I nodded.

He said, “Scary pedophile crosses Tanya’s path and Mommy uses her little.22. Why tell Tanya now?”

“Maybe she was frightened because she hadn’t finished the job.”

“Sparing De Paine,” he said. “Years later she runs into him at the E.R. and he makes a threatening comment. But if he’d collaborated with another lowlife on something unspeakable, why would Patty off his buddy and give him a pass?”

“Because he was young,” I said. “Eighteen years old when Patty and Tanya lived on Fourth Street. He was also the son of a man she’d cared for. And possibly cared about.”

“Everyone else despises Jordan but she had a soft spot for him?”

“She watched over him as if she did. It’s also possible killing once traumatized her and she didn’t have the stomach to repeat it. It can be like that for good folk.”

The breeze blew harder.

“Okay,” he said, “for whatever reason she doesn’t shoot little Petey. Why not report him to the cops?”

“Because she’d eliminated his accomplice and didn’t want any contact with the cops.”

“Theoretical accomplice,” he said. “Given your logic, someone older. Now all we have to do is conjure this phantom out of the ether. And unearth some unspeakable sex crime no one’s ever heard about. Also, if Patty was worried about De Paine hurting Tanya, why not come out and warn her explicitly?”

“I don’t know. It’s possible the disease did affect her thinking. Or she didn’t want to terrify Tanya-or have Tanya go it alone. By being ambiguous and directing Tanya to me, she hoped Tanya would get help from both of us.”

“I guess.”

“It worked, didn’t it?”

He put his hands behind his head. “Imaginative, I’ll grant you that.”

I said, “When Tanya told me she felt Patty was trying to protect her, I put it down to romanticizing her mother. But maybe she had it right.”

He closed his eyes. The dash clock said one forty-six.

“It also fits Lester Jordan’s murder, Milo. What if Jordan knew Patty had spared his son? We come by asking about her, he gets jumpy, wonders if Junior’s finally going to pay. Or if Junior’s into something new. He calls Junior, maybe warns him to stay away from Tanya. Or sends the warning through Mary. Either way, De Paine wonders if Jordan can be trusted to keep his mouth shut. That tops off the rage he’s felt toward his father his entire life. He pays a social call on Dad in the guise of bringing over product. Jordan fixes up, nods out, De Paine lets in Robert Fisk.”

“Oedipus wrecks,” he said.

“You don’t need to be Freud to see it in this family. One of De Paine’s earliest sexual charges was looking at his mother’s movie stills. Feeding his father’s habit put him in the power chair.”

“Do sociopaths dig irony?”

“They process it differently than the rest of us.”

“Meaning?”

“Shark-eats-minnow is good!”

“How does Moses Grant fit in?”

“Nothing we’ve heard about him so far indicates criminality, so maybe he was an oversized minnow. He gave up his day job and his apartment to run with De Paine because he believed De Paine would help his deejay career. Along the way, he saw too much, reacted with fear or revulsion. That kind of weakness would be a danger sign to De Paine and Fisk.”

“Cleaning house,” he said. “You’re figuring Grant was also there when they did Jordan.”

“Fortuno called him a lackey and whatever else he is, Fortuno’s perceptive. We know Grant drove the Hummer so maybe that night he was the wheelman, waiting somewhere up the block.”

Another long silence.

“You do have a flair for the dark side,” he said, looking past me at the mansion. “Start the car, Jeeves. This zip code’s raising my blood sugar.”

Two twenty-three a.m., lights off at my house. When I stepped in, sounds from a corner of the living room made me jump.

Robin said, “Hi, honey.”

As my eyes habituated, I made out her form. Curled on a sofa, concealed by a blanket but for curls raining on a silk pillow. Blanche nestled in the triangle defined between Robin’s belly and arm. The TV remote sat on the floor.

She switched on a low-voltage lamp, squinted, sat up knuckling her eyes and pushing hair out of her face. Blanche curled a tongue and smiled.

I turned the light off, sat down on the edge of the sofa, kissed her hair. Her breath was the sweet-sour of lemon yogurt.

“I was watching a show, guess I conked out.”

“Must’ve been fascinating.”

“People looking for new houses. Thrilling.”

“Real estate,” I said. “It’s the new sex.”

“The old sex ain’t out of commission, yet…in principle…what time is it?”

I told her.

“Oh, wow. Big night?”

“Nothing dramatic,” I said. “Sorry for not calling.”

“S’okay, I had my home-girl here, we had plenty to talk about.”

“Such as?”

“Girl stuff; you’ll never know. Help me up, Caballero. I need to stretch out in a real bed. Blanchie can stay with us if you want.”

“She snores.”

“So do you, darling.”

“I do?”

“Just once in a while.”

“Is it disruptive?”

She pecked my cheek and got to her feet. I walked her, still wrapped in the blanket, up the hall.

“Do I keep you up, Rob?”

“I have a technique.”

“What?”

“I kick your butt, you roll over, you’re fine.”

“Any excuse,” I said.

She laughed. “Who needs one? By the way, I’m still asking around about De Paine. No one in the biz takes him seriously and no one’s seen him for a while. One other person had that same rumor about the house in the hills but you’ve already dealt with that.”

I kissed her. “Thanks for trying.”

“My middle name.”

I called Tanya at eight thirty the next morning.

She said, “I just got off the phone with Kyle. I know you think I was stupid for confiding in him, but I really know him. He thinks whatever Mommy remembered could’ve had something to do with Pete Whitbread and that sounds logical to me.”

“What do you remember about Pete?”

“Not much. I used to see him on the block but we had nothing to do with each other.”

“Did he hang with anyone in particular?”

“Never saw anyone. What I do recall is that Mommy didn’t like Mary Whitbread.”

“Why not?”

“I don’t know, but I could tell from the way she acted when Mary dropped by to collect the rent. It embarrassed me a little because Mary was nice to me, sometimes she’d bring me candy. I admired the way she looked. By then I was out of my Barbie stage but I thought Mary looked like a Barbie Mom-glamorous, ultra-feminine. The times she came by, I sensed that she wanted to socialize, but Mommy never invited her to stay. Just the opposite, she seemed to want her out as quickly as possible. One time Mommy had just brewed fresh coffee and Mary remarked how great it smelled. Mommy said, ‘It’s old, I was just going to dump it.’ It was such an obvious lie. Mary left with a look on her face as if she’d been slapped-oops, look what time it is, I’ve got to get going, Dr. Delaware.”

“Another study group?”

“No, that’s later. Ten o’clock lab. I don’t know if any of that was helpful, but it’s all I remember. Thanks for not being mad about Kyle.”

“How’re you doing with the self-hypnosis?”

“Great, excellent, I practiced yesterday. Ran through it a dozen times.”

“Ah,” I said.

Nervous laughter. “Was that too intense?”

“Practice is great, but you may not need that much.”

“You think I’m hopeless.”

“Just the opposite.”

“What do you mean?”

“I have high hopes for you.”

“Thank you, Dr. Delaware. I needed that.”

At ten twenty-eight, Detective Raul Biro phoned to ask if I could make a one p.m. meeting at Hollywood Division.

“Progress?”

“Nothing I’ve heard about. Petra just said she wanted a sit-down. She’s over in Records, figures to be clear by one.”