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Bijan did not reply. He waved at the nurses to move away from the bed and took a few leisurely steps toward the monitors that surrounded my grandmother.

I slid forward a few more inches and said, “You have no reason not to answer. You have the upper hand here. Why do it?”

“To scare away squatters, of course,” Bijan said, looking away from the monitors with an amused expression. “And it worked.”

He was only twenty-five feet from me, maybe less, and the ramp was only two steps away.

“So you tried it again under the Bridge to Nowhere,” I said, watching him intently. “You killed Dylan Sentinel. You set his Audi on fire to clear the homeless camps there so you could build luxury condos with river views.”

“Not me,” Bijan said. “A copycat. And the two after the minister. Yes. The prostitute, the professor. All copycats.”

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I KNEW THAT LAST part was true because O’Hare had confessed to killing Corey McGovern and his uncle. But my goal was to keep the man talking. “Then how did Anna Bananas get onto you?”

“Who is this?” Bijan said, looking legitimately indignant and confused.

“A homeless woman killed by the river and the Bridge to Nowhere a few days ago.”

Bijan shook his head. “You try to blame me for too many things, I think.”

Remember, he’s a pro, I thought. “But you did shoot Jeffrey Frost, correct? So you and Tatiana Volt could take over the properties.”

Bijan paused, then chuckled. “Which we’ll get for pennies on the dollar. Of course. Yes.”

“Was that done under Volt’s orders?”

He laughed at that. “Tati is a bitch. I answer to bigger dogs.”

Juanita had been holding it together, but now she broke down. “Are you going to kill us?”

“It is sad,” Bijan replied, “but one must clean house from time to time.” He grinned wolfishly, then aimed his pistol at the crying nurse. “You first?”

Juanita threw her hands over her face, sobbed, and took several steps back.

“Or you?” Bijan said, pivoting to aim at Bobby, who raised his hands, his chin trembling.

“Please, sir,” he said.

“Please what?”

“Don’t kill us. Like you said, you came here for other reasons.”

“And now there is only one reason.”

Bijan kept glancing at me during this interaction. He’s enjoying this, I decided. Especially the effect he was having on me.

He’s a sadist. I saw it clearly in his eyes when he returned his focus to Nana Mama and aimed his gun at her head from point-blank range. “Or you first, old granny dying in the hospital bed? Would you like that? To be the first to go tonight? To find a quick end to your misery?”

Bijan peered over at me again, openly gloating.

This is his thing. The power trip over his victims before he acts.

I had to fight the urge to explode, which would have given him a reason to act.

He chuckled, still smirking, still enjoying his moment of power, and said in a singsong voice, “I think it’s going to be granny!”

“Not today,” Nana Mama said and hurled her bedpan and its contents into Bijan’s face.