Just before 2:30 in the morning, Quoc can see the area of the restaurant awash with flashing blue and red lights. He pleads with his friend's father to let him go back. The man agrees but says that he will drive Quoc to the restaurant. The whole family piles into a van and heads for the Kim Anh.

When they arrive, they find the parking lot nearly full. Police cars, detective cars, and ambulances--all are jammed together in front of the restaurant. His friend's father eases to a stop outside the jumble of vehicles. Quoc opens the sliding side door of the van. When a policeman walks over and asks what they are doing, Quoc tells him the restaurant belongs to his family and that he was here during the shooting. The police officer escorts Quoc into the restaurant. As he shuffles toward the horrifying scene, Quoc's body shakes as he cries for his dead brother and sister.

CHAPTER 5

As Chau tells her story to Detective Marco Demma, she keeps switching back and forth from English to Vietnamese. Demma knows she is telling him something about the other women in the restaurant, the one sitting with Sgt. Rantz, but it is impossible for him to understand everything she is saying. She starts to tell her story in English, switches to Vietnamese, then starts crying. Yvonne Farve never leaves the girl's side and comforts her whenever she breaks down.

Across the dining room, Sgt. Rantz is talking to Antoinette Frank. Although there is no language barrier, Rantz has his own difficulties with Frank's story. The problem isn't that he doesn't understand her rapid-fire delivery; the problem is that her story just doesn't make sense. When Frank finishes, Rantz cants his head to one side. He looks the off-duty policewoman dead in the eye and says, "Can you do me a favor? Can you slow it down just a little bit and tell me that again?"

Frank takes a deep breath and starts over. "Me and my nephew came here to get something to eat before we went to the show over at the--"