“Let’s just say they’re less focused on long-term solutions.”

“Clean me up, sign a paper, send me home.”

She shrugged.

I said, “Did Muhrmann show any tendencies to violence?”

“I’m not going to answer that,” she said. “But don’t interpret my reticence as a yes.”

“Was there anything about him you found troublesome in terms of aggression?”

“I can’t tell you that, either,” she said.

“Maybe you just did.”

“I wouldn’t assume anything. Now, if there’s nothing more, I need to lead a group in—”

I said, “Constance Longellos.”

Manlow smoothed her thick hair. Stood, straightened a diploma that had been hanging straight. “I really do need to get going, the group’s waiting. It’s not a bad thing for addicts to learn to delay gratification, but no sense pushing it.”

As she headed for the door, I said, “Ms. Longellos served as a reference for Mr. Muhrmann, so he could rent a house. Like Muhrmann, she was convicted of drunk driving. That could be grounds for rapport.”

Manlow tapped the door frame.

Milo said, “The girl on TV was seen with Muhrmann hours before she ended up with her face blown off.”

Manlow’s knuckles blanched. “Gory details are supposed to shock me into an ethical lapse? I’m a physician, that kind of thing doesn’t bother me.”

“Does it bother you that a former patient you were unable to help may have gone on to commit murder?”

Manlow’s pale face colored at the peripheries, hairline, jaw points, and cheekbones reddening like an oxidizing apple filmed in time-lapse.

One of her beepers went off. The one without the tape. Snatching it from her waistband, she read the number. “I need to go right now. I’m going to buzz you out and I suggest that a return visit will not be useful for anyone.”

Chapter 16

ilo stopped to stare at the ranch houses before slipping into the passenger seat. “Place calls itself Awakenings but Manlow admitted most of the patients go back to sleep. Including Steve-o. The way she got squirrelly about Longellos tells me there was a hookup. And that Muhrmann was a problem child. So what constitutes a problem in a place like this?”

“Chronic noncompliance,” I said. “Or consorting with another patient. In this case an older woman with problems of her own.”

“Consorting,” he said. “Love your knack for the genteel. Yeah, maybe he consorted with DUI Connie. Who can’t be found anymore.” He grimaced. “The Caspar kid described Muhrmann as hostile and aggressive. Maybe women he consorts with don’t fare well. But Dr. Manlow wouldn’t come out and say he was dangerous.”