I brought him another open bottle, and he finished it within seconds and handed me the empty. “Thank you much. The thing you should know is I never did anything sexual to her. Not once, never. Not that I get any credit for that. I was a junkie, and you being a doctor knows what that does to your sex urge. Then the diabetes took over, and the plumbing went south, so I haven’t been much for sex in a long time. Still, I’d like to think it wouldn’t have made a difference. Respecting her, you know? Not taking advantage of her.”

“Sounds like you respected her from the beginning.”

“I’d like to think so. You sound just like Dr. H. Trying to tell me something good about myself . . . anyway, that’s the story with my Aimee. I like that name for her, chose it for her. Her family gave her the old name and they treated her like dirt so she deserved a new beginning. Aimee means friend in French and I’ve always wanted to go to France, and that’s what she’s been to me, my only real friend. Outside of Dr. H.”

He managed to place his hands on the wheels of the chair, rolled back an inch, and smiled. As if the merest movement was pleasure. “I’m going to die soon, and it’s nice knowing Dr. Harrison will be here to take care of my Aimee.”

“He will.”

The smile dissipated. “Course, he’s old . . .”

“Have you and he made plans?”

“It hasn’t come to that, yet,” said Bill. “We better do it soon . . . I’ve chewed your ear off, and you don’t want to know about my personal problems. You’re here to find out what happened to the Ingalls girl.”

“Yes,” I said.

“Poor Janie,” he said. “I can see her face as clear as day, right here.” Tapping a mirrored lens. “Didn’t know her, but I’d seen her around, thumbing on Sunset. She and this friend she was always with, this good-looking blonde. I figured the two of them were hooking, because the only girls still thumbing were hookers and runaways looking to be hookers. Turns out they were just careless girls. The night I found them, I was driving to the party, ready to do some heavy business, saw them standing around on Sunset all confused. Not on the Strip, Bel Air, cross the street from the U. They were just a walk from the party but had no idea. So I gave ’em a lift. I still think about that. What if I hadn’t?”

“You brought them to the party, then what?”