"That's going to freak her out," said Winterthorn. "Could you say I'm not a suspect, you're checking out other people?"

"Hmm--if you've been totally truthful I guess I could do that."

"I have been, I swear. And you won't tell Emily, right?"

"Same answer, Jim."

"Thank you. I meant that." Winterthorn's eyes misted. Milo held out a tissue. Men usually refuse the offer.

Winterthorn didn't.

CHAPTER 12

CHAPTER
12

Enrico Hauer smiled dreamily, as if aroused from a pleasant nap. "How bizarre."

Windsor Prep's head of social studies had arrived ten minutes late, giving Milo time to call James Winterthorn's mother and inquire about the science teacher's whereabouts. Martha Winterthorn, Esq., played lawyer for a while, finally filled in the time frame. Her account left an hour or so unaccounted for and mothers were dubious guarantors, but Milo hung up saying, "At this point, you see any reason to bust the poor bastard's life wide open?"

"Not yet."

Bell ring number two.

The man we found striding into the empty living room was thirty-five to forty, tall, muscular, broad-shouldered, and handsome in a mirror-junkie way: thick, black, pomaded hair worn shoulder-length, perfectly arched eyebrows, glossed and buffed fingernails. He wore a body-conscious chocolate turtleneck, black slacks, two-tone brown-and-black clogs. His gold watch was thin, his pinkie ring bulky. As we got closer, the aroma of a lemony cologne thickened.

He took in the house's interior. "Nice. When can we open escrow?" Mellow baritone, the barest hint of Latin accent.

Neither Milo nor I laughed.

Enrico Hauer said, "I'm joking because I'm upset and disoriented. Being called to face the police is Kafkaesque."

Milo said, "One of those days, huh?" and guided Hauer to the back of the house. Seated in the chair James Winterthorn had occupied, Hauer slipped his hand between buttock and metal. "Already warm. This is the hot seat?"

"It's good to have a sense of humor, Mr. Hauer."

"Rico. As a defense mechanism it's less damaging than others."

"What have you been told about this meeting?"

"Dr. Helfgott's secretary informed me Elise Freeman was dead and that the police wanted to talk to some of the faculty."

"How well did you know Elise?"

"Not well at all."

"It's been suggested that you and Elise Freeman had an affair."

"An affair? How silly."

"Never happened, huh?"

"By silly I meant that word. Affair. As if formal invitations were printed. We had sex." Hauer shook his head. "That's why I'm here? For having sex."

"For having sex with a dead woman."

Hauer laughed. "I am not a necrophiliac."

"Correction," said Milo. "A woman who ended up dead."

"Well, I'm sorry for that, but here are the facts: Elise and I had purely physical sex many times. Surely you guys don't see that as strange. A woman I can see objecting. The blending of emotion and physicality. But we are different, no?"

"You teach psychology, right?"

"I love it," said Rico Hauer. "One day I may pursue a Ph.D."