"The local police. Ramparts Division. They can't find any record of notification. The system, huh? "

"Would Swig be notified?"

"Maybe. If so, it's something else he held back on. Not that he's any use to us at this point. Pelley wouldn't be likely to run back to Starkweather."

"So what's next?" I said. "A statewide alert?"

"Nah," he said. "That's for TV Officially, Pelley hasn't done anything bad yet, so no way does State Parole or anyone else want to get the press on it, panic the public. If Ramparts does get notified, all it means is Pelley's face and stats go up on a bulletin board in the station, maybe if the desk's feeling real cooperative they issue photo memos for the squad car dashboards. Meaning if Pelley acts up publicly and a uniform gets there in time, he's busted. But if he doesn't cause problems, he can probably fade into the woodwork."

"Out on the streets three weeks before Claire joins the staff at Starkweather," I said. "You could be right. She met Pelley and he became her outpatient project."

"Hey," he said, "she told that psychiatrist she was ripe for it. 'So many madmen, so little time.' "

"And maybe Pelley and Peake maintained some sort of communication. Maybe Peake talked to him because they had some kind of rapport. They had one important thing in common: they both murdered families."

"As good a basis for friendship as I've ever heard." He cursed.

"Heidi never mentioned Policy's release. But she came on staff after Claire, might not have heard about it."

"I want to talk to Heidi again, anyway," he said. "So far she's the only one in that place showing any desire to help. She's due on shift at three. I'm gonna be out on the road all day, trying to trace Pelley, so I left a message with your number as backup. Okay?"

"Okay. I can also try that head psychiatrist at Starkweather- Aldrich-see what he knows about Pelley."

"No, not yet-I need to be discreet. If it turns out Pelley's our bad guy, whoever okayed his release is gonna be up the creek. No reason to warn them, give them time to get their defenses up. Give Swig a chance to get on the horn with Uncle Senator and unleash a paper barrier."

He sounded angry but exhilarated.

"You have a good feeling about this," I said.

"Don't know about that, but I will tell you one thing: this is a helluva lot more to my liking than movies and all that hocus-pocus about Peake's gibberish. This is the world as I know it: bad guy gets out on the street, bad things happen... . Guess my faith in crappy endings has been validated once again."

I heated up some of the leftover soup and chewed on a hard roll as I thought about Milo's enthusiasm for Wendell Pelley.