She waited for him to comment. He didn’t.
“Any ideas?”
“Everything you’re saying sounds reasonable.”
Was he losing interest? Distracted by his other life?
“What keeps coming to me,” she said, “is an extremely seductive killer. Someone subtle, really careful about the way he sets things up. Marta Doebbler being called out of the theater, Geraldo Solis possibly being conned by a phony cable appointment. If the cable guy is our suspect, he was canny enough to case the house and come back later. Maybe he was also canny enough to use a dog as a lure.”
She told him about the two kinds of canine hair found on Coral Langdon, recounted her friendly neighborhood dog-walker scenario.
“The setups,” she said, “could be as much a turn-on as the kill.”
“A choreographer,” he said.
“That’s a good way to put it. So what do you think?”
“You’re right about the subtlety.”
“Until he blitz-attacks the victims from behind and bashes their brains out. That’s anything but subtle, Isaac. To me that says (a) cowardice- he’s afraid to look them in the eye so he avoids the usual sex-psycho strangulation thing- and (b) he’s got lots of rage beneath the surface that he’s able to control in everyday life. More than control. He functions well until he’s triggered. We know the date is one trigger, but there has to be something about the victims.”
They walked for a while before she said, “Anything you want to add is okay.”
He shook his head.
“You okay?”
He startled. She’d shaken him out of some sort of reverie. “Sure.”
“You seem a bit spacey.”
“Sorry,” he said.
“No apology necessary. I just want to make sure you’re okay.” She smiled. “As your mentor- not that I’ve mented much. Is that a verb?”
Isaac smiled back. “Nope. Mentored.”
“Feel free to speculate about what I just said.”
“Everything you’re saying makes sense. I wish I had something to add, but I don’t.”
A half-block later, he said, “One thing does occur to me. There’s a discrepancy between Marta Doebbler and the others. If the killer was able to disguise himself as a cable repairman to get into Mr. Solis’s place, Mr. Solis obviously didn’t know him. If the dog theory’s true, the same could go for Coral Langdon: She met a man walking his dog in her neighborhood, chatted, turned to go, and got bludgeoned. The killer could’ve rehearsed the scene by dog-walking previously in order to familiarize himself with the surroundings. But he still could’ve been a relative stranger. That can’t be true of Marta Doebbler. She wouldn’t have left the theater in the middle of the show unless she knew who had called her. Plus, a stranger wouldn’t have known Marta was going to the theater.”
“Someone she trusted,” said Petra. “Back to the husband.” Weird Kurt. “There’s another discrepancy between Marta and the others. She was killed on the street but then placed in her car. You could look at that as her being treated with a bit more respect. Which would also fit with a killer who knew her well.”
He grimaced. “I should’ve thought of that.”
Distracted. By Klara. Self-doubt. Flaco’s gun… my gun… would I ever really use it?
“That’s why it’s good to brainstorm,” said Petra. They reached Santa Monica Boulevard. Traffic, noise, pedestrians, gay hustlers loitering on corners.
Petra said, “Here’s yet another distinction for Doebbler: She was the first. When Detective Ballou told me he thought Kurt Doebbler’s reaction was off, and then after I met Kurt, it got me thinking: What if the bad guy never set out to commit a string of murders? What if he killed Marta for a personal reason and found out he liked it? Got himself a hobby. Which brings us back to Kurt.”
“A-once-a-year hobby,” said Isaac.
“An anniversary,” she said. “What if June 28 is significant to Kurt because he happened to kill Marta on that day? So he relives it.”
He stared at her. “That’s brilliant.”
Return of the youthful exuberance. Oddly, it deflated Petra’s enthusiasm and she said, “Hardly. It’s a theory. But at least we’re focusing.”
“On Marta Doebbler?”
“For lack of anyone better.”
“Maybe,” he said, touching his bruise absently, “we should find out who knew she was at the theater. She went with friends, right?”
Staring at her with that unlined, precocious, innocent face. She wanted to kiss it.
They returned to the station and Petra pulled the Doebbler file. Marta had gone out with three friends and Detective Conrad Ballou had listed their names dutifully along with the fact that he’d contacted two, Melanie Jaeger and Sarah Casagrande, “telephonically.” The third, Emily Pastern, had been out of town.
According to Ballou’s notes, neither Jaeger nor Casagrande knew for certain who’d called Marta out of the theater.
“Witness Casagrande reports that Victim Doebbler appeared agitated by telephonic interruption and that Vic Doebbler reacted quickly to said interruption, ‘jumped out of her seat and just left. Like it was an emergency, she didn’t even apologize for having her cell phone on. Which wasn’t like Marta, she was always considerate.’ Likewise Witness Jaeger, interviewed independently.
Vic’s husband, Kurt Doebbler, denies calling Vic at any time that night, denies owning cellular phone. K. Doebbler agreed to immediate inspection of home telephonic records, which was accomplished this morning at 11:14 a.m. per Pacific Bell, confirming said denials.”
Ballou’s next notation identified the origin of the call as the pay phone around the corner from the theater.
Isaac, reading over Petra’s shoulder, said, “Doebbler could’ve driven from the Valley to Hollywood, called Marta from the booth, and waited by her car. What if he agreed to have his phone records inspected because he knew they wouldn’t incriminate him?”
Petra said, “I wonder if Mr. Doebbler has ever owned a dog.”
She called Valley SPCA. No dog registrations at the Doebbler household, but plenty of people didn’t register their pets.
Next, she phoned the numbers Ballou had listed for Marta’s friends, Melanie Jaeger and Sarah Casagrande. Both were now owned by new parties.
Transitory L.A.
DMV records showed no listings for Jaeger anywhere in California, but a Sarah Rebecca Casagrande was listed on J Street, in Sacramento. Petra got her number from the Sacramento directory and phoned it.
The receptionist at a family medicine clinic answered. Doctor Casagrande was with a patient.
“What kind of doctor is she?”
“Psychologist. Actually, she’s a psych assistant.”
“Is that like a nurse?”
“No, Dr. Casagrande is a new Ph.D. She’s supervised by Dr. Ellis and Dr. Goldstein. If you’d like an appointment- ”
“This is Detective Connor, Los Angeles Police. Would you please have her call me?” Petra recited her number.
“The police?”
“Nothing to worry about,” said Petra. “An old case.”
Next, she tried Emily Pastern, the sole friend Ballou hadn’t reached.
A machine picked up on the fifth ring and a perky female voice said, “This is Emily and Gary Daisy’s place. We’re not in now, but if you’ll leave…”
Petra sat through the message. Blocking out the words because the background noise had captured her attention.
Running canine commentary as Emily Pastern chirped away.
A dog barking.
As she hung up, Mac Dilbeck passed her desk, shot her a long, unhappy look, and kept going toward the men’s room.
She followed, waited in the hallway, was there when he exited the lav. He was only mildly surprised to see her.