“He wouldn’t find you under the name ‘Madison Neville?’”

“I know. Pretty dumb, huh? But I wasn’t thinking straight. I just wanted to get away from him.”

“Did you change it back officially?”

“Nope.”

“Do you know where your ex is now?”

“Nuh-uh. I have no idea.” She looked confused and sad at the same time.

Quite a show she was putting on. But Laura sensed Williams, Neville—whoever she was—didn’t give a rat’s ass whether they believed her or not. She gave Laura the impression that she knew she’d already won this round and she was not the least bit worried about what she said.

Anthony took the lead. He went over Sean’s movements—the ones Alex knew about.

“Was he interested in you?”

“Oh, he flirted with me. But I wasn’t interested.”

“Did you spend much time together?”

“No more than I did with any other guest. All that lying—it’s fun for a while, and then it gets boring.”

“Go on any hikes together?”

“Hikes?” She looked confused. “Why would I go hiking with him?”

Laura asked if she could use the bathroom.

“Go ahead,” Williams said. “It’s on the left.”

Laura looked at the bedroom, which was neat and somehow generic. She looked at the bathroom. Also neat and generic. She flushed the toilet, turned the faucet on and off.

She came back and stopped by the waist-high bookcase. It was crammed with books.

There were a few textbooks, some paperbacks—and a volume Laura recognized because she had it herself: Vernon Geberth’s Practical Homicide Investigation.

“I have that!” Laura said.

Alex looked up. “Oh, you do? I guess you would. That belonged to Nate. My ex. He wanted to be a homicide cop.”

“Oh?”

“Yeah. He made it through the Academy but as far as I know he never made detective.”

Laura would track down Nathan Williams and find out if that were true. She was beginning to suspect everything that came out of this girl’s mouth was a lie.

Anthony asked, “You’re majoring in geology?”

“Actually, the degree I’m working on is geochemistry. That’s the reason why I was staying at Madera Canyon in the first place.”

“I thought you said you were trying to get away from your ex-husband.”

“Yeah, that, too. Not everything is either-or.”

She actually pouted.

Anthony ignored the remark and the pout. “What’s in Madera Canyon?”

“I’m writing my thesis on the geochemistry of the Santa Rita Mountains. I’ve been collecting water samples from the watershed, trying to find out how much the leaching from the mines around there has affected the water chemistry over the last century and a half.”

It was all Greek to Laura. She could tell Anthony was having a hard time trying to follow that, too.

The girl went on about metamorphic core samples and geochemical watersheds until finally Anthony stopped her. “Do you own a firearm?”

“What? No! I’m scared to death of them!”

“So if we were to get a search warrant, we wouldn’t find a firearm?”

The mask fell away. “You’d have to have P.C. first, and frankly, I’m not seeing it.”

P.C. Probable cause. Either the girl was watching too many cop shows, or she’d been dipping into hubby’s Practical Homicide.

“Your friend Sean was shot with a .22,” Anthony said. “Do you know of anyone who has a .22, either a revolver or semiautomatic pistol?”

She held his eye. “No, I don’t.”

Laura said, “Can you tell me the nature of your relationship with Ruby Ballantine?”

“We’re together.”

“Together?”

“Let me spell it out for you. We’re lovers. We love each other.”

“So you knew Sean Perrin through Ruby?”

“Ruby asked me to keep an eye on him. She was worried about him.”

“Worried?”

“Yes. She heard he was in Madera Canyon and he wouldn’t come see us.”

 “Did Sean know you knew his sister?”

“Ruby didn’t want him to know. She’s touchy about that. He didn’t know she was gay.”

Laura nodded. Pretty neat. She guessed that everything was pretty neat in Alex World. “You lied to me.”

“No, I gave you one of my names.”

“And your friend in Continental?”

“What about her?”

“Her name was Alex Williams, too?”

The girl smiled. “Is it illegal to have two names? Or make stuff up? I know you’re a cop and everything but what are you going to do? Are you going to arrest me for lying? Is that what the government is doing these days?”

Laura matched her smile with one of her own. “Of course not. I just want to know why you were playing that game with me.”

“Because I felt like it.” She opened the door and escorted them out.

She remained there in front of her apartment as they walked down the steps and threaded past the caged pool and under the palm fronds and out to the car. At the car, they looked back.

Williams remained where she was, still smiling. And then she waved.

19: Down and Out and Out of Leads

Laura and Anthony continued to work the case whenever leads came in—most of them dead ends. Laura was convinced that Alex Williams and Ruby Ballantine were responsible for Sean Perrin’s death.

There were more pressing homicide cases, important ones that the powers that be wanted worked, and there weren’t enough hours in the day. Still, Laura would often drive out on West Speedway and look at the house on the hill. She took the case home on weekends and tried to push it forward, but it wouldn’t budge. She tried every angle, but other than surveilling the two women, there was little she could do—and she didn’t have time for that.

Laura had been here before. She was dead sure Ruby Ballantine and Alex Williams were involved in Sean Perrin’s death, but there was no way to prove it.

She kept the file on her computer and went back to it once in a while. Nothing changed.

Five months after she and Anthony stopped actively working on the case, Arthur Ferris Ballantine, Ruby Ballantine’s father, passed away.

Laura and Anthony attended the graveside ceremony at Evergreen Cemetery on Oracle Road.

It was a small knot of people, and from their ages, Laura guessed that they were mostly friends of Ruby. Alex Williams was there, looking carefree.

Ruby looked distracted. It seemed to Laura that Ruby spent a lot of her time looking around for Alex, who seemed to work the crowd like a bumble bee. She was popular with the small gathering, and so easy on the eye.

Ruby seemed a little lost, as if she didn’t quite know what to do with herself. Laura was watching Ruby when Alex talked to the preacher. The preacher bent his head to listen to Alex and there was an expression of yearning on Ruby’s face. Alex looked in her direction and Ruby looked away.

For her part, Alex spent little time with her lover. She was too busy enjoying her position as co-hostess—if you could call a funeral something you’d host.

The coffin was lowered and the prayers were said as an electric mower droned in the background.

Laura watched Ruby and Alex at the gravesite. Alex’s expression betrayed nothing, even though she recognized Laura. A normal person might feel strange, having lied to a detective about her identity. But Alex didn’t care.

Once, while in a conversation with a friend of Ruby’s father, Laura caught Alex’s eye. Alex smiled at her as if she were an old friend.

Ruby seemed a little out of it, acknowledging words of sympathy, but oddly detached. In shock?

She didn’t act like someone whose plans had come together with the efficiency of a Swiss watch.

Maybe Alex hadn’t told Ruby about her stay in Madera Canyon.

Maybe Ruby didn’t know about Alex’s involvement in her brother’s death. Maybe Alex had been freelancing.