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.What does the book communicate? Where am I supposed to take it?Screw this, I don't have to play this game.'We didn't talk until I was back on the freeway.At Camarillo, I shifted to thefast lane, pushed the Seville to eighty.He mumbled, 'Pedal to the metal.bastard starts feeling righteous, and I've got to jump like a trained flea.''You don't have to do anything,' I said.'Damn right, I'm an Amurrican.Entitled to life, liberty and the pursuit ofPage 93ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.htmlunhappiness.'We crossed the L.A.county line by midafternoon, stopped at a coffee shop inTarzana for burgers, got back on Ventura Boulevard,hooked a right at the newsstand at Van Nuys, continued to Valley Vista, and onto Beverly Glen.Along the way, I had Milo call my service on his cell phone.Robin hadn't called.When we reached my house, Milo was still in no mood to talk, but I said,'Caroline Cossack sticks in my mind.''Why?''A girl poisoning a dog is more than a prank.Her brothers are all over thepapers, but she doesn't get a word of newsprint.Her mother ran a debutanteball, but Caroline wasn't listed as one of the debs.She wasn't even includedin her mother's funeral.If you hadn't told me the poisoning story, I'd neverknow she existed.It's as if the family spit her out.Maybe for good reason.''The neighbor - that cranky old lady doc, Schwartzman -might've been overlyimaginative.She had no use for any of the Cossacks.''But her most serious suspicions were of Caroline.' He made no move to exitthe car.I said, 'A girl using poison makes sense.Poisoning doesn't requirephysical confrontation, so a disproportionate number of poisoners are female.I don't have to tell you psychopathic killers often start with animals, butthey're usually males who dig blood.For a girl that young to act out soviolently would be a serious red flag.I'm wondering if Caroline's beenconfined all these years.Maybe because of something a lot worse than killinga dog.' 'Or she died.''Find the death certificate.'He knuckled his eyes, looked up at my house.'Poison's sneaky.What was doneto Janie was blatant - the way the body was dumped in an open spot.No way dida girl do that.''I'm not saying Caroline murdered Janie by herself, but she might've been partof it - might've served as a lure for whoever did the cutting.Plenty ofkillers have used young women as bait - Paul Bernardo, Charlie Manson, GeraldGallegos, Christopher Wilding.Caroline would've been the perfect lure forJanie and Melinda - a girl their age, outwardly inoffensive.And rich.Caroline could've stood by and watched as someone else did the wet work orparticipated the way the Manson girls did.Maybe it was a group thing, justlike the Mansons, party scene gone bad.Females are affiliative - even female killers.Group settings lower theirinhibitions.''Sugar and spice,' he said.'And the family found out, put the screws on withthe department to hush up the case, locked Crazy Caroline away somewhere.the ghoul in the attic''Big family money can furnish a really nice attic'He accompanied me inside, where I went through the mail and he got on thephone with County Records and Social Security.No death certificate onCaroline Cossack; nor had she received a social security number or a driver'slicense.Page 94ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.htmlMelinda Waters had received a card at age fifteen, but she'd never driven inCalifornia or worked or contributed payroll tax.Which made sense if she'ddied young.But no certificate on her, either.'Disappeared,' I said.'Melinda probably died the same night Janie did, andCaroline's either very well hidden or she expired, too, and the family hushedit up.''Hidden as in hospitalized?''Or just watched carefully.Rich kid like that, she'd have a trust fund, couldbe living in some Mediterranean villa with twenty-four-hour supervision.'He began pacing.'Little Miss Nowhere.but at some point, when she was akid, she had to have an identity.Be interesting to pinpoint when exactly shelost it.''School records,' I said.'Living in Bel Air would've meant Palisades orUniversity High if the Cossacks chose public school.Beverly, if they playedfast and loose with residency forms.On the private side, there'd beHarvard-Westlake - which was Westlake School for Girls, back then - orMarlborough, Buckley, John Thomas Dye, Crossroads.'He flipped open his pad, scrawled notes.'Or,' I added, 'a school for troubled kids.''Any particular place come to mind?''I was in practice back then, can recall three very high-priced spreads.Onewas in West L.A., the others were in Santa Monica and the Valley - NorthHollywood.''Names?'I recited, and he got back on the phone.Santa Monica Prep wasdefunct, but Achievement House in Cheviot Hills and Valley Educational Academyin North Hollywood were still in business.He reached both schools but hung upfrowning.'No one'll give me the time of day.Confidentiality and all that.' 'Schoolsdon't enjoy confidentiality privileges,' I said.'You ever deal with either ofthe places, professionally?' 'I visited Achievement House, once,' I said.'Theparents of a boy I was seeing kept holding the place over the kid's head as athreat."If you don't shape up, we'll send you to Achievement House." Thatseemed to scare him, so I dropped by to see what spooked him.Talked to asocial worker, got the five-minute tour.Converted apartment building nearMotor and Palms.What stuck in my mind was how small it was - maybetwenty-five, thirty kids boarding in, meaning it had to cost a fortune.Nosnake pit that I could see.Later, I talked to my patient and turns out whathe was worried about was stigmatization.Being thought of as a"weirdo-geek-loser." ''Achievement House had a bad reputation?' 'In his mind, any special placementhad a bad reputation.' 'Did he get sent there?' 'No, he ran away, wasn't seenfor years.' 'Oh,' he said.I smiled.'Don't you mean "Ah"?'Page 95ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.htmlHe laughed.Got himself grapefruit juice, opened the freezer and stared at thevodka bottle but changed his mind.'Ran away.Your version of loose ends.''Loose ends were a big part of my life, back then,' I said.'The price of aninteresting job.As it turns out, this particular kid made it okay.''He stayed in touch?''He called after his second child was born.Ostensibly to ask about how tohandle sibling jealousy.He ended up apologizing for being a surly teen.Itold him he had nothing to be sorry about.Because I'd finally learned thewhole story from his mother.His older brother had been molesting him since hewas five.'His face got hard.'Family values.' He paced some more, finished his juice,washed the glass, got back on the phone.Contacting Palisades and Universityand Beverly Hills High Schools, then theprivate institutions.Putting on the charm, claiming to be conducting analumnus search for Who's Who.No one had Caroline Cossack on their files.'Little Miss Nowhere.' He'd talkedabout washing his hands of the Ingalls case, but his face was flushed, andhunter's tension bunched his shoulders.'I didn't tell you,' he said, 'but yesterday I went over to Parker Center andsearched for Janie's case file.Disappeared.Nothing at the Metro office or inevidence or the coroner's, not even a cold-case classification or a noticethat the file had been moved somewhere else.There is absolutely no paperanywhere that says the case was ever opened in the first place.I know it wasbecause I opened it.Schwinn used to shove all the paperwork at me [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]