I climbed out of my car and headed up the walk to Smith's door. I didn't bring Hunk because I didn't want him in any trouble from what might happen. I aimed my thumb for the buzzer and stopped; loud voices from inside meant Smith wasn't alone.

I pressed my ear to the door and managed a few phrases that sounded like it was an argument. I tried the handle carefully and it opened. Should I? I didn't know how many or whether they were packing but I was and I had the advantage of surprise.

I burst into the room waving my gat and shouted for them to grab some air. Smith stared at me past two men with pigtails.

"Gunn?"

"Yeah, and this is one too. Now get those mitts up, all of you."

The two men turned slowly around and I sensed it before I saw it. One dropped down and drew a heater from his jacket and as it came up toward me I fired. The noise was loud in the small room and while Smith was swearing aloud, the other thug rushed me with a knife.

***************

"You made a huge mistake, Hiram." I ran the muzzle of my gun over the top of his head from behind his chair. The two Brunos were sprawled at his feet, both taking the big sleep.

"You're a dead man, Gunn."

"Really, Hiram Why don't you tell me just how that will happen." He didn't answer and I whacked him behind the ear. "Talk."

"I ain't tellin' you nuthin'."

"Fine. I'll tell you. It's a lot clearer now. You and some of your crooked buddies were taking payoffs from somebody in Shamus' mob to use prohibition as a blind for paving the way to a takeover of the city."

"You're crazy."

"First you fix it so the Spanish mob get blamed for bombing the police station and they get arrested, whacked or kicked out of town with the help of your mob friends. Word goes out the Tong helped and that starts the unrest with the NoLuks."

Smith stayed silent but his breathing was strained.

"When Bruce Buchanan wandered into Chinatown you couldn't have been happier. KenBo and his followers used him as proof to Madame Yu that the mob was on the move. Then Lulu McGinty screwed things up by making a deal with Madame Yu and getting Buchanan back. That deal signed Yu's death warrant."

I rapped him with my gun. "How am I doin', Hiram?" I walked around in front of him and kicked the feet of one of the bodies.

"To keep the plan going you had someone like this plant word in KenBo's ear that taking out Louise McGinty would put the mob on the defensive, so they attacked her, or they thought it was her, but blew it. All that did was put the Irish on alert. And guess what, Hiram, Madame Yu is recovering in hospital from attempted poison along with AJ, who can finger every one of the NoLuks involved." Smith shifted in the chair, his cocky demeanor sliding away.

"It was all Shamus' idea."

"Don't be more of a boob than you already are, Hiram. Shamus was dead, another mystery your coppers dragged their feet on."

"It was them chinks-"

"Can it! You got what you wanted so far. KenBo has taken over the Tong and next it's the Irish. You fostered a bloodbath with your greedy plan."

"Yeah, and you're gonna get your turn in the tub, Gunn. That business with your office and that slu-"

I hit him square on his broken nose and stood back while he screamed and writhed in the chair, blood soaking his shirt front. My fury was at maximum and I struggled to keep from shooting right then and there.

"You listen and you listen good, Hiram. You walk very wide of me and anyone I know. I even catch a whiff of you in the air I will finish you for good. And you start sending more goons around you had better be far away because I will bury them on top of you."

I raised my fist again and paused, he flinched then relaxed. I hit him again.

***************

I had to speak to AJ. I had to know if there were any of the NoLuks still loyal to Madame Yu and would they be enough to stop KenBo. I also had to reach Lulu somehow. If Billy was right and someone in the mob was planning the same thing as KanBo it made another of my theories yesterday' news.

After everything that happened I still felt I was right; a faction in the cop shop was engineering the whole thing. They would use the two gangs to get rid of one another and the players inside making the plan work would join the cops then run the whole thing themselves.

As reluctant as I was to think it, I was beginning to believe Brody might not be the one inside the Irish mob. His business with the muffins was just as it seemed, a play to get Myna's recipe and cut her out of the profits - nothing more.

I still didn't have the solid proof that Smith's cadre within the cops were masterminding the whole thing and since I had confronted him with my theory my own skin was on the line from three fronts now.

Billy needed something to risk his neck. I wondered what Annie might know and if she did know anything, could Billy get her to make a deal with Caroline to go public.

Maybe Billy was right. I should take my idea to Lorne; I might be putting more people in danger. He could get the skinny from AJ and Lulu.

I had to get a guard on Daisy too . . . and not a cop. I gave Hunk a call.