“Daney had his suspicions, but at that point, Daney wasn’t sure killing Rand was necessary. Another Kristal-related death might set off a whole chain of events he couldn’t control. Which is exactly what happened. After he dropped Rand off, he stuck around to watch. Saw Rand walk away from the mall, watched him head for the phone booth. Rand was agitated when he called me, his body language would’ve been easy to read. When Rand left the booth, Drew went after his quarry.”

“Picking him up again,” he said. “This time it would have to be at gunpoint, Rand wouldn’t have gone willingly.”

“Drew’s deviousness can’t be discounted. I can see him using a phony story— Cherish had suddenly taken ill, they needed to get home fast. Maybe Rand figured that if he didn’t show up at the pizza place, I’d sound some kind of alarm and someone would come to his aid.”

If so, he’d overestimated me.

Milo said, “Okay, one way or the other, he gets back in the Jeep and Drew drives somewhere secluded— the dump site says it was probably up into the foothills of Bel Air. Rand, not knowing the city, doesn’t catch on that Drew’s taken a detour. Drew finds a spot, pulls over. Then what?”

“Rand was big and strong, so Drew needed to avoid a physical struggle by keeping it friendly. He’d prepared by opening the Jeep’s passenger window. Came across calm, paternal, even spiritual. Rand was probably looking straight ahead, scared and confused but fighting to maintain calm, when Drew pressed the gun against his temple and pulled the trigger. Drew had plenty of time to wipe down the Jeep and look for the bullet. Then he cruised back to Sunset after dark, drove to the on-ramp, made sure no one was watching, and dumped the body. The next day, he probably washed the Jeep. But there still might be some kind of transfer— blood, powder residue, tiny bone fragments.”

“Good story, Alex. Great story, makes perfect sense. But clever plots don’t earn warrants.”

“You’ve already got grounds for a warrant,” I said. “Drew’s statutory rapes. Get the downtown juvey team interested, toss the house, include the Jeep in the paperwork.”

“For that I need DNA to prove what Daney did to Valerie,” he said. “Or one of the other girls coming forward.”

“You saw him with Valerie at the clinic.”

“I saw him waiting and picking her up. It’s suggestive but not probative. Any progress on Beth Scoggins?”

“No.”

“Just like that.”

“Just like that.”

“Allison’s adamant?”

“Let’s leave it at ‘just like that,’ ” I said.

Silence. “Any other suggestions?”