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Back Lost Hills Save as PDF
Chapters (49)
  1. TITLE PAGE
  2. COPYRIGHT PAGE
  3. DEDICATION
  4. Contents
  5. CHAPTER ONE
  6. CHAPTER TWO
  7. CHAPTER THREE
  8. CHAPTER FOUR
  9. CHAPTER FIVE
  10. CHAPTER SIX
  11. CHAPTER SEVEN
  12. CHAPTER EIGHT
  13. CHAPTER NINE
  14. CHAPTER TEN
  15. CHAPTER ELEVEN
  16. CHAPTER TWELVE
  17. CHAPTER THIRTEEN
  18. CHAPTER FOURTEEN
  19. CHAPTER FIFTEEN
  20. CHAPTER SIXTEEN
  21. CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
  22. CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
  23. CHAPTER NINETEEN
  24. CHAPTER TWENTY
  25. CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
  26. CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
  27. CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
  28. CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
  29. CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
  30. CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
  31. CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
  32. CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
  33. CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
  34. CHAPTER THIRTY
  35. CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
  36. CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
  37. CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
  38. CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
  39. CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
  40. CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
  41. CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN
  42. CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
  43. CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE
  44. CHAPTER FORTY
  45. CHAPTER FORTY-ONE
  46. CHAPTER FORTY-TWO
  47. CHAPTER FORTY-THREE
  48. Author’s Note and Acknowledgments
  49. About the Author

There was a movie theater–style popcorn machine on wheels in the corner of the room. The popcorn looked like it had been there for weeks and the glass was smeared with oil.

“No thanks,” Eve said. “Do your service vehicles have GPS that allows you to track where they are and where they’ve been?”

“We aren’t real high-tech around here. Our drivers call in when they arrive at a job and again when they are leaving it. That’s how we know when and where to send them out on their next call.”

“Have you had any complaints about Lionel Coyle?”

“Nope,” Brandy said, getting up and walking back to a printer, which was spitting out pages. “The opposite, actually. People seem to like that he’s friendly, he smells good, speaks English, and you don’t see his hairy butt crack when he squats down or bends over.”

There was a local plumbing company that advertised incessantly on LA radio and TV as “the Smell Good plumber,” so the qualities that mattered to Mr. Plunger’s customers weren’t entirely a surprise to Eve.

“We actually do a bend-over test before we hire anybody. We have a strict no-butt-crack policy.”

“That should be your motto,” Eve said.

“Mr. Plunger, the No-Butt-Crack Plumber,” Brandy said with delight. “I like it.”

She handed the printout to Eve. It was a spreadsheet with nearly a thousand names and addresses, arranged by date. The number of service calls made sense to Eve. If Coyle worked six days a week, and saw three people a day, and he got a week off each year, that would be around nine hundred calls. There were no service calls last Wednesday or Thursday.

“Thanks for your help.” Eve headed for the door.

Brandy called out after her. “Will Lionel be coming in to work on Monday?”

“I doubt it,” she said.

“How long will he be away?”

“I’m guessing twenty-five years to life,” Eve said.

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

Eve went back to the Lost Hills station, read the email from Brandy at Mr. Plunger, and opened up the attached spreadsheet of Coyle’s service calls for the last twelve months.

The list was organized by date. She reorganized it by address and saw that Coyle had visited Tanya’s house twice, both service calls booked through Jared’s home warranty policy insurance carrier. The first call, six months ago, was to fix a leaking pipe under the kitchen sink. The most recent visit was only a week before the murders to fix a leaking toilet. That worried Eve. It meant if any of Coyle’s DNA was found in the kitchen or bathroom, his defense attorney could say it was left during the service calls, not the murders.