“I got nothing here, just a few clothes.” Glancing at the copper bong.

“Where are you parked?”

“Down below.”

“We’ll walk you.”

A beat. “Okay.”

Her car was a new red baby Benz, scratched and dented, in need of washing.

Milo said, “You’re sure everything’s cool at home.”

“Yeah, Immy’s cool. Not like him.”

“Ashley and Marissa’s dad.”

“I always thought he was a freak.”

“Why’s that?”

“He’s like no … feelings? You say something and it’s like android-freak-o in the room.”

“Was he ever mean to Ashley and Marissa before?”

“Uh-uh. He bought them whatever they wanted, only thing is he’d want them to watch TV with him. They said it was boring, they’d try to get out of it.”

“They don’t like TV.”

“You think?” she said. “You stream on your phone. He’s a freak, watching stupid murder shows, they’re like ge-ross. But he gave them money and stuff when they wanted.”

“No more,” I said.

“He’s a frickin’ freak,” said Laura Smith. “Stealing their stuff? Glue? Telling them no?”

CHAPTER

27

The red Mercedes drove off.

Milo said, “My prayers answered, bastard made a big mistake.”

“What?”

“Getting between girls and their horses.”

We returned to the sisters’ apartment, where he searched for a lead on their whereabouts. Plenty of evidence for a penny-ante drug bust and more than enough for health department shutdown but they’d covered their tracks.

I drove back to the city and he called Moe Reed, pulling the young detective off nighttime watch on Flora Sullivan and assigning him to keep an eye on the Corey girls’ building.

“They’re unlikely to show up, but maybe. The main thing is be on the lookout for their father, he’s who they’re running from.” He described the changes in Richard Corey’s behavior.

Reed said, “Killing their horses? That’s cold, what does Doc think of all this?”

Milo said, “Angry man buttoned up for a long time, the buttons are popping.”

“Poetic,” said Reed.

Milo grinned. “Doc can get that way.”

“So the theory is all that buttoning made him tense, he took it out on other women besides Ursula?”

“Good summary, Moses. Where’s Sean?”

“Same as me, L.T., watching the building. Why do you think Corey’s freaking out now?”

“He probably thinks he’s in the clear, can do whatever he wants.”

“Well,” said Reed, “we’ll see about that.”

Call number two was to Oxnard PD where after several false starts Milo connected with Homicide Detective Francisco Gonzales and asked for help with Richard Corey. Gonzales, jovial sounding and deep-voiced, was nearing the end of a thirty-hour haul, closing a multiple-victim, home-invasion gang shooting.

“Got my confessions, now I need to get toothpicks for my eyelids.”

Milo said, “Congrats. Listen, if it’s too much of a hassle, tell me who else I can talk to.”