It was going to be a matter of checking each of them out and seeing how they ticked. The Feds were bound to run a check on accidental decapitations sooner or later, so I wanted to beat them to it.

I looked at Brueger.

“If we’re going to do anything, we have to move tonight,” I said. “I say we split up. Bennington has all this medical experience and, this Burns guy . . . it really bugs me they didn’t find the daughter’s head. I mean, Christ, how do you lose a head on a highway?”

“Okay, let’s say we flip a coin. See who gets who.” She already had a coin in her hand. “Heads the Admiral, tails the bio-engineer. You call it.” She threw the coin into the air.

“Tails.”

The coin landed. She flipped it onto her forearm. “Heads. You lose. You get Burns.”

Perfect. He would have access to all kinds of lab and medical equipment and I just couldn’t shake the idea of them not finding his kid’s head. It was just a little weird. I stood up and put on my gun. I noticed as I did this Brueger was picking up the phone receiver.

“What are you doing?”

“Call into the station. I want to see if the sixth body has turned up yet. Don’t worry; I worked out a code with the desk sergeant. The Feds won’t know what the hell we’re talking about.”

“Don’t bother. There isn’t going to be a sixth body,” I said.

Brueger stared at me for a second, hesitated, and then hung up the phone.

She walked over toward me, ripping the fax sheet in half. “Here’s Burns’s address. No matter what happens, we meet back here.” She glanced at her watch. “In two hours. That’ll be about three-thirty.”

“Right,” I said and we left the building.

Brueger went to her car, while I walked to the curb and hopped into mine. Burns lived in North Hollywood. It was just down the street, and smack in the middle between the accident and Runyon Canyon.

I wasn’t surprised to see the house when I pulled up. It was a big detached deal, two stories with yard and pool. I guess bio-engineers make a pretty penny. Who knew there was money in making giant mutant food?

I got out of the car and stood, staring at the house. The entire second floor was dark, but there were several lights lit on the first floor. There were two cars in the driveway. Both had California tags. I made my way up the drive.

As I passed the first car, I stopped and stared down at a sticker on the back window. I was glad I lost the flip.