“She’s lying,” Vince said. He hadn’t gotten any pleasure out of what he had just done to Gina Kemmer, but he knew his shock tactic had a good chance of being effective. “She needs to know she shouldn’t do that. The policeman is her friend—if she cooperates.”

He climbed into the car on the passenger side, feeling a little light-headed from the drugs he had taken. Mendez slid in behind the wheel.

“Some of those photographs on the table looked older than she claims to have known Marissa Fordham.”

“Absolutely,” Vince said. “The one beach shot had to be from the seventies, and it had the Santa Monica Pier in the background,” he said. “I think coming here from LA is probably the only true statement she made.”

“That and being like a sister to the vic,” Mendez said. “She’s pretty broken up. She’ll have nightmares for years from seeing that Polaroid.”

Vince did feel a twinge of guilt for that. Gina Kemmer was probably a nice enough young woman. She struck him as someone who just wanted to live a comfortable, simple life. She didn’t have the stomach for intrigue and subterfuge, but she was somehow tangled up in this mess just the same.

“Find out everything you can about her life in LA,” he said. “I’m willing to bet Marissa Fordham was there at the same time.”

“So why the big story about being from the East Coast?”

“I don’t know. She probably liked the mystique. Coming to a new community, she could start fresh and be whoever she wanted to be. It’s a hell of a lot more interesting to say you come from money in Rhode Island than to say you grew up in Oxnard.”

“True,” Mendez said. “And if she and Gina have been friends for a long time and moved up here together, Gina for sure knows who Haley’s father is.”

“And if Daddy killed Mommy, Milo Bordain is willing to pay her twenty-five thou for that information,” Vince said. “And if Daddy killed Mommy, and Gina is the only person who knows who Daddy is ...”

“And Daddy knows Gina could make twenty-five grand to give him up ... ,” Mendez continued the thought. “I’ll tell the patrol sergeant to send a prowl car past here every half hour.”

“She’s our bait for a predator,” Vince said. It sounded callous, but would be a much safer situation for Gina Kemmer than if they simply left her to her own devices. “Ask Cal to put an unmarked car on the street. We should keep her in sight.”

“We’re stretched pretty thin for detectives.”

“Then a couple of lucky uniforms get to move up to plainclothes for a while.”

“Do we tell Gina we’re watching? Give her a little peace of mind?”