“Right on the park bench,” said Krug. “Your kiddie killer was sitting, too?”

“Maybe in a car. Anything happening on the case, Phil?”

“You’re about it,” said Krug, finishing his burger and wiping his lips. “Be sure to let me know if you learn anything. Be nice to close this one, even if no one else gives a shit.”

“No family agitation,” said Milo.

“You met the sister. She thinks Nestor was scum. Family wasn’t making any moves to claim the body, coroner had to keep bugging them. Finally, one of the brothers paid for the mortuary to pick it up.”

Krug waved and the waitress brought the check and placed it in the center of the table. He took some time cleaning his mustache, pulled a steel toothpick from his shirt pocket and worked it around his gum line.

“So.” He smiled.

Milo picked up the check.

Krug said, “You made my day,” and sauntered out.

When the waitress came by for payment, Milo said, “We’ll have coffee.”

She glanced disapprovingly at the completed bill. “I’ll have to retotal.”

Milo handed her a wad of bills. “Keep it.” She flipped through the money and winked. “On the house.”

As she returned to the counter, he said, “If Malley was the white man who paid Nestor to hit Troy Turner, Nestor was an obstacle that had to be cleared up. On the other hand, Nestor had a big mouth, and for all those years at C.Y.A. he never gave Malley up.”

“Because he wanted to get out,” I said. “But once he was free— and stoned— his inhibitions dropped. He bragged to Anita, so there’s a good chance he talked to other people. The problem is, they were probably people who didn’t care.”

“Other junkies and losers,” he said. “To them he’d be just another fool shooting off his mouth. Anita did care and tried to report it and everyone shined her on.”

Milo pulled on his upper lip. “Another proud moment for the department. . . . Nestor’s crime scene sounds a lot like Rand’s. And Lara’s. Okay, that makes Malley suspect-of-the-week.”

“There’s another unnatural death we should think about. Jane Hannabee was killed a few months after Troy. When I interviewed her she predicted Troy’s death. Said his notoriety would make him a desirable target. From what Anita said, that’s exactly how Nestor saw him.”

“You think Hannabee figured out who paid to kill Troy?”

“Or she was eliminated out of revenge because she spawned Troy,” I said.

“You destroy my family, I destroy you. Man, that’s cold.”

“So is shooting your own wife six months after she’s lost her only child and faking it as suicide.”

His forehead creased. “Hannabee wasn’t shot.”