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interview was still fresh in his memory. He had to double-check the information he’d just taken down.
    His first call was with the Dallas Police Department’s Criminal Intelligence Division. It was a clearinghouse for all information in the state, from birth dates and phone numbers to criminal records and last-known locations. In one call, he could verify the information of all the names Ben had given him. He hung up the phone with almost all his information verified, then he grabbed his coat and headed to the motor pool. He had to meet with the Dallas policemen who had been assigned the Javier Calzada missing-persons case, opened on December 18, the day after Javier failed to come home. They should have additional information and would likely want to ride along as he interviewed everyone associated with Javier.
    Days later, Oseguera was at his desk reviewing the notes in the now much thicker case file when his phone rang. It was the Dallas medical examiner. The dental records confirmed that the remains were those of Javier Calzada. The ME also verified that Javier had been murdered, shot point-blank in his left temple. Only fragments of the bullet had been recovered, making ballistics tests impossible. Oseguera thanked the medical examiner for the information and hung up, thinking that at least the missing-persons case could be closed. His next phone call was to the Dallas patrolmen who had accompanied him to every interview he’d conducted over the past forty-eight hours. They agreed to close the case and send their files over to Oseguera’s office so he couldtake control of the evidence they had gathered up to that point. He thanked the Dallas police for their help and cradled the phone.
    Patton and the Calzadas have been right all along, Oseguera thought to himself. He had suspected that this was a murder case, but up until minutes ago, he didn’t have the official confirmation. Now, sitting at his desk with the case file spread out in front of him, Oseguera looked it over and frowned. He still didn’t have much to work with, and the stakes had just gotten much higher. This was now officially a murder investigation.

CHAPTER 8
    B y the end of the first week of 2002, Oseguera had contacted everyone on his list of names associated with Javier. He had spoken with the victim’s two best friends, his girlfriend, his brother, and a number of other people loosely associated with Javier’s peer group. Oseguera had already gathered all the information he could from interviews, so he decided next to focus on the physical evidence.
    Oseguera left his office and headed to the car pound behind the station to pick through Javier’s Malibu. He had arranged for it to be towed from the Dallas Police Department auto pound to Grand Prairie. The detective immediately noted that the car had low-profile tires with expensive chrome rims. Raising an eyebrow and thinking about how much each one of those rims cost, Oseguera concluded that they alone were reason enough to steal the car.
    The detective knew that the crime scene investigators had lifted latent prints from the interior window trim of the backseat. They also found a cigarette butt and had collected soil samples from the floorboards in the car. Soil samples with red stains taken from the crime scene matched the soil samples in the car, placing it at the scene of the crime.
    When the tow truck driver had picked up Javier’s car from Walnut Hill, he had to move one lug nut from a front tire so he could secure a back tire that was missing all of its lug nuts. It was clear that someone had tried to remove them. Oseguera saw that the left front rim wasmissing two lug nuts and the left rear rim was missing three, consistent with the tow truck company’s account. He spent another couple of hours picking over the car, making sure nothing had been left behind, undiscovered or unconsidered.
    By midmorning Oseguera was exhausted and a little frustrated. He felt like he was spinning his