“Double date.”
“Guess so.”
Bettina Bel Geddes said, “This is drifting far from any content I can see as relevant.”
Milo said, “Mike, how long had you and Sophie been apart when she died?”
“Month and a half,” said Heck. “About.”
“So fairly recently.”
“Yeah, but that was the formal time. When we actually discussed it and decided to just be friends. But we both knew, it had been happening for a month or so before that.”
“Drifting apart.”
“Yeah,” said Heck. “You know. You can like someone and you think maybe this is the one but then you realize the friend thing works better.”
“Did you have contact with Sophie after you became just friends?”
“Nope,” said Heck. “I mean on the phone, yeah, but after we had the talk I wasn’t at her place and she wasn’t in mine.”
“How long did you guys date?”
Before Bel Geddes could interrupt, Heck said, “Couple of months.”
“May I ask where you met?”
“Cocktail lounge at the Mayfair in Beverly Hills. That’s where her friends showed up so it was probably a regular place for them. I just happened to be there for a business meeting. Then that was over and I stuck around to have a couple of beers.”
“Got it,” said Milo. “Are you aware of who Sophie dated before you? And after you broke up?”
Bel Geddes fidgeted with her hair. Itching to find an objection but unable to doso.
Wendy shot me another collegial smile. I smiled back.
“I know she was married before and that he died in a crash,” said Michael Heck. “But that’s about it. We never talked about exes and once we broke up we didn’t stalk each other.”
Milo said, “I’m asking because someone tried to set you up by getting hold of your cigarette butts and planting them.”
“Yeah, it’s crazy. Scary. No one ever broke into my place, sir. I’ve got an alarm and it was never tripped.”
“I’m assuming you tossed your butts out with the rest of your trash. What’s the garbage-collection situation at your condo?”
“You put your crap in a couple of dumpsters and some private service takes it away.” He paled. “You’re saying someone was spying on me and saw me dump my garbage? That’sfucked.”
Milo said, “Another possibility would be you were smoking outside and left the butts on the sidewalk.”
The color returned to Heck’s face. More pink than before. Rose-colored highlights on bronze. “I guess I do that sometimes.”
“Any particular place?”
“Work. I guess. You can’t smoke in the office so you go outside. You think someone was spying on methere?”
“Don’t know, Mike.”
“Why would anyone want to fuck me over?”
“The million-dollar question, Mike. Do you have any theories?”
