I hurried past the nurse's station, ignoring the raised hand and on down the corridor to Daisy's room.

"Tres!"

Turning, I saw Myna, Gyn and Loren sitting in a small alcove. Myna stood and came out.

"What are you guys doing here? Is Daisy . . . ?" I turned and started to run to her room.

"Tres! What's wrong? Where are you going?" The three women moved quickly down the hall in a group.

Daisy was awake and a nurse was undoing a blood pressure wrap from her arm. I slowed and did a short skid to the bedside.

"Dais? You okay? Is she okay?" I asked the nurse.

"She's doing fine. She just needs to rest and let us evaluate how the meds are working."

"But she's okay?"

The nurse sighed a smile and said yes then left as the three women poured into the room.

"Tre- Daisy! My God, what happened?" Myna swooped in like a mother hen while Gyn and Loren shuffled me out of the way.

I might as well have been paint on the wall I was forgotten so fast. I stepped out of the room for a smoke and saw a couple of suits just turning a corner down the hall.

Curious, I went to take a look. They were seated outside of two rooms and I wandered down to see why.

"Hold it right there." The man stood and held his hand up. "What's your business here?"

"None, I was visiting down the hall and stepped out for a smoke. What's going on here?"

"Doesn't concern you, pal, so shove off."

"Hey, Art! Isn't that the peeper Lorne mentioned?" The second man came up and stared at me.

"You, Gunn?"

"Yeah. How do you know?"

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

Half an hour later, after getting my time with Daisy and being reassured I could talk to her again before I left, I sat with the three women and learned all about the things Billy had mentioned except in greater detail.

I told them about Smith and how Lulu had confirmed Shamus and Brody had snitches inside the police ranks. I mentioned the bits about Ubie analyzing the muffin for Brody and Winks mobile bakery.

Myna was livid. She said that even analyzing the muffin wouldn't give them the result they thought. It was the proportions and the method of combining the ingredients.

She confided her source for the one ingredient that nobody else knew about and when I confirmed to her it was a Mexican girl that told Reverend Stein about the night of the killing she swore - very un-Myna like.

That must have been the girl that came to my door that night. She knows Enché Lotta!

We tossed around a few more theories then I left to see Daisy.

"I'd hate to see the other guy," I smiled, leaning down to kiss her forehead.

"You already did. He stood in the doorway while two other goons worked the office and me over."

"Smith." I ground my teeth and squeezed the bed rail.

"Daisy, I'm so sorry- I never thought he would have the guts after . . ."

"I'm okay, Tres. You can't have all the fun." Her fingers traced the outline of my bruised face.

"Did you recognize the others?"

"No, but they were Chinese."

"What! Are you sure?"

"Hard to miss a pigtail, boss."

"A pigtail. They aren't that popular in the NoLuks."

"If it was them."

"Who else- oh crap! I wonder if this is part of somebody's master plan to fuel that war."

"War?"

"Yeah, look. You get the rest you need. I've got some people I need to see. I'll be back soon, kid. Get well, Daisy. I need you . . . the office is a mess."

She swiped at me and tried to grin but it hurt too much.

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

"I want to believe you, Marion, but this is very important."

"I swear, senor! Theese Irishman he came to me and- and he waas so nice. He took me to dinner and waas very kind."

"And he got you to tell him Myna's secret ingredient."

"Si . . . theese ees why I warn her, senor. I knew I had done wrong."

When she described him I knew it was either Bruce or Buck Buchanan. My money was on Bruce.

"You're sure it wasn't the same man you saw in the alley with the muffin?"

"No, senor. I- I have seen that man before. He ees with the dead man." Marion crossed herself and clutched her hands in prayer.

Brody, just like the Reverend said. I thanked her and left.

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

Billy met up with me at the House of Flap Jacks. 

"You want to get back the respect of the department or not?" I looked out the window of the diner, disgusted.

"Tres, if my suspicions are right this goes far deeper in the department than just Smith?"

"Billy, either get in the boat or start swimmin' for shore. I'm doin' this with or without you."

"But how do you know it wasn't Xiao? He's the one that went after Annie."

"He's just grinding his own axe. KanBo's the guy. There's a war brewing, Billy. The NoLuks have started with the poisoning of Madame Yu. Smith had two Chinese thugs work Daisy over-"

"Wait a minute, how do you know that?"

"Daisy told me, Billy. It was all a set up. I think the fact that I beat Smith up was coincidental; it was going to happen anyway and they even wore pigtails so she wouldn't make a mistake."

"Jesus, Tres. This is out of hand."

"You're right, that's why you have to do this. Someone in the mob wants to pick up where Shamus left off. Don't you find it suspicious now that after the station was bombed the Spanish mob disappeared? KanBo and the Irish both want it all and the cops are seein' they get stirred enough to go for it. When prohibition ends, and it will, the winner will have a lock on this city."

"No, Tres you don't get it. Lulu doesn't have control over the Irish. Brody doesn't either. Their getting their orders from KanBo or someone else?"

"What you mean Lulu or Brody don't have control?!"

"They tried to kill her, Tres. If I didn't follow her from the hospital. You'd be reading about her in the Times. The Irish tried to take her out no more than a few hours ago."

I let out a long slow whistle, this was worse than I thought. "She's the only thing standing in the way of the NoLuks or whoever is giving orders to the Irish... from them taking everything."

"Lulu told me it was Shamus that blew up the Station. It explains why he was in BG the night of the murder."

"How did she learn this?"

"Bruce. She got him out of NoLuk territory."

"Her meeting Madame Yu must have worked them up faster than a bear in a beehive. No wonder things have escalated so quickly. They obviously didn't expect her to step up into her new role. Where is she now?"

"My place."

His answer nearly made me choke on my swig of Java. "Not one of your brightest ideas," I sputtered out. 

"I know but I didn't have time. Brody is with her. He won't let anyone near her. And it's a temporary arrangement until Lorne can get his feds in place."

"I don't trust him." 

"Who?"

"Brody, that's who! He was with Shamus the night of the murder. He beat Bruce up. He was at the crime scene, Billy! Shamus didn't eat the muffin, Brody took a piece of the muffin and threatened Ubie's family to get it analyzed. There is more to him than I think even Lulu is aware."

Billy frowned. "He's devoted to her, Tres. There's no way he'd let her come to harm, but you're right something isn't copacetic and I'll figure out what that is? You telling Lorne?"  

"Honestly, as good a man as Lorne is, I don't think they are aware of how far this has gone."

"So, we tell them then?"

"I'm not sitting around for the Feds to create task forces and start preliminary investigations; I'm moving now, Billy. Are you in or out, time's a wastin'?"

"I'm in, Tres. But I can't go into the station throwing around a bunch of accusations. I need proof of some kind or they'll wipe the floor with me."

"You'll have it and you'll have it tonight so be ready because if you're not, I will be and I don't care about my reputation with the cops."