Kenten lifted the cup. "She tutored many students, not just Marty."

"You heard it from another kid at Prep?"

"At this point," said Kenten, "I'd prefer not to get into those details. Suffice it to say they don't impact your investigation."

"I should be the judge of that, Mr. Kenten."

"Lieutenant, I didn't need to call you in the first place, so please don't punish civic responsibility. Let's just say that Ms. Freeman had acquired what you people would call a jacket--that is the correct term?"

Milo said, "A jacket is a criminal history, backed up by an official record."

"Well, then, let's say Ms. Freeman had acquired a... sweater. Something jacket-like--a cardigan."

Kenten chuckled. Encountered two stoic faces.

"Please forgive me, I'm not making light of her death. Terrible, terrible thing, no one should die unnaturally. I'm just saying she trod on shaky grounds with some male students, so perhaps you should broaden your focus."

"Sure," said Milo. "Give me some names."

"Someone I know--not Marty--talked to me in strict confidentiality. Someone with only thirdhand knowledge, so there'd be no point."

"School gossip?" said Milo.

"I'm sorry, that's all I can say."

"She was a cougar so she had to die?"

"Pardon?"

"You said no one should have to die unnaturally. That sounds as if she'd been sentenced."

Kenten massaged a freckled dome. "I thought I left that kind of parsing behind when I dropped out of law school. It was a figure of speech, Lieutenant. Look, I sympathize with Ms. Freeman and her family. I'm sure they're devastated. And I'm certain you'll eventually get to the bottom of it. But I'm here to tell you that the sooner you get away from chasing Marty, the sooner you'll succeed. He's a fine boy, I'd be proud to call him one of my own, and I've got six of my own, as well as nine grandchildren with two more on the way. So I'd like to think I'm a pretty good judge of juvenile character and Marty's character is sterling. The same applies to his family, you'll never meet more upstanding, industrious people. I found out about Marty through Emilio. He works at my club and we've become friends."

Mistaking subservience for friendship, the way rich, delusional people do.

Milo said, "You've called us here for the sole purpose of offering character testimony?"

"Forgive me if I've wasted your time," said Kenten. "However, this isn't some situation where a friend of a friend asks me to write their offspring a letter to get them into Prep or Yale. I'm familiar with this boy's character in depth."

"You went to Yale?"

"Class of 'fifty-two, graduated at the bottom of my class, started law school, quit and went to Korea. You're ex-military, correct? Combat or ancillary?"

"I was a medic."

"That's combat," said Kenten. "I was ancillary. Monitoring inventory at one of the larger armories in Seoul. Taught me all about people, no need to get an M.B.A. after that."