Milo said, “DiMargio—the one with the tattoos and the body piercing—was possibly groomed as the wife’s shooter, then bumped when she was no longer necessary. The accountant may have been the first grooming candidate but she refused.”

“And the homeless gal just got on his nerves—the lawyer’s nerves,” said Gonzales. “That’s a little complicated.”

“Oh, yeah,” said Milo. “But any way you look at it, he doesn’t like women.”

“If his wife really slept with anything that moved, that couldn’t have helped,” said Gonzales. “But maybe he’s just paranoid.”

“Love to find out, Frank.”

“Wow … this is more than interesting—right up your alley, Doctor.” To Milo: “So what do you need from me?”

Milo said, “Don’t know your manpower situation, but I could use as much of a watch on Corey’s condo as possible. We drove by just before coming here. No car there, but he could be garaging it.”

“Mandalay Bay,” said Gonzales. “Access on both sides?”

“No, just on the street. Unless you consider a two-story deck access.”

“Maybe if he’s Tarzan. Yeah, I know the area. There’s a little promenade paralleling the harbor. You check if he’s got a boat?”

“There wasn’t one in his slip when we met him.”

“Easy enough to find out. In terms of our manpower situation, it’s what the bosses say it is on any given day. I’ll do my best to scare you up a couple of watchers but you might have to settle for kids, I’m talking real green. Rookies trying to score brownie points.”

“Beggars-choosers, Frank.”

“That’s what my wife tells me.”

Two hours later, well into evening, I pulled into the staff lot at the West L.A. station. As Milo unbuckled his seat belt, his phone played a Chopin étude.

Frank Gonzales’s voice on speaker, basso, mellow, steady. “Back at you, Milo. Snagged myself a sweet deal that’ll play to your benefit. Officially I’m on the job but I get to take my boat out and watch Corey’s place from the water, department’s even supplying binoculars. And no rules against fishing, in fact my captain agrees a couple of rods in the water will provide excellent cover.”

“How’d you pull that off?”

“Put away a whole bunch of bad guys,” said Gonzales. “Or maybe it’s my minty-fresh breath. Anyway, if Corey does take a walk on the promenade, I can keep an eye on him for a good quarter mile in either direction. Same if he sails away because, yeah, he does have a registered craft, nothing fancy, twenty-foot cruiser.”

Milo said, “Maybe it was out for maintenance the day we were there. As in he’s preparing to take a little trip.”