I said, “Tell me about her.”
“Thirty-eight years old, originally from Tulsa, widowed ten years ago, moved here, worked as an office manager at a real estate firm in Encino.”
“Any kids?”
“Nope.”
“Any love interests besides Heck?”
“Excellent question, no idea.” He swiveled around. “Gotta start doing some serious digging on her. Was about to when Alicia called about Martha.”
“Dual priorities.”
“Two whodunits,” he said. “What deity have I offended?”
Chapter
8
Despite Milo’s taste for isolation, there are times when the tiny office gets to him.
He shot upright without warning, said, “Walk?” and left before I could answer.
I followed him into the corridor and down the stairs. We exited the station and headed south, avoiding the businesses and traffic on Santa Monica Boulevard and entering a residential stretch of modest houses.
Bungalows, stucco cubes, mini Spanish Revivals. Not much different from the neighborhood where Martha Matthias had lost her life.
I said, “In terms of Sophie, Tulsa can be a tough town.”
“I know, meth,” he said.
“Maybe she left for more than the weather. Knew the wrong people back home, tried to distance herself but it caught up with her.”
“You see some vengeful speed-cooking freak taking the time to set up Heck with his own DNA? Those types break in, smash, slice and dice. And if she did hang with a bad Tulsa crowd, it never got her into any trouble I can find. Same for her ex. Firefighter, solid citizen, coupla citations for bravery. Killed in a car crash.”
“On the job?”
“Nope, wrong place, wrong time. Driving home from a convenience store and a wrong-way drunk got him on the highway.”
“You’ve talked to Sophie’s family.”
He nodded, jammed both hands into trouser pockets, and leaned into a nonexistent wind.
“Not much family, just a sister in Tulsa and a brother in Boise. He knew nothing about Sophie’s personal life but the sister suspected Heck because she met him once and didn’t like him. Too slick.” He laughed. “Her exact term was ‘too darned L.A.’ ”
I said, “Another mark against him at the outset.”
“Yup. And I wasn’t interested in being dissuaded.”
Half a block later, he said: “If it was only about Heck’s alibi, I’d still be on him because what’s to say he didn’t hire someone? But with the planted cigarettes, it just feels like someone tried to set him up. I know he could be pulling a double bluff like you said, Alex, but getting yourself booked into County for two days smells more like screenplay than reality. Place is ganged up the wazz, once he was in there was no telling what could’ve happened.”
I said, “Nothing interesting in his finances and his phone?”
“Nope. Bless me, Father, for I have sinned.”
“What’s the transgression?”
“Never saw his records because with the DNA handed to me I was concentrating on getting him locked up and didn’t jump on the warrants as quickly as I shoulda. Then all of a sudden he’s cleared and I lack grounds.”
