“Casual acquaintances,” Mandy told him.

But her eyes were elsewhere. Marge said, “Would you know where he lives?”

Mandy looked away. “Why would I know where he lives?”

“Maybe you went to a party there?”

“Can’t recall that.” Mandy looked at her hands. “I could probably get you his address, but you could probably do it just as easy.”

“Not a problem,” Oliver said. “Just wondering if you knew it offhand because we need to talk to him.” When Mandy didn’t answer, he said, “You know we need to ask all sorts of personal questions.”

Marge said, “So if I asked you personal information, you shouldn’t be offended.”

“Because we ask everyone personal information,” Oliver said. “Like I could ask you if you had a thing going on with Garth.”

“No!” Mandy dried her eyes. “Why would you think that?”

“Just a question,” Marge said.

Oliver said, “Because if you had something going on with him, we’d eventually find out about it.”

“So now’s the time to fess up,” Marge said. “Hiding stuff makes you look bad.”

“I don’t have anything…” Again her eyes moistened. “He came on to me, okay?”

“See, that was simple,” Marge said. “What could you tell us about it?”

“Nothing happened. I wasn’t interested.” She shook her head. “It was at one of Adrianna’s parties. She had them almost every other weekend. He cornered me in the kitchen and tried to mash me. God, it was embarrassing. He was drunk. So was she.” She dabbed her eyes. “It’s hard for me to talk smack about her, especially now that she’s…and we used to be such good friends. It’s not that Garth is a bad guy. He’s just a player. Everyone knows he’s a player.”

“Did Adrianna know?”

“Maybe in the back of her mind, she did.” She stood up. “I’ve got to get back to my shift. If you want to talk to me again, please don’t do it here. I live in Canoga Park. I’m in the book.”

“Thanks, Mandy,” Marge said, “you’ve been very helpful.”

“No problem. Just find the bastard who hurt her. Adrianna may have had her issues, but who doesn’t have problems?”

“True that,” Marge said as she watched the nurse walk away. Then she said, “What do you think?”

“An emotional girl for someone who had drifted away from the victim.” Oliver shrugged. “What’s going on with Garth?”

“His landline answering machine says…” Marge checked her notes. “That Garth, Aaron, and Greg went river rafting and wouldn’t be answering calls for a week. If he left a couple of days ago, he’s given himself an alibi.”

“Some people have perfect timing.”

“You know what I think, Oliver?” Marge said. “Perfect timing is always suspicious.”

CHAPTER NINE