“Soon as we’re done, I’ll call you and you can come over to be with them.”

“You think doing it this way will be easier for them?”

Milo said, “Nothing makes it easy but we’re old hands at notification, Mr. Corey. Unfortunately.”

“Put it in the hands of the experts … like I do with my shipping agents and my drivers—fine, let’s do it. Because I have to tell you, guys, I wouldn’t take your job on a bet. No offense.”

“None taken, sir. Is there anything else you can tell us that would help figure out who killed Ms. Corey?”

“If I knew the names of the guys she dated I’d give them to you. It has to be one of them.”

“We’ll check it out,” said Milo. “You think of anything else, let us know.”

We got up. Manly handshakes all around. Corey’s palms were as dry as his eyes.

At the door, Milo said, “Oh, one more thing, sir. You verbalized permission to access your phone records. Could you put that in writing, please?”

Corey’s eyes slitted. “You’re serious? I’m still a suspect?”

“It’s not a matter of that, sir. A lot of the job is the process of elimination. Once we clear you completely, we’re free to move on. But if it’s a problem for you, we understand.”

“No problem, hell, why not?” Corey returned to his makeshift desk, scrawled something on a piece of paper, thrust it at Milo. “Okay?”

Milo read. “If you could sign and date, please.”

“Oh, Jesus.” Scratch scratch scratch. “Here.”

Retrieving his glass, he went into the kitchen and poured three fingers of gin. Drank with his back toward us as we saw ourselves out.

We walked to the harbor side of Corey’s building. The deck railing was crusted with birdshit and in need of refinishing. Several ducks floated past Corey’s slip. Empty slot, no boat. Seagulls hovering above screeched territorially. We returned to the Seville.

Milo said, “Odd fellow, Mr. C. First he cries, then he gets kind of … I don’t know, matter-of-fact? Maybe a little paranoid, too? Both lawyers screwing Ursula? Unless it’s true and he’s learned to face reality.”

“Calling her a gun cocked and ready to shoot?”

“Yeah … so despite his alibi, you don’t see him as any less of a suspect than before we met him.”

I laughed.

He said, “Thought you might say that.”

CHAPTER

5

Ursula Corey’s address on Lobo Canyon was a thirty-minute drive from Richard Corey’s Oxnard condo.

I said, “Freeway-convenient. The two of them split up but Richard didn’t settle far.”

Milo said, “Maybe he was telling the truth about staying BFFs.”

“Or only he saw it that way.”

“He wanted to keep tabs on her?”

“Wouldn’t be the first time an ex hung on.”