He left. I lingered and glanced at the photos. Mae West, Harold Lloyd, John Barrymore. Doris Day and James Cagney in Love Me or Leave Me. Veronica Lake and Alan Ladd in The Blue Dahlia. Voight and Hoffman in Midnight Cowboy. Black-and-white faces I didn’t recognize. A section devoted to youth acts. The Lennon Sisters. The Brady Bunch. The Partridge Family. The Cowsills. A quartet of grinning kids in bell-bottoms called the Kolor Krew.

I returned to the front room. Milo and Brad Dowd sat at the edge of the stage. Dowd’s head was down. Milo was saying, “You can help by trying to remember where your sister goes when she travels.”

“She wouldn’t let that thing in the garage and just go off somewhere.”

“Covering bases, Mr. Dowd.”

“Traveling...okay, she flies to Paris every year. Later in the year, mid-April. She stays at the Crillon, costs a fortune. Sometimes she goes on to the south, rents a little chateau. The longest she’s been away is a month.”

“Anywhere else?”

“She used to go everywhere— England, Italy, Germany— but France is the only place she really likes. She speaks high school French, never had any of those problems you hear about.”

“What about here in the States?”

“She’s been to a health spa in Mexico a few times,” said Dowd. “Down in Tecate. I think she also goes to a place in Ojai. Or Santa Barbara, somewhere in that vicinity. She likes the whole spa thing— you think that could be it? She just wanted to be pampered and I’m worrying about nothing? Hell, maybe Meserve did learn the combination and stashed that piece of shit and Nora knows nothing about it and is getting a mud pack or whatever.”

His fingers drummed his knees. “I’ll get on the horn, call every damn spa in the state.”

“We’ll do that, sir.”

“I want to do something.”

“Help me by thinking back,” said Milo. “Did Nora mention anything about traveling recently?”

“Definitely not.” Brad bounded up. “I’m going to check on Billy, then it’s over to Nora’s house, Lieutenant. She doesn’t like me using my key but what if she fell and needs help?”

Milo said, “When’s the last time you remember seeing her with Meserve?”

“After Meserve pulled that stunt and she assured me it was over.”

Milo said nothing.

Dowd’s laugh was bitter. “So what’s his damn car doing here, right? You think I’m clueless.”

“Your sister’s an adult.”

“So to speak,” said Brad Dowd softly.

“It’s tough being in charge,” I said.

“Yeah, it’s a day at the beach.”

Milo said, “So you have a key to Nora’s house.”