Yeah, she should’ve, but he couldn’t tell her that. Instead, he said, ‘Everyone we’ve come across is connected to Sylvester Crow. Page was Sly’s lawyer. Gutierrez worked for Sly. Eugene and Freeman had a connection to him through this property-development deal. Delroy was at the house yesterday. Everyone’s in his sphere to some degree.’

She was looking at him, waiting for him to get to it.

Vincent said, ‘But Sly’s dead. So the question is, if he’s not in charge, who is? Who’s the closest you can get as a consolation prize? I’m betting it’s Delroy.’

She nodded. ‘I think you’re probably right. Andre, you get the impression he’s doing it for the pleasure, and then maybe it’s a bonus if he gets paid. Delroy, I think there’s something more complicated making his gears turn.’

In his side mirror, Vincent saw a police car pull up on Wilshire outside Page’s building. Two cops climbed out and headed for the lobby. Maybe Terry had decided to get the law involved. Or maybe someone had discovered all that broken glass. ‘It’s like you said this morning. He’s probably decided it’s best to act like he’s taking orders, rather than giving them. But I think he’s hung around Sly Crow long enough, seeing how things are done, he wants to find out what it’s like in the driver’s seat. Easy enough transition. He knows all the same people.’

‘Yeah. Maybe Casey Freeman had the same approach.’ She was looking out her window. ‘I had this idea I could find who did it and just shoot them. I don’t know why I thought I could do it, but I did. It was just sort of pulling me along through yesterday.’ She shook her head. ‘But I just couldn’t. Even though they had a gun, I couldn’t shoot them. There was almost this voice in my head going, Are you sure? Are you sure? I just couldn’t do it.’

One thing he was going to ask her when all this was wrapped up: how come she had misgivings about shooting Andre—a clear example of reasonable defence—but using force abroad was something she could justify with zeal?

He saw a second police cruiser pull up outside Page’s building, policemen ease themselves up and out—the slow and wide-armed air of old-west gunslingers.

Vincent said, ‘Probably the best thing to do is go back over the road and tell these guys what’s happened.’

Erin checked her mirror. ‘They’ve got more than enough people to give them a description.’

‘One way to look at it.’