When I rounded the final curve toward home, Carol Starkey's Taurus was at my front door, but Starkey wasn't behind the wheel. I let myself in through the kitchen, then on into the living room, where sliding glass doors open onto my deck. Starkey was outside, smoking, the hot wind pushing her hair. She raised her hand when she saw me. Starkey never just dropped around.

I opened the sliders and stepped out. What are you doing here?

You say that like I'm stalking you. I wanted to see how it went with Lindo.

She snapped her cigarette over the rail. The wind caught it, and carried it out into the canyon.

We're in the hills, Starkey. This is a tinderbox up here.

I studied the slope long enough to make sure we weren't going to be engulfed by an inferno. She was watching me when I looked up.

What?

So how did it go?

The leading theory seems to be I misread the time frame when Bennett was murdered. Not only me, but the original investigating detectives.

Uh-huh. That possible?

It's always possible, but these guys don't think it's important enough to double-check the key witness. They decided it doesn't matter.

Maybe it doesn't. What Lindo told me sounds pretty good.

That doesn't excuse the loose ends. These guys are in such a hurry to close the case they're not even waiting for all the forensics to come back.

We lapsed into silence for a moment, then Starkey cleared her throat.

Listen, Marx might be a jackass, but Lindo's good. A lot of the people working on this thing are good. Either way, that old man had the book. He was all over that book. You can't forget that.

She was right. Either way, Lionel Byrd had an album of photographs that could only have been taken by a person or persons at the scene when the murders were committed. A book and pictures Byrd and only Byrd had touched.

Starkey, let me ask you something. What do you make of the pictures?

As in, what do I think the pictures mean or why do I think he took them?

Both, I guess. What kind of person takes pictures like this?

She leaned on the rail, staring out at the canyon. Starkey wasn't a trained psychologist, but she had spent a large part of her time at CCS profiling bomb cranks. The people who built improvised explosive devices tended to be serial offenders. Understanding their compulsions had helped her build cases.

She said, Most of these guys, they'll take hair or a piece of jewelry or maybe some clothes as a way of reliving the rush. But pictures are a deeper commitment.

What do you mean?

These women were murdered in semi-public places. He didn't take them into the desert or some soundproof basement somewhere. They were killed in parking lots or near busy streets or in parks where someone could happen by. Grabbing an earring or a handful of hair is easy you grab it and run but he had to stick around to take the pictures. He chose high-risk locations to make his kills, then increased the risk by staying to take a picture when someone might see the flash.