The last part wasn’t intended as a dig, but it hung in the air as if it were one. Fielding turned down the corners of his mouth and looked at me over the tops of heavy-rimmed bifocals. “This isn’t my first serial case. I’m good to go.”

He took a self-important deep breath. “Now, as to your question, I’m prepared to believe this is Mary Smith’s work and not some copycat. I have to wonder if she didn’t want Arnold Griner dead from day one. I believe she did. The questions, of course, would be why and how this motive is related to the previous incidents.”

Everything he said made some sense, especially that Griner might have been a target from the start. I turned to Page. “How about you?”

I was beginning to wonder what he thought, which he may or may not have recognized as a mark of my growing confidence in him.

“Griner and Washington just moved in,” Page said, flipping through a small notebook. “Three days ago, in fact. I know Griner changed all his info and kept everything unlisted, so Mary would have had to go to at least a little trouble to keep up with him. That’s consistent with the stalking aspect, right? And even though Griner doesn’t fit the victim profile, he’s been part of Mary Smith’s landscape all along. She started with him, and now, I don’t know, maybe she’s ending with him. Maybe this represents some kind of closure for her. Maybe her story is over.”

“Doubtful,” Fielding said, without even looking at Page. “Too much anger expressed here. Too much rage in Griner’s murder. Have you seen The Grudge? Not important. Forget I said it.”

“What about the blue Suburban?” I asked. “Any progress there?” As of that afternoon, LAPD hadn’t turned up anything promising, which was a little surprising given the urgency.

Fielding pulled out a handkerchief, took off his glasses, and began to polish them before he spoke. “Nothing yet,” he finally said. “But as long as you brought it up, let me make one thing clear. I’m not Detective Galletta. I’m her boss, and I’m not going to be checking in with you at every turn. If the Bureau wants to take full jurisdiction on this case, they could argue for it. After the way things have gone around here, I’d almost welcome it. But until then, you just do your job and try not to screw up my investigation any more than you did Detective Galletta’s. I hope we’re clear.”

It was bald cop-to-cop loyalty. Without asking a single question, he decided I had wasted the case for Jeanne. I’d seen this kind of thing before, even understood it a little. But I couldn’t keep quiet now.