“Yeah, let’s leave it at that.” Call waiting beeped in. Marge’s number in the window. “I’ve got a call that I have to take. Keep me posted.”

“I will. Bye.”

He depressed the button. “What’s going on, Sergeant?”

“Sorry to disturb you on Shabbos,” she said. “We found Mandy Kowalski.”

Decker sat up. “Dead?”

“No, she’s alive, but not in good shape. She has burns on fifty percent of her lower body. She’s in a medically induced coma.”

“That’s awful.” Decker felt his heartbeat race. “What happened?”

“She was brought into Las Vegas Medical Center as a Jane Doe, the victim of a one-car crack-up in the middle of the Mojave. The original thoughts by the police were suicide because only one car was involved and there was Xanax in her system. After we ID’d her as Mandy Kowalski, we’re considering homicide.”

“Like someone depressed the accelerator and let her fly?”

“Maybe. She doesn’t seem like the type who’d be drag-racing in the desert.”

“How’d you find her?”

“I didn’t. Las Vegas did all the legwork.” She filled him in on the details. “They said they went the extra mile because we went the extra mile and came down.”

“Are you sure it’s her?”

“Positive. Her lower body is burned but her face survived relatively unscathed. She has bruises from the air bag deploying, but definitely recognizable.”

“If it was a homicide, wonder why the killer didn’t disable the air bag?”

“Maybe he’s not so clever. And of course, it could have been a suicide. Maybe she witnessed something that she couldn’t live with—like the murder of her friend.”

“Could be.”

“Mandy’s mom, Frieda Kowalski, is a widow. She lives in Mar Vista. I don’t have the address, but I do have the phone number.” She gave it to Decker. “Could you send someone out to let her know what’s going on?”

“I’ll do it. I’ll want to talk to her anyway. What about Garth Hammerling?”

“No bead on him yet, but we haven’t even started talking to people. I do have a list of hotels that he frequented. Scott and I will talk to as many people as we can. Mostly he stayed in North Las Vegas.”

“I thought one of his friends said he stayed on the Strip.”

“He could have stayed there, too. Maybe he likes to hop around.”

“When is Mandy due to come out of her coma?”

“They’ll start waking her up tomorrow, but even once she’s conscious, she’ll be doped up for a while. The doctor says she’ll be out of it for days. Plus, there’s a good chance that she won’t remember much about the accident or what led up to it.”

“Will she remember Adrianna’s murder if she was there?”