Alex Delaware: Evidence Part 28

"Chinese, Italian, Thai, Indian?"

"How about Croatian?"

"What's Croatian cuisine?"

"Let's fly to Zagreb and find out," she said. "Italian's fine, hon. Anything's fine, long as I get out of here. Let me freshen up."

We ended up eating fish-and-chips at a stand on PCH in Malibu, watched the sky waver between coral and lilac, soaking in the final morph into indigo as the sun went off-s.h.i.+ft.

When we returned home, I ran a bath. The tub's not meant for two but if someone's careful not to b.u.mp their head on the faucet, it works out. That kind of togetherness sometimes leads to more. Tonight it didn't and we read and watched TV and went to bed just before midnight.

When I woke to reverb shrieks, I thought I was dreaming, woke expecting the din to fade.

Full consciousness amplified the noise. Robin said, "That's the fifth one. They're heading south."

Three seventeen a.m.

Siren number six wailed. Dopplered.

"Someone's life's going to change, Alex."

We slid under the covers, touched feet, gave it our best shot.

Moments later, I turned the TV on and we trolled for news through a swamp of infomercials and reruns of c.r.a.p that shouldn't have aired in the first place. If something newsworthy was occurring on the Westside, none of the networks or the cable news outlets had picked it up.

The Internet had. L.A. current events blog operating in real time. Some insomniac plugged into the emergency bands.

Holmby Hills conflagration. Unfinished construction project.

Borodi Lane.

Robin's breath caught. I held her tighter, reached for the phone, punched Milo's cell number. He said, "I'm on my way there, call you when I need you."

When, not if. I got dressed, made coffee, told Robin she should try to get some sleep.

"Oh, sure," she said, hanging on to my arm.

Mugs in both our hands, we plodded through the house, stepped out onto the front terrace. Frosty, dark morning. Warmish for the hour, but we s.h.i.+vered. Above the tree line, the southern sky was dusted with gray. The sirens had waned to distant mouse-squeaks. The air smelled scorched.

Robin said, "Bad news travels fast."

CHAPTER.

24.

Borodi Lane was blocked by cruisers and a huffing hook-and-ladder. A uniform scowled as I rolled to the curb, barely edging past Sunset.

A skeptical call to Milo produced a reluctant nod. "But you need to keep your car there, sir, and walk."

I continued toward the scene, breathing heat, firewood, flame-suppressing chemicals, a hydrocarbon stench evoking the world's biggest filling station. The asphalt was slick with wash-off. Static and buzz kept up a magpie routine, red engines and hard-hatted firefighters were everywhere. Several more explanations before I was allowed to reach the property.

What was left of Prince Teddy's dream was black and stunted. Where the ground wasn't ash, it was soup. A white coroner's van was pulled up to the open gate. The chain Milo had supplied was on the ground, marked by a plastic evidence cone, and sliced through cleanly into two pieces.

As firefighters streamed in and out, a pair of morgue attendants hauled out a gurney bearing something small and lumpy and wrapped in plastic. I looked for Milo, spotted him near an LAFD ambulance, wearing a limp black raincoat, jeans, and muddy sneakers, staring at the ruins. To his right, on the ground, several objects sat on a black tarp, too dim to make out.

As I stepped next to him, he fished out a Maglite, aimed downward.

Partially melted gla.s.s bottle. From the shape and scorched wire around the neck, probably champagne. A single intact wine goblet. A b.u.t.ter knife with a handle melted to blob. A metal tin with an ornate label.

I bent to read. Foie Gras. Imported from France. Milo's beam s.h.i.+fted to a long-barreled revolver, clearly antique, wooden grip scorched through, engraved metal blackened.

Next to the gun sat a pair of bolt cutters, seared to well done. I said, "Someone was having a party."

"Probably Mr. Charles Ellston Rutger," he said. "Probably?"

"Body's unrecognizable but Rutger's Lincoln is parked around the corner and there was a solid gold calling card in the ash, with his name engraved on it. Plus, some dental bridges came out half baked, same for a gold collar pin and initialed platinum cuff links." He cursed. "Dressing for success. Idiot cut the chain, climbed up to the turret with his Dom Whatever, G.o.dd.a.m.n goose liver, and no doubt some other comestibles that got vaporized."

I said, "Picnic under the stars."

He kicked a clump of mud off a sneaker tip. "Cretin probably convinced himself he owned the place again. Who knows how many other times he went up there, when there was no chain. I warned him but of course he can't listen 'cause I'm a dumb public servant and he's a G.o.dd.a.m.n aristokook. Talk about bad timing, Charlie Three-Name."

"Story of his life," I said. "Wouldn't be surprised if the arsonist saw the broken chain, took advantage. How'd the fire start?"

"What the arson guy's telling me so far is someone wadded charges of something highly combustible, probably petroleum-based, in at least eight spots distributed methodically throughout the ground floor. 'Very well thought out' was his description."

"Petroleum-based as in vegan Jell-O?"

"Flavor of the month. The neighbors heard only one explosion, whole place went up like kindling, so it looks like a single timer. Coulda been a disaster if the winds were strong and the flames jumped to neighboring foliage. The fact that the lot had been stripped down to bare dirt actually helped."

"Ground floor ignites, flames shoot up through all that open s.p.a.ce, oxygen feeds it. Meanwhile Rutger's stuck on top with the stairs burned out."

"Wouldn'ta made a difference, Alex. This was sudden, intense immolation, no chance for escape. Rutger's drinking champagne, stuffing his face, no one's the boss over him. So now, he's toast. Scratch that. Crumbs."

A stocky gray-haired man wearing a yellow helmet, a blue LAPD windbreaker, and jeans approached us wiping a sooty, sweaty face.

