“Coma-time watching Tony’s place, went over to Kat’s apartment at seven a.m. Place looked like Martha Stewart had just filmed there.”

“Mom’s artful hand.”

“I called for techies anyway. No evidence of any violence or struggle but one thing Mom didn’t find was a Baggie of weed at the bottom of a tampon box. No credit card receipts, which would fit with ol’ Monica cutting her off. No phone records or tax returns, either, but Kat didn’t keep paper around, period. Not a single book in the place and the only magazines were old copies of Us and Elle. She did hold on to a few travel souvenirs — cheap crap from Hawaii, Tahiti, Cozumel. Snapshots, too. Her in bikinis, too-big smiles, no men friends. Like she got someone to take her picture to prove she was happy.”

“Sounds like a lonely girl.”

He yawned. “Anyway, I got the blouse.”

We returned to watching the dogs. The retriever was circling the lot with the intensity of a sprinter training for the big race. It stopped. Resumed circling. The border collie had lost interest and its handler led it back to the K-9 car.

“Dog’s life,” said Milo. “If nothing happens soon, I’m on my way to the boutique where Kat worked. Someone’s got to know something about her personal life.”

I said, “I’ve been thinking about the Ojo Negro killings. Leonora Bright was murdered only eight days after her father died. Her stepmother was terminally ill, making the sibs heirs sooner rather than later. A boilerplate will would split everything fifty–fifty with reversion to the survivor. Leonora was in her thirties, so there’s a good chance she never wrote a will of her own.”

“Scary brother gets rid of her to make sure she never sees a lawyer.”

“It’s a motive. And not that different from the one we’ve suggested for Tony Mancusi: Kill Mom before she changes her will.”

“There’s a specialty hit man out there fixing inheritance problems and both Ansell and Tony just happened to find him?”

I said, “I know it sounds remote but think about stolen black cars and costumes.”

“Theatrical traveling hit man… can’t dismiss it, but before I get historical, I need to focus on the here and now. If we can find some kind of link between Tony and Ansell, I might start breathing hard.”

“Donald Bragen thought Ansell was incapable of that level of violence because he sounded effeminate over the phone.”

“And Tony vamps. Okay, a theatrically gay specialty hit man. Bragen look into Ansell beyond his vocal qualities?”

“He didn’t even know Ansell’s real name because Ansell called himself Dale. And alibied himself for the time of the murder — working. Bragen accepted it.”

“Oh, Lord.”