"Pardon?"

"It's a bar on Van Nuys Boulevard. Elise used to drink there occasionally but you know that."

"I don't drink." Franck's finger worked a cuticle. A seam of blood appeared and he stanched it with a thumb.

Another look at the greasy ceiling.

"You're saying you've never been to Arnie Joseph's."

Franck licked his lips. "I haven't."

"But you have been near Arnie Joseph's, that's how we found you, Trey. You walked Elise over there, then the two of you shared a bye-bye kiss. Hot and heavy was the way it was described to us."

Trey Franck blurted, "Oh, God." Plopping back on his bed, he lay on his back, closed his eyes, breathed fast.

"Anything else you want to tell us, Trey?"

Franck mumbled something.

"I didn't catch that, Trey."

"We did it."

"Did what?"

Franck propped up on his elbows, stared past us. "We made love. Not regularly, once in a while. Nothing emotional, for fun."

"Fun," said Milo.

"Stress relief." Franck swiveled and met our eyes. Held the gaze defiantly. "Dealing with idiots, hour after interminable hour. It helped us forget."

CHAPTER 19

Trey Franck sat up and spread his shoulders.

Admitting his affair with Elise Freeman had enlarged him.

Milo said, "When did you and Elise begin your stress-reduction program?"

"Don't worry, I was over eighteen."

"I'm not worried, son, I'm looking for details."

"I still don't see why anything I've done is relevant."

Milo squatted and put his big face close to Franck's. Franck edged back.

"When we investigate a nasty death, Trey, we begin by looking at people close to the deceased, because statistically, most nasty deaths are perpetrated by someone the victim knows. When we ran Elise's phone records, you popped up as a frequent contact. One thing in your favor is that you didn't lie about not speaking to her in two weeks. The record backs that up. But that doesn't mean we're not interested in learning more about you."

"Statistics," said Franck, "are group measurements intended for samples, not individuals. They possess absolutely no validity when applied to individuals."

"Thanks for the math lesson, son, but right now you're what we call a person of interest and if you want to stop being a person of interest, you'll just answer the questions."

"I just don't see why my sex life is-"

"Here's a theoretical situation, Trey: What if you and Elise had a hot-and-heavy romance going and she broke it off? Jealousy and resentment are great motives."

"It may be theoretical but it's definitely not empirical," said Franck. "Elise and I got together occasionally for recreational sex and no one broke anything off. If you're looking at jealousy, pay attention to a loser who had a serious thing for her named Sal Fidella. Since you've got phone records, I'm sure you've seen his number."

"You know Mr. Fidella."

"No. I know of him. Elise said she'd dated him on and off, he was getting annoying."

"Annoying in what way?"

"Wanting to keep getting with her but she was over it. She thought he was a loser, always talking to her about get-rich-quick schemes."

"Such as?"

"She didn't elaborate and I didn't ask. It wasn't anything we dwelled upon."

"Did Elise ever say Fidella had actually gone through with any of his schemes?"

Franck smirked. "So you already suspect him."

"Don't second-guess us, son."

"She never got specific beyond saying he was all heat, no light."

"She ever say he was violent?"

"Unfortunately, she never mentioned that."

"Unfortunately?"

"You'd concentrate on him and I wouldn't have to talk about my sex life."

"You've seen a photo of Elise and Fidella in her living room?"

"Okay. So?"

"That didn't make you think?"

"About what?"

"She's over him but hangs on to his picture?"

Franck's knees pressed together. "I suppose that was incongruous. But so what? I wasn't romantically attached to Elise."

"Obviously," said Milo. "She kept no picture of you."

Silence.

"Unless she did and you removed it after she died."

"No way, I haven't been to her house in months! You keep coming back to total irrelevancies-"

Milo said, "Of course, there could be another reason-another theoretical. Elise had students coming in and out. Parents, too, sometimes. Flaunting a nonromantic, recreational relationship with a former student wouldn't do much for business."

"I was never her student."

"You were eighteen when you met her."

"That made me legal."

"We're not talking legal, Trey, we're talking appropriate."

Silence.

Milo said, "How soon after you started working for Elise did it get personal?"

"I don't recall."

"Guy like you with memory problems?"

"My memory's fine," said Franck. "I never made note of the precise date because I never thought I'd have to explain myself to-"

"Was it soon after, or did it take a while to develop?"

Franck shook his head. "This is humiliating."

"So was Elise's death."

The young man lowered his head.

"How soon, Trey?"

"Not weeks. Months." Franck looked up. "You want the voyeuristic details? Fine. One night I went over to Elise's house to collect my money. She was wearing a tank top and shorts. White top, blue shorts. All the other times I'd seen her, she'd dressed in dresses to the knee or slacks, her hair tied back, no makeup. That night, her hair was loose, she wore makeup. She had on perfume. She told me I was doing a great job, invited me to sit down, have a drink-not alcohol, I don't drink alcohol, never have, she meant a soft drink, that's what she was having. We sat down together on the couch, talked." His eyes moved to one side, drifted back, cloudy with reminiscence. "It just happened."

"And kept happening," said Milo. "We're talking four years."

"On and off. Have you heard the expression booty-call?"

Milo smiled. "Yes, son. Who booty-called who?"

"She always called me. The last one was two weeks ago-the phone call you saw, but that time I didn't go over."

"Why not?"

"Other obligations." Franck scratched a corner of his mouth. "I'd grown ambivalent about the relationship. For one thing I came to learn that Elise has a drinking problem. Nothing chronic, but she binges. My mother has a problem in that area and I've seen how it's affected her. Secondly, I prefer to date women my own age. I'm not claiming to be some kind of big-time player, but right now there's someone I'm involved with. She knows nothing about Elise and I'd like to keep it that way. I'm deeply sorry Elise is dead, I couldn't feel worse, she did a lot for me. But I'm really nervous about my personal life going public. That would be hell."

"No reason for your girlfriend to know, unless she's your alibi."

Franck's eyes widened. "I need an alibi?"

"Let me give you some-I guess you'd call them parameters-for the period of Elise's death."

As Milo outlined the time frame, Franck's shoulders loosened almost immediately. His grin was Christmas-morning bright, a kid in a room full of presents.

"During that entire time, I wasn't even in L.A., I was in Palo Alto for a series of research meetings with Professor Milbank-Professor Seth Milbank. He's conducting research at Stanford that might conceivably relate to mine. Professor Moon-my advisor, Professor Norman Moon-thought it would be a good idea for the three of us to sit down face-to-face and discuss possibilities. Professor Moon has travel money on his grant so we flew up. Feel free to check my plane tickets and my hotel reservation. I'd show you restaurant receipts-we ate out every meal-but Professor Moon paid for everything with his business card."