“Trials and tribulations of being a landlord.”

“Are you one, too, Detective?”

“God forbid.”

Brad laughed. “It beats honest labor. The key is to keep things organized.”

He’d left the front door cracked six inches. Serape throws on chairs, a kilim ottoman, lots of leather. Propped in a corner was a white surfboard. Longboard, the type you don’t see much anymore.

The knobs on Dowd’s knees made sense. Surfer’s knots.

Milo said, “There was something about Dylan Meserve you wanted to tell us.”

“Thanks for waiting. I didn’t want Billy to hear.”

“Protecting Billy,” I said.

Dowd turned to me. “Billy needs protection. Sometimes it’s hard for him to put things in perspective.”

“Something about Meserve bother him?” said Milo.

Brad Dowd’s brow creased. “No, I just like to keep him away from what he doesn’t need to know...sure I can’t get you guys one of these?”

“We’re fine,” said Milo. “You take care of Billy.”

“He doesn’t need special care— he’s not retarded or anything like that. When he was born, there was an oxygen problem. We used to live together, then a couple of years ago I realized he needed his independence, so I got him his own place. A nice lady lives upstairs. Billy thinks they’re just neighbors, but she gets paid to be there for him. Anyway, about Meserve, it’s no big deal. My sister had a thing for him and I consider him a first-class sleazeball.”

“A mutual thing?”

Dowd stretched his legs, pointed his toes, massaged a knot. Maybe calcium explained the wince. “In some ways, Nora can be a bit of an adolescent. All the time she spends with young people doesn’t help.”

I said, “Dylan wasn’t her first thing?”

“I didn’t say that.”

I smiled.

Brad Dowd drank beer. “No sense bullshitting. You know how it is, a woman gets to a certain age, the whole youth culture thing. Nora’s entitled to her fun. But with Meserve it was getting a little out of hand, so I talked to her and she realized I was right.”

“You didn’t want Billy to hear this because...”

Brad Dowd’s mouth got tight. “It was a bit of a hassle. Convincing Nora. She’d have been a lot more upset if Billy got involved. If he tried to comfort her or something like that.”

“Why’s that?” said Milo.

“Nora and Billy aren’t close...the truth is, when we were kids, Billy was a source of embarrassment to Nora. But Billy thinks they’re close— ” He stopped. “This is family stuff you don’t need to know.”

Milo said, “So Nora broke up with Meserve?”

“It didn’t require a formal declaration because the two of them were never officially...” He smiled. “I almost said ‘going steady.’ ”

“How’d Nora end it with Meserve?”