I let her talk for a while. Eulogizing Tori but providing nothing new. When I brought up the dating issue, she said, “A mother can tell, believe me. But I’ve got no details, Tori was really into being free, no more girl talk with Mama. That was something her father couldn’t grasp, he always bugged her.”

I thanked her and punched in Michael Caravanza’s number. A woman answered.

“Hold on— Mii-keee!”

Moments later a slurred, “Yeah?”

I explained why I was calling. He said, “Hold on— one second, babe. This is about Tori? You found her?”

“Her remains were identified yesterday.”

“Remains— oh, shit, I don’t wanna tell Sandy, she knew Tori.”

“Did she know her well?”

“Nah,” said Caravanza, “just from church. What happened?”

“That’s what we’re trying to figure out. Did you have contact with her after she moved to L.A.?”

“We were divorced, but we were getting along, you know? Like they say, amicable. She called me a coupla times, maybe the first month. Then it stopped.”

“No more loneliness.”

“I figured she hooked up with someone.”

“She say that?”

“Nah, but I know— knew Tori. When she had that voice it meant she was excited about something. And it sure wasn’t her acting career, she wasn’t getting shit. That she told me.”

“No idea who she was seeing?”

“You think he did it to her?”

“Any lead would be helpful.”

“Well,” said Michael Caravanza, “if she did what she said she was gonna do, she hooked up with some movie star. That was the plan. Go to Hollywood, the right clubs, whatever, meet some movie star and show him she could be a star, too.”

“Ambitious.”

“Ambitious is what split us up. I’m a working guy, Tori thought her shit was— she thought she was gonna be Angelina Jolie or something— what’s that— hold on, babe, just a sec— sorry, Sandy’s my fiancée.”

“Congratulations,” I said.

“Yeah, I’m gonna try the marriage thing again. Sandy’s nice and she wants kids. No big church deal, this time, we’re just gonna do it with some judge then go off to Aruba or something.”

“Sounds nice.”

“Hope so. Don’t get me wrong, Tori was a nice girl. She just thought she could be someone else.”

“The few times she did call,” I said, “did she say anything that could help us?”

“Let me think,” said Caravanza. “It was only three times, four, whatever...what did she say...mostly she said she was lonely. That was basically it, lonely. In some shitty little apartment. She didn’t miss me or want to get back together, nothing like that. She just wanted to tell me she was feeling shitty.”

“What did you say?”

“Nothing, I listened. Mostly that’s what I did when I was married. She talked, I listened.”

* * *

I reached Milo’s cell and reported both conversations.