Alex noticed that Moore kept his arms folded, so he didn’t extend his own hand.

“I understand the suspects have taken themselves out of commission,” Moore said. “And that this is all basically wrapped up. Until we were brought in and could provide you with that New Mexico connection, you seem to have always been more than a few steps behind them-so they’ve probably saved us all an inordinate amount of trouble and expense.”

Alex said, “We’re still not sure-”

“Good point, Alex,” Nelson interrupted. “We’re still not sure how much of your fugitives list is dead, but if they’ve left them in our jurisdiction, I guess that will be our work, not yours.”

Moore’s face settled back into a frown.

“So,” Nelson said, standing and extending his hand in a clear signal that the meeting was over, “we want to thank the FBI for their cooperation and help, and we’ll make sure any reports are sent to your attention. Please give our best regards to Agent Hamilton. We enjoyed working with him.”

Moore turned a pink color. Whether it was due to the fact that he was getting the bum’s rush or the captain’s slight emphasis on the word him, Alex didn’t know.

“Hold on!” he said. “If anyone else on that fugitives list shows up murdered-”

“Detective Brandon will notify you immediately. Stay a moment, please, Alex. Dan, on the way out, will you please make sure Agent Moore is given copies of the lab’s reports from Catalina and Lakewood? I don’t think we had enough time to get those to Agent Hamilton.”

Moore gave in at that point and left with the lieutenant.

Nelson invited Alex to take a seat, then said, “We were informed this morning that Agent Hamilton has taken a leave of absence-for reasons unspecified. Back to our usual cordial relations with the FBI-they aren’t telling us anything. But judging from the amount of bluster I got off of Moore this morning, something about Hamilton’s leave obviously makes them extremely uncomfortable. How well did you get to know him?”

“Not all that well. He’s from here originally, went to USC, and probably has money that isn’t coming from his FBI paycheck.”

“On the take?”

“I doubt it. He was too open about it-wore expensive clothing, drove a Jag.” He paused, then added, “He spent more time with Ciara. They got along well. If he confided anything to anyone in the department, it was to her.”

“Where is Ciara this morning?”

Alex hesitated. Even though Ciara had agreed that the captain should be told about Laney, he felt that it was her place, not his, to do so. Thinking of her fear of being pitied, though, he decided that perhaps it would be easier on both Ciara and the captain if he did the telling. And much better to face the awkwardness of talking about Ciara’s difficulties, than to have Nelson think she was shirking her duties or having problems with Alex. So he told the captain about Ciara’s sister and Ciara’s dedication to her.

Nelson considered this in silence for a time, then said, “I wish I had known this a year or two ago. I should have suspected there was some stress on her from outside the job. But other than the problems she had in getting along with her partners, she’s been one of the best we’ve had. Her clearance rate is above average. I had no idea that she was also coping with these personal pressures all this time.”

“For the most part, I don’t think she sees it as pressure. I think it demands a lot of her energy, but I don’t think she sees her care of Laney as a burden. There are just going to be times, like this morning, when she might need the department to cut her a little slack. She was reluctant to have me mention it even then.”

“I’ll talk to her more about it when she comes in. Are you going to be able to handle winding this up if she ends up needing a few days off?”

“I’m not so sure it is winding up.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“I’m not sure all the participants ended up dead on Mulholland Highway last night. I think we need to do a lot more work before we know with any certainty that those two were the only ones involved. And I hope the department will be careful not to book a band for the victory dance just yet.”

“Temper our remarks to the public, you mean?” Nelson said. “Sheriff Dwyer is anxious to issue a statement, you know.”

“What will it cost us to be cautious?”

“Public confidence.”

“Think we’ll recover that confidence if he announces this is all over and it’s not?”

“True…”

“Think of it this way. If any of the remaining fugitives are still alive, they must feel they are in danger, and may surrender, believing themselves safer with us than in the hands of the so-called Exterminators.”

“That reporter has a lot to answer for, doesn’t she?”

Alex shrugged. “If Ontora hadn’t made them out to be heroes, someone else would have.”

“Hmm. I suppose so. I’ll talk to the sheriff. What do you have in mind for the task force now?”

“We need to find out more about the two men in the Maserati-Whitfield and Addison. We need the lab to take a careful look at that suicide scene, because not everything adds up. I’m not ready to definitely say it was suicide. Even if it is what it appears to be, how are the two of them connected to each other? Where did they meet, how did they plan this? Can we link them to the crime scenes? Who paid to have that special cell built in Del Aire? What was Whitfield doing in New Mexico?”

“Okay-”

“That’s not all. We need to know what made Hamilton stop having fun after we found Frederick Whitfield IV’s wallet-”

“You’re right,” Nelson said. “He got kind of quiet after that, didn’t he?”

“Yes. Never showed up at the suicide scene, either. I want to figure out who our benefactor is, too. If we hadn’t received that wallet yesterday, in all likelihood, we wouldn’t have connected Whitfield with these cases. So who helped us out, and why?”

“All right,” Nelson said. “The full task force is still active, then-but keep me informed all along the way.” He paused, then said, “I have a friend at USC. Maybe I’ll give him a call, see if he can tell me anything about Hamilton.”

“Thanks. Anything would be helpful, but especially anything that connects him to Whitfield. I’ve wondered all along how they learned certain things about investigations-just in terms of not leaving evidence, for starters. But also how they narrowed down the locations of the fugitives. They could have done some of that narrowing by working with what Whitfield learned from the Crimesolvers show, but shows like that get hundreds of tips, so I can’t help thinking that someone with investigative experience looked at the possibilities and showed them which tips were most likely to pan out.”

Hogan returned then, looking more excited than Alex thought he would after spending time with Moore. “Frederick Whitfield IV’s attorney just called-a Mr. Blaine. Wanted to make sure the news reports were true, because Whitfield insisted on making out a new will yesterday.”

Nelson looked at Alex. “A twenty-five-year-old thinking he might die? Sounds like he was planning to end his own life after all, Alex.”

“Or knew that someone else might end it. Maybe he had a near-miss with one of the fugitives. Maybe he thought we might catch him. We’ve had information leaks on these cases-to the Times and others. If he learned that we were looking for someone using Eric Grady’s ID, maybe he was worried that his days were numbered.” He turned to Hogan. “Did this lawyer give you any other details?”

“Yes,” Hogan said. “Whitfield was filthy rich-inherited a bundle from his grandmother. Remember the parents in Italy? Guess they are really steamed. The will leaves it all to a woman in Albuquerque, New Mexico.” He looked at his notes. “Vanessa…P-r-z-b-y-s-l-a-w. No relation to Whitfield. He told the lawyer that she was his…I think the word the lawyer said was something like ‘boyakina.’ He said he didn’t know what it meant, but he thought it might be some new slang term for ‘girlfriend.’ He contacted her early this morning, and said she was pretty upset. You want her number?”