MOLINARI WAS WAITING for me out in the hall, and as soon as Roach had ducked into the elevator, I looked at him reprovingly. "Soon enough, huh?"

He followed me down the stairwell to my office. "Look, I had the local FBI office to placate up there. There's always a lot of politics. You know that."

"Anyway, I'm glad you're here," I said, holding the stair-well door for him. I let it close. "I never had a chance to thank you for the ride. So, thanks."

I put Molinari in our squad room, cleared out a small office for him to work in. He told me he had declined some-thing more fitting and private on the fifth floor next to the Chief.

It proved to be not such a bad thing, having the Depart-ment of Homeland Security working hand in hand with us, though Jacobi and Cappy looked at me as though I'd gone over to the enemy. Within two hours he had traced back the origin of the latest e-mail: an Internet caf?called the KGB Bar in Hayward that was popular with students across the bay.

And also who Marion Delgado was - the latest Hotmail address.

Molinari draped a f............