“Are you sure you can do this?” he asked her.

“No problem. What are we looking for?”

“I don’t know yet. But if you read that file, you know there are inconsistencies in the Grayson case. The suicide note was a plant and a piece of jewelry is missing. A silver-chain necklace with a single pearl on it.”

Rider frowned.

“What about the autopsy?”

“That was yesterday. We’re waiting on the tox.”

“Was she raped?”

“No abrasions. No DNA recovered.”

“What do you think happened, Harry?”

“What do I think happened? I think somebody drugged her and had his way with her when she couldn’t resist. And then he let her OD. Now ask me what I can prove.”

“What can you prove?”

“Nothing. That’s why I pulled these files.”

“Looking for what?”

“Sometimes you don’t know what you are looking for until you find it,” he explained. “But I’m convinced Lizbeth Grayson was murdered with such careful planning that it wasn’t the only time this happened.”

“The guy hit before.”

Rider nodded at the stack of thin files.

“That’s what I’m thinking,” Bosch said. “So I am looking for anything that is a commonality between her and any of these other suicides.”

Rider frowned.

“And we’ll know it when we see it,” she said.

“Hopefully.”

They got to work. Bosch split the stack in two and they both began working through the files. When one of them finished with a file they put it on the stack for the other to read. This way they each looked at every file. Because the cases were suicides the files were thin and filled largely with autopsy and toxicological reports. All contained photos of the victims in death and most contained a photo of the victim in life as well.

Hollywood has always ground up a good share of the young women who come with their hopes and dreams. Ever since actress Peg Entwistle gave up her celluloid dreams and jumped off the H on the Hollywood sign, many others have followed suit-but in less attention-getting ways. It is the dark secret of the industry. It grinds many of the fragile ones to powder. The powder blows away.