“Definitely not.”

“Definitely not?”

“I definitely don’t know. He could be anywhere.”

Milo edged closer, pressed his hip against the hinges of the driver’s door. “What surprises me is the lack of curiosity. All you guys. Someone you know gets killed, you’d think there’d be some interest.” He sliced air horizontally. “Zippo, no one cares. Is it something about actors?”

She frowned. “Just the opposite. You need to be curious.”

“To act.”

“To learn about our feelings.”

“Nora tells you that.”

“Anyone who knows anything tells you that.”

“Let me get this,” said Milo. “You’re curious about playing parts, but not about real life?”

“Look,” said the girl, “sure, I’d like to know. It scares me. The whole murder thing. Just talking about it. I mean, come on.”

“Come on?”

“If it happened to Michaela, it could happen to anyone.”

I said, “You see it as a random crime?”

She turned to me. “What do you mean?”

“As opposed to something that had to do with Michaela.”

“I— she was— I don’t know, maybe.”

Milo said, “Was there something about Michaela that made her a likely victim?”

“That thing she— they did. Her and Dylan. Lying.”

“Why would that put her in danger?”

“Maybe they ticked someone off.”

“Are you aware of someone that angry?”

“Nope.” Too quickly.

“No one, Briana?”

“No one. I got to go.”

“In a sec,” said Milo. “What’s your last name?”

She looked ready to cry. “Do I have to say?”

Milo tried for a soft smile. “It’s routine, Briana. Address and phone number, too.”

“Briana Szemencic.” She spelled it. “Can this be off the record?”

“Don’t worry about that. Live around here, Briana?”

“Reseda.”

“Bit of a drive.”

“I work in Santa Monica. With the traffic it’s easier to stay in the city and go back later.”

“What kind of work do you do, Briana?”

“Shitty work.” Rueful smile. “I’m an assistant at an insurance agency. I file, I get coffee, I gofer. Beaucoup excitement.”

“Hey,” said Milo, “pays the bills.”

“Barely.” She touched her lips.

“So who was pissed off about the hoax, Briana?”

Long pause. “No one that much.”

“But...”

“Nora was a little frosted.”

“How could you tell?”

“When someone asked her about it she got this real tight look and changed the subject. Can you blame her? It sucked, using the PlayHouse like that. Nora’s a private person. When Michaela never came back, I figured Nora gave her the boot.”

“Dylan came back.”

“Yeah,” she said. “That was the funny thing. She wasn’t mad at Dylan, kept treating him nice.”

Milo said, “Even though the hoax was mostly his idea.”

“That’s not what he said.”

“Dylan blamed it on Michaela?”

“Totally, he said she really worked on him. Nora must’ve believed him because she...like you said, he came back.”

“Does Nora like Dylan more than the other guys?”