“He was the only male in the house. Which, come to think of it, is a haremlike situation. All those teenage girls from troubled backgrounds. Maybe there’s a reason the Daneys ask for female wards.”

“Oh, man.”

“We know Daney’s a fraud and an adulterer, and we’ve just raised suspicions about his involvement in murder. Impregnating a minor under his care doesn’t seem out of character. He’d have been sure to terminate the pregnancy, which fits with Lee Ramos’s abortion. It could also explain her suicide. We’re talking about an extremely troubled girl whose relationship with her father was hostile. She’d be looking for a compassionate substitute. The state found her one but if he betrayed her, then had her sweep away the evidence, that would’ve been traumatic.”

“Surrogate incest.”

“Precisely the kind of violation that could have led to serious depression.”

“Slashing her arms on her birthday,” he said. “If it was suicide.”

“You’re thinking it wasn’t?”

“I’m letting my imagination run free.”

* * *

He phoned the Santa Barbara coroner, spoke to the forensic pathologist who’d conducted Lee Ramos’s autopsy, did a lot of listening, hung up shaking his head.

“Doesn’t seem to be any doubt about suicide. She locked herself in the room from the inside, put on music, the only window was painted shut. No sign of struggle, no defense wounds, just deep longitudinal gashes on her arms— serious intent. Beforehand, she polished off a pint of Southern Comfort and swallowed a bottle of Valium. If the razor hadn’t done it, the dope would’ve. The kids she lived with said she’d been really down for the last few weeks. They’d tried to get her to go party with them— it was for her birthday. Lee begged off at the last moment, said she was feeling sick.”

My eyes got tight. A girl I’d never met. “Birthday suicide,” I said. “Unable to face another year.”

Milo put his weight on the back of the bench, showed me the back of his head, folded his arms across his chest. A breeze ruffled the trees behind us. The grass responded a few seconds later.

“She always had some cash, so the roomies suspected she’d been turning tricks. Sixteen years old. It doesn’t get that way overnight, does it?”

Before I could answer, he shot to his feet, marched away slapping his notepad against his thigh. Nothing avian about his walk.

Bear on the prowl. Definitely a bear.

I followed, not sure what I was.

We returned to the car and cruised along the campus’s eastern periphery.

I said, “Daney works the system. I wonder if he’d dip into his own pocket for an abortion.”

Milo slowed. “Bastard knocks up a ward and bills the state? He’s been getting away with everything else, sure, why not?”