“But the girl musta weighed over three hundred pounds! Her face looked like she was on steroids, she was so swollen up.”

Decker said, “Let’s suppose someone passed you in the hallway the night of the kidnapping. And all you caught was a glimpse of that person—someone weighing around a hundred twenty pounds. Think you would have recognized Tandy at a hundred and twenty pounds, Darlene?”

The nurse closed her eyes, then reopened them slowly. “I was very busy that night. Maybe I would have, but maybe I wouldn’t have.”

Hearing the RTO call out his unit number, Decker picked up the mike of the unmarked. Marge was put through a moment later.

“I got news.”

“So do I,” Decker said. “Should we meet at the station house, or do you want to grab a cup of coffee somewhere?”

“I can’t leave where I am. I’m watching Tandy’s Audi.”

“Okay, so I’ll come to you.”

“No, don’t do that!”

Decker was taken aback by Marge’s forceful tone of voice. “What’s cooking, Detective Dunn? Why don’t you want me crowding your space?”

Marge didn’t answer right away. Then she said, “I just don’t want the unmarked anywhere in sight. I think this gal is really clever.”

“Okay. So should we exchange info over the airwaves? Remember you’re on a cellular phone and that’s not private like a tactical line.”

“We’ll keep it short. You go first.”

“First just tell me if Tandy Roberts was working at Tujunga Memorial the night of the kidnapping.”

“She was, Pete, but she was off shift at eleven. So she could have taken a little drive over to Sun Valley Pres.”

“Great.” Decker recapped his conversation with Darlene Jamison. “It’s very possible that Tandy was there at Sun Valley Pres, and even people who knew her wouldn’t have recognized her. She could have been skulking through the halls, still dressed in her uniform, and even if Darlene had caught a glimpse of her, Tandy would have just looked like a thin, anonymous floater.”

“So the timing is on our side.”

“Now all we need is evidence linking her to the kidnapping or at least to Sun Valley.”

“We should go back to Sun Valley and pass around current pictures of Tandy,” Marge said. “See if anyone remembers seeing the slim version.”

“She hasn’t officially worked at Sun Valley for a couple of years. She was pulled from the work roster because of licensing problems. Consistent with what Leek told you about her at Golden Valley Home. Seems the girl is passing herself off as an RN.”

Marge said, “You mean, ‘was passing herself off.’ Past tense. I asked about her license at Tujunga Memorial. They told me she was a licensed RN. Gave me her license number and everything.”

Decker thought a moment, then asked, “Is there a Board of Nurses’ Examiners in Sacramento?”