He stepped away from the corpse. Looked it up and down. Expressionless.

Whipping out his phone he called the Van Nuys station. “This is Lieutenant Sturgis. Cancel the BOLO on missing fugitive Daney. Daney. I’ll spell it for you.”

CHAPTER 45

CHAPTER 45

Milo and I moved away from the body and waited.

“Hang ’em high,” he said. “More like hang ’em low.”

He was restless, went over and examined Daney’s sneakers. The fatal two inches. “Couldn’t have been comfortable. Think they used Drew’s gun or Barnett dipped into his arsenal?”

“I’d guess Drew’s. The temptation of poetic justice.”

“Cherish got that along with the money. If you’re already going for the irony, why hold back?”

* * *

Considering the need to proceed on foot up the dirt path, it didn’t take long for the six uniforms to arrive. Then four detectives, and a white coroner’s van bearing two investigators.

Milo briefed one of the D’s very quickly, then came over to where I sat, just outside the tape.

“Ready for dinner?”

“That’s it?”

“It’s someone else’s problem now.”

We had pasta and wine at Octavio’s, on Ventura Boulevard, in Sherman Oaks.

No conversation until Milo had finished half his linguini with clams. Then: “These rolls are great.”

“Yes, they are.”

A glass of Chianti later, I said, “Cherish may not have intended to, but she helped set Rand up to be killed. Maybe all she wanted was for him to rat out Drew, but it was a sloppy plan. She should’ve known he wasn’t smart enough to conceal his anxiety. Her hatred for Drew overrode that.”

“Sloppiness ain’t an indictable offense.” He broke off a piece of bread, sopped up sauce. “Delicious.”

“You’re really through with it.”

“Don’t see any reason not to be.”

“What about Cherish and Barnett stringing up Daney and blasting his balls off?”

“Wild West kinda thing,” he said, spooling linguine around his fork. Some of it dropped and he retrieved it, ate, got sauce on his chin. “And I ain’t the sheriff of Dodge.”

“Okay,” I said.

“We don’t know for a fact that Malley and Cherish were behind it, do we? Guy like Drew could make all sorts of enemies.”

I stared at him.

He wiped his chin with a napkin. “In any case, the Valley boys will pursue it to its logical end.”

“If you say so.”

“What, you’re not finished with it?”

“Guess I am. Except for therapy for the girls. If Detective Weisvogel calls.”

“That surprised me,” he said. “Given your attitude about long-term commitment. What, she catch you off guard?”

“That must’ve been it.”

He dove into his food again, came up for breath. “Sorry if I’m disillusioning you, Alex, but I’m tired.”

“Don’t blame you.”