“So apart from breaking in, what’s your plan?” Russell asked.

“I’m leaving the lieutenant some music in my late friend’s name. I downloaded it to his sound system and patched a remote to my phone. Untraceable, of course. Beethoven’s ‘Bagatelle in A Minor.’ Catchy little number.”

“I thought your girlfriend hated that thing.”

“I’m beginning to think I never understood that girl,” Thackrey said. “Waiting for your call, I remembered something. A few weeks ago, I woke up at 2:00 in the morning. Elise wasn’t in bed. I walked around the house and found the patio door open. The deck and the yard were empty. I was about to give up when I heard Petey barking in the meadow.

“Elise stood in the tall grass with the dogs. Just stood there. Naked, her gown a few feet away. She was facing the vineyard, but she must have heard me. ‘I dreamed you killed me, Ben,’ she said. I told her she needed to cut down on the OxyContin. She was doing two eighties every couple hours. Off-the-charts shit.

“She turned around with this funny look. ‘In the dream you made me dance, and you killed me. At first I thought you’d save me. But now I can tell you’ll kill me.’ I asked her why I’d do that. She laughed. She said it was because I’m smart, because I know how to do everything. ‘You know how to kill me.’”

Russell sighed. “She was crazy, Ben. I think we all saw that.”

“That’s just it. Maybe she wasn’t. She knew I was going to kill her because of what she heard about Reggie. But she didn’t run. Why would she do that? Why would anyone do that?”

“I hate to change the subject, but shouldn’t you be leaving, Ben?”

“No. I’m staying until this guy Mahler comes home.”

“Are you serious?”

“Yeah. It’s really the point of it all.”

“How do you even know he’ll show up?”

“That’s the sweet part. I found the alarm control panel in the front hallway. On the main menu, I went to user settings. In case of a break-in, the default is a call to the alarm company. On my cell, I downloaded an app called Alarm Remote. Then I added my cell number to the alarm as a remote control.”

“Not traceable, right?” Russell asked.

“The usual spoofing.”

“So what happens?”

“When I’m ready, I bypass one of the alarm zones. That triggers an error message. I set the preference for error messages to signal owner.”

“Suppose he calls the company or sends someone else there?” Russell asked.