She scoured the apartment for liquor while Lakshmi ate, found a bottle of vodka in the freezer. She tucked it under the kitchen sink, then joined Lakshmi on the couch, told her about her run-in with Amireau.

Lakshmi seemed to grasp the main points but clung to consciousness like a drunk to a toilet. She tapped the satellite map on Caitlin’s laptop. “What’s that?”

Caitlin moved the computer closer to herself. “Not a tablet, honey.”

“Sorry. Does Dave have a swimming pool?”

Overhead clouds partially obscured the body of water behind Amireau’s standard-sized mobile home. Much larger than a pool, the area had straight lines around the edges.

Caitlin magnified the image. “It’s an old quarry that filled with rainwater.”

“That bell-end has a pool.” Lakshmi groaned, let a belch escape. “Sorry. That was well rank.”

Caitlin zoomed out to see the area north of the trailer. A thick ridge of forest separated Amireau’s lot from another, much larger quarry. A massive crater full of green-blue water led to acres of stone piles and a small group of buildings on the far end. The site looked active. Caitlin started a search.

“Let’s see who owns the place.”

“Let’s see who owns your face,” Lakshmi echoed. Her eyes-closed time approached.

No luck on the address Caitlin estimated as Amireau’s trailer.

She changed subjects. “Lakshmi, what was the name of the detective who started Angela’s investigation?”

“Greenwood?”

“No, before him. Do you remember their name?”

Her eyes fluttered. “Uh-huh.”

Caitlin relented. “Okay, want to try the bedroom?”

“Uh-huh.”

“That’s what I thought. Can you stand?”

Lakshmi managed the assisted stumble to the bed under Caitlin’s direction.

“Get some sleep, kid.”

“Sheep man,” Lakshmi answered from another consciousness.

“What’s that?”

“Sheep man,” she said again.

“Yep, get some sheep, man. I’ll be out here when you wake up.”

Lakshmi slept away the afternoon. When she woke at ten PM, Caitlin helped her to the bathroom, then another pill.

Chapter 42

CHAPTER

42

CAITLIN RELEGATED HER Lakshmi duties to Doris Chapman at nine AM, then drove the rented pickup to Frodo’s apartment.

Mary knocked on her window at ten thirty with a bag of bagels and two cups of coffee. “You want cinnamon raisin or onion?”

“An onion bagel? Don’t you have to talk to people?”

Mary got in. “Anything to keep the horny students away. You’ve got me for three hours. What’s the plan?”

“Caffeinate, sit and wait.”

Caitlin added a creamer to her coffee, stirred the concoction with her finger. “Ouch, that’s lawsuit hot. I need my tongue to work these days.”

Mary swallowed a mouthful like it was an ice-cold milkshake. “Really? You and the detective again?”

Caitlin detailed yesterday’s quickie with Greenwood. Mary countered with her and Aaron’s nocturnal adventures. They spent an hour over their breakfast, talking about the good world, no movement from Frodo’s apartment.