Milo crossed Rexford at Olympic, turned left on Whitworth. “How’re things, Sue?”

“Things are great— pipe down, Fritz.”

“San Bernardino treating you well?”

“I could do without the smog, but Dwayne and I have a great weekend place in Arrowhead. How about you?”

“Peachy. What brings you to B.H.?”

“In the words of Willie Sutton, that’s where the money is,” said Kramer. “Seriously, it’s a sad one. Divorce case, Korean couple, the usual hassles over money and custody. The husband decided to kill himself, made sure the wife found him.”

“Gun?”

“Knife. He ran a bath, got in, cut his wrists. That was after calling the ex and telling her she could have the car and the kids and all the spousal payment she’d demanded. All he wanted was for her to come by so they could talk like mature adults. She walked in, saw bloody water running all over the apartment. Coroner says suicide but his divorce lawyer hired us to make sure.”

“Iffy?” said Milo.

“Not at all, but you know attorneys. This one wants to rack up a few more billable hours before he closes the file. Which is fine with Bob— my boss. We don’t make moral judgments, we just do the job. The apartment where it happened is back there, I’m supposed to watch it for a few days, see if anyone interesting goes in or out. So far, nothing, I’m going out of my mind. You did me a favor by calling.”

She leaned forward to get a better look at me. “Hi, I’m Sue.”

“Alex Delaware.”

I reached back and we shook hands. Milo told her who I was.

“I know that name,” said Kramer. “You evaluated Turner and Duchay, right?”

“Right.”

“Talk about sad.”

Milo said, “Duchay’s dead, Sue. That’s why we’re here.”

Kramer stroked the poodle. “Really? Tell me about it.”

When he finished, she said, “So you’re thinking: If Malley’s a vengeance-crazed killer, maybe he did the same to Lara.”

“I’m sure you were right on, but you know how it is when stuff comes up— ”

“No need to stroke me, Milo. If the situation was reversed, I’d do the same thing.” She sat back. The dog’s breathing had slowed. Kramer whispered something in its ear. “Fernie and I did a good job on Lara. Coroner confirmed it was suicide, there was no reason to think it wasn’t. Lara was what you psychologists call profoundly depressed, Doctor. Since Kristal’s death, she’d lost weight, was taking medication, slept all day, refused to socialize.”

“You got this from Barnett?”

“That’s right.”

“I found him a rather taciturn fellow.”

“Yeah, he did have the old Clint Eastwood thing going on,” said Kramer. “But Fernie and I had bonded with him because we caught the two little monsters.”

“What was his reaction to Lara’s death?”