“The Beattys were alcoholics,” he said. “Claire worked with alcoholics. Maybe they were her patients.”
“They’d fit the County profile,” I said, “but that still doesn’t offer any motive to kill them. It had to have something to do with Peake. His crimes-those clippings
Claire held on to. She targeted him because there was something she wanted to learn about him. Or from him. I went back into the newspaper files and got some background on the Ardullo family. Scott’s father was a major agricultural figure, adamant about not selling farmland to developers-he’d been wooed for years, but refused. Then he died, Scott and his family got murdered, and all the Ardullo land was sold. Be interesting to know who inherited.”
“What?” he said. “We’re running off in a whole other direction? The Ardullos were eliminated for profit, and Peake’s some corporate hit man? C’mon, Alex, I’m more likely to believe Peake can flow through walls at will, off people, and return to his beddy-bye at the Loon Farm.”
“I know Peake’s disorganized, but big money always adds another dimension. Maybe you should at least visit Treadway-Fairway Ranch. Maybe someone will be around who remembers.”
“Remembers what?”
“The crime. Something. Just to be thorough.”
“Right now being thorough means finding Wendell Pelley.”
He placed both hands on the hood of the unmarked and gazed over at the coroner’s building, then up at the milky sky. Behind us were Dumpsters, water pumps, the rears of two antique hospital buildings. Sculpted cornices and ornate moldings topped crumbling brick. More Victorian London than East L. A. Jack the Ripper would’ve found it cozy.
“Okay,” I said. “Let’s stick with here-and-now. I can even give you a motive. The
Beatty twins died at around the same time. That has a ritual flavor to it-a game. My vote is slaughter for fun. That also fits with the second-killer scenario. Plenty of precedent: Leopold and Loeb, Bianchi and Buono, Bittaker and Norris. It could return
Richard Dada to the victim list. Pelley’s buddy killed Dada before Pelley was released. But only a month before-the crime would still be psychologically fresh.
Maybe the buddy’s descriptions of how he did it turned Pelley on, got him back in the murder game.”
“And the other bastard could be some nutcase Pelley hooked up with at the halfway house, Alex. I saw the guys living there. Not the Kiwanis Club. Okay, I’m going back, gonna be a little more assertive. Gonna continue patrolling Ramparts on my own, too. Keep checking the bum haunts. Play more phone tag with other divisions, neighboring cities, in case Pelley and/or Nut Buddy has been a bad boy somewhere else. Though the site of the Beattys’ murders says they’re still local. Which makes sense. They probably have no wheels, can’t hit the freeway.”
That reminded me of something. “The first time we discussed Richard, we talked about someone without a car. Maybe a bus rider. Same for Claire’s phantom boyfriend.”
“There you go,” he said. “Bus-riding lunatics. You said he wouldn’t look crazy. How do you feel about that, now?”
“Pretty much the same,” I said. “All four murders were planned and meticulous.
Whoever killed Richard and Claire had the sense not to steal their cars. And murdering the Beattys on the same night adds another level of calculation.
Choreography. So if Pelley is involved, he’s probably not actively psychotic. At least not externally. Don’t forget, they let him out. He must’ve appeared coherent.”
“When he kills, he’s neat. That makes me feel a whole lot better.” Shaking his head,
Milo reached for the car door.
I said, “So theTreadway thing’s off the table, completely?”
“You don’t want to let go of it?”
“Those clippings bother me, Milo. Whatever Pelley’s role in all this, something went on between Claire and Peake. She sought him out, made him a project. He predicted her murder. Sixteen years ago, he took out Brittany Ardullo’s eyes. Claire’s eyes were also targeted. It’s almost as if he’d been trying to connect the two crimes-somehow relive his past, using a surrogate.”
“The Beattys’ eyes weren’t messed with.”
“But Richard’s eyes were taken. Too much variation, too much that doesn’t fit.
Peake’s the only link. If we understand more about him-his history-it may get us closer to Pelley. And whoever else is involved.”