WHEN I reached my car, I shuffled through the papers Mr. Repko had given me. Among them was the receipt Darcy and Maddux provided when they returned the items they had taken to examine. A cell phone and a laptop were on the list, but not a PDA, and I didn't recall seeing it at the Repkos' home.

I found Darcy's card, called him, and asked if they recovered a PDA with Debra's body.

He said, Sure. It was still in her purse. We gave it back to the family.

Not her cell phone. She also had a PDA.

Like a BlackBerry?

Yeah. Did you find one?

Hang on

He spoke to someone in the background, then came back.

No, nothing like that. We had her cell. Maddux says it was a Samsung.

I just left Casey Stokes. Leverage gives out PDAs to their associates. Debra used hers that night at the dinner.

All we had was the Samsung. We ran the call log on the cell and the hard line in her apartment. If we had the PDA, we would've run that, too. Maybe her family has it.

They would have it only if you gave it to them. It should have been on her body, in her car, or in her apartment.

I don't know what to tell you. I know you're thinking the killer nabbed it, but how can we know that or prove it? She might have lost the damn thing.

Hang on, Darcy. Think about this. If Leverage provided the PDA, they probably take care of the bills.

I know where you're going, but there isn't anything I can do. If this case was mine I'd subpoena their call records and hit up the provider for her email and text messages. But this isn't my case. It's Marx's case, and he closed it.

Did you know Marx is a client at Leverage?

Darcy was silent.

Darcy?

You're kidding.

When Leverage was freezing you guys out, they were talking with Marx behind the scenes. He walked them through the investigation to keep their clients out of the headlines.

That sonofabitch.

Uh-huh.

That's why the pressure came down for us to back off. Nice of him to tell us.

Marx's name never came up?

Not until now. Maddux is going to shit.

I called Michael Repko next. Michael remembered that his sister had a PDA, but didn't know where it was. He agreed to ask his parents and brothers. I was still talking to him when my phone beeped with a call from Pat Kyle. I finished with Michael, then switched over to Pat.

She said, Am I the best or what?

I've been saying that for years, and not just to annoy your husband.

A little annoyance is good for him. You have something to write with?

I do. You find Tomaso?

He's with a commercial agency called Figg-Harris. Figg tried to reach him to see if it would be okay to give out his contact info, but the kid hasn't returned his calls. I had to pressure him.