I returned to the Internet. Alpha Alternative School, Goleta. For working actors, athletes, musicians, or anyone benefiting from an individualized curriculum.
A hundred or so students. In lieu of yearbooks, faces had been collected each graduating year and cached for public use.
The face I was looking for had appeared two years ago. I showed it to both of them.
Milo said, “Our boy.”
Braxton said, “No doubt, then.”
“The foster system, Sheila? Stepdad bailed?”
“That’s what I meant by part of the story. Six weeks after Jackie disappeared, Mearsheim was gone along with every penny Jackie had put away. Including insurance money from her first husband’s death. Supposedly she’d signed everything over to him and left Cory with nothing. Bob found out later that Mearsheim had inquired about cashing out a hundred-grand term life insurance policy he’d taken out on her a few months before. But with no body, no payout. He was too smart for his own good.”
Milo said, “Paul Mearsheim,” unclasped his attaché case, and brought out the DMV shot of the man we knew as Paul Weyland.
Braxton took her time. “He had a beard back then but yup, it’s him. He’s your suspect? Amazing.”
“He goes by Paul Weyland and he works for the L.A. school district.”
“The system working for our kids,” said Braxton. “Unbelievable. So what’s he done now?”
Milo summarized. “Unfortunately, Sheila, we’ve also got nothing solid.”
“Multiple murder,” said Braxton. “This is really ugly. So what’s your interest in Cory?”
“His car was seen near the houses of both victims.”
“You figured him for an accomplice? Uh-uh, Milo, I can’t see it, there was no relationship between him and Mearsheim. Just the opposite, the bastard abandoned him.”
I said, “He could be seeking out Mearsheim to find out what happened to his mother.”
“If so, dangerous pursuit,” said Braxton.
I stood. “Be back in a sec.”
I found a quiet corner in the adjoining parking lot and pulled out my phone.
Mary Josefina “EmJay” Braun answered on the fifth ring. “Oh, hi. You solve it?”
“Working on it. How’re you doing?”
“In pain, as usual,” she said. “Pretty bad a few days ago. It would help if I could clear up Hal’s disability but the government’s being a butt.”
“Hope it works out.”
“It sure better.”
“Can I ask you something?”
“What?”
“Did a young man in a black Camaro ever drop by your house?”
“Once,” she said.
“When?”
“Right after Hal got... a few days after you guys were here. He brought me some food. Said he was a friend of Hal’s, Hal had tried to help him out, he wanted to help me back. I didn’t eat it, greasy burger, I don’t like grease, also he made me nervous.”
“How?”
“Twitchy. I had him leave it outside, once he left, I threw it out.”
“Skinny, long blond hair?”
“Yeah.”
“Did he say how Hal helped him?”
“I didn’t give him time to say anything, sir. It was Hal on one of his missions. Why, you think he killed Hal? I saved my life by keeping him out?”
“Not at all,” I said.
“Whatever,” she said. “I was smart not to let him in.”
“If he returns, please let us know.”
“If he returns, I’ll call 911,” said EmJay Braun. “I don’t like strangers.”
Mary Ellen Braun answered after one ring. “Oh, hi. You solved it?”
“Still working on it.”
“Oh.” Deflated. “What’s up?”
“Did Hal ever talk about helping someone in Santa Barbara?”
“No, I can’t say he did. Did someone from Santa Barbara kill him?”
“We’re trying to get a handle on his activities. Did he ever mention helping teenagers or one boy in specific?”
“He liked kids, I could see that,” she said. “Not in a sick way, I hope you’re not going there.”
I said, “Not at all. Mary Jo told us Hal went on what he called quests. We’re wondering if one of them might’ve put him in danger.”
“In Santa Barbara? I can see him hiking there, it’s so pretty up there, you never think of it as dangerous. Then again, Hal was such a nice man and look what happened to him.”
I returned to the restaurant. Milo and Braxton looked up from their food.
I told them about Cory Thurber bringing a burger to Mary Jo.
“That nails it,” said Braxton. “He didn’t do anything bad.” Not much confidence in her voice. She studied me.
I said, “I’m thinking Cory and Braun ran into each other up here, nothing planned, maybe just two people sitting on the beach or the pier. Cory opened up about his mom, Braun was a good listener and offered to help.”
Milo said, “Help how?”
“Either locate Mearsheim or, if Cory already had tried that, find Mearsheim and demand to know what happened to Jackie.”
Braxton said, “That would be crazy.”
I said, “Braun fancied himself a knight errant.”
“He’d do that for a stranger?”
I told her about the McDonald’s incident, the tree, the snake. Braun going off for days at a time.
She said, “Living dangerously. He confronts Mearsheim, it’s lamb to slaughter. But why would Mearsheim leave his body in your second vic’s house? If we’re right about Jackie, his thing was to conceal the corpse.”
I said, “With Jackie he knew he’d be the prime suspect. With Braun, there’d be no obvious connection so no need to conceal. Who’d suspect the kind neighbor who opened his doors? We didn’t.”
Milo said, “He’s right, Sheila. Guy came across as total Beta Male. If he knew his wife was fooling with Chet, there’d be no shortage of motive for using Braun’s body as an eff-you.”
“You think he disappeared Donna, just like Jackie?”
“Weyland said she was visiting her mom, I’m gonna try to find out.”
I said, “Any idea what Cory’s been up to for the last seven years?”
She wiped her hands on her napkin and stood. “My turn to take a break outside.”
She was gone for fourteen minutes. During that time, Milo tried to reach Donna Weyland at the school district but was waylaid by sadistic voicemail instructions devoted to keeping callers away.
I picked at my salmon and, while on hold, he consoled himself with half a dozen Grassy Bay oysters on the half shell and an equal quantity of Kumiais from Mexico.
Braxton returned, shaking her head. “No hint where Cory is. My contact at social services says he was a chronic problem for his foster families. Five families, he kept running away. He also messed up in school, refused to study. Alpha provides home-study plans and a couple of the fosters are good folks who really tried.”
I said, “Any drug history?”
“Not as far as she knows, Doctor. But that doesn’t mean much, does it?”
Milo said, “Smart enough to avoid the system or lucky.”
I said, “Or he stayed clean.”
Braxton said, “You’re an optimist?”
Milo said, “All these years, he refuses to see the light.”
“It would sure be nice to be that way.”
I said, “Maybe piano helped. Something positive he could build on.”
“Hmm,” said Braxton. “Apparently, he does have talent, my contact said one of the fosters had a piano and each time she visited Cory was playing and sounding really good. I hope you’re right, Doctor. He’s sure had a rough road.”