"Exactly," said Hertzlinger. "I said something to the effect that 'I'm glad you're pleased about your plans.' That's when she said it: 'It's not a matter of being pleased, Mary. So many madmen, so little time.' "

Chapter 14

"She was in a big damn hurry to work with psychotics?" said Milo.

It was noon. We were standing next to the Seville, on Butler Avenue, across from the West L.A. station.

"She had plenty of psychotics at County," I said. "She wanted madmen."

"Why? To squeeze a few more syllables out of them? To hell with all that, Alex, I'm concentrating on the boring stuff for now. Located a safe-deposit box at her bank, actually managed to finagle my way in with the death certificate. No cash, no dope, no B&D videos, no drooling letters from psycho pen pals. Stone empty. So if she did have some secret life going, she kept it very well wrapped."

"Maybe we should go back further-grad school, the years before she moved to L.A. I can try talking to someone at Case Western."

"Sure, but tomorrow you'll have a chance at something better. Her parents are arriving on the red-eye tonight. I have a date with them at eight A.M. down at the morgue. No need for them to view the body, tried to talk them out of it, but they insisted. After all that fun, I'll try to sit down with them. I'll give you a call where and when. Probably be late afternoon."

Several young officers walked by. He watched them for a while, stared at the roof of the Seville, flicked dirt off the vinyl. "Reviewing Richard's file was sobering. Not as much of a file as I remembered. The only people I spoke to were Richard's landlady and parents and the staff at the restaurant where he worked. No listings in the 'Known Associates' column. Sound familiar? I made another try at locating the film outfit that Richard might've auditioned for-Thin Line. Still can't find a trace of them. You'd think even a rinky-dink outfit would make a mark somewhere."

"Something about the movie bothers you?"

"They've got carpenters on movie sets, right? All sorts of tools, including saws."

"Plenty of knives in restaurants, too."

"Maybe I'll go back there."

"One possible angle on Thin Line," I said. "Even fly-by-nights need equipment. A small outfit would be likely to rent rather than own. Why not check some of the leasing companies?"

"Very good," he said. "Thank you, sir." He laughed. "Any other case I wouldn't consider the film thing half a lead. But these two-you don't wanna blame the victim, Alex, but the least they could've done is relate to someone."