“She was p.o.’d. Did what happened to her relate to drunk driving or something?”

“Doesn’t seem that way.”

“Thank God, I’d feel terrible about that.”

“Beth, is there anyone besides Rory Cline and Michael Browning we should know about?”

“No one I can think of.”

“No one Kat met at the club that night?”

“She didn’t meet anyone. That was what p.o.’d her. We thought of inviting her but figured it would be uncomfortable.” She walked faster, gritted her teeth, cried silently.

“Beth, did Kat ever talk to you about problems with anyone?”

“Just her mother. They didn’t get along.”

“What about people at work?”

“She hated her job, thought the girl she worked with was a suck-up. That made me feel a little bad because I was the one who told her about it.”

“What’d she hate about the job?”

“Lousy money, boring, you name it. Kat had a tough life. Her real dad died when she was young. Her mother was a slut, had men coming and going all the time. Finally, she found a rich guy.”

“How’d Kat get along with the rich guy?”

“She actually liked him better than her mother. Said he was more laid-back, didn’t pressure her. With her mother it was always criticism.” She sucked in breath, took a long time to exhale. “Kat was beautiful but didn’t know it. The truth is — I’m realizing this now — I’ve never seen her really happy.”

“How’d she deal with her unhappiness?”

“What do you mean?”

“Sometimes people escape.”

“Oh,” she said. “Her drinking. Yeah, it could get out of hand. But you just said DUI had nothing to do with it.”

“It didn’t. So there’s no one she had conflict with recently?”

“I can’t think of anyone.”

“Someone told us a strange story, Beth.”

“What’s that?”

He repeated the incident with the cross-dresser.

She said, “Oh, that.”

“Kat told you.”

“She thought it was hilarious.” A trace of a smile said Beth had agreed.

“She describe this guy?”

“Omigod — you think he could be—”

“We’re just collecting facts, Beth.”

“Did she describe him… just that he didn’t look queer-y on the outside, you’d never know.”

“Masculine.”

“I guess.”

“Let me ask you something else, Beth. Would Kat have been impressed by money?”

“Isn’t everyone?”

“How about a special attraction?”

The pretty face went slack with confusion.

“Fancy houses, expense accounts — real nice cars. Any of that float her boat?”

“Sure, all of the above,” said Beth Holloway. “That just makes her normal.”

CHAPTER 18

CHAPTER
18

Milo ran backgrounds on Rory Cline and Michael Browning.

Cline was easy — one motorist with that name in L.A. County. Studio City apartment, no criminal record, wants, or warrants, eleven-year-old Audi.