Peter Farley was a systems analyst for a tech company in Orange County, an avid mountain biker who tackled the trails into Asteroid Canyon on the weekends. Asteroid was a canyon running through a relatively remote section of the Cleveland National Forest.

Farley had parked his vehicle in the wildcat parking lot at the entrance to the canyon. When he did not return to work after the weekend, a search ensued. His bike was found at the base of a short but steep hiking trail leading to a waterfall. Farley was found near the pool at the waterfall’s base, partially eaten and dragged into a hollow under the oak trees, buried under leaves and underbrush, his bloodstained wallet still in the pocket of his shorts.

The wounds appeared to come from a mountain lion. Hunters searched for the lion, but never found any sign of one. Not surprising, since a rainstorm had come through between Farley’s disappearance and the day he was found.

And then the kicker.

“In a cruel twist of fate, Mr. Farley was attacked previously at his home in Los Angeles by a pack of javelinas while walking his small dog.”

He’d saved the dog but was seriously injured in the attack when one of the javelinas bit into his femoral artery.

Tess thought of that day at Credo. Steve Barkman leaning into her space, too close. An obnoxious character with a creepy smile.

Still.

What Steve Barkman lacked in appropriate behavior, he made up for in brain cells. He had figured out what happened to Peter Farley. And he had linked it to George Hanley’s killer.

CHAPTER 25

Walking back to the car from the police department, Michael was silent. They each dealt with Chad’s death in their own way. Jaimie looked mad at the world. Her silence was icy. Brayden’s tearstained face was crumpled up and every once in a while she hiccuped.

Michael was the man of the family. The leader. But he didn’t know what to do. He thought about the enemies he’d made. The cops were sniffing around. He wasn’t worried about that—he was too smart for them. But maybe he’d crossed the line with someone. Could they have gone after Chad for revenge, since Michael himself was too strong? He went over every expedition they’d made, every kill.

His only mistake was Alec Sheppard.

Later, Michael lay on the bed in his room at the resort, staring at the ceiling fan. The women were in the kitchen—he could hear them talking in low voices, occasional sobs from Brayden.

He was stunned. He felt as if he’d gone into shock. His extremities were cold. He rarely experienced fear, but he felt it now, deep in his chest. A tingling feeling. He was a clear thinker, a logical thinker, and so he identified the tingling in his chest and the cold in his extremities and the way his legs shook as a sixth sense for danger from outside.

Something evil.

Stalking them.

Chad was the baby of the family. Chad was the kid. A sweet, shy boy who never really grew up, whose whole life revolved around his quiver of surfboards and the water in Laguna Beach. There was no reason for anyone to kill him. Maybe it was random, but the detective didn’t leave that impression. He’d said Chad was strangled, but Michael could read between the lines. He could often tell when a person wasn’t telling the whole truth. He guessed there was more to the “strangling” than the detective had let on.

He’d also said: Did Chad have any enemies?

Maybe Chaddy did. But it was doubtful. Michael knew that he himself had an enemy—Alec Sheppard. Those two women cops were no real threat. He wasn’t worried about them. But Sheppard came all the way from Houston. He’d hired Barkman to spy on him.

Barkman’s house would be locked up tight behind the crime scene tape, but maybe…

His chest tightened again. The beginning of a heart attack? No, that was stupid. Panic attack, maybe. His heart was great. He was an athlete. He needed to go home, get away, go for a bike ride. Clear out the cobwebs. Try to get rid of the sight of Chad lying on the slab with a sheet over his head.

He needed Martin.

The next morning Tess showed Danny what she had. She gave him her theory about Michael DeKoven.

It sounded ridiculous even when she laid it out for him.

Danny was distracted. His wife was finally going into the hospital the next day so they could induce labor. But the bottom line was he thought it wasn’t going to fly with Bonny.

“But I’m going on leave, so don’t ask me.”

Tess knew Bonny well. He’d brought her with him from Bajada County because he trusted her. He relied on her. Some of it was due to the fact that in Albuquerque she had been in homicide for four years and had dealt with some of the ugliest crimes imaginable. Some of it was due to her superautobiographical memory, which Bonny considered a big edge. Their secret weapon. But most of all, he liked her. He liked her and he trusted her judgment.

Tess realized she’d have to lay it out for Bonny in the right way. The first thing she had to do was print up the information on Hanley’s trip to the OC. If she could make that link to Bonny…

Tess printed up what she needed and went down the hallway to the undersheriff’s office. She nodded to Luke Grayson, one of the deputies, who was just going in.

Bonny looked up and saw Tess. “I have to talk to Luke,” he said. “Can you wait a minute?”

Tess nodded. She leaned against the wall in the hallway. Aware that her heart was beating hard.

Electricity seemed to branch out through her veins.

I’m right about this.

Still, it would be a hard sell.

She had what she had.

She hoped it would be enough.

CHAPTER 26

Bonny looked down at the pages Tess had printed up and back up at her. He looked skeptical. “You’re saying you think Hanley was going out to LA as part of his, uh, ‘investigation?’”

“Orange County. He did go out there. He and Barkman were on the same trail.”

He clasped his hands over his stomach. “It sounds far-fetched to me.”

Tess said, “Look at his itinerary. He planned to fly into John Wayne Airport. He had a reservation at the Starbrite Motel in Sylvan.”

The old mining town was at the edge of the Santa Anas, not five miles from the entrance to Asteroid Canyon.

Peter Farley lived there and commuted to his job in Irvine.

Bonny sighed. “You honestly think you can find a link to Michael DeKoven? He’s got a lot of money, and his family has never been afraid of lawsuits.”

“I think George Hanley thought DeKoven was after him.”

Bonny sighed. “If he was, he got him.” He swiveled on his chair. He’d brought the office chair from the Bajada County Sheriff’s Office, beat up as it was. He said his butt was used to it. The chair squeaked when he swiveled, and Tess liked the sound of the squeaking—which usually meant Bonny was thinking—and she liked the smell of tobacco on him, even though she didn’t smoke.

There was a bond between them. She’d asked him to let her do ridiculous, sometimes impossible, things.

“All right. You go. I’ll put in for one day.”

Tess had been ready for this. “Overnight? That will give me two full days if I get there on an early flight.”

“I don’t know. I’m going to get flak just for the plane fare. We’re going to be shorthanded as it is.”

“I can pay for the motel.”

“That’s not the point.”

Tess said, “What if I find what I’m looking for and don’t have time to pursue it? I’d have to fly back.”

Bonny swiveled. Finally he said, “Okay. I’ll see if we can pay for the overnight. But if it doesn’t look like it’s gonna pan out, you come back pronto.”