“Time to start looking at other counties. Hopefully she’s not a throwaway no one gave a damn about.”

Lighting up, he clouded the tiny room with illicit smoke. Coughed and loosened his tie, spit a shred of tobacco at his wastebasket and missed, and grabbed for his keyboard.

Typing silently and furiously.

I left without a word.

Commuter traffic and lane closures for no apparent reason turned the drive home into an ordeal, and by the time I reached Beverly Glen it was nearly six.

The old bridle path that leads to my house was a sudden infusion of peace. My house, framed by pines and sycamores, was welcome white simplicity.

I called out Robin’s name, got no answer. Tossed my jacket, grabbed a Grolsch, headed down the kitchen stairs, and walked through the garden past the pond.

My footsteps caused the koi to storm the edges.

Twelve adults and five juveniles. Half of the babies had died before reaching an inch, but the survivors were nearly a foot long and perpetually hungry. I tossed pellets, watched placid water churn into a maelstrom as the fish gorged. Enjoying the illusion of omnipotence for a couple of minutes, I continued along the rock pathway to Robin’s studio.

Sometimes she stays at her workbench until I distract her. This evening the bench was clear and she was sitting on the couch, curling and uncurling her hair with a lazy finger while reading a book about Renaissance lutes.

Blanche nestled in her lap, bunny-ears drooping, flat face compressed to wrinkled velvet.

The other female in my life is a twenty-pound vanilla-colored French bulldog with tidy table manners rarely seen in the breed, and a saintly disposition. Some of my patients request her presence during sessions. I’m still trying to figure out what her cut should be.

She and Robin looked up simultaneously. New Olympic event: synchronized smiling. I kissed Robin’s cheek, pecked the top of Blanche’s knobby head.

Robin said, “Pooch and girlfriend are on an equal footing?”

“She pants in appreciation.”

“She also pees in the bushes.”

“And the problem is…”

“Oh, don’t tempt me.” We kissed. I sat down next to her. Her skin and hair were fragrant with cedar and Gio.

Cool fingers rested on the back of my neck. “Have a good day?”

“Better, now.”

During the next clinch, Blanche observed, head tilted to one side, ears erect.

Robin said, “Getting an eyeful, girlfriend?”

Blanche smiled.

We cooked up a mushroom-and-cheese omelet and I asked her what she’d been up to.

“Didn’t do much but loaf around. I might get used to it.”

A week ago she’d completed a major commission: replicas of four vintage Gibson instruments for a dot-com gazillionaire who’d donated them to charity. She’d been talking about starting a new project but had limited herself to repairs.

I thought of a still-fragrant, sixty-year-old flamenco guitar brought in for a neck-set. “Finished the Barbero?”

“Yup, it was simpler than I figured, Paco picked it up a couple of hours ago. You must’ve been really tied up. Service just called, said you hadn’t checked in. Some lawyer wants you for a consult.”

She told me the name.

I said, “If he ever pays his bills, he might actually get someone to work for him.”

I finished my beer, stretched.

“You look weighed down,” she said.

“ Milo ’s burden. I hung around and watched.”

“Watched what?”

I hesitated, the instinct to protect rearing its paternalistic little head. Back in the old days, I’d avoided talking about police cases. A couple of breakups and makeups later, I had a new appreciation for sharing.

I gave her the basics.

She said, “The marsh? Where we tried to take a walk?”

“None other.”

“You know, the place was kind of creepy.” Same thing Liz Wilkinson had said.

“How so?”

“It’s nothing I can really pinpoint. Unfriendly, I guess. Where were the bodies left?”

“The most recent one was right near the eastern entrance. The others were submerged farther up the path.”

“Drive up and dump,” she said. “A car would’ve been conspicuous, Alex. And all that development looking down on it.”

“Nighttime dump, turn off the headlights, you’d fade into the darkness. Including the view from above.”

She pushed her plate away. Mixed herself a cranberry juice with a splash of Grey Goose. “Three sunken bodies and one left right out in the open. What does that mean?”

“Maybe a new level of confidence.”

“Bragging,” she said. “Like it’s something to be proud of.”

The dot-com guy had sent Robin a box of Audrey Hepburn movies. We’d made our way through most of the DVDs, had saved Charade for a long quiet night.

Ten minutes into the film, the phone rang. I ignored it, drew Robin closer. Seconds later, the clanging resumed. I put Cary Grant on pause.

Milo said, “You free tomorrow at ten, right? Selena’s mom is due.”

“Sure.”

“Everything okay?”

“Absolutely.”

“I interrupt something?”

“High intrigue featuring gorgeous people.”

“A movie,” he said.

“Ace detective.”

“Sure ain’t real life. Go back to Cinema Dreams. I’ll tell you about the bones tomorrow.”

“What about the bones?”

“Hey, far be it from me to take you away from Robin and Doggie and fictitious gorgeous people.”

“What?”

“Dr. Hargrove got a quicker fix than she thought. All three of the submerged victims are complete skeletons, minus the right hand. Jane Doe Number Two is also a black female, same age range as Jane One with the broken leg, also probable strangulation. From the length of her femurs, at least five seven, and strain marks indicate she was probably significantly overweight. Hargrove is guessing burial for maybe half a year, but she won’t commit. Number Three’s a white female, older than the others-closer to fifty, average size, another broken hyoid, nothing much in the way of distinguishing marks. Could be the same TOD as Jane Two, or longer, hard to say. The other tidbit is San Diego PD has a missing black female named Sheralyn Dawkins. Twenty-nine years old, arrests for solicitation and dope, and she broke her leg in a car crash five years ago and limped.”

“Hundred and twenty miles away,” I said. “Our boy’s a traveler?”

“Just what I need. I told Reed to find family, drive down, and notify. Give him a sense of accomplishment, boy’s got low self-esteem, no?”

“He have any luck with the Vanders’ accountants?”

“Not a lick. Global Investments referred him to Vander’s lawyer where he got shunted to a secretary. Who sent him to her secretary. Who put him on hold, then informed him she’d get back to him. No nasty stuff on Travis Huck or Silford Duboff, either. And no links show up between the two of them.”

I said, “The thrilling world of sleuthing.”

“Let’s see what Reed learns from Sheralyn Dawkins’s family. Maybe she moved to L.A. and we can establish some kind of connection to someone.”

“If she did move, here’s something to consider: The marsh isn’t that far from the airport, and the area around LAX is full of streetwalkers.”

“Hmm… I like that. Okay, go back to your movie,” he said. “Which one?”

“Charade.”

“Cavorting in Paris and snappy dialogue. If only crime were that much fun.”

“Want to borrow it when we’re through?”

“Nah,” he said. “Right now I can’t afford fantasy.”