"Not yet," said the man. "So far, he just bothered the wives."

"Bothered them how?"

"Trying to sell 'em stuff they didn't want. With my wife it was a guitar for my oldest. But Sean don't play the guitar, Sean's into sports, she told him that. He kept pushin', telling Dara kids who played instruments were smarter than kids who didn't play instruments, he had some good cheap guitars, Sean could pick his color. Dara said thanks but no thanks. He follows her all the way up to our door, finally she has to say, really, I'm not interested, and he's still talking. Dara told me about it later, I said let me go over there, she said if he does it again, no sense making a scene. Later we were having a barbecue with Doug and Karen--the Barretts--and Dara found out he'd pulled the same stunt with Karen."

"Trying to sell her a guitar."

"Drums, their oldest plays the drums, you can hear it a mile away when he practices. One day he catches Karen as she's driving up, tells her doesn't sound like Ryan's drum kit's any good. She says it's fine. He says it's really not, he can get her a better one, cheap. Karen says no thanks, we're fine, he gets pushy the same way he did with Dara. Karen's tougher than Dara, she yells at him to back off."

"Did he?"

"Yeah. But he had a foot in her door, that's weird, no?"

"Anything else about him we should know, Mr...."

"Roland Staubach," said the man. "I go by Rolly. This is a nice family block, he lives by himself, never goes to work. So tell me, how'd he get that Corvette? And that ginormous flat-screen?"

"You've been inside his house?"

"Me? Why should I?"

"You saw his flat-screen."

"It's right in front and sometimes he opens those sheets he uses for curtains. I'll be walking Rufus and he's right there for the whole world to see. Sitting on the couch in his underwear drinking and watching his flat-screen. When I saw you drive up in that unmarked, I said finally, someone I can talk to."

"You know about unmarkeds," said Milo.

"I used to drive for one of the tow-yard services used by your department. Van Bruggen's, over in Silverlake? Once in a while I hooked up an unmarked. So what'd he do?"

"Nothing," said Milo.

"Nothing? You knocked on his door."

"He's a potential witness, Mr. Staubach."

"To what?"

"Nothing that concerns the neighborhood. Is there anything else you want to tell me about him?"