Vince shrugged. “Maybe he’s Haley’s father. Or maybe he resented Marissa for her relationship with his mother.”

Dixon tried to dismiss the idea. “Darren Bordain is the golden child of that family. He’s had everything he ever wanted handed to him—an education, a career. He’s being groomed for the political arena.”

“I doubt any of that comes without strings attached,” Vince said. He looked to Hicks and Mendez. “You said he made some wisecrack about he should have had a fling with Marissa.”

“Yeah,” Mendez said. “He was on the sarcastic side when he talked about his mother, but ...”

“But what?” Vince asked. “He’s too smooth? Too good-looking? Too privileged?”

Mendez thought about it carefully. He did know better than to be fooled by appearances. “No. That’s just a big leap from resenting your mother to cutting a woman’s breasts off and sending them to Mom in the mail. I just didn’t get that vibe from him.”

“There’s a reason vibes aren’t admissible in court,” Vince said. “He should get a good look like every other guy who knew the victim. Don’t you think so, Cal?”

Dixon raked a hand back through his silver hair and sighed, no doubt weighing the cons of having Milo Bordain coming down on his head.

“Bring him in for a conversation,” he said. “But don’t make a big deal about it. Very low-key. Tell him we’re trying to build a more extensive picture of Marissa’s life and a timeline leading up to her death. We want to know who saw her when, who spoke to her, who has a solid alibi so we can eliminate those people from the suspect list.”

“That’s not a bad idea anyway,” Mendez said. “Let’s follow all the way through on that. We’ve got Steve Morgan in jail already. Let’s bring him over.”

Dixon gave him the eagle eye. “We do not have Steve Morgan in jail.”

“He assaulted me!” Mendez said, pointing to his fat stitched lip.

“You broke his nose and damn near fractured his eye socket. He wanted to file harassment and assault charges. I talked him out of it.”

“You talked a lawyer out of filing charges?” Trammell said. “You’re the man, boss.”

“He admitted to hitting you first,” Dixon said to Mendez.

“So he’s a cheat but not always a liar,” Mendez said. “Good to know he has something going for him. We should still bring him in to talk.”

Dixon stuck a finger at him. “You will have absolutely nothing to do with it. Do you understand me?”

“Yes, sir.”

“I mean it.”

“Yes, sir. I know, sir.”

“Stay away from his house. Stay away from his family.”

“Yes, sir.”

“I paid a visit to Zander Zahn this afternoon,” Vince said, taking the spotlight off Mendez.