AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Fine, no big deal, I’ll look her up. And yeah, yeah, if I meet with her you won’t be coming with, got it. Is there anything you can tell me about her before I talk to her?”
“Nice woman.”
“Another one who hooked up with a bum. Okay, tell me why that happens, oh sage of Beverly Glen.”
I said, “If I knew, I’d write a book.”
“People who don’t know write plenty of books.”
“Exactly.”
Grunting, he wheeled back to his monitor, typed and squinted, got up and left the office, flinging the door wide. Ten minutes later he returned with coffee. One cup. Facing his computer again, he resumed working.
I said, “Guess I’ll be going.”
“Yup.”
He stayed fixed on the screen as I left. I covered half the distance to the stairwell before hearing, “Alex!”
He was loping toward me. Someone else might’ve seen a bull elephant charging and dashed for cover. I waited.
He caught up and clapped my shoulder and said, “Sorry for beingpissy, it’s sleep deprivation along with what Bobby Zimmerman says: too much of nothing.”
I said, “Don’t worry about it.”
“I always worry, couldn’t do the damn job otherwise. Anyway, I think I found her, the former Mrs. Hoffgarden. Courtney, thirty-six, lives in North Hollywood, works as a dental hygienist in Encino.”
He waited for confirmation.
I said, “Ace detective.”
CHAPTER
25
The following morning at ten, he phoned and said, “Just met with Courtney Hoffgarden, now back to Courtney Giraldo. Confirmed as a very nice woman, says she was a fool to stick with Tyler as long as she did. She’s engaged to a dental student, some resident who circulated through the office.”
“Congrats.”
“And the kid’s doing fine.”
“Great.”
“And just to show you I’m the one should be beatified, I’m not gonna hold back on what else I learned from her.”
“Thank you, Cardinal,” I said. “If you could see me you’d know I’m kneeling.”
“Faith is not to be scoffed at, young Alex. Anyway, she confirmed that Tyler’s a scary guy. Never got physical with her but came close, there was always what she called a dread. Like waiting for a tightly coiled spring to snap. Unfortunately, she’s had no contact with him for a year, no idea where he might be. I asked her about the relationshipbetween him and Forrest Slope and she said they’d become buddies, acted like frat boys during the custody thing. She called Slope a sleaze, had no idea he’d been killed and I didn’t tell her. Bottom line: There’s no obvious link between Hoffgarden and Slope’s murder but you never know.”
I said, “Friendships can go bad. Did she know about Cordi?”
“Just that Tyler had dated her after they separated and that he tried to use her as an expert but it fizzled. Telling her about the murder took all the color from her face but she had nothing to add. Though she did say that despite her feelings toward Tyler, she couldn’t believe he’d ever do something like that.”
“Why not?”
“She just didn’t see it,” he said. “Oh yeah, one other thing. She told me about the custody thing working out because she had this great psychologist who continued to work with her kid afterward, helped both of them adjust.”
“Nice to hear.”
