“You’re kidding,” she said. “First of all, Brian never gave me a name. Second of all, this was almost a decade ago.”

I said, “Can’t fault a guy for trying.”

“I really can’t imagine Dale doing anything criminal. Anyway, gotta go—”

“How’d Dale come to work at the shelter?”

“Walked in one night and volunteered. I was up to my elbows in abandoned puppies and it was a blessing. He got right to work, cleaning, feeding, checking for fleas. He was great.”

“Can you describe him for me?”

“Big,” said Shantee Moloney.

“Tall or heavy?”

“Both. At least six feet, probably taller. He wasn’t really fat, more like… padded.”

“What about his hair color?”

“Light — dirty blond, but it was dyed. He wore it long — shaggy, over his forehead. But it always looked clean and shiny. Real shiny. That’s what I meant about carrying himself well. He wore hemp shoes and belt. But there was always a… I guess what I’m saying is he managed to look polished.”

“Did he ever talk about his family?”

“Nope.”

“No personal details at all?”

“The other cop asked the same thing and that made me realize Dale’s family never came up. I’d call Dale a private person. But not cold. Just the opposite, friendly. And businesslike — really into doing the job efficiently.”

“Any other physical details you can remember?”

“His beard was darker than his hair — medium brown.”

First mention of facial hair. “Full beard or goatee?”

“It totally covered his face. Reminded me of that guy used to be on TV, that mountain man — Grizzly whatever — Adams. But Dale was no mountain man.”

“Too polished.”

She laughed. “You could say that.”

“Gay?”

“A lot of us are. So where’d Dale end up?”

“That was going to be my next question.”

“I’m supposed to know?” she said.

“Did he ever talk about traveling?”

“He did say he liked the great cities.”

“Which ones?”

“Paris, Rome, London, New York. Maybe Madrid, I don’t recall. The only reason I remember the conversation is he and Brian kind of got into it. Brian saying if you really loved animals you couldn’t love cities, cities destroyed habitat, and Dale launched into this lecture about the cats of Rome and how they adapted and thrived. Then Brian said the whole urban thing was a cliché — April in Paris, et cetera — and Dale said some clichés persisted because they were valid, the great cities were called that because they were, and if Brian thought San Francisco was sophisticated, he was naive. It just kind of went on that way for a while, then they returned to work.”

“Did Dale mention any other places he liked?”

“Not that I remember.”

“No Grizzly Adams,” I said.

“His nails were always clean and manicured and he wore after-shave. Couldn’t tell you the brand, but it was something nice and citrus-ey.”

“Anything more?”