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He was tried, convicted, and stashed in a small cell at Lompoc for the rest of his life, without possibility of parole

“Did you see this book?” Conklin asked Jimenez

Ji for books?”

“I found it in the master bathroom between the sink and the toilet,” Conklin said to me

The pages of the book were damp and warped, but it was intact Incredibly, books rarely burn, because of their density and because the oxygen the fire needs for co the book by the edges, Rich opened the cover and showed me the block letters printed with a ballpoint pen on the title page

I sucked in my breath

This was the link that tied the hoether

The Latin phrase was the killer’s signature, but why did he leave it? What was he trying to tell us?

“Hanni was here,” Conklin said quietly “Why didn’t he find this book?”

I muttered, “Got me,” and focused on the handwritten words on the flyleaf, Sobria inebrietas Even I could translate this one: “sober intoxication”

But what the hell did it mean?

Chapter 58

CONKLIN AND I had never had a serious fight, but we bickered during the entire two-hour drive back to the Hall Rich insisted it was significant that a pro like Hanni had missed “the only clue in the whole damned crime scene”

I liked Chuck Hanni I admired him Rich didn’t have the same history, the same attachment, so he could be more objective I had to consider his point of view Was Hanni a psychopath hiding in plain sight? Or was Conklin so desperate to close the Malone case that he was turning an oversight into a major deal?

I saw that Chuck Hanni ith Jacobi in the glass-walled corner office when Conklin and I entered the squad room As ove around the desks toward Jacobi’s office, Conklin said to me, “Let me handle this, okay?”