“Garth’s reaction was unexpected. ‘The dude flipped out!’ was what he told me. He immediately wanted to go back to L.A. But the other guys didn’t want to go back. They had planned the vacation for a while and tried to convince Garth to come along. But he was adamant about returning home. Garth’s reaction shocked Aaron. They’ve been friends for a long time and he really didn’t think that Garth cared that much about Adrianna.”

“Okay. So what did he do?”

“According to Aaron, Garth packed up on the spot and left in a taxi to go to the airport.”

“So Aaron thinks that Garth came back to L.A.?”

“That was Garth’s plan.”

“Does Aaron know what time it was when Garth left?”

“He thinks around nine in the morning. Aaron and Greg packed their car and left for the mountains about an hour later. Within a few hours, their cells were out of range, so he wasn’t answering the phone.”

“So that was around…noon, maybe one in the afternoon?”

“Something like that,” Marge said. “When they got finally got to the spot where they were supposed to camp, they both realized that the river was really swollen. Plus, it was bitter cold. They changed their minds about rafting. They camped overnight and decided to go back to Reno. As soon as his phone was in range, Aaron checked his messages. So did Greg. They found out about Adrianna roughly the same time because everyone was calling them. They freaked. Aaron was especially scared because he got a call from us—the police. They’ve both tried to call Garth, but he hasn’t been picking up his cell or his house phone. Aaron says he’s in total shock about the murder.”

“Where are Aaron and Greg now?”

“They’re driving home from Reno. I’ve already informed them that they need to come to the station house. This is a serious police matter. So far both boys have been cooperative.”

“And they don’t know where Garth is?”

“No idea. I’ve made a couple of calls to the airlines, Oliver’s been calling up Garth’s family and friends, and Brubeck and Messing are staking out his apartment.” Marge got a buzz on her BlackBerry. She looked at her phone. “Hmm…this is good.”

“What?”

“Just a text message. Yesterday there was a Mountaineer Express flight from Reno to Burbank that left at ten-ten A.M., getting into Bob Hope at eleven forty-five. That was the woman from the airlines. She’s agreed to check the manifest to see if Garth was on the flight.” She stowed the phone in her pocket. “I’ll call back in a little bit.”

Decker said, “If Garth was on that flight, he didn’t have a lot of time to act.”