She returned to the interrogation room, set the Coke and granola bars on the table in front of Jared, and sat down across from him. “We didn’t have any candy bars. Hope these will do.”

“Thanks,” Jared said and popped the tab on the Coke.

Eve took out her notepad and pen. “How did you and Tanya meet?”

He took a sip of his drink. “It was a couple of years ago. She’d just come down here from Merced. I was day-playing on CSI and she was a corpse. Best role she’s had so far. No lines but plenty of close-ups.”

“When did you move in together?”

“Almost immediately. She was living in a crappy one-bedroom apartment in Van Nuys with the kids and couldn’t afford babysitters.” Jared reached for a granola bar, tore the wrapper open with his teeth, and eased out the bar. “So all of us staying at my place was the only way the two of us could be together, if you know what I mean.” He winked at her. “It worked for a while.”

“What went wrong?”

He took a bite of his bar and chewed it while he thought about that.

“I hardly saw her between my job and her waitressing and scrounging for acting work. I ended up stuck at home all the time babysitting her unruly kids and Jack Shit. Perfect name for the stinking dog. I was also paying most of the bills. I’d become her sugar daddy with none of the benefits and all of the headaches. So I gave her thirty days to leave.”

“How long ago was that?”

“Two months ago.” He washed down his granola bar with some more Coke.

“It must be frustrating that she’s still there.” She wasn’t really sympathizing with his problems. Her sympathies were with Caitlin and Troy. The tension in the house must have been hell on the kids, who were stuck with a mom who was hardly there and her boyfriend who resented them. It would have fallen on Caitlin to manage the situation for herself and her brother. Eve knew what that was like, except she had two siblings to watch over. It had often felt to Eve like her mom was just another child under her care, too, only a lot more difficult to control. She wondered if Caitlin felt the same way about Tanya.

“I’d like my bed back, I’ll tell you that,” Jared said. “The couch is killing me.”

“Was Tanya making any effort to go?”

“She told me the other night that she’d found a Realtor to help her out,” Jared said. “They were going to meet yesterday after Tanya’s Pilates class.”

“When is the class?”

“It’s at nine, the place by the Topanga post office.”

Eve nodded, taking notes. She knew the place. “Do you know who the Realtor is?”

“No, just that it was some lady she met at Pilates.”

Eve decided to go in a different direction. “What can you tell me about Tanya’s ex-husband?”