Private

"Okay. Well, if you combine equal parts narcissism and self-hatred, you might come up with a stand-up comic. You might also come up with a prostitute."

I must have groaned.

Justine said, "Was I too rough, Jack?"

"Shelby must have found out something she wasn't supposed to know. Maybe about the Noccias."

"I'm sorry."

"It's not over."

"I know. Jack?"

"Uh-huh."

"Are you coming to the office? Sci and I have two very different approaches to the Schoolgirl case. I need another opinion."

"Sounds like we're making progress," I said. "I'll be right there."

Chapter 48

FOUR PAIRS OF eyes looked up in dismay, and maybe even shock, when Del Rio and I entered the war room.

"No one died," I said.

"Because there were too many witnesses," Del Rio added as a charming note.

Colleen came in to take orders for lunch as I was winding up my theory of the Shelby Cushman-Noccia family connection. She looked at me, wide-eyed and stunned. My jaw was bruised pretty badly. I had a nice laceration on my cheekbone. And those were just the injuries she could see.

"We were outnumbered," I said.

"The usual?" she asked me.

"Extra fries," I said. "Extra ice."

When Colleen left, I turned the floor over to Dr. Sci.

"Jack, I've been over this with Mo. We agree. If the Schoolgirl killer is baiting his victims with fake messages, he has to have wireless access to their mobile phones in real time."

Mo-bot piped up. She was sleeveless, showing off a colorful mess of tattoos. It was hard to imagine her at Harvard, where she'd gone through her PhD. She took off her bifocals and said, "What Sci is implying is that we think the scum is waiting at a location, probably in a vehicle that won't call attention. We'd say a van.

"Scum grabs the signal out of the air and accesses the target's mobile unit and basically clones it. That's how he's able to send his own messages using a screen name from one of the victim's friends."

"If he can do that," Sci said, "he can block all other messages, incoming and outbound. As far as I know, there's no program that can hijack cell phone content wirelessly," Sci said.

"But it's imaginable. If you can imagine it, it can be done," added Mo-bot.

Chapter 49

"HOLD ON TO that thought. Justine?"

Justine had dark circles under her eyes, but she still looked good. On the other hand, I couldn't remember the last time I'd seen her smile. This case had a hook in her and wouldn't let go.

"Something's been nagging at me for a couple of days," she said, "and it finally crystallized this morning. Five years ago, another girl was left dead in the same alley where Connie Yu was found. I went through the LA Times archives and found the story.

"Her name was Wendy Borman. She was seventeen," Justine continued. "Like Connie Yu, she left her house to make a quick trip to Hyperion Avenue and didn't come back. Her body was found the next morning."

"Wendy Borman is an unsolved case?"

Justine nodded and said, "She was killed by manual strangulation. She had a bruise behind her ear that came from a concussive blow with a heavy object. There were no witnesses, no sexual assault, and no forensic evidence. Sound familiar to you?

"And how's this? Her handbag and cell phone were taken. Also, she'd been wearing a necklace, a hand-wrought gold star on a chain. It wasn't on her when they found the body. Her mother said she always wore the necklace."

"So obviously, it was made to look like a robbery-homicide."

"Makes me wonder how long these Schoolgirl killings have been going on. How many girls has this sick bastard killed? How many different ways? Was there somebody even before the Borman girl?"

We reviewed assignments and workloads over lunch. Everyone in the room was expensive, but I didn't much care. Obviously neither did Justine.

I said, "Everything basically goes on hold but Cushman, NFL, and Justine's case. That's all we do until all three cases are closed. And we will close them."

I limped up the stairs to my office, and Colleen followed me to my desk.

"You got a call this morning," she said. "Maybe it's a prank, but it's evil, Jack. You should listen to it. Seriously."

She picked up the receiver, got into voice mail, and switched over to speaker.

I was sorry Colleen had to hear the eerie electronic voice that came over the phone.

"You're dead," the caller said. Colleen looked shocked, and for good reason. Nothing about the voice sounded like a hoax.

I took Colleen into my arms and held her against my chest. She made a purring sound like a cat, then laughed at herself.

What was I going to do with this lovely, lovely woman?

I said to her, "Not yet, Colleen. I'm not dead yet." Part Three

WHAT'S LOVE GOT TO DO WITH IT? Chapter 50