“We were dealing with two deaths, fifteen years apart, in different parts of L.A. The principal investigators on the Little case had retired. Banks probably thought that no one would notice.”

“I did.”

Decker smiled briefly. “Yes, you did. And maybe Banks thought that even if the cops did realize the similarities, we’d blame the murders on Ryan Goldberg. He was the one who was unbalanced.”

“But Ryan had nothing against Primo Ekerling. Primo was his friend.”

“You’re right, Ms. Greeves. I can’t answer that question well. I don’t know what went through Rudy’s head.”

“All right.” She clicked on her laptop. “That’s not a completely sufficient answer, but I suppose it’s the best you can do.” She typed away. “That’s taken care of. Now what about Cal Vitton? Why did he commit suicide? Or was it murder?”

“We’ll never know for certain. I think it was suicide.”

“Why?”

“Okay, let me see if I can make some sense. Phil Shriner had passed along Rudy’s name to Cal Vitton as a suspect in the Little murder. Shriner knew that Melinda had had an affair with Rudy and he thought that Rudy looked like a pretty good candidate for Ben Little’s murder. But Vitton never followed through. Maybe he forgot about the tip or maybe he chose to forget about it. I think Vitton didn’t want to antagonize Rudy because Banks knew that Vitton’s younger son was gay.”

“I thought you said that everyone knew that Vitton’s son was gay.”

“But Cal J hadn’t come out of the closet. Big Cal was embarrassed about it and didn’t want the information to be common knowledge. Big Cal was from the old school where homosexuality was an embarrassment.”

“Vitton was embarrassed enough to hide a murderer?”

“Maybe. Besides, Vitton didn’t know for certain that Rudy had anything to do with Little’s death. I’m betting that he probably chose not to find out one way or the other. I do know that Big Cal had been so ashamed of his son’s homosexuality that he didn’t stop Rudy and other boys from bullying his own flesh and blood.”

“That’s appalling.”

“Yes, it is.”

“So why should Vitton have sudden pangs of remorse?”

“Maybe Vitton knew it was all going to come out in my investigation. Maybe he didn’t want to be around to see his reputation crash. Or maybe he was just depressed. Then again, maybe Rudy slipped him some pills, aimed the gun at his head, and somehow had Cal pull the trigger.”

“Cal pulled the trigger?”

“Yes, we’re certain about that. It’s the why that’s a mystery.”

There were lots of mysteries that they’d never know now that Rudy Banks was dead. Like whose blood was splashed under the baseboard of his apartment.

Win some, lose some.