“Banks was a student at North Valley High when Ben Little taught there.”

“Aha. Any contact between the two?”

“Still to be determined. I’m interested because the two murders have similar MOs. Both victims were stuffed in the trunk of their own Mercedes.”

Cindy said, “I don’t think that L.A. is overrun with cases involving dead bodies in trunks, but it’s not unheard of.”

“In almost all cases where the crime scene differs from the body drop, the body is transported in a motor vehicle to the dump spot. And most of the time, the felon will use the trunk to transport the body. But to find a car with the body still inside—and an intact body at that, one that hasn’t been dismembered or burnt or disfigured for ID purposes—that’s a little different.”

“What about the teens they have in custody? Are you totally comfortable with eliminating Perry and Martel as suspects?”

“Not at all. Their fingerprints were lifted from Ekerling’s car. If they were the only ones behind Ekerling’s murder, Little and Ekerling aren’t going to be related. But let’s assume for the sake of argument that their story was true.”

“Okay, let’s assume that Perry and Martel went to Jonas Park, looking for drugs, and happened upon the Mercedes with the keys in the ignition and a body in the trunk.”

Decker smiled. Stated succinctly, the tale sounded far-fetched. “If you murdered someone and stuffed the body in the trunk of his or her own car, you’d want to get the car away from the crime scene and in a place where a parked car might not stand out so brazenly. The parking lot of a public park sounds like a good idea. It’s usually an isolated area at night and no one’s around to watch your movements.”

“Yes, but then there’s a flip side. How does the murderer get away? Not a lot of public transportation.”

“There had to be more than one person—or the murderer called up someone to ask for a lift. Now we know that Perry and Martel dumped the car and called up buddies for a ride back to the ’hood. But they called in from a restaurant on the Strip, not from a tower near the park area.”

Cindy nodded.

Decker groused. “So if we’re assuming that Perry and Martel really did find the Mercedes at the park, then Ekerling’s killer may have left in a second vehicle. If Rip Garrett and Tito Diaz had bothered to check out the story, maybe they might have found not only tire tracks from Ekerling’s Mercedes but also another set of tire prints from the getaway car. As it stands now, what has it been…three weeks ago? The original scene has been violated if not obliterated.”