The medicine cabinet had been emptied by the crime scene techs. The tub was grubby but unhelpful.

Milo kept staring at it. If he was feeling vibrations, he wasn't showing it.

Finally, he turned away. "Boyfriend's a guy not surprisingly named Sal, last name Fidella. He let himself in with his own key. Her car was here, no sign of forced entry or disarray. He found her in the tub immersed in dry ice, naked and blue. Accounting for sublimation, someone bought bags of the stuff, maybe twenty, thirty pounds. Because of no blood, the initial assumption was an O.D. Even though she hadn't vomited and Fidella claims she didn't use drugs and there were no pill bottles nearby. Fidella called 911. The tape's in the file and I've listened to it three times. He sounds totally freaked. But I haven't met him and I know nothing about him except what North Hollywood wrote. Which is no more than his driver's license says, so I'm reserving judgment."

"Where does he live?"

"Not far from here, Sherman Oaks."

"A couple but they live apart."

"Sometimes that works better."

"Sometimes it means domestic drama."

"You'll have a chance to meet the guy. Any other insights?"

"On the DVD she doesn't come across theatrical. Just the opposite: When she had good reason to dramatize, she played herself down."

"Depressed. You're thinking suicide?"

"Was she on top of the ice or submerged?"

"Partially submerged."

"That would've meant severe cold-pressor pain within seconds. Skin burns, as well."

"She was burned, all right."

"Most suicides avoid pain," I said. "And displaying yourself that way is flamboyant and exhibitionistic, nothing like the woman on that disc."

"Maybe she was trying to draw attention to those three teachers."

"In that case, she would've left a note and made sure the DVD was out in the open, not in the middle of a stack. Better yet, she'd have mailed it. There's also the matter of no empty ice bags."

"Those could be out in the trash, soon as we're out of here, I'll check." He took another look at the bathtub. Sagged. "Yeah, it's murder. You know it, I know it, His Grace knows it."

"But he'd love it if you could say otherwise."

"No signature on the note that came with the disc, but I know his handwriting. Even when he prints."

"Thought he had integrity."

"Everything's relative."

I said, "Who sells frozen CO2 around here?"

"Let's find out."

CHAPTER 3

CHAPTER
3

Two plastic garbage cans at the rear of the house were empty. Milo phoned the sanitation department, found out pickup wasn't for three days. Ten minutes of bureaucratic-maze-running got him talking to a lab supervisor downtown. Yes, all trash and other items from the crime scene had been taken for analysis; not a clue on when that would start, the case had been marked non-emergency.