It took Abel a shorter time to deal with the horse than it did for Decker to deal with Rina. Twenty minutes later, Abel saw Decker and Rina come out of the house. He was carrying two six-packs of beer, she was carrying the car keys. She had pinned her hair under a kerchief, but her face was still as radiant as ever. She stopped in front of Abel and gave him a feigned sour look. It was all he could do to keep from laughing.

“I’m coming for two reasons,” Rina said.

“What’s that, ma’am?” Abel said.

“One is Peter intends to consume beer, and I don’t want him drinking and driving at the same time.”

“Fair enough,” Abel said. “And what’s reason number two, ma’am?”

“Peter just taught me CPR,” Rina said. “That means I’m still a novice, so don’t test out my skill, please?”

“No, ma’am,” Abel said. Meanwhile, all he could think about was her lips plastered to his, her breath filling his lungs. The image made him hard.

22

Opening the envelope, Decker frowned. Last Friday he’d requested all of Linda Darcy’s credit-card receipts. Visa had been the first to respond, sending him photocopies taken off of microfilm. The print was small and smeared, and Decker knew it would take him the entire morning to sift through the list. He opened his desk drawer and pulled out a magnifying glass, unsure what he was looking for. But he trusted his intuition. If there was something of note, he’d note it.

After three hours of hunching and squinting, Decker stretched and poured himself a cup of coffee, wishing it were Friday instead of Tuesday. But at least something interesting had turned up.

Linda Darcy had paid for a room at the Sleepy-Bi Motel on Foothill Boulevard six times during the last year—the same motel she and Byron had gone to once upon a time. And a corollary pattern had become apparent. She had also purchased gas from the same service station—a Shell—on the same day she had paid for the motel room.

She’d paid for the room.

Let’s hear it for women’s lib.

Decker sipped his coffee, then dialed the Sleepy-Bi Motel. A desk clerk with a nasal voice answered. Decker introduced himself and his mission, described Linda, and gave Mr. Nose Voice the dates of the trysts. The desk clerk reported back that a Mr. and Mrs. Smith had checked in all the given days, in room 211.

Big surprise. Decker kept up the questioning.

“Do you remember what this Mr. and Mrs. Smith look like?”

“The missus sounds like the woman you described. Sexy little thing.”

“And the man?”

The nasal clerk punted the question, saying that in his line of business he tried to forget faces rather than remember them.