The woman’s picture was best. She was turned to her left as if she was speaking with Mendoza or Azzara, so she was facing the camera. Wilson was peering over the steering wheel, which gave a three-quarter view with part of his face blocked by the side view mirror.

Something about their expressions bothered him, but Cole couldn’t decide why. After a few minutes, he put the pictures aside, and called Bree Sloan at the phone company to follow up on the cell numbers. Sometimes they called back right away. Sometimes he had to nag.

She said, “Are you a mind reader? I was just about to call.”

“Good news?”

“No, you’re going to hate it, but I still get the tickets, right?”

“Of course.”

Cole got premium Dodgers tickets from a former client, and shared them with people who helped him. Especially people like Bree, who was a regional manager at a midsized local telecommunications provider. Seats in the exclusive Dodgers Dugout Club worked better than search warrants.

“You at your computer?”

“Staring at it. It isn’t as sexy as you.”

Bree laughed. She had an excellent laugh.

“Man, you’re something.”

“Amazing, aren’t I?”

“Okay, now stop that and listen. These three numbers you gave me—8272, 3563, and 3502?”

Cole glanced at his notes. These were the last four digits on the numbers for Wilson’s shop, Wilson’s cell phone, and Dru’s cell.

“Uh-huh. I’m with you.”

“8272 is a landline with ATT billed to Wilson’s Takeout Foods. I’m going to send you the inbound and outbound records for the past forty-five days, okay? That’s all they have.”

“I understand.”

Phone service providers usually kept call histories for only forty-five days, though they kept billing information longer. Cole had expected this when he examined the bills he found in Smith’s file box.

“Now the bad news. 3563 and 3502 are prepaids out of a small provider based in Phoenix. You owe me big-time for these two—the guy I talked to over there was a monumental jackass.”

“These are the cell numbers?”

“Yeah. The provider is a company called Electrotelepathy. They rent antenna space from the larger companies like we do, but on a way smaller scale. They specialize in prepaid options. Keeps their infrastructure down.”

“Did you get the histories?”

“I’m sending them in the email, but this is the part you aren’t going to like. The numbers were activated only twelve days ago. There isn’t much in the way of history.”

Cole tipped back in the chair. Wilson and Dru used throwaways, which probably meant they changed numbers often. Fake names. Untraceable numbers. How much more perfect could it get?

“Was there a text history?”