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14
We sat in the unmarked as Milo checked his messages. Only one but it arced his eyebrows. “Alicia got nothing much at the boutique so she recanvassed and found a neighbor who’d seen a small black car driving around the neighborhood around midnight.”
He called back.
“L.T.”
“God will forever bless you, kid.”
Alicia said, “Can I get a footnote in your Bible? First off the shoe store. Gio’s been there exactly once in two years and didn’t do much but flirt with the owner. She’s old enough to be his mother, thought it was amusing, figured him for the family wastrel. And she has absolutely no idea who’d want to shoot him. The car isn’t much, either, just what I messaged. Small, black or dark, no make, too dark for the neighbor to see the tags. Not that she’d try.”
“Who’s the neighbor?”
“Eighty-year-old woman living a quarter mile north with two giant dogs. It’s their barking that got her looking. She said they stayed tense and she got suspicious because it was a no-big-deal compact andthe only time you see cheap cars in that zip code is when maids drive them or get dropped off or picked up.”
“Unlikely at that hour,” said Milo. “Was she suspicious enough to call it in?”
“No way,” said Alicia. “Politically incorrect, she didn’t want to be ‘classist.’ She does have a point, what would the complaint be? Insufficient sticker shock?”
“True. Okay, thanks for persisting. If Moe and Sean are still free, let’s aim for a meeting this afternoon—say by four.”
“I’ll get my lasso and rope them in.”
—
He sat back in the driver’s seat, gripped the steering wheel, released it and pulled out a panatella that he rolled between sausage fingers.
“Gotta say Ms. Toni and Dr. Lana surprised me. I was expecting ladies who lunch and got a couple who probably don’t take much time for lunch. Like Demarest said, best to keep an open mind. Did anything you just hear unlock portals in your brain?”
I said, “More support for Meagin being socially isolated, probably intentionally. The only friends we’ve found know nothing about her. Like Doug, they accepted her as she was because she made herself easy-wear.”
“Sitting back, smiling, ordering whatever juice someone else was having.”
“The other thing is her comment about having enough of older men.”
“Bad experiences,” he said. “Maybe violent experiences.”
“Inflicted by someone who decided to reenter her life.”
“Yeah…lots more to learn about her.”
I said, “About Gio, as well.”
“You still think he coulda been the primary?”
“I wouldn’t count it out. A young, good-looking guy with an appealing accent and plenty of spare time, flirts instinctively, uses the spa and likely other locales to hit on women?”
“Lots of potential jealous guys out there,” he said. “Yeah, even if he favored Meagin his place still coulda been the Airbnb of romance. And I still haven’t heard from his family.”
He looked at his Timex. “Meeting at four leaves plenty of time to visit the spa.”
I said, “You up for an herbal wrap?”
“Only if it’s edible.”
—
From the street, no way to tell what went on behind Agua Fria’s façade. No signage beyond a discreetAFRand small, blue-steel address numerals.
