“Maybe an opportunity came up elsewhere. Or they did return and Brian Agajanian is holding back on any other hookups because he doesn’t want the site drawn into a publicity nightmare. SukRose claims careful screening of members but Brian just told us they don’t collect significant data on the girls. If they’re not much more discerning with the men, it wouldn’t be much of a challenge for a slick psychopath to get in.”

He phoned Agajanian. The attorney swore that Markham Suss had been Tara Sly’s only Sugar Daddy. “The door’s already been opened, Lieutenant. I have no reason to play games.”

Milo didn’t answer.

Agajanian said, “What do you want from me?”

“The truth.”

“You have it. One client. Period. If there was another and he killed her, I’d want you to know because I’d want you to catch him because the last thing we need is some nutcase using us. She had one Daddy and that was Suss. One. Uno. Mek—that’s Armenian. Okay?”

Milo rolled his eyes. “Your sisters claim they screen everyone.”

“They do. A criminal background check is run on every candidate.”

“So you ran one on Tara Sly.”

“And it came back clean.”

“I’d expect that, Brian, seeing as Tara Sly’s not her real name.”

Silence. “That’s not our responsibility.”

Milo said, “Ever think of working for the federal government?”

“Look, Lieutenant, in the last analysis we can only go by what they tell us. We’ve never had a problem.”

“Until now.”

“We still don’t have a problem. Markham Suss died nine months ago. Last time I checked people can’t murder from the grave. We’ve cooperated fully. Why do you have to keep pushing your weight around?”

“Bulk is my secret weapon,” said Milo. “Makes lunch tax-deductible.”

He clicked off. “Okay, let’s assume Muhrmann and Tara were doing some kind of dinner theater at the hotel. If the production went real wrong, Muhrmann could be a second victim, not a suspect. That would sure fit two killers, Mr. Bad Date brought along help in order to subdue a big, aggressive man.”

“Makes sense.”

He yanked his tie loose. “Makes sense but it would also mean bye-bye prime suspect and back to square one. The elusive Ms. Longellos isn’t jumping out at me as someone I need to pursue. She hooked up with Muhrmann at Awakenings, wrote him a reference, big deal. Okay, let’s head back to civilization. I saw some chicken in your fridge this morning looked fine, so Thai will just have to wait for the privilege of entering my digestive tract.”

Robin was in the living room, snuggling with Blanche and reading.

Milo bowed and kissed her cheek. He looked down at the dust jacket, grinned at the title. Trouble. “Someone already wrote my autobiography?”

“It’s a novel, darling.”