“Ballencoa’s neighbor in San Luis spotted a guy parked outside Ballencoa’s house,” Hicks said. “He told her he was some kind of special investigator with the police, but we know the SLOPD wasn’t watching Ballencoa anymore.”

“The tag on the car he was driving came back to Avis,” Mendez said.

“Who rents a car to go on surveillance?” Tanner asked.

“Gregory Hewitt,” Hicks answered.

“Who’s Gregory Hewitt?”

“Gregory Hewitt is the guy whose car was in the shop at McFadden Autobody in Santa Barbara that week,” he said. “The rental was a loaner.”

“And I’ll ask again,” Mendez said. “Who is Gregory Hewitt?”

“No idea,” Hicks said, “but he doesn’t work for the San Luis PD or the Santa Barbara PD or the Santa Barbara County SO or any other agency. He’s not a cop.”

“But the neighbor lady said he showed her some kind of ID,” Mendez said.

He dug his little spiral notebook out of the breast pocket of his sport coat and flipped through the pages, looking for the notes he had taken when they had spoken with Mavis Whitaker. “She couldn’t read it. She didn’t have her glasses on.”

“Sounds like a private investigator,” Tanner said.

Hicks agreed. “I thought so too, but there’s no California PI license to anyone by that name.”

“Who cares, anyway,” Mendez said. “Ballencoa is here now. That’s what matters to us.”

“Right. The house he’s renting here is managed by a property firm,” Hicks said. “His lease began May first.”

“When was your first B and E?” Tanner asked.

Mendez consulted the first of the files. “May fifth.”

“He made himself right at home.”

Mendez went to the whiteboard and entered the information on the time line. The date, the name of the victim, the address. He did the same for each of their cases.

Tanner took the far left section of whiteboard and did the same with the Santa Barbara cases, leading the time line up to the abduction of Leslie Lawton.

“I called a guy I know in San Luis,” she said. “He works crimes against property. He thought they might have cases to add. He’s checking into it.

“We all know, B and Es aren’t uncommon in a college town,” she went on, “what with a certain recreational drug element in place. People steal drugs. People steal money to buy drugs, and stuff to pawn to get money to buy drugs. We’ve got it in SB. San Luis has it. I’m sure even the hoity-toity kids at McAster smoke pot.”

“Better-than-average pot,” Mendez said. “But someone comes in and steals your weed, you don’t call the cops. And I’ve sorted out the cases where money was taken or property with value was stolen. These cases reported a break-in only. Things messed with but not taken or things of seemingly little value missing.”