for giving a false name? I didn’t seem to be making any progress.
Then an idea came to me as I was looking at the newspaper
picture of the crashed car. I suddenly remembered John Birkett at
the scene of the crash, taking pictures. Perhaps he had one of the
man in the Toyota? Twenty minutes later I was in Birkett’s office
at the Santa Teresa News, looking at the photographs.
‘No good,’ John said. ‘No clear pictures of him.’
‘What about his car?’
John pulled out another photo of Caroline’s car, with the
Toyota some distance behind.
‘Can you make it bigger?’
‘Are you looking for anything special?’
‘The number plate,’ I said.
When we had made the photograph bigger we were able to
read the seven numbers and letters on the California
number plate. I knew I should inform Lieutenant Dolan, but I
wanted to work on this myself. So I telephoned a friend of mine
at the Department of Motor Vehicles.
The number belonged to a 1984 Toyota, dark blue, and the
owner was Ron Cagle, with an address on McClatchy Way.
My heart was beating loudly as I rang the bell of the house.
When the door was finally opened, I just stood there with my
mouth open. Wrong man. This man was tall and fat, with blue
eyes and red hair. ‘Yes?’ he said.
‘I’m looking for Ron Cagle.’
‘I’m Ron Cagle.’
‘You are? You’re the owner of a dark blue Toyota?’ I read out
the number of the car.
He gave me a strange look. ‘Yes. Is something wrong?’
‘Well, I don’t know. Has someone else been driving it?’
‘Not for the last six months. See for yourself.’ He led me
round the side of the house. There sat a dark blue Toyota, without
wheels and without an engine. ‘What’s this about?’ he asked.
(^)