The Hanged Man's Tale

The three fortyish ladies from Sea Cliff who call themselves the Merry Widows hire Mercy Investigations to get back their stolen jewelry. Could it have been some of the Romani, incorrectly called gypsies, whose San Francisco group dresses in costumes from the Tarot card deck, or was it some other person or persons?In the middle of this investigation, two other things come up: Sergeant Lavinia Washington has made Lieutenant, and replaces Steady Ed's former prot g Ralph Roger as head of the Homicide and Violent Crimes squad, while Ralph passes the Captain's test, and has become the new Commander of the Mission Precinct.Captain Ralph, as they now call him, wants to begin to reform policing, hire more women, engage his people in community policing instead of the old nasty command and control model, but he knows it won't be easy, to say the least, and he comes to Ed Steadman for advice and encouragement.Then, just as Reggie has to prepare for his final exams before graduating San Francisco State University, an emergency plea comes to Ed from Buster Cherrie's Bail Bonds - big drug dealer Raul Cabra has not only skipped bail, leaving Buster with $100K on the line, the cruel thug has murdered a rival dealer as well.All the characters you may have come to know from the Mercy Investigation series are back again, in all their kaleidoscopic variety, discussing books and ideas and chasing villains, while Cal the 32-pound cat with some bobcat genes sits placidly watching the trees and human wildlife across the street in Mission Dolores Park.