“He has no friends.”

“Where does his family live?”

“Serbia.”

“I meant his relatives here.”

“He leave them all in Serbia.”

“Okay. What about your friends? Maybe one of them can help us find Michael.”

“I have no friends. They are all afraid of Michael.”

Cole looked over at Pike again.

“I can’t write fast enough to keep up.”

Rina squinted at him.

“Is the great finder of people making fun of me?”

Pike cleared his throat.

“We need some names. Who does Michael work with? Who works for him? Even if you don’t know them, you must’ve heard the names mentioned, time to time.”

Rina frowned at Yanni as if looking for guidance. Yanni glanced at Pike, afraid to say anything. Pike nodded, giving permission. They had a brief conversation that sounded more like an argument, and then they both started spitting out names. The names were difficult to understand, and even more difficult to spell, but Cole scratched them into his notebook.

When Cole finished with the names, he looked up, and seemed hopeful.

“Has Darko ever been arrested? Here in L.A.?”

“I don’t know. I don’t think so, but I don’t know. He has been here much longer than me.”

Cole glanced over at Pike, arching his eyebrows again.

“Keep your fingers crossed on that one. I’ll check out Darko and these other guys, see if they’re in the system. If Darko’s been arrested, we might get lucky here. The one person you can’t lie to about where you live or what you own is the bail bondsman.”

Pike knew this to be true from his time as an officer. Criminals lie to everyone about everything. They would give phony names, ages, and addresses to the police, the courts, each other, and even their own lawyers, but they could not lie to a bail bondsman. A bondsman would not post a bond without collateral, and if a bondsman could not confirm that the applicant legally owned what he claimed to own, that applicant stayed in jail.

Cole continued the questioning, but she didn’t know very much more. Darko paid for everything in cash, used no credit cards that were not stolen, and made Rina pay all the bills for herself and the baby from her own checking account, which he then reimbursed in cash. Phones changed, addresses changed, locations changed, and cars changed. He was a man who left no trails and lived a hidden life.

Pike said, “How were you planning to find him?”

She shrugged as if there were only one way, and they should have gotten around to it sooner.

“I would watch for the money.”

Cole and Pike traded a glance, then Cole turned back to her.

“How does he make his money?”

“Sex. He has the girls. He has the people who steal the big trucks—”

“Hijackers? Trucks filled with TVs, clothes, things like that?”