


Three years later came No Human Involved (LA police department slang for a low-life case). She hankered to write more than dockets and inventories. Love of reading had made up for that truncated education. When they married in 1994, he asked what she really wanted to do. In one of those twists familiar from her novels, a new proprietor, the investor Rob Seranella, came along fascinated by this female mechanic, he promoted her. Clean of drugs, she hefted engines and axles for the next 17 years at two garages. On probation, she turned her mechanic's skills to account. At 21, and after one bust too many, her parents caught up with her in time to broker a deal that averted a long stretch.
