Russo picked up the distinction. “What other way did you kiss him, then?”

Alicia showed her first sign of true frustration, a sigh accompanied by a slight puckering around her lips. “More like a buss on the cheek, sometimes, when I’d first see him or when I was leaving.”

“Both?” Russo asked.

“Sometimes.”

Russo wasn’t letting it go. “Usually?”

Pausing again, nodding, Alicia said, “By the end, yes. Most days. Just like friends do. Maybe a small hug and a little kiss hello.”

“A hug and a kiss, then?” Juhle asked.

“Not a big hug. Really just like a greeting or a good-bye.” She leveled her gaze at both of the inspectors in turn. “Come on, you guys. You know what I’m talking about. We usually kissed hello and good-bye, just like I’d do with my brother. It wasn’t sexual. We had become friends, that’s all.”

Juhle asked, “And you were still friends on the day he was killed?”

“Yes, of course.”

Russo: “You weren’t having any troubles at work?”

“No.”

“None?”

Alicia straightened up in her chair. “What’s this about?”

Russo came forward, but did not answer her. Instead, she said, “You were at Mr. Como’s service this morning.”

“Not for long.”

“We understand that Mrs. Como asked you to leave.”

A bitter chuckle. “If that’s how you want to put it.”

Juhle asked, “How would you put it?”

“Were you there?”

“No, ma’am.”

“Well, the way I’d put it is she had me thrown out.”

“Why would she have wanted to do that?” Russo asked.

“Because she’s a crazy woman,” Alicia said. “She thinks I had something going on with Dominic, which I think we’ve been through enough, huh?”

“Were you aware,” Juhle said, “that she demanded that Mr. Como fire you?”

“That wouldn’t surprise me. Nothing she did would surprise me.”

“But Mr. Como didn’t tell you that?”

“What?”

“That his wife wanted him to fire you.”

“No. When?”

“Anytime. It never came up?”

“No. Never.”

Sarah Russo, her hands clasped in front of her on the table, raised her head. “And he didn’t, in fact, fire you?”

“No, he didn’t.”

“That last Tuesday was just another day at the office for you,” Juhle said. “Is that what you’re saying?”

“That’s what I’m saying. God knows, I’ve thought about it enough, trying to remember any hint he might have given me while we were on the road about his appointment that night. But it was just a normal day.”

“Tuesday, you mean?”

“Right. That last Tuesday.”

“But you didn’t come into work the next day?” Russo asked.

“Yes, I did. I went home when I saw Dominic wasn’t there.”

“And what about the day after that?”

“What about it?”

“Did you come in then?”

Alicia paused. “No.”

“Why not?”

Alicia hesitated a moment longer. “Well, Dominic wasn’t in, so there wouldn’t have been anything for me to do.”

Russo, on a scent, came forward. “How did you know he wasn’t in?”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean-it’s a straightforward question-how did you know Dominic wasn’t in?”

“I don’t know. I don’t remember. I must have called.”

“You must have called? Why would you have called? Did you call most mornings to see if he was at work before you came in?”

“No. Sometimes. I must have those days. Or I had heard he was missing. I think that was probably it. His wife by then had said he was missing.” Alicia’s eyes were bright with emotion, and suddenly she found a voice for it. “And while we’re on that, listen,” she said. “I’ve been sitting here letting you guys ask me all these questions, but don’t you think-forget all these innuendoes about me and Dominic-don’t you think it’s just a little suspicious that his wife didn’t even call to report him missing until he was already gone for a whole day? Isn’t that a little hard to explain? Doesn’t that bother you at all? Plus the fact that Mrs. Como is the one who was jealous, regardless of whether I gave her a reason to be or not. And I didn’t. She’s the one who thought Dominic was cheating on her, and if she thought that, she might have wanted to kill him for it. Doesn’t that make more sense than sniffing all around me?”

Juhle raised his eyebrows at his partner. He wasn’t here to tell Alicia everything or anything that they knew, or assumed: that Ellen Como had had no real access to the presumed murder weapon, that they had no indication or information that she’d ever ridden or even been in her husband’s limo, and hence couldn’t have left a possibly incriminating scarf there, that both Ellen and Al Carter, apparently independently, had stated unequivocally that Dominic had in fact fired Alicia on his last morning at work. Ellen’s behavior and unsubstantiated alibi notwithstanding, she was not really their prime suspect. Although of course they had not totally written her off.

But Juhle only said, “We appreciate your perspective, but as we’ve told you, the investigation is ongoing. We’re just trying to gather information.”

“And to that end,” Russo picked up, “I wonder if you could tell us what you did last Monday night.”

If the question was meant to shake her up, it succeeded almost to the point of panic. Alicia’s mouth turned down, her eyebrows came together over her eyes. She looked to Juhle as if verifying that this was what they wanted to know. “Monday night a week ago?” she asked. “The night before Dominic was killed?”

“No,” Russo answered patiently. “This past Monday night, two nights ago.”

“Two nights ago? Why?”

Juhle had his professional face back on. “If you could just answer the question, Alicia.”

The official tone hit its mark and Alicia sat back meekly, holding her hands together in her lap. “Monday night, Monday night. Tuesday I was at a friend’s for dinner, and then Monday… oh, I got it. Monday I slept in my car down by the beach. Ocean Beach. I wanted to go surfing Tuesday morning.”

“And you were alone in your car?” Russo asked.

“Yes.”

“And from what time?”

“I don’t know exactly. I had a pizza with my girlfriend Danielle at Giorgio’s. On Clement? I guess I left at around ten.”

“And drove out to the beach?” Russo asked.

“Right.”

“Did you talk to anybody out there?” Juhle asked. “Were they having bonfires that night?”

Alicia shook her head. “I went to sleep in my car. I’ve got a mattress I throw in and a sleeping bag. I wanted to be up early. What happened Monday night?”

Again ignoring Alicia’s question, Russo threw a sharp glance at Juhle, then reached under her jacket and pulled a color photograph out of her breast pocket. She placed it on the table in front of Alicia. “Do you recognize this?” she asked.

Alicia’s eyes lit up briefly, then closed down as she looked at Russo to answer her. “Yes. That’s my scarf. I lost it a couple of weeks ago. Where did you find it?”

“Her name is Linda Colores.” Tamara had Hunt sit down in the one chair across from her in the reception area as soon as he’d arrived back at the office. “The Hang-Up Lady.”

“I’d forgotten all about her,” Hunt replied. “What’d she have to say?”

“That she was out by the Palace on the night Mr. Como was killed. Like maybe ten or ten-thirty. She was just walking by herself after dinner on the path by the lagoon and two people were having an argument right in front of her.”

“Tell me she saw them.”

“I wish I could, but she didn’t. They were around where the path turns right down there at the end, near where Mickey found the body. But the point is that she heard them, really clearly.”

“Okay.”

“A man and a woman. The man telling the woman he didn’t love her anymore. Then, maybe, the sound of her hitting him. At least this grunt of exertion and then this kind of sickening sound.”

“So what’d she do then? Your witness.”

“She got scared and turned and got out of there as quickly and quietly as she could.”