ex-wife?" I said.

[sterlla]

He turned right on Wilshire, cruised past the Third Street Promenade, glanced at shoppers strolling, panhandlers trolling. "What about his ex-wife?" I said. "If anyone's gonna debeatify him, who new balance 577 better?" He smiled. "You want to knock him off his pedestal." "Maybe I do," I said. "I guess something about him bugs me—too good to be true." "Tsk, tsk, such cynicism." "Comes from spending too much time with you." "About time you learned," he said. Lauren's Nike air force murder rated three back-page Metro paragraphs in the next morning's Times. The story listed her as a student. I'd woken up thinking Benjamin Dugger. And Shawna Yeager. The fact that Dugger's intimacy ad had run during the weeks before both women's disappearances— Milo was right about there being no logical connection, but rationality was his province; I new balance 996 was free to be foolish. I turned it over for air force 1 shoes a new balance 999 while, decided to look for Adam Green, the student journalist who'd covered Shawna's story. Back to the phone book, air force 1 kids the new balance shoes four Green, Adams. In 310; Lord knewhow many others existed in the panoply of area codes that blanketed L.A. I began calling, got two wrong numbers, a disconnected line, then a phone message that sounded promising: "This is Adam Green. I may be out seeking inspiration or slaving away at my word processor or just pursuing pleasure. Either way, if you don't think life sucks, leave a message." Nasal baritone. Boy to man. I said, "Mr. Green, this is Alex Delaware. I'm a psychologist working with the L.A. Police Department and would like to louis vuitton t-shirt talk to you about Shawna Yeag—" "This is Adam. Shawna? You've got to be kidding." "No, I'm not." "They're reopening Shawna? Unreal. Did something happen—did they finally find her?" "No," I said. "Nothing that dramatic. Her name came up during another investigation."