“That’s what they call C.Y.A. guards. Counselors.”

He laughed. “There was a squirrelly feel to the place, Alex. Lots of silence, no mistaking the tension. Later, reading the local paper, I found out there’s all sorts of rumbling about an investigation of the whole C.Y.A. system by the legislature. Too many dead wards. Top of that, their record-keeping’s even worse than the department’s. But all was not lost— got any more yogurt?”

“Mi fridge es su fridge.”

“Now it’s Spanish? Go get a gig at the U.N.”

“Talk about miscreants.”

He created a second concoction using honey as the sugar source, consumed it at a more measured pace.

Four gulps, sitting down.

“Say what you want, but sometimes gluttony pays off,” he said. “I hadn’t had a thing to eat since the night before, the dive I was staying at didn’t have room service, and by the time I got outside, I was feeling pretty mean. First place I spotted was a bar and grill two blocks from the prison. Bartender got the kitchen to microwave a plate of spareribs, and we started talking. Turns out he used to work as a prison cook, left seven years ago.”

“A year after Troy’s murder.”

“Ten months to be exact. He remembered Troy’s murder clearly, was there when they took the body out. Couple of counselors carried it right through the kitchen out to a loading dock. Didn’t even bother to wrap it, just put the kid on a board and used belts to keep him from sliding off into the soup. Bartender said Turner didn’t look much bigger than a plucked turkey, was about the same color.”

He strode to the fridge, pulled out a beer, popped the top, sat back down.

I said, “Bartender had a good eye for detail.”

“It helped that there was no love lost between him and the prison. He claims they fired him for no good cause. His other clear memory is that there was a prime suspect for the murder. Not a Vato Loco, an independent freelance knife-boy named Nestor Almedeira. The V.L.s and the other gangs used him and guys like him when they wanted to keep a low profile. And guess what? Said prince got out a few months ago and his last known address is right here in L.A., the Westlake District.”

“Almedeira ever work for nongang clients?”

“As in Barnett Malley? Who knows? As far as I can tell, Malley never visited. Ditto for Rand. All Troy got was three personals, one from his mother and two from Drew and Cherish Daney. No phone logs were kept.”

“What put Nestor Almedeira in Chaderjian?” I said.

“He knifed two other kids to death in MacArthur Park when he was fifteen. Served six years for manslaughter and got out.”

“Two dead kids is manslaughter?”