He thought for a while. “When we were partners, Cal had kidney stones. Maybe he had one recently.”

“Oh, okay. That explains the oxycodone. But you don’t know if Cal took pain medication regularly?”

“I suppose if the bottle was over a year old, it wouldn’t look like he did. What are you driving at, Decker?”

“I don’t know, Arnie.” He tried to organize his thoughts. “The medicine was over a year old and the bottle was almost full. I would think that Cal might have forgotten about it. I just don’t see him medicating himself before he took the gun. But you would know better than I would. What do you think?”

Lamar stared but didn’t speak.

Decker said, “You know what I’m getting at. I want to make sure that Cal didn’t get help in killing himself.”

Lamar nodded. “And who might have helped him?”

“I was going to ask you that.”

“I don’t have a clue. I don’t think Cal had much in the way of friends. But I don’t think he had anything in the way of enemies. He kept to himself.”

Decker took out a notepad. “When the Little murder happened, was it a particularly hard time in Cal’s life? Is there something associated with the case that would have set Cal off?”

Lamar thought about it. “I don’t remember. It was a long time ago. A lot of water under the bridge.”

“You said that Cal J might have felt guilty about the death.”

“Just speculating.”

“Where did the Vitton boys go to high school?”

“North Valley, but both of them had graduated before the Little murder.”

“How long before?”

“Four, five years.”

“Did they know Dr. Little?”

“Yes, they did. We talked to the boys about Dr. Little, and like the rest of the community, both had positive things to say about him. Cal J was especially fond of Little. Cal J was having problems with some boys at school and I think Little intervened and diffused the situation.”

“What kind of problems? Bullying?”

“What else?”

“Cal J was the target of homosexual bashers?”

“That was the rumor.”

“So his classmates probably knew he was gay,” Decker said. “What about Big Cal? Did he know?”

“If he knew, he wasn’t admitting it.”

“Who was responsible for the bullying?”

“I don’t have any idea, but I think Cal J is comfortable enough that if you ask him about it, he’d tell you.”

“When did Cal J come out?”

“Way after the murder. About ten years ago.”

“So he was about in his late twenties?”

“About. Him being gay had nothing to do with Little. Like I said, Cal J was fond of Dr. Ben…that’s what he called him. Dr. Ben.”

“So Cal J graduated about five years before Dr. Little was murdered?”