“Not by name but my daughters intimated she was dating pretty heavily.”

“How did you feel—”

“Initially it hurt, but I realized that wasn’t rational, we were divorced, I had no claims on Ursula. So rather than eat my guts out, I learned to live with it. Told myself it was like learning to live with an alcoholic or an addict or a hoarder if you cared about them. I mean, let’s face it, everyone’s got quirks, that was hers.”

He studied the bottom of his empty glass. “I know you guys are judging us but I loved her and wanted her happy, so you can believe me or not, I don’t care.”

I said, “Did you and Ursula continue to—”

“From time to time,” said Corey. His eyes fluttered, closed, reopened at half-mast. Looking at his glass with yearning, he said, “With me she made love. With everyone else it was sex. Once I was able to stop thinking of it as betrayal, to consider it like having lunch with friends, I was okay.”

He put the glass down. “This is going to sound brutal but did you attend Ursula’s autopsy? Detectives do that, right?”

“It’s a bit early for that, sir.”

“Well,” said Corey, “here’s a prediction for when you do attend: They’re going to remove Ursula’s clothing—tight jeans, right?—and find out she wasn’t wearing any panties. How do I know? Because after the divorce Ursula told me her new motto: ‘Ready for action.’ ”

I said, “Adventurous.”

“Like a gun cocked and ready to shoot.”

If the metaphor gave him pause, he didn’t show it, began turning the glass between his palms. “Trust me, guys, that’s what’s going to solve it. She went overboard and slept with the wrong guy. Some scumbag she thought she understood but didn’t. I mean you can only engage in high-risk behavior for so long before it bites you, right?”

Milo said, “Why did the two of you get divorced?”

Corey crossed a thin leg. “Because Ursula wanted to and at that point I couldn’t find a reason to tell her no.”

I said, “She’d brought it up before.”

“Constantly. Whenever she was in a low mood or stressed about something, she’d start in on three topics: running off to a remote place to find a slower pace of life, moving back to Asia because even though she didn’t believe in God she admired the Buddhists and their ability to move on.”

Retrieving the glass, he gazed toward his kitchen.

I said, “What was the third topic?”

“Pardon?”

“You said she talked about three things when she was—”