I said, “Maybe the tense conversation Reed saw between her and Fellinger means their relationship is fraying because she upgraded to a richer, more powerful man.”

“She’s in a Rolls, Grant’s paying for sex? Yeah, could be.”

“If we’re right about Fellinger, he doesn’t take well to rejection.”

He turned to me. “Flora put herself in the crosshairs? So I keep watching her … he wouldn’t be stupid enough to shoot a second woman in the parking lot.”

“Not unless he’s disintegrating mentally.”

“You see signs he is?”

“No, but if he starts taking crazy risks, you might have to warn her.”

Fish burbled. I threw in pellets.

Milo took the bag and tossed a few more. “Flora as Ursula Redux. That damn parking lot bothers me, if the morons would install cameras, it could make all our lives easier.”

I said, “Why not offer to provide the equipment if Al Bayless gets authorization?”

“The barter system.”

“It worked for a helluva long time.”

Bayless thought it was a great idea. Then he backtracked. “Got to clear it with the bosses and they take their time.”

We were half a block from the building, sitting in the arena-sized lobby of a tourist hotel, ignoring ESPN on multiple screens and nursing soft drinks.

Milo said, “What’s to clear, Al? You’re scoring freebie hardware.”

Bayless picked at the lapel of his uniform jacket. “You know how it is.”

“Not really.”

“C’mon,” Bayless insisted. “Those guys live for rules, everything needs to go through channels.”

“We’re talking cameras installed unobtrusively that you get to keep, not a penny outta your budget.”

“Yeah, that’s another thing. Unobtrusive. You’d have to do it after hours, no way I could agree to disrupting business.”

“We’d want to do it after hours.”

“That costs,” said Bayless. “Opening up the building.”

Milo glared at him.

“Okay, okay, I’m just being honest. And where would the feed go?”

“To you and to us,” said Milo. “Which is the definition of a high-end system, right? Anyone else you know feeds directly to the cops?”

“Yeah, but that’s not going to be forever,” said Bayless. “Your investigation ends, you cut off the feed.”

“But we’ll leave the damn equipment, Al. Talk about the ideal partnership between private and public sectors. One day you can run for mayor.”

“Oh, great,” said Bayless. “How about just shoot me, now—Look, I’m sorry for being a pain, I just can’t promise more than I know I can.”

“Do your best, Al. But quickly.”

Bayless sipped his diet Sprite. “You seriously think it could happen again? Another shooting down there? ’Cause that would not be good.”

“I can’t rule it out.”

“Why?”

“Better you don’t know, Al. Trust me.”

“Damn … when I say it has to be done after hours I mean like one, two a.m. I’d have to come in, too.”