City of the Dead (Alex Delaware, #37)(31)

“He couldn’ta been mad at the way Slope handled the divorce. The two of them moved to the desert and he trained Slope in his gym.”

“Maybe their moving at the same time wasn’t a coincidence.”

“Some sort of relationship.”

“Not necessarily sexual. Something financial. Like you said, the case was tunneled as a gangbanger invasion with no alternatives explored in depth. Now that I think about it, would a gangster take the time to strangle someone in bed? A shot to the head would be a lot quicker and more efficient.”

“Whatever Hoffgarden and Slope had going went bad.”

I said, “And the same could go for Hoffgarden and Cordi. He’s the kind of fellow you don’t want to alienate.”

He punched a preset on his phone. “Moses, that guy I talked to you about, Hoffgarden? It’s time to check him out more closely. His address is on my desk, to the left of my monitor…Culver City? Thought it was West L.A. Either or, it’s a hop-skip. You have time to go over there?…Excellent. If you find him at home, see if he’ll talk to you about Cordi. Not as a suspect, don’t get his hackles up, we’re contacting all of her friends. If he’s not there, try to talk to neighbors, a landlord, anyone you can find. See if it looks like he rabbited, here’s why.”

He repeated Blanding’s account of the 5K payoff. “Yeah, it’s bizarre, the whole damn case is, I’ll fill you in about the family when we get together. Meanwhile, you’re the right guy to approach Hoffgarden because you can probably outlift him…hey, no false modesty, kid. Long as I have you, anything from Basia, yet? Okay, I’ll handle the crypt, you do Mr. Universe.”

We rode a crowded elevator down to the parking lot and retrieved the unmarked in the No Parking at Any Time slot he’d scored by overtipping the attendant.

The man licked his lips when he saw us. “I been warned twice by security.”

Milo added a five.

“Thank you, sir.”

“Consider it a guilt offering.”



* * *



—

We sat in an uphill queue of vehicles exiting the lot, finally made it to Century Park East where he turned right, heading north. Away from the station.

I said, “Where to?”

“Taking you home. Thanks for your time.”

He drove through Century City. At a long light at Santa Monica Boulevard, I said, “Cordi’s doing well financially.”

“Like I said, nearly seven hundred K worth of well. And…?”

“What reason would she have to ask for a five K loan to pay Hoffgarden off? I know she told Blanding she was waiting for a royalty check but do her records show her living from payment to payment?”

“Hmm…no, the opposite, actually. The balance in her investment account was stable and rising.”

“What about her checking account?”

“Same thing, Alex. Small outlays for bills but she took in more than she laid out.”

I said, “A good money manager. What if reaching out to Blanding wasn’t about money? It was symbolic. Her way of feeling connected to him.”

“Daddy issues?” he said. “Rich stepdaddy, dip into the till?”

“She was a prime candidate for daddy issues. No birth father of record, no paternal presence at all during her early years followed by a stepdad who kept his distance emotionally. Then along comes Blanding, when she’s an adult. He likes her but doesn’t love her and she was smart enough to sense that. She could’ve also figured out that for all his nice-guy persona, he’d be an easy hit. By his own admission he’s an emotional coward unwilling to engage. So giving her money could’ve served his needs, as well.”

“Getting off easy by doling out cash? Okay, could be. You see it as relating to her murder?”

I said, “Just thinking out loud.”

The light changed. He crossed Santa Monica, turned left to Comstock, continued north grinning. “Hey, I can get symbolic, too. Ready for some Dr. Milo?”

“Go for it.”

“Maybe when Blanding told us he didn’t love her, that was code for ‘I didn’t have sex with her.’?”

I said, “He really twangs your antenna affair-wise.”

“Too-good-to-be-true twangs my antenna,” he said. “On top of that, I’m trying to stay in practice.”

“How so?”

“Thinking the worst of everybody.”

He drove to Wilshire, hit another red. “By the way, the crypt did manage to roll prints from the poor guy on the sofa. No match anywhere, which is why I forgot to mention it.”

I said, “Maybe Missing Persons can tell you something.”

He said, “Called the West L.A. D but nothing fits. When I have time to go through all those faces, I’ll go online.”

“When are Alicia and Sean coming back?”

“Who the hell knows? I’m not into helicopter parenting.”

At the green, he lurched forward.

In one of those moods, when nothing but negativity would do. As long as that was the case…

I said, “Cordi’s phone listings were all business. The neighbor reports people coming in and out so she had to make appointments. Where’s the record of all those contacts?”