Decker looked at his wrinkled suit. “If this was linen instead of wool, you’d think me very stylish.”

“It isn’t linen, Pete.” She stared at his clothing. “I don’t think it’s even wool.”

“It’s a wool blend. Say you’re sorry.”

“Ex-cuse me.” Marge dragged over a chair and sat opposite him. “Don’t you find the entire thing ironic?”

Confused, Decker waited for the right answer.

“The survivalist getting eaten,” Marge explained. “How did that happen?”

Decker shrugged. “Beats me.”

“Like…was it an exceptionally big mountain lion?”

“I don’t know, Marge. I didn’t get that close.”

“Because mountain lions don’t take down full-grown men. They’re usually content with dogs and children. If the guy was any kind of survivalist, he wouldn’t have tripped up over a cougar.”

“Maybe Holt stank of fear. Animals can smell it, you know. And even with Holt being a stone psycho, anyone would be a tad edgy with half of the LAPD looking for him. Or maybe the cat was really hungry. Or Holt stumbled on to a nursing female who was protecting her cubs.”

Marge was unconvinced. “You’re rationalizing. He should have known better.”

“Then perhaps Holt wasn’t the survivalist that Erin made him out to be. He lied about everything else. Why not that?”

Marge rubbed her forehead. “But was he the computer genius that Erin made him out to be?”

“Since I’m not a computer maven, I don’t know,” Decker answered.

Marge reached over his desk and drank up his lukewarm coffee. “It’s going to take the experts to break into all of Dee Baldwin’s files. Her system has a ton of firewalls.”

“What about Merv Baldwin’s files?”

“We haven’t gone through all his, either. But hers are the ones having to do with the purloined tests.”

“So from what you and Scott were able to tap into, are we on the right track?”

She frowned. “What’s our track again?”

“Dee Baldwin acquiring advance copies of the achievement tests?”

“Yeah. Right. This is all we have so far. She was paying Holt money for something. I don’t think it was because of his good looks or charm. Her computer has links to some systems, but we don’t know what they are. She also has lots of test files that we opened with very little difficulty. Dr. Estes said the tests in storage were just old achievement tests used for study purposes, not any different from the SAT or SAT II or MCAT test books available for purchase.”

“We should go over the tests and find out when they were entered into the Baldwin computer. Then we’ll try to find out when that particular test was given out to the students at large. If the computer date was earlier than the test date—or even the same day—it would tell us that Dee had insider’s information.”