“No, sir, that’s the thing! I mean there was no reason to consider him at all, I never even saw him go in, that was Ottmar and he didn’t report anything weird to me and while I was here nothing changed, nothing indicated trouble or struggle or anything, sir. The TV even kept going. And when he came out and got in his car he seemed normal.”

“Normal, how?”

“Not jumpy, not looking around like he’d done something wrong, sir. He just drove away.”

Her lips quivered. Milo patted her shoulder. “You did fine, don’t beat yourself up.”

Frank Gonzales entered and took in the corpse. “Our Mr. Corey.”

“None other, Frank.”

“Well, this sucks. Okay, got a call in to a righteous judge for a victim’s warrant, got all the other usual stuff in motion.”

Sheila Entell’s shoulders rose. “Sirs, I just thought of something. When he left wasn’t the only time I saw him. Shortly before, he came out and put stuff in his vehicle. But, again, normal, I really wasn’t—”

“What kind of stuff, Officer Entell?”

“Boxes, bags—” Entell’s body went rigid. “I might be able to give you details, sirs! The vehicle. First off, the make: gray Corolla, sirs, of that I’m sure. I also remember some of the tag numbers, not all, really really sorry, but some, maybe that’ll help a little?”

Milo whipped out his pad. “Go.”

“Okay,” she said, inhaling deeply. “I want to make sure I get this right … okay … first an ‘S’ then two 7s. No, no, wrong, just the opposite, sorry, okay, this is it: two 7s first, then the ‘S.’ ”

Milo said, “So, 77S and four digits you didn’t see.”

“Yes, sir. Only reason I noticed the 7s was there’s this old TV show my grandpa used to work on. Seventy-Seven Sunset Strip, he was a cameraman, always talks about how his old shows were better than the crap on today. He also worked on that other one, Rockford, whatever, anyway when I saw it, I thought 77S, like 77 Sunset, you know?”

Milo said, “Good work, Sheila.”

Sheila Entell stared at him. “Really?”

“Really. Anything else you remember?”

“No, sir, like I said, he walked away normal and later he drove away normal. He always looked normal.” Her eyes dared a peek at the corpse. “You really think it was him?”

“We don’t know. Did he leave alone?”

“I didn’t see anyone else.”

“No woman.”

“Not on my shift, sir, just him. Brian and Ottmar never mentioned a woman, either. But maybe they wouldn’t. He was just the neighbor, they were watching Corey.”

Milo said, “Could you check on that, Frank?”

Gonzales was already on the phone.

Rookie patrolman Brian Sweeney had never seen anyone enter or exit, period, including the tall man wearing glasses.