“Especially not to say hello.”

“How about for money?”

“Nope. Although if she did contact me, it would have been for money. Nah, I haven’t heard from her. Ruby has been flush the last couple of years. Probably whoring. Or stealing. Or even dealing.”

“How about computer hacking?” Martinez brought up.

“What?”

“Playing with computers.”

“Yeah, Ruby used to do that a lot.”

Webster said, “I didn’t see her computer up there.”

“She took it with her.”

“What did you do with the belongings she left behind, Mrs. Ranger?”

“Threw them away. I would have burnt them in the fireplace—you know—to make a statement. But then I was afraid I’d set off the smoke alarms.”

“Did she leave any disks or CD-ROMs behind?” Webster threw in.

“Nothing that I took notice of.” Alice swirled the ice in her drink. “I bought her a laptop. A state-of-the-art Toshiba. It put me back almost eighteen hundred dollars. God, was I a sucker.”

“So whatever was left over in the room,” Martinez said, “you threw it all away?”

“Threw it away, gave it away. She had an old Nintendo game system. I gave that away to Goodwill. I also gave away her bed, her furniture, her old TV, and the clothes she left behind. As far as I’m concerned, that girl is my daughter only on her birth certificate.”

Webster said, “You’re angry.”

“Furious.”

“Do you know if she was doing anything illegal?” Martinez asked.

“She was doing drugs.” Alice shrugged. “That’s illegal.”

“What kind of drugs?”

“I don’t know…I never asked. She’s been doing them since she was fourteen. Nah, I don’t know for certain that she was doing something real bad. But she hung in bad company.”

“Like who?”

“She brought home strange boys. The last one was really spooky. A black boy. Light skinned but you could tell it anyway.”

“Darrell Holt?”

Alice thought a moment. “He never did say his name. She brought him by twice. I put my foot down. I said no bringing boys up to your room. She spit in my face and told me she’d eff whoever the eff she wanted to eff.” The woman sighed. “I shoulda kicked her out.” Tears. “But it was my own daughter.”

“Did she come home with any other friends?”

“Once or twice she brought up the boy who was in the papers.” Alice’s eyes darkened. “The one that was…”

“Ernesto Golding,” Martinez filled in.

Alice made swipes at her cheek. “What happened?”

“That’s what we’re looking into,” Webster stated.

“You think Ruby had something to do with it?”

“You tell me,” Martinez answered.

“How should I know? I never had any idea what that girl was doing.” But her eyes told a different story.

Martinez pressed her. “Did you ever meet Ernesto?”