Jennifer Sheridan opened the purse and took out a 3x5 color snapshot of herself and a tall good-looking kid in a navy blue LAPD summer-weight uniform leaning against a squad car. They were smiling. "His name is Mark Thurman. He doesn't work uniform anymore. Last year he was chosen for a plainclothes position at the Seventy-seventh Division in South Central Los Angeles."

"What kind of plainclothes?"

"They call it a REACT team. They monitor career criminals and try to stop them before they hurt people. If s an elite unit, and he was the youngest man chosen. He was very proud of that." She seemed proud of it, too. "Everything was fine for the first few months, but then he changed. It happened almost overnight."

"What kind of change?" I was thinking Kevin McCarthy. Invasion of the Body Snatchers.

"He became anxious and scared and secretive. We never keep secrets from each other and now there are things that he won't talk about with me."

I looked closer at the picture. Thurman had long forearms and a ropey neck and a country boy's smile. He must've been fourteen inches taller than Jennifer Sheridan. I said, "I know a lot of police officers, Ms. Sheridan. Some of them are even my friends. It can be a hard job with unusual hours and you see too much of what's wrong with people. You don't want to go home and chat about it."

She shook her head, telling me that I didn't get it. "It isn't just him not talking about the job. He was in uniform for three years and I know to expect that. It's the way he acts. We used to talk about getting married, and having children, but we don't anymore. I ask him what's wrong, he says nothing. I say tell me about your day, he says that there's nothing to say. He was never like that before. He's become irritable and snappish."

"Irritable."

"That's right."

"He's irritable, and that's why you think he's involved in crime?"

She gave me exasperated. "Well, it isn't just that."

"Have you seen him perform a criminal act, or heard him speak of it, or seen the results of it?"

"No."

"Has he exhibited signs of an income other than his police salary?"

"No."

I tapped the desk. "Sounds like you think he's up to something because he's irritable."

She gave me more of the impatience. "You don't understand. Mark and I have known each other since the seventh grade. We fell in love in the ninth grade. That's how long we've been going together. I love him and he loves me and I know him better than anyone else in all the world."

"All right," I said. "Do you have any dues?"

She frowned at me.