“I was brought up thinking fun meant good deeds.”

“Preacher’s kid?”

“You guessed it . . .” A shadow darkened his face.

Then a larger shadow, bearish, tinted the aluminum table pewter.

Daney turned to see Milo looming behind him, holding a greasy cardboard box. “Fresh out of the fat.”

“Smell’s yum, Detective.”

* * *

Milo let him have the first pick.

Jelly-filled. Just like last time.

As he chewed with obvious pleasure, I told myself to turn off the analysis, maybe he just loved jelly-filled doughnuts.

He wiped his beard, took another bite. “Aren’t these just the best?”

Milo said, “Guilty pleasures, Rev,” and swallowed a mouthful of cruller.

I got to work on a maple-glaze. Cars drove in and out of the lot. The air got warmer. A flock of pigeons flew over from across Vanowen and began exploring the leavings. Milo tossed them a crumb and they flittered like paparazzi.

Daney said, “There’s your good deed for the day.”

We laughed.

Just a bunch of guys, stuffing their faces with junk food, on a damp day in the Valley.

Milo said, “So have you come up with any insights, Rev?”

Drew Daney scanned the doughnut box, picked out a pink thing topped with chocolate sprinkles. “You haven’t been able to learn anything at all about Malley?”

“I wish. Guy seems to be a cipher.”

“Guess that fits,” said Daney.

“With what?”

“If he had a history of antisocial behavior, he’d want to cover his tracks.”

“Well,” said Milo, “if there are serious tracks, we’ll uncover them.”

“That sounds pretty confident, Lieutenant.”

“We usually get to the bottom of things. It’s just a matter of how long it takes— hand me that chocolate thing.”

The box was within Milo’s reach but Daney stretched to comply. “Anyway,” he said, “after you called last night I spent some time thinking about why Malley would get so violent after all these years. The only thing I can think of is that Rand became some sort of threat to him. Or Malley perceived Rand that way. Now, that would mean the two of them communicated somehow, so I looked at my phone bill to see if Rand made any calls over the weekend. He didn’t. So unless he spoke to Malley from prison, or used a pay phone, I don’t know what to tell you.”

“Where’s the pay phone closest to your house?” said Milo.

Daney’s eyes shifted to the left. “You’re able to check them?”

“Sure.”

“Well,” said Daney, “I think there’s one a few blocks that way.” Pointing east. “I never really paid attention. Nowadays, with cell phones, who uses pay booths?”

“People with no money,” said Milo.

“Hmm . . . guess so.”

I said, “Seems to me the ‘where’ isn’t important. It’s the ‘what’ we’re after. What Rand told Malley.”