I said, “More like puzzle pieces fitting together. Williams is attuned to weakness, Corey is emotionally unstable. During the divorce negotiations, Williams sniffed out Corey’s mounting rage when no one else did. When the time was right, he made himself available. Unlike Corey, he does know how to be subtle, probably raised the subject in a way that wouldn’t incriminate him if Corey balked. That’s why I think his acting out at work is significant. He’s stopped pretending to be normal.”

Milo said, “Maybe because Corey paid him big-time for the hit and he no longer needed the job.”

Robin said, “But the big picture is hatred of women.”

I nodded.

“It always comes down to that, doesn’t it?” She touched my face. “Talking to wood doesn’t seem half bad.”

We set out for Oxnard just before eight. Smooth sailing all the way to the 101 and we were well into the West Valley when Milo’s phone burped a few digitalized notes from Brandenburg 6, Movement 1. Shame to do that to a masterpiece.

“Sturgis … who? Don’t know anyone—oh, yeah, I do, put her through … this is Lieutenant Sturgis, what’s up … really? From where did they … all right, I’m listening.”

He’d neglected the hands-off and all I could hear was a female voice chirping nonstop.

When that ended, he said, “Anything else you want to … yeah, sure … tell them I’m available if they want to speak directly … I understand that … pardon? Oh, sure.” He laughed. “But let’s hope it doesn’t come to that … yes if it does happen, I’ll vouch for you, promise.”

He stared at the silent phone. “You won’t believe who that was. Sassy little Laura Smith, Ashley and Marissa just phoned her, she wouldn’t say from where, but we already know. The main thing is they wanted her to pass along a message to me, even though they don’t generally trust the police. They’re scared for their lives, want their father ‘busted.’ Sooner rather than later.”

“Putting in their order.”