The second page back was a full-color medium-range shot of a thin, rangy black man whose skin had begun to fade to postmortem gray. His long body lay on brown dirt, and one arm curled toward his face, protectively. Gaping mouth, half-open, lifeless eyes, splayed limbs.

No blood. No visible wounds.

Drug OD, possible 187 hotshot.

The next page faced Janie’s. I’d avoided it because it was one of the most repellent images in the book.

The camera had focused on a heap of mangled flesh, beyond recognition as human.

Hairless legs and a battered, concave pelvic section suggested a woman. The caption precluded the need for deduction.

Female Mental Case, fell or thrown in front of double tractor trailer.

I flipped back to the skinny black man.

Returned to the beginning of the murder book and double-checked.

Then I went to get Milo.

He was in the living room, studying his gas bill, a shot glass of something amber in his paw. “Finished?”

I said, “Come look at this.”

He tossed back the rest of his drink, held on to the glass, and followed me.

I showed him the pictures preceding Janie. He said, “What’s your point?”

“Two points,” I said. “First of all, content: Right before Janie are a black drug-using male and a white woman with mental problems. Sound familiar? Second, context: These two deviate stylistically from every other photo in the book. Forty-one photos, including Janie’s, list the location and the police division where the murder took place. These are the only two that don’t. If Schwinn lifted the photos from police files, he had access to the data. Yet he left the locales out. Are you willing to consider a bit of psychological interpretation?”

“Schwinn being symbolic?” he said. “These two represent Willie Burns and Caroline Cossack?”

“They’re missing information because they represent the missing Willie Burns and the missing Caroline Cossack. Schwinn designated no locations because Burns’s and Cossack’s whereabouts remain unknown. Then he followed up with Janie’s picture and wrote NS for No Solve. Right after Janie, he placed three drive-bys, grouped together. I don’t think that’s a coincidence, either. He knew how you’d see them: business as usual, just like you said. He’s outlining a process here: A missing black man and mentally ill white woman are connected to Janie, whose murder is never solved. On the contrary: She’s abandoned, and then it’s business as usual. He’s describing the cover-up.”

He pulled at his lower lip. “Games . . . pretty subtle.”