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“Do you remember a last name?”
She shook her head.
“That’s okay,” Masser said. “The name Rodney helps us. Was he a senior?”
“Yes, he must have been,” Richardson said.
“Did your daughter by any chance have any yearbooks from St. Vincent’s?”
“There’s one. From when she was in tenth grade. I kept it because she is so beautiful in the photos.”
Ballard nodded. She said nothing. Masser was connecting and making headway.
“Do you think we could borrow the yearbook?” Masser said. “I guarantee I will personally get it back to you.”
“I can go see if I can find it in the library,” Richardson said.
“Thank you, that would be very helpful.”
Richardson stood up and left the room. Ballard looked at Masser and nodded.
“Good one on the yearbook,” she said. “I hope she can find it.”
32
BALLARD MADE MASSERdrive the initial leg back to L.A. so she could get first crack at the yearbook. It was thin with a thick leather binding. Angled across the cover it saidVeritas 1999.
“Veritas,” Ballard said.
“‘The truth,’” Masser said.
“You know your Latin.”
“I’m a Jesuit boy. They made us take Latin. Came in handy a few times in law school.Ipse dixitand all of that.”
“Ipse dixit? What is that?”
“It means ‘He said it himself.’ It’s an argument that states that if someone of authority said it, it can be held to be true. It goes back to Cicero and the Roman Empire.”
“And they still use it in the courtroom?”
“Sometimes. Mostly in rulings by the judge.”
“What aboutMortui vivos docent?”
“That one I’m not familiar with.”
“‘The dead teach the living.’ It’s the motto of the California Homicide Investigators Association.”
“I get it. Good one.”
“I only know it because it’s on the challenge coin.”
Ballard started paging through the yearbook. The inside covers had no autographs or messages written to Mallory Richardson by other students. Ballard assumed that was because the yearbook had been published after she left school and Pasadena. It was probably sent to her at Smoke Tree and she never had an opportunity to have other students sign it.
Ballard leafed through sections dedicated to sports and class field trips. When she got to the section dedicated to the seniors, she looked at the photos of the boys; two were named Rodney.
“We have a Rodney McNamara and a Rodney Van Ness in the senior class,” she said.