"We're going to be here for a while, Milo. You can go unless you want to stick around."

"Better you than me," said Milo. "This is Dr. Delaware, our psych consultant. Doctor, Captain Boxmeister from the arson squad."

"Don," said Boxmeister. "I'd shake your hand but mine's filthy. This was some conflagration, reminds me of you-know-which jungle, Milo, huh? Vegan Jell-O, haven't heard that in a while, yeah it sure works like napalm. You mind continuing with the murder part of it so we can concentrate on the arson? Which isn't to say we won't be collaborating."

Milo said, "Sounds good, Don. That Fed I mentioned said Jell-O's an eco-terrorist fave-rave."

"Used to be, Milo, but we don't see that kind of big-scale looniness on the Westside, except for occasional threats to animal researchers. All we had last year was a wimpy amateur fire set in one of the U's med labs and we caught the fool. Worked there, sweeping floors, no affiliation with any group-one of those guys you'd know about, Doc. s.h.i.+t-for-brains thought he'd liberated all the little Mickeys but what he ended up with was rodent flambe and third-degrees on both arms. I think it stays quiet here because no one expects houses in Holmby or B.H. or Bel Air to be anything but gross. You start eliminating ostentatiousness on the Gold Coast, you get the Gobi Desert."

"Bite your tongue, Don."

Boxmeister grinned, pulled out a notepad and pen. "Tell me again which oil type owned this barbecue."

"Prince Tariq of Sranil. Not the Mideast, Asia, it's near Indonesia-"

"I'll look it up," said Boxmeister. "So you're thinking your original vics also planned to torch the place but got interrupted by someone, they had an accomplice who finished the job and roasted whats.h.i.+sname Rutger in the process."

"That's a good summary, Don."

"Political. That sucks. If you don't mind, I'd prefer to keep a lid on that part of it, no sense getting the neighbors thinking al-Qaeda's lurking near their tennis courts."

"Good idea," said Milo. "Especially because all I've got are guesses."

I said, "How was the body positioned?"

"There was no body, Doc. Just bones and ashes and some dental plates."

"Did the fire move it?"

Boxmeister thought. "That high up, probably not."

"Where in the turret was it found?"

"Right in the middle."

"Not near the stairs?"

"Was he trying to escape? Doesn't look like it."

"Quiet killer," I said. "Rutger had no idea."

"Or he knew but couldn't do a d.a.m.n thing about it. No traces of a cell phone were found."

Milo said, "Phone would've survived the blast?"

"Some part of it probably would," said Boxmeister. "Tell you one thing, I'm going to look into the composition of that liver can. Anything that can survive something like this, I'm stockpiling."

A woman's voice, argumentative, caused the three of us to turn.

A young brunette in the grip of a female officer pointed at Milo. Slim, long-haired, the house-sitting daughter who'd spotted Doreen Fredd on Borodi.

Amy... Thal. She wore a red silk robe over pajamas and fuzzy pink slippers. Protested as the cop held her back.

Milo jogged over, excused the officer, returned with Thal. High-intensity lights turned her freckles to Braille dots.

"Don, this is Ms. Thal, a cooperative neighbor. Amy, Captain Boxmeister from the arson squad."

Boxmeister said, "I'd shake your hand but mine's filthy."

Amy Thal rubbed the arm the cop had held. "I tried to explain to her that I knew you, had something to say. It's not like I'm some lookyloo, this is my frickin' neighborhood."

"Sorry," said Milo. "What's up, Amy?"

"I saw another woman I didn't recognize. Yesterday, jogging past this place at least three times." Sniffing burnt air. "This is crazy, what's going on, Lieutenant?"

"Tell me about the woman."

"Blond, long hair, tight bod. She looked like a runner, at the time I didn't think much of it but now I'm wondering. Because she kept running back and forth and why do that when there are all sorts of interesting runs you can take? I mean, cross the street and go by the Playboy Mansion, or Spelling's old place, go down to Comstock and run around the park. Why keep pa.s.sing back and forth? I mean it's suspicious, right?"

"Three times," said Milo.

"Three times I saw, Lieutenant, could've been more. I was in the living room, stretched out on the couch, reading. Generally, it's real quiet, so anything that moves you notice. Yesterday, I saw a huge coyote, just ambling past, like he owned the street."

"Was there anything strange about her?"

"She seemed kind of intense. But that's runners, right? I wouldn't have given it a second thought. But now? What do you guys think?"

"We think we appreciate your coming forth, Amy."

Boxmeister nodded. "Anything more you can say about what she looked like, ma'am?"

"Black tights, bare tummy, sports bra. Decent face, at least from a distance. Maybe real b.o.o.bs but with a sports bra, I can't be sure."

Milo said, "What kind of blond?"

"Ultra," said Amy Thal.

"Platinum?"

She nodded. "Long and s.h.i.+ny-and no ponytail like most girls do when they run. She just let that sucker flap in the breeze. Like 'Look at me, I am soooo silky.' She reminded me of that comedy thing a while back, my dad used to love to watch them, my mom always got p.i.s.sed off because she thought it wasn't humor that got his interest. The Swedish Bikini Team. I think they sold beer or something."

Don Boxmeister said, "Old Milwaukee."

Amy Thal said, "It was years ago, I was a kid. Dad loved them. This girl was like that. Okay, I'd better get on the horn, tell Mom and Dad to keep enjoying Paris."

Milo thanked her. She gave his wrist a sudden squeeze, turned and left.

Boxmeister said, "Nice a.s.s, like to do a hand-count of those freckles. Too bad her info's useless. Hottie jogging in Holmby, big shock."

"Don, the girl this prince is reputed to have offed was Swedish."