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Chapter Thirty

There were four of us now

We were all sitting in the McDonald&039;s in Buena Park, the same McDonald&039;s where, for all I knew, Maddie&039;sa cup of water Knighthorse had just polished off three Big Macs and a large vanilla shake Noasof fries the size of ood that I nearly reached over for one I resisted Fries andhthorse was about a foot shorter He was also a specialist in finding the , particularly children His naator out of Los Angeles and a friend of Knighthorse Spinoza, as oddly shy for a private eye, was shrouded in a heavy layer of darkness His aura itself seeht So hie appeared inthat I nearly broke downa burned body A tiny burned body

It was his son, and now I understood the waves of guilt

The ie was of a car accident Like with the McDonald&039;s er, I saw a burned-out vehicle, but this ti with the smell of burned flesh

Sweet Jesus

His palpable waves of guilt nearly overwhel to see the downside of this ESP business

I need to learn how to shut this shit off, I thought

Spinoza was friendly enough and had smiled and shaken my hand, but he easily lapsed into a dark silence thatnext to hi theand he was older than the hills He was also da

And the psychic hit I got fro secret

He caught aveeyes I foundand Spinoza (I never did catch his first na and instead sipped from oversized drinks Men and their oversized drinks Sheesh They examined the photos while I recounted the events of the last few days, beginning with the first phone call from Maddie, my discussion with Chad, my conversation with Detective Hanner, Maddie&039;s second call, the meth lab and dead body, the Happy Meal, and the video surveillance

"All this fro number," said Aaron God, I loved the lilt to his voice A hint of an accent Melodious A beautiful and agonizingly fa nureat effort As if it took all his energy and strength to for, it was hira finds you in the phone book"

"Could be our guy&039;s phone," said Spinoza

Knighthorse looked atwould have your nu for a good tirinned, and so did Spinoza I think Aaron King chuckled lightly

"Maybe it wasn&039;t his phone," offered Spinoza

"Her ave it to her before her death"

Spinoza said, "Maybe she suspected sohter to have it in case of an era "Why not the police?"

"Or hthorse, and the expression that briefly crossed his face was one of profound pain Knighthorse, I realized, knew so about dead mothers His own dead ht

"And you don&039;t recognize the wo asked me

"No And her name doesn&039;t show up in any of my case files"

"Did you check all your case files?" asked King

"Allwhistled "Maybe I should getat me in such a way that my stomach literally did a somersault

Spinoza plowed forward "Still, that doesn&039;t mean the mother, what&039;s her name - "

"Lauren," I said

"That doesn&039;tkilled Maybe she knew so," said King

"Right," said Knighthorse "She looks you up in the Yellow Pages, punches you in her phone for a later call"

"But never ht"

"Maybe theyou, Samantha," said Spinoza "Perhaps you were her last call"

"Except you were too da He winked at ain

"If so," said Knighthorse, "then perhaps you were the last call she ever h as blocked, which can be done automatically, then you would have no record of the call"

"It&039;s a theory," I said

Knighthorse said, "And then all the daughter had to do was hit redial"

"And she would call est for a few seconds Then Spinoza sat down his oversized drink No doubt his nor at the seams "So let&039;s hit it," he said

And we did But first he went to the bathrooators seeet that TV has certainly la a lone wolf (no pun intended), working when you want, living on the edge of society, and catching the bad guys The adventure The excitement The mystery