"He didn't tell them."

Pardy frowned at Diaz.

"I'm telling you, this sounds like bullshit. Golden probably tells all these whores to say that to beat the sex bust."

Diaz continued to stare at me with the cloudy eyes, then frowned at Pardy like he was spastic.

"You saw the crosses he had all over himself? It's not a stretch to imagine he's some kind of religious freak, is it?"

Pardy grunted, but still looked unconvinced.

"When we're done here, have Cole go over everything each girl told him. When you talk to them, see if you get the same answers. Maybe you'll catch one of them in a lie. Right now, you should put out a BOLO on the car. That's a good description. Some traffic cop might pick it up while we're here dicking around."

Pardy left to file the BOLO, and Diaz watched him go.

"You gotta tell him every goddamned thing, one slow-motion step at a time. And they say Mexicans work slow."

"That what they say about you, Diaz?"

Diaz laughed, then took the medical examiner's reports from me and flipped through the pages.

"You don't have to read all this, Cole. Here's what you need-"

The pages she handed back were the faxed correspondence from the Penzler Surgical Orthopaedics Company of East Lansing, Michigan, to Beckett.

Dear Mr. Beckett, Per our conversation regarding #s HSO-5227/HSO-5228.

Units are matched (bilateral reversed) femoral support appliances manufct on 16 Oct 46 by this company. (See attch descript.) Our records indicate the following assignments:

Units assgnd: Andrew Watts Children's Hospital 1800 Mission Boulevard San Diego , California Surg assgnmt: Dr. Randy Sherman Andrew Watts Children's Hospital 1 800 Mission Boulevard San Diego , California Pat assgnmt: George Llewelyn Reinnike 15612 L Street, NW

Anson , California Pat cond: Legg-Calve-Perthes minor m, func. +, adv. surg . 6/20/47/AWCH/Sher (see attch)

This is the extent of company records. Please do not hesitate to call if I can be of further assistance.

Sincerely, Edith Stone, M. D.

V. P. Sales I copied Reinnike's address, as well as the names of the doctor and hospital. A second page gave a brief explanation of Legg-Calve-Perthes Disease that read like a company brochure. LCP was a degenerative ball-joint disease that caused the femur to weaken in young children. Appliances were screwed into the femur to support the bone and maintain the integrity of the joint.