“It’s a hypothetical. It’s just as logical to assume Barnett knew Nestor from the drug trade.”

“And Cherish is just a plain old adulteress.” Another chest rub.

I said, “Itch?”

“Self-administered cardiac massage. If Cherish and Malley didn’t hook up during the six months it took for the boys to be sentenced, when would they have the opportunity?”

“They used to live pretty close to each other.”

“What, a chance meeting at Kmart? One look at Cherish and Barnett goes from enraged dad to lover boy?”

I shrugged.

“Okay, let’s put that aside and think about the next body: Lara. That could still be what we theorized— Malley blamed her for Kristal, their marriage was falling apart. But toss in a new girlfriend and you beef up the motivation. Wonder if there was any life insurance out on Lara.”

“If there was Malley didn’t use it to finance the good life.”

He jotted in his pad. Picked up the bag and tossed more pellets to the fish.

I said, “The new girlfriend wouldn’t have to be Cherish.”

“Barnett’s a ladies’ man?”

“He looked pretty jaunty exiting the motel and you felt there was chemistry between him and Bunny MacIntyre. Cherish, on the other hand, seemed pretty tense.”

“The cowboy’s a player,” he said. “Sure, why not. MacIntyre’s crack about not keeping tabs on his comings and goings was gratuitous bullshit. You saw the layout there. He drives his truck through the trees and she’s not gonna notice? Next d.b.: Hannabee. Though I’m still not convinced she’s part of it. Cherish making it with Barnett spin that in any new way?”

“The Daneys were providing support to Jane during the trial. Cherish might have known where Jane slept at night.”

“The fixer, again. Okay, for argument’s sake, Cherish is a charter member of the Very Bad Girls Club. What does that say about the case the city’s actually paying me to work on?”

“It points to another setup,” I said. “If Cherish is dirty, Drew was telling the truth about Rand hearing noises under the window, seeing the black truck. Barnett Malley went after Rand because Rand knew something about Kristal’s murder that threatened him. Something Rand told Cherish because he trusted her.”

“She goes and rats him out to her boyfriend. What would Rand know, eight years later, that threatened Barnett?”

“The obvious answer is Barnett had something to do with his daughter’s death.”

“The boys beat and choked Kristal, no one debates it. Why would Barnett have had anything to do with that?”

“Don’t know.” The two of us sat staring at the fish that I’d put in the pond because I thought it would help me relax. Once in a while, it does.

Milo said, “Even if there is something to that, why eight years later. What are we talking about? One of those recovered memories?”