that. From a distance, the mistake would be easy to
make.”
He waited a moment before continuing.
“It’s not pretty to think about, but we’ve got to
consider it,” he said, almost apologetically. “In my
gut I doft think the Casa thing’ll pan out. What
about the jokers you’ve run into on the Swope case ?”
I thought of the people I’d encountered during
the last couple of days. Valcroix. Matthias and the-Touchers.
Houten–did the sheriffs E1 Camino have
fat tires? Maimon. Bragdon. Carmichael. Rambo.
Even Beverly and Raoul. None seemed remotely
likely as suspects and I told Milo so.
“Of all of them, I like that asshole Canadian the
best,” he said. “Guy’s a Class A bad actor.”
“I don’t see it, Milo. He resented being interrogated
and could have held that against me. But
BLOOD TEST 233
resentment isn’t hatred and whoever fired those
shots did it out of blood lust.”
“You told me he was a heavy doper, Alex. They’ve
been known to get paranoid.”
I thought of what Beverly had said about Valcroix’s
increasingly strange behavior and repeated it to
-Milo.
“There you go,” he said. “Cokehead madness.”
“I guess it’s possible, but it still doesn’t feel right.
I wasn’t that important to him. Anyway, he seems
more of an escapist, someone who’d retreat rather
than act out. The peace-love-Woodstock type.”
“So’were the Manson family. What kind of car
does he drive?”
“No idea.”
“We’ll run it through D.M.V., then pick the guy
up for questioning. Talk to the others, too. Hope:
fully the whole thing will boil down to Moody.
When you get dofi, n to it he sounds like an easy one
to hate.”
He stood and stretched.
“Thanks for everything, Milo.”
He waved it off. “Haven’t done a damn thing so
don’t thank me yet. And I probably won’t be able to
handle it myself. Gotta travel.”
“Where to?”
“Washington, D.C. On the rape-murder. The Sau-dis
have one of those slick public relations firms on
retainer. Been putting millions into commercials
showing they:re just plain folks. Prince Stinky’s
exploits could make them look like the enemy again.
So there’s been pressure from the top to let- him
slink out of town to avoid a trial and all the publicity.
The department won’t let go of this one cause’
the crimes were too damned ugly. But the Arabs
234 Jonathan Kellerman
keep pushing and the politicos have to do a bit of
symbolic brownnosing.’
He shook his head in disgust.
“Other day a couple of gray suits from the State
Department came down and took Del and me out to
lunch. Three martinis and haute cuisine at the
taxpayer’s expense, followed by congenial chitchat
about the energy crisis. I let them talk, then I shoved
a bunch of pictures of the girl Stinky killed right in
front of them. Foreign Service types must have
delicate constitutions. They almost heaved right
into the coq au yin. That afternoon I got voluno
teered to fly to D.C. and discuss it further.”
“That’ll be something to see,” I said. “You and a
room full of bureaucrats. When are you leaving?”
“Don’t know. I’m on call. Could be tomorrow or
the day after. Going first class for the first time in
my deprived life.”
He looked at me with concern.
“At least Moody’s out of the way.”
“Yeah,” I sighed. “I wish it could have happened
another Way.” I thought of April and Ricky, what
this would do to them. If Conley turned out to have
been the one who blew away their father, the tragedy
would be compounded. The entire case had a
raw, primal stink that foreshadowed tragic endings
for generations to come.
Hardy came back from the kitchen and gave his
report,
“Coulda been worse than it was. Half of Durkins
house is up in smoke. He and his wife suffered
second-degree burns and some smoke inhalation but
they’re gonna live. Worthy had smoke alarms and
caught it in time, He lives in the Palisades, big
BLOOD TEST 25
property with lots of trees. Couple of ’em burned
down.” –
Which meant plenty of hiding places. Milo glanced
at me meaningfully. Hardy kept on talking.
“The judge’s and Daschoff’s places haven’t been