He picked up the drawing and held it so Tanner could see it. “Where did you get this?”

“Oh, that’s from Rob,” the girl said, relaxing. This was something that wasn’t scary to her. A pleasant memory.

“Who’s Rob?”

“The guy at the diner,” she explained, finding a little smile. “He’s always there for breakfast. He does those and gives them to people. Just for fun. He’s nice.”

“Nice,” Tanner said.

“Nice,” Mendez repeated.

Denise Garland didn’t know whether she was supposed to be happy or cry.

Mendez took a business card out of his wallet and handed it to her.

“Miss Garland,” Tanner said. “I have to be careful how I word this, but I want you to know that man has been a person of interest in a felony investigation in Santa Barbara.”

The girl’s eyes went impossibly wide. “Oh my God. What did he do? Do you think he broke into my house?”

“Double-check your locks,” Mendez suggested.

“And check your underwear drawer,” Tanner suggested. “Thank you for your time, Ms. Garland.”

“You’re late,” Cal Dixon said sharply as Mendez walked into his office.

“Roland Ballencoa is stalking a nurse from Mercy General Hospital,” Mendez returned.

Dixon sat back. “What?”

Mendez told him what had happened, weathering the scowl that came when he told the sheriff about tailing Ballencoa away from the diner. In this case, he felt the end more than justified the means.

“You’re sure he didn’t see you?” Dixon asked.

“Ninety-nine point nine percent. I think he would have already called you and raised a stink if he’d made me for a tail.”

Dixon cursed under his breath. That spot between the rock and the hard place was never comfortable. They had no legitimate call to tail Roland Ballencoa. They had nothing on him to link him to any of the B&Es. He had in fact been a victim of a crime with Lauren Lawton attacking him at the tennis courts. While they may have had their suspicions, he was not officially a suspect in anything.

Mendez had followed him to Denise Garland’s street, but they had nothing to link him to any crime committed against the nurse. As far as Denise Garland knew, there had been no crime committed. She couldn’t say anyone had been in her home without her consent. She couldn’t even swear that she hadn’t left her patio door open herself. And yet Mendez would have bet a week’s pay Ballencoa had been the one to leave that door open.

They couldn’t even follow Ballencoa on the excuse that he was a known predator because nothing had ever been proven against him in the Leslie Lawton case. They had no legitimate call to follow him, and yet in following him they now had every reason to find his behavior suspicious.