was out of the car and on the sidewalk in the middle of

the entrance to the alley, crouching on one knee, his pistol braced.

"Get up!" shouted Sanchez. "Hands above your head!Now! "

"Rosie! Get back, goddammit!" Baker yelled to him.