“And when are you going to tell them the news?”

“As soon as I have news. I’m waiting for the techs to come and dust the boxes.”

Oliver walked into the office and took a chair. “I tried calling both of you last night…several times. Where were you?”

“I was inside an office building sorting through hundreds of CD demos,” Decker told him. “The reception was bad and by the time I got your message it was past twelve.”

Oliver turned to Marge. “What’s your excuse?” She blushed. “Never mind.”

“You didn’t leave a message,” Decker said. “I figured it wasn’t that important.”

“It’s not the type of thing you leave on voice mail.”

“What’s going on?” Decker asked.

“You first.” After Decker told him about the demo CDs found in Ekerling’s shelves, Oliver straightened his purple tie. It blended perfectly with his matching purple shirt. “It’s nice of you to solve Hollywood’s murder. How’s that going to translate into solving Bennett Little’s murder?”

Marge said, “I can help with that.” She spoke about her conversation with Jervis Wenderhole, aka A-Tack. “We have Wenderhole picking up Leroy Josephson from Clearwater Park. We have Leroy with a wad of cash in his possession. We have Leroy crying and acting upset. Then six months later, Wenderhole gets a call from Ekerling and he records a CD demo with Ekerling.”

“So that ties Ekerling to Wenderhole and possibly to Leroy Josephson,” Oliver said. “This would be great news if we were thinking that Ekerling murdered Little. Are we thinking that?”

“No,” Decker answered. “But I do think Rudy Banks is connected to both Little and Ekerling.”

Marge said, “History repeating itself: Banks hired Josephson to whack Little, and he hired Martel to whack Ekerling. I mean, why else would Martel whack Ekerling?”

“Yeah, about that,” Oliver said. “Why would Banks whack Ekerling? They’ve been in lawsuits for years.”

Decker said, “Like I told Marilyn Eustis, maybe the opportunity finally presented itself in the form of Travis Martel.”

“Banks randomly offered Martel money to whack Ekerling, and Martel accepted?”

“Maybe there’s a little history,” Decker said. “Maybe Martel thought that Ekerling was going to offer him a contract. After all, the note does say, here’s more, when is it happening? But a contract never comes through, and Martel moves on to Banks. While he’s with Banks, he complains about Ekerling. Finally Rudy sees an opportunity.”

“I know what he’s saying,” Marge told Oliver. “If we could establish murder for hire between Banks and Travis Martel, it would help us establish a history for a grand jury to charge Banks with murder for hire of Bennett Little using Josephson.”

“Correct me if I’m wrong, Marge, but didn’t you just tell us that Josephson is dead?”