Did he have acting skills no one knew about?
She decided she’d made too much out of the hairs. Langdon was a dog person, ran into other dog people, picked up foreign hairs.
But what of the phony cable visit to Geraldo Solis’s house? How did Doebbler synch with that?
Maybe Kurt had worked in the cable business before becoming a missile designer- some sort of student job? Even so, if he’d wanted to commemorate his wife’s murder, why not choose a victim similar to Marta? At the very least a woman, not a grumpy old ex-Marine like Solis.
Unless Solis had somehow been involved with the Doebblers… could he have been Marta’s lover in the city? Then why wait a year to get him?
Solis was a cantankerous old loner, thirty years Marta’s senior. People made strange choices but it just didn’t fit.
She ran through the rest of the victim list. Langdon, Hochenbrenner, the young black sailor. Jewell Blank and Curtis Hoffey, two street kids.
What was the damned pattern?
By the time she made it to Sunset, her head throbbed and she decided she’d been fixing air sandwiches.
As she reached Fairfax and Sixth, her phone beeped. Mac Dilbeck’s mobile.
“Just heard, Petra. Sorry.”
“I really couldn’t expect different, Mac.”
“Only because they’ve got their heads tucked so tightly up their posteriors they can’t see the light of wisdom.”
“Thanks, Mac.”
“I should be thanking you,” he said. “For clearing the case. Saving us the paperwork and the city a trial. Some types deserve killing and he fit the bill, right?”
“Right.”
“What’s Eric’s situation?”
“Meetings at Parker.”
“When the dust clears, he’ll be okay. It was righteous.”
“It sure was.”
“I’m also calling to fill you in on Sandra Leon. The gods from Olympus allowed me to sit in on her interview. She wouldn’t talk to them no matter what they did so finally they left to confer.” He snorted. “So while they’re gone, I do the old grandfatherly bit and guess what? She starts to open up.”
“Oh, yeah,” said Petra, smiling.
“Oh, yeah, indeed,” said Mac. “I made sure the tape was running. By the time they got back with a plan, with a big old task force plan, she’s talking and at least they’re smart enough to keep their mouths shut and back off. Sandra’s story is she and cousin Marcella didn’t get along too well. Big-time jealousy, going way back. That scumbag Lyle Leon was messing with both of them for years and they ended up competing for his attention. When Marcella got involved with Omar Selden, Sandra figured that was wrong, she was the pretty one. So she moved in on Marcella’s territory. Also- get this- there was bad feeling because once, when Sandra was waiting to see a doctor for her hepatitis, Marcella left her alone, found an arcade on the boulevard, and played games for two hours. That really frosted Sandra.”
“Sounds like a motive for murder to me.”
“You should’ve heard the kid, Petra. Cold. She was the one told Omar that Marcella had aborted his baby. Told him Marcella had joked about it, called the baby garbage.”
“Lord,” said Petra. “She set Marcella up.”
“She did more than that. She told Omar the two of them would be at the Paradiso, pinpointed where and when Marcella would be coming out.”
“Omar photographed the parking lot a full week before the concert. The whole thing was well planned.”
“Oh, boy,” he said.
“That’s why Sandra was so cool after the shooting. She stuck around to gloat, got a little nervous when I tried to interview her. But no grief, she was digging the scene. That is one sick kid. What’s she being charged with?”
“D.A.’s not sure yet. I’m pushing for a full one eighty-seven, but the only evidence is what Sandra said on tape, so maybe they’ll plea it down to something juvie. She’s pretty smug, seems to think she’ll get away scot-free because she’s seventeen. For all I know, she will. Some slick private attorney showed up this afternoon. He wouldn’t tell me who hired him, but I’m sure he’s being paid by The Players. He’s already making noises about dismissing the confession because I didn’t give Sandra her rights right before she talked. The Downtown guys Mirandized her at the beginning and I was in the room, so the ADA’s claiming I was part of the ‘interrogatory team,’ the first warning was enough.”
“Here goes the system,” said Petra.
“So what else is new?”
“What about Lyle? He’s open to a big fat pedophilia charge.”
“Lyle rabbited right after we let him out of the holding cell. Which would’ve posed some problems if Omar had gone to trial. So it’s pretty nice that he won’t be needed. For that I thank you again.”
“You’re welcome,” said Petra.
“You all right?”
“Taking some downtime. How about you?”
“I’m off to play putt-putt golf with my grandson. Don’t let them grind you down, kid. You’re a solid girl.”
Shrinks kept forty-five-minute hours, so at four forty-five Petra tried the clinic where Dr. Sarah Casagrande worked, was transferred to voice mail, left a forceful message. No return. She repeated the process at five forty-five and this time a woman’s voice broke in.
“This is Sarah.” Soft, breathy, hesitant. “I was just about to call you.”
“Thanks,” said Petra. “As I said in my message, Doctor, this is about Marta Doebbler.”
“All these years,” said Casagrande. “Has something changed?”
“In terms of…”
“The detective I spoke to led me to believe the case was unlikely to be solved.”
“Did he?”
“Oh, yes,” said Casagrande. “I suppose he was being honest, but at the time it was hard to hear.”
“Do you remember what reason he gave?”
“He said there was no evidence. He had suspicions, but nothing more.”
“Suspicions of who?”
“Kurt. I felt the same way. All three of us did.”
“You told him that?”
“Of course.”
Something Ballou had neglected to tell her. Or write down.
“Why did you suspect Kurt?”
“He made me uneasy. Sometimes he made me feel uncomfortable.”
“Lecherous?” said Petra.
“No, I couldn’t say that. Couldn’t say he was actually projecting any interest in me. It was just the opposite, a lack of emotion. I’d see him looking at me, during a barbecue or some other social thing, and then I’d realize he wasn’t, he was looking through me. I told my husband and he said he’d noticed that, too, all the guys thought Kurt was strange, no one invited him to play poker.”
“You’re a psychologist. Care to diagnose?”
“I’m a psychological assistant,” said Casagrande. “A year away from taking the licensing exam.”
“Still,” said Petra. “You know more than the average person. How would you classify Kurt Doebbler?”
“I hate to do that. Long-distance analysis isn’t worth much.”
“Off the record, Doctor.”
“Off the record, if I had to bet, I’d say Kurt displays schizoid tendencies. That doesn’t mean he’s crazy. It refers to an asocial personality. Flat emotion, a lack of connection to other people.”
“Can that lead to murder?”
“Now,” said Casagrande, “you’re really asking me to step outside the bounds of my- ”
“Off the record, Doctor.”
“Most asocial types aren’t violent, but when they do act out- when schizoid tendencies are combined with aggressive impulses- it can be pretty horrendous.”
Meticulous planning followed by stunning violence…
“The Unabomber comes to mind,” said Sarah Casagrande. “A lifelong loner who hated people. He constructed an ecological excuse for murder, but all he wanted to do was destroy.”