Pike studied Reuben Mendoza’s picture last, then dropped it into the box. A plan to flush Mendoza out of the weeds was forming, and the picture would help.

Pike said, “Hold still.”

Hector’s eyes bulged when Pike drew his knife. Pike clipped the ties, cutting him free.

“Get out.”

“What get out? This is my car.”

“Out.”

“Bro, what, you takin’ my car?”

“I won’t tell you again.”

Hector shoved open the door, and got out in a sullen funk. He slammed the door as Pike slid behind the wheel.

“This ain’t right, stealin’ my car. You takin’ my wallet, too? You takin’ my phone?”

Pike drove back to his Jeep. He left Hector’s wallet in the Monte Carlo, but added his phone to Mendoza’s box. Pike didn’t take time to examine these things because he wanted to keep pressing.

Pike drove directly to Lily Palmer’s house, parked in Wilson’s carport, and rang the bell. She answered the second ring.

“I knew you’d be back. Did you find Wilson and Dru?”

“Not yet. Is Jared here?”

She sighed.

“Jared’s always here.”

She called into the house, and Jared’s flip-flops announced his approach. He was freshly slathered with sunblock and carried a bottle of beer. He frowned when he saw Pike and tugged the iPod buds from his ears.

“Dude, you got it all. I don’t know anything else.”

“The man with the cast—”

Pike showed him the picture of Reuben Mendoza.

“Was this him?”

Jared glanced at the picture, then brightened with a surprised smile that made him look proud of himself.

“Dude! That’s him! The Cast Man!”

“You’re sure?”

“Fuckin’ A.”

Jared beamed, and continued to vomit up memories.

“Dude had khaki baggies and a gray plaid shirt, but it was open. Shirt was huge, dude, like fifty sizes too big, and a white T-shirt underneath. And he was bald.”

Pike had seen witnesses have similar explosions of memories when he was an officer. If a witness was given a visual trigger, a memory that had been vague would often snap into focus. Psychologists called these memory cues, and the resulting cascade of recollections were memory chains.

“You remember anything about the second man?”

Jared thought for a moment, but his lips peeled from his teeth in frustrated effort.

“Not really getting him. He was in front, kinda already through the gate. The Cast Man was behind him. I remember black hair. And shades. He might’ve been wearing shades.”

Jared finally ran out of gas.

“Sorry, bro. That’s all I got.”

Pike could now tie Mendoza to the scene with a picture ID. The second man was almost certainly Gomer, but Mendoza would be enough.