Robin had always hated hearing about the ugly stuff. Allison loves it. She carries a little gun in her purse, but my impulse is always to shield her.

“Alex?”

“Yes?”

“It wasn’t a trick question, dear.”

We were a block from the restaurant. I started talking.

* * *

Brief interruption as we ordered a T-bone for two and a bottle of French red.

She said, “It sounds as if Mr. and Mrs. Daney don’t communicate that great.”

“Why do you say that?”

“Mister keeps a secret from Missus and tells you about Rand’s fear of being stalked, the dark truck. All of which seems well founded, Rand was murdered. But Missus minimizes that and points you in another direction.”

“She really didn’t point me anywhere,” I said. “Mostly recited a bunch of psychobabble.”

“Her guilt about not ‘opening him up.’ She actually used those words?”

I nodded.

“Is she some kind of therapist?”

“She’s got some sort of certificate in spiritual counseling.”

“In the future everyone will be doing therapy, so there’ll be no time for anyone to get therapy. Maybe I should retrain in veterinary medicine.”

“You’d consider that after meeting Spike?”

“You love Spike like a brother. Admit it.”

“Do the names Cain and Abel ring a bell?”

She laughed, poured more wine, grew thoughtful. “It sounds as if Rand was this woman’s project and she figured she could heal him. Now that he’s dead, she’s tormenting herself that he was harboring a deep, dark secret that should’ve been brought to light. Which may be true, he implied the same thing to you. The big question is, Was his secret relevant to his murder? Doesn’t sound as if Ms. Daney has anything of substance to say about that. She’s basically preoccupied with her own guilt.”

“So why’d she try to reach Milo?”

“To feel she’s done her civic duty.” She played with my fingers. “On the other hand, Rand called you for a reason, and a few hours later he was dead.”

The food came.

Allison said, “You have no idea what Rand wanted to talk about?”

“He ended by saying he was a good person. I figured he was after some kind of absolution.”

“Makes sense, we’re not that dissimilar from priests.”

“What puzzles me,” I said, “is why he’d reached out to me. My role in the case was pretty minimal.”

“Maybe not to him, Alex. Or maybe he simply wanted to square things with everyone related to the case. Which would certainly include Kristal’s father. Who happens to drive a black truck.”

“Full circle to Barnett,” I said.

“What do you know about this guy?”

“Lara’s mother is certain he and Lara were dopers, suspects Barnett might’ve sold dope. She also says Barnett isolated Lara, which got me thinking about abuse. He lives out in the boonies, stockpiles guns.”

“Sounds like a charmer.”