“No new thoughts. Definitely no new insights. You taking time out to talk to me would be a total waste because I don’t have anything to tell you.”

“Sometimes just by talking, new things pop up.”

“We’re talking now. Nothing new is popping up.”

Decker gritted his teeth. “Still, if you can give me an hour, I’d appreciate it.”

“Why?” Vitton’s voice had tightened even further. “I already told you, I got nothing to say.”

“Okay, then let me spell it out for you. I was ordered to reopen the case. That means I have to talk to everyone involved. If there’s a definite reason why you don’t want to talk to me, I’d like to hear it.”

Silent Cal was silent. Decker waited him out.

“I just don’t have anything new to say to you. Arnie and I never found a good suspect, and we went through them all.”

“Who did you interview?”

“Just read the goddamn file.”

Again, Decker felt his jaw clench. “I have the file in front of me. I was wondering if there were people who didn’t make it into the file.”

“Everyone I interviewed should be in the file.”

“Who came closest as a suspect?”

“No one. The man didn’t have any enemies!”

“He must have had one.”

“No, he didn’t. He had bad luck.”

“You think it was a random carjacking?”

“He drove a Mercedes. A car like that would be a good score to a couple of punk boosters.”

“But they didn’t steal the car.”

“Maybe Ben came out and surprised them…that has always been my theory…that the punks panicked, threw him into the trunk, and drove to Clearwater Park. Once there, they whacked him.”

Decker gave Cal’s ideas brief consideration. Immediately the question arose: How did the punks escape from the park? It could be the punks just walked away. The file had recorded lots of shoe prints on the grass by the car lot, but none of them led anywhere, and fifteen years later, that was probably a dead end.

“That’s one explanation,” Decker told Vitton. “I’d like to talk to you in person and consider other theories.”

Another round of silence.

Decker said, “Look, Cal, if I didn’t have to talk to you, I wouldn’t bother. But I need to do this. So help me out and make it as painless as possible. The quicker we do this, the quicker I’m out of your hair.”

“I used that line many times when I was at LAPD, and I know that it’s a truckload of shit. This is only the beginning.”

“What time can you meet me tomorrow?”

“Come at nine in the morning.”

“I’ll be there. This is the address I have for you.” Decker read off the numbers. “Is it current?”

“Yeah, it’s current.”

“So I’ll see you at nine.”