“They talked to him and a pal of his from jail—Michael Craig Houston, another budding psychopath. The local press made them out to be Leopold and Loeb, but nothing came of it. They gave each other alibis, and nobody ever proved murder anyway, so if they did it, they got away with it.”

“What happened to Ballencoa’s parents?” he asked, following her back out into the hall.

“Mom OD’d when he was ten or twelve,” she said, leading him into a conference room. “There was no father in the picture as far as I know.”

“Where’d all this happy family stuff go on?”

“North of Eureka,” she said. “Where the odds are good that the goods are odd. The gene pool is a puddle in some of those little logging towns up there.”

Mendez set the box on the table and took the top off. Tanner ran a fingertip back over the files and pulled out the one she wanted. Her nails were short and neat with no polish. She wore no rings.

“There isn’t a ton of stuff in here. It’s a little more than I gave you the other night. There’s a couple of old news clippings on the aunt’s death, and some contact numbers for the other agencies that have dealt with him,” she said with a shrug. “We got called off, you know.”

“So did I,” Mendez said, flipping the folder open.

Tanner’s chuckle had a slightly evil quality to it. “I like you, Mendez. You’re my kind of cop.”

She boosted herself up to sit on the table as he took a seat. As she had been the first time he’d met her, she was in black slacks and T-shirt, this time with a gold blazer that set off the green of her eyes. Her blond hair was slicked back in a no-nonsense ponytail.

“Are you looking for anything in particular?” she asked.

“Whatever jumps out at me. I want to know as much about this guy as I can. I’m meeting with Vince Leone this afternoon to talk about him.”

Tanner looked impressed. “Wow. Cute, a hard-ass, a gentleman, and connected. I may have to start fanning myself soon.”

Mendez felt himself blush, and he fought the little smile that wanted to go with it, reminding himself that he was here on business. He put his eyes back on the file, knowing Tanner was amused with his reaction.

“You’re into the whole profiling thing?” she said.

“What? You don’t believe in it?” There were still plenty of meat-and-potatoes cops who thought it was a waste of time.