The Narrows

McCaleb's family and surreptitiously taking photographs-the same thing McCaleb had done to him. That same night someone takes the GPS device from The Following Sea and possibly tampers with McCaleb's medicine.
    By February 27 McCaleb has received the photos of his family at the mall. The origin or method of delivery of the photos is unknown but this date is documented by the creation record of the photo file on his computer. Just two days after putting the photos into his computer he leaves Catalina for the mainland. His destination is unknown but his car is returned in dirty condition, as if he had been off-road with it. There is also a record of him having phone numbers for a hospital in Las Vegas and the Mandalay Bay Resort, one of the last known locations of one of the missing men.
    Possibilities and interpretations abounded. My guess was that everything turned on the photos. I believed that it was seeing those photos that drew McCaleb across to the mainland. I believed that his car came back dirty after three days because he had gone into the desert at Zzyzx Road. He had taken the bait, whether knowingly or not, and gone to the desert.
    I looked at my chronology again and concluded that the mention of McCaleb in the follow-up story in the Sun had drawn a response. Shandy was somehow involved in the disappearances. If so, he would probably keep an eye on the media for any updates on the investigation. When he saw McCaleb's name in the follow-up, he came to Catalina to check him out. On the boat that morning during the four-hour charter he could have seen McCaleb taking his medicine, seen the capsules, and hatched a plan to eliminate the threat.
    That left the question of the GPS device and why it was taken during the February 21 boat break-in. I now believed it was simply taken as cover. Shandy could not be sure his entry to the boat to change Terry's meds would go unnoticed. So he took the device so McCaleb wouldn't wonder further about the intentions of the intruder if he discovered there had been a break-in.
    The larger question was why McCaleb was seen as a threat if his triangle theory was not revealed in the Sun story. I didn't know. I thought there was a possibility that he wasn't seen as a threat at all, that he was just a celebrity whom Shandy liked outwitting by killing. It was one of the unknowns.
    It was also one of the contradictions. My theory certainly had contradictions. If the first six men disappeared without a trace, why was McCaleb killed in such a way that there were witnesses and a body that could possibly reveal the truth? This was incongruous. My only answer was that if McCaleb simply disappeared, then it would spark an investigation and perhaps a second look at his view and theory of the missing men case. This could not be allowed by Shandy, so McCaleb was eliminated in a way that would hopefully seem natural or accidental and below the radar of suspicion.
    My theory was built on speculation and this made me uncomfortable. When I carried a badge, relying on speculation was like putting sand in your gas tank. It was the road to ruin. I felt ill at ease at how easily I had slipped into building theories upon interpretation and speculation instead of the bedrock of fact. I decided then to put theories aside and go back to concentrating on facts. I knew that Zzyzx Road and the desert were real and part of the chain of facts. I had the pictures to prove it. I didn't know if Terry McCaleb had actually gone there or what he might have found if he had. But I now knew I was going there. And that, too, was a fact.

CHAPTER 15
    Buddy Lockridge was waiting in the parking lot at Cabrillo Marina when I got there. I had called him and told him I was on the move and in a hurry. My plan to hook up with him for further discussion would be delayed. I told him I just wanted to quickly go through McCaleb's Cherokee and then move on. I knew what my destination was, whether or not I found anything in the car that pointed me toward the desert and Las Vegas.
    "What's all the hurry?" he asked as I pulled up and got out.
    "Velocity," I told him. "Main thing about an investigation is to keep your velocity up. You slow down… and you slow down. I don't want that."
    Before returning the boat keys to Graciela I had taken the Cherokee's key off the ring. I now used it to unlock the driver's door. I leaned in and began a general observation of the car before getting in. "Where are you headed?" Lockridge said from behind