“That’s how she describes it. She walked into his office just as he got off the phone, said Larner was flushed and agitated. Then he composed himself and turned his attention to her. Which could be more than a coincidence. Harassers and rapists often get stoked by anger. Anyway, it’s probably no big deal, but it does fit with our working hypothesis: The Cossack family contracted Larner to hide Caroline until Janie Ingalls’s murder cooled down. Burns made contact with Caroline, then split, and the family panicked. But they never found him, he even managed to slip away after his dope arrest, because Boris Nemerov bailed him out immediately. Four months later he ambushed Nemerov.”

“Interesting,” said Milo. “Good work.” He summarized what he’d seen at Sangre de Leon last night.

“Big money,” said Alex. “Same old story. One more thing: When I was looking for Melinda Waters on the Internet, I got a few hits but dismissed them. Then I realized maybe I’d been too hasty about one in particular. An attorney in Santa Fe, New Mexico, specializing in bankruptcy and evictions. I’d been thinking about Melinda as a stoned-out truant, didn’t see a pathway from that to a legal career, but your comment about her turning up with a family and picket fence got me thinking, so I pulled up her website again and checked her bio. She’s thirty-eight years old, which would be exactly our Melinda’s age. And she didn’t graduate college until she was thirty-one, law school till thirty-four. Before that, she worked as a paralegal for three years but her résumé still leaves the years between eighteen and twenty-eight unaccounted for. Which would mesh with someone going through changes, pulling her life together. And get this: She was schooled in California. San Francisco State for undergrad, Hastings for law.”

“Hastings is a top school,” said Milo. “Bowie Ingalls described Melinda as a loser.”

“Bowie Ingalls was not a sterling judge. And people change. If I didn’t believe that, I’d choose another profession.”

“Bankruptcy and eviction . . . I guess anything’s possible.”

“Maybe she’s not our gal, but don’t you think it’s worth looking into?”

“Anything else interesting in her bio?”

“No. Married, two kids. Do they have picket fences in Santa Fe? Not that hard to find out. It’s a ninety-minute flight to Albuquerque, another hour by car to Santa Fe, and Southwest Airlines has cheap flights.”

“Calling her on the phone would be too easy,” said Milo.

“If she’s trying to put her past behind her, she may lie. There’s a flight at seven-forty-five tomorrow morning. I booked two seats.”

“Manipulative. I’m proud of you.”

“It’s cold there,” said Alex. “Twenty to forty Fahrenheit, some snow on the ground. So bundle up.”

CHAPTER

25