Bradley said, “No drama, it was like she’d expected it. I’d been bitching for a while about the company having problems.”
Susan said, “To tell you the kind of person she was, we offered her an extra month’s severance. She refused to take it, said we needed it to tide ourselves over.”
I said, “That’s pretty close to saintly.”
Bradley said, “You could describe her as saintly. That’s why it doesn’t make sense, someone killing her.”
Susan said, “Maybe not, Brad.”
“What do you mean?”
“Saints get martyred.”
“Oh,” he said. “Yeah, I guess so.”
I said, “Any idea who’d want to martyr Adriana?”
“Of course not,” said Susan. “We haven’t been in touch for over a year.”
“Do you know who she went to work for?”
“Of course,” she said. “The Changs.”
“You know them?”
“No, but Adriana gave us their address so we could forward mail. They’re doctors.”
“Better financial bet,” said Bradley.
Milo said, “Did she get much mail for forwarding?”
“Actually, not a single piece. Even when she lived here it was just junk-coupons she gave to us. Oh, yeah, she also got occasional correspondence from her church back in Idaho.”
Susan said, “Tabernacle Something. I guess she was a fundamentalist. But it’s not like she was heavy- handed, some kind of Jesus freak.”
“Did she find a church in Portland?”
“She went every Sunday,” she said. “Ten to noon, that’s the only time she left for any stretch. Can’t tell you where the church was, though, because we never asked and she never said.”
“Anything else you think would help us?”
Bradley said, “Sue?”
Susan said, “No, sorry.”
Milo said, “How about the address in La Jolla?”
Susan said, “Hold on, I’ll find it.”
Seconds later, she was reading off the P.O.B. Milo had just called.
He gestured obscenely. “One more question: Did you find Adriana through an agency?”
“Nope,” said Bradley, “through an ad we ran in the paper.”
“It wasn’t as risky as it sounds,” said Susan. “We ran a background check through a friend, he does security for one of the hotels. He said she came up absolutely spotless.”
“Could we have his name?”
Silence. “That’s absolutely necessary?”
“There’s a problem, ma’am?”
“Well,” said Susan, “actually, he’s not a friend, he’s my brother and I’m not sure he’s allowed to freelance with the hotel account.”
“I promise not to get him in trouble, Ms. Van Dyne, just want to find out anything I can about Adriana.”
“Okay. Michael Ramsden. Here’s his number.”
“Appreciate it and if you think of anything, here’s mine.”
“It really makes no sense,” said Bradley. “Whoever did this has to be mentally ill or something.”
“Absolutely,” said Susan. “Adriana was so stable, Lucas adored her. I am
Michael Ramsden was caught off-guard by the call from Milo.
He said, “Who?”
“Adriana Betts.”
“Never heard of her.”
“Hmm,” said Milo. “So I guess your sister lied.”
“Hold on-let me switch to another phone.” Moments later: “Are we talking the housekeeper?”
“Susan said you backgrounded her.”
“All I did was the basics, nothing anyone couldn’t do online, so I’d appreciate your not making a big deal of it.”
“Doing it on company time.”
“Coffee-break time,” said Ramsden. “My personal laptop, my sister was satisfied. You’re saying someone killed this girl?”
“Yes.”
“Whoa,” said Ramsden. “Well, there was nothing in her record to suggest that might happen.”
“Spotless?”
“That’s what the computer said.”
A scan of the UCSD med school faculty revealed that Donald Chang, M.D., was a fellow in vascular surgery and Lilly Chang, Ph.D., worked in Oncology as a cell biologist. He was in the operating room. She answered her extension.
“Adriana? Oh, no, that’s terrible. In L.A.?”
“Yes, Doctor.”
“Well,” she said, “I suppose that might explain it.”
“Explain what, Dr. Chang?”
“Her flaking on us,” she said. “At least that’s what we assumed. Not at the outset, mind you. Our initial worry was something had happened to her, because she’d always been so reliable, never even went out at night. Then about three months ago she said she was meeting a friend for dinner and never came back. We called the police, checked E.R.’s, were really worried. When she didn’t answer her phone we figured she’d bailed and got pretty irate, I have to tell you. Both of us work all day and now there was no one for May. We complained to the agency and they gave us a discount on her replacement.”
“What about her car?”
“She didn’t have one, used the bus or walked. Obviously that would restrict her but as I said, she wasn’t much for going out.”
“Until she was,” said Milo.
“Well, yes,” said Lilly Chang. “I’m so sorry to hear what happened to her. It happened in L.A.? That’s where she went?”
“Did she ever talk about L.A.?”
“Never,” said Lilly Chang.
“What agency did you get her from?”
“Happy Tots. They were highly apologetic.”
“What happened to Adriana’s personal effects?”
“The little she had we boxed and stored. It’s still there because, frankly, we forgot about it.”
“We’d like to come down and pick up the boxes.”
“Sure, they’re just sitting in our storage unit. There really wasn’t much.”
“How about we come down today?”
“This evening would be okay, I guess. After seven thirty, I’ve got meetings until six thirty, want to put May to bed myself.”
“No problem, Doctor. While we’re there, if we could chat a bit more with you and your husband that would be great.”
“There really isn’t anything to chat about.”
“I’m sure, Doctor, but this is a homicide and we need to be thorough.”
“Of course. But if you want Donald, it’ll have to be even later-no earlier than nine, probably closer to
