By the time she’d dug down and cut an additional five inches, she’d uncovered something with a metal lip that extended over a shallow curve of glass. She looked up. “It’s a headlight. Isn’t it?”

Schaefer rested his hands on his knees and leaned closer. “I believe you’re right.”

Tannie scraped away another narrow trough of dirt, revealing what looked to be the rusted metal curve of a front right fender.

Rice said, “One of us better call the station and get some help out here.”

By 3:00 there were eight officers at the site: an ID detective and a young deputy from the Santa Maria Sheriff’s Department; a sergeant, two homicide detectives, and two nonsworn officers from Santa Teresa. In addition, an investigator had driven up from the State Crime Lab, which is located in Colgate, near the Santa Teresa Airport. A temporary parking area had been set up for official vehicles, including the crime scene van.

The first officer on the scene, the young Santa Maria deputy, had secured the area, relegating Schaefer, Ken Rice, Tannie, and me to a spot twenty-five yards away. Anyone in a secured crime scene is considered the same as a primary witness and might be asked to testify in court, which was why we were kept at such a distance. In addition, if this turned into a homicide investigation, there was always the risk that unauthorized persons might contaminate the site.

The lead investigator, Detective Nichols, came over and introduced himself, then briefed us on strategy for the excavation. He was a good-looking man in his forties, wearing a dress shirt and tie with a wind-breaker, but no sport coat. He was slim, his light brown hair trimmed short. He glanced in my direction. “You’re Miss Millhone?”

“ That’s right.”

“Could I speak to you?”

“Of course.”

We moved some distance away so we could talk in private.

“I understand Daisy Sullivan hired you to find her mother, You want to tell me how you came up with this?” he asked, indicating the site.

I backtracked, filling him in on my conversation with Winston and the tidbit he’d given me about spotting the car. I told him I’d been bothered by the fact that after that last sighting, the car was never seen again. “I was touring the house and when I looked down from one of the second-floor windows, I spotted the depression in the ground. At first I thought I was looking at an old planting bed, but then the car popped into my head. I called Sergeant Schaefer and he drove out with Ken Rice.”

“You had no information in advance?”

“None. In fact, I had only the dimmest recollection of Violet Sullivan’s disappearance. I’d read the occasional newspaper account, but I hadn’t paid much attention until Daisy contacted me this past Monday. Tannie was the one who introduced us, which is how I ended up here.”