Milo talked to Susan Palmer for another ten minutes, easing into open-ended questions, putting pauses and silences to work.

Good technique but it didn’t produce. She talked about how much she missed her sister, lapsed into exclusive past tense. When she shot to her feet, her eyes looked bruised. “Got an office full of malocclusions. Please stay in touch.”

We watched her cross the parking lot and get into a silver BMW740. The license plate read: I STR8 10.

Milo said, “Her office is two blocks away but she drove.”

“California girl,” I said. “Something her sister wanted to be.”

“Acting lessons and a hike above Kanan Dume. Can’t be coincidence. The question is how do the Gaidelases figure in with a couple of pretty-face female victims?”

“That girl we spoke to— Briana— said Nora rejected applicants for reasons other than talent.”

“Wanting ’em young and pretty,” he said. “Cathy and Andy were both too old and Cathy was too fat. So what, they got turned away from the PlayHouse and killed? Talk about flunking an audition.”

“Maybe their obvious vulnerability got a predator sniffing.”

“Someone at the school spots ’em and stalks ’em?” He gazed out the window and back at me.

I said, “Could be the same way Tori Giacomo was spotted. If her ex is right about her dating someone, you’d think that person would’ve surfaced when she went missing. Unless he had something to do with her death.”

“A good-looking predator. As in Meserve. What, he proposed a three-way to the Gaidelases and the party went bad?”

“Or he just offered to help them with their careers.”

“Yeah,” he said, “that would work.”

“On the other hand,” I said, “Reynold Peaty had plenty of opportunity to check out the flock at the PlayHouse.”

“Him...let’s see if Sean’s seen anything.” He tried Binchy’s number, scowled, clicked off. “No connection. Maybe the cell waves are upset by environmentally conscious mochalicious fumes.”

I said, “Nora’s attachment to youth is interesting.”

“Why? That just makes her like everyone else in showbiz.”

“But she has no profit motive. The school’s a make-work project, so why get picky? Unless what she really wanted was a personal dating pool.”

“Sample the studs,” he said.

“And when they get too close, Brother Brad chases them off. Or thinks he does.”

“Okay, she’s a middle-aged horn-dog. How do the Gaidelases figure in with that?”