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Mirabelle gave a girlish laugh "Right You too Bye"

Cyn dropped her phone onto the console as she pulled onto Ryder’s darkened street Contrary to Liz’s dishborhood, although at first glance it ether, and there was a bit of a crirants who made the beach their home But it was only a few blocks to the sand, and Ryder had to be doing pretty well to afford to buy this place Of course, it was always possible he rented Cyn hadn’t run a background check on hi and entering turned up anything hile first

She parked her truck a couple of houses down and across fro Ryder’s place It was an older house, narroith a single story and detached garage The houses to either side had been remodeled to add a second story--the lots were se--and Ryder’s house see beneath the disdainful gaze of the two updated ho for work and co home at pretty much the same tiood couple of hours yet It would have been better to wait and go in right after he left for work on another day, but it was Friday and Liz didn’t think he worked Friday or Saturday nights Which ht to catch hi point Besides, Mirabelle’s audience with Raphael was Sunday

There were no lights on in Ryder’s house, not even a porch light His neighbors had both installed low-level outdoor lights and one showed the faint gleaht upstairs She tapped her fingers nervously on the steering wheel and decided to take the chance Flicking off the overhead light, she switched her phone to vibrate, slipped it into her jacket pocket and cracked her door open silently Sheby Ryder’s house only to cross and coe side The narrow driveas unfinished except for two parallel lines of concrete pavers which Cyn followed as she made her way quietly to the back of the house

It was aon thin rubber gloves, she slipped the lock and went in through the back door The front was too open to the street, and besides, like so many people, Ryder’s back door had a much fliuys would use the front door?

Once inside, she surveyed the slow of LEDs fro roo to soften the effect, not even a doorat the wreckage of the door Liz had left behind She stopped laughing when she saw the mess inside the bedroom Someone had torn it apart Sheets and blankets had been ripped off the bed and thrown around the sely slashed with so littered the floor Tiny bits of it still floated through the air, backlit by a shaft of street light co crookedly on the floor below The laeon the door was bent around the doorframe, its cheap metal split at the seam

So Todd Ryder had a temper Cyn scanned the trashed roo here Farwas the main bedroom down the hall, which was perfectly neat and tidy The bed wasone on top of the other, precisely aligned, the cases crisp and tucked in No unsightly flapping linen for Todd She did a quick open and look of each drawer, raising an eyebrow at the large, partially used box of condoms in the bedside drawer Girlfriend or not, Todd apparently had plans In the closet, shirts were grouped according to style, short-sleeved polo for suby for cooler weather Several pairs of khakis were hanging, pressed and starched, still in the plastic bags from the laundry Shoes were placed in neat pairs, side by side on the floor

The tiny bathroom had even less to tell her Todd Ryder was apparently the picture of good health There wasn’t even a bottle of aspirin to share space with his shaving cream and razor, and his aftershave was a scent toorooht of Ryder’s desk and computer A car door sla, but the sine moved away down the street She went quickly over to the desk, reminded that her ti through the drawers one by one There was a neat file for bills due and paid which she flipped through quickly, finding little of interest other than a bill for a storage unit in Culver City She noted the location and locker nu A separate blue folder was filled with paycheck stubs that told her Todd Ryder worked for aAsides of beef wouldn’t balk at a little, or even a lot, of blood A final file contained flyers on the games Ryder ran for the street kids, a list of naames, and some blank consent forms Probably not much call for the latter, h to worry about consent

By the time she was finished with the drawers, the computer had co her head Tidy Todd didn’t practice safe coh not to store his e-h to install even a rudi into a history of Todd’s coe boards dedicated to the discussion of vampires Many of the sites were the kind Ian Hartzler would have frequented, boards populated by groupies anted to be vaht over Other sites were darker, conspiracy-oriented and filled with dire warnings of a va everyone from the president down to the local tax collector was either in thrall to the vampires or a va her cell phone to leave a voice e co, she discovered Todd had done several searches in the last few days, looking for stories on the dead girls, and specifically for deaths involving vampires There had been little publicity about the murders and none at all about Santillo’s pet theory Raphael’s arrest hadn’t even made the news It was partly because they’d taken him to the para facility which hardly anyone knew about, but also because the murders simply weren’t news Besides, Raphael lived well below the radar; it wasn’t like his arrest would havewith street kids, Ryder le? Again, interesting, but not convincing

Cyn continued her search of the co software and a few games, but it seemed Ryder used his co the diary of a serial killer somewhere, it wasn’t on this computer She shut the system down and pushed away from the desk, careful to tuck the chair under the way she’d found it

The kitchen was next,with pretty blue and white tiled countertops and pine cabinets The cupboards held an unremarkable assort supplies The refrigerator was virtually e one bottle, and a quart of half and half Pots and pans appeared virtually unused Even the coffee upside down on a wooden rack to one side of the gleareat housewife Or le in his forties He’d never met a woman who coulda neat freak was hardly a criht shifted as she stood in the doorway doing a final sweep The street lights had switched off outside; tio

Safely in her truck and perversely disappointed that she’d found nothing really suspicious, Cyn watched as an older BMW sedan drove by and pulled into the driveway Todd Ryder was younger than she expected from Liz’s description Probably closer to thirty-five than forty, five-foot-ten or so, with light brown hair and the slightly pudgy body of a forh school or even college sports His chin, never strong, was ht He earing one of hiswith a blue and red rugby shirt The shirt was about a size too large, which was probably an attempt to cover the extra fifteen pounds around his middle He climbed out of the car and paused to buff a thuust before going on down the driveway and into the house BMW’s were good, solid cars, Cyn thought, re the kid in the alley who’d heard the killer’s car Definitely not full of rattles and shit

She waited a fewPacific Coast Highway at freeway speeds and feeling sorry for the people stuck in the ht about what she knew The only victim the cops had any information on was Patti Hairlfriend and who, despite being the first victim, didn’t fit the profile Convenient that she didn’t have any family or friends No one to claim the body, no one to file a report except her old boyfriend Todd who hadn’t so much as whispered a concern Todd as ht, and whose temper was violent when it blew And then there was the witness who had fingered Raphael as the killer and whoup She flipped her phone open and called Eckhoff’s cell phone

"Dahton, do you knohat time it is?"

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