Survival Of The Fittest

He laughed. “Say hi to Milo, too. You're probably seeing him more than I am. This case- the retarded kids- it's really disturbing him. Not that he's been talking about it. But he's been tossing in his sleep.”

It was two-thirty. I hadn't come up with a thing on the DVLL killings. Robin was out for the afternoon, the house was too damn big, and the day seemed hollow.

I'd pushed Helena and Nolan to the back of my mind but Rick's call got me ruminating again.

What had caused her to make such a complete break?

Those family photos in Nolan's garage? Primal memories that strong?

She was tough and competent on the job but isolated in her private life.

More like her brother than she'd realized?

Had his self-destruction gotten her wondering about where she'd end up? Paths that hadn't been taken?

Depression ran in families. Had I missed something?

I called her home. The phone kept ringing and worst-case scenarios flashed through my head.

I thought about Nolan's showing up at the E.R., never asking for her.

Even when we were little kids we went our separate ways. Just ignored each other. Is that normal?

That kind of distance could pass for civility when life's rhythms remained shallow. But when things went bad, it could lead to the worst kind of guilt.

Parents dead, abandoned by her husband when he moved to North Carolina.

Going to work each day at the E.R., performing heroics. Coming home to…?

Had the reliable engine finally broken down?

I had nothing to do and decided to take a drive out to her house.

Maybe I'd find her in a bathrobe on the sofa, watching soap operas and stuffing her face with junk food. Maybe she'd get angry at the intrusion and I'd feel like a fool.

I could live with that.

It took forty-five minutes to reach the west end of the Valley and another ten to find her address in Woodland Hills.

The house was a small yellow structure of no particular style on a hot, wide side street lined with mature bottlebrush trees in full bloom. Red flowers and sticky patches from the trees littered the sidewalks and California jays dove among the branches. The sun bore down through the haze and even though I couldn't hear the freeway, I could smell it.

The front lawn was dry and needed mowing. Big, shapeless margarita daisy bushes pushed up against the front porch. No sign of her Mustang in the driveway and the garage door was shut. The mailbox was empty and my ring and knock went unanswered.

Two cars in the driveway next door, a white minivan and a white Acura.

I went over there. The ceramic plaque beneath the bell said THE MILLERS under a crucifix, and looked homemade. A window air conditioner played a waltz.

I rang and the brass cover on the peephole snicked back.

“Yes?” Male voice.

“My name is Dr. Alex Delaware. I'm a friend of your neighbor, Helena Dahl. She hasn't been around for a while and some of us have been getting a little concerned.”

“Um… one second.”

The door opened and cold air hit my face. A couple in their late twenties looked me over. He was tall, dark, bearded, with a sunburned nose, and wore a pink Hawaiian shirt, denim shorts, no shoes. The can of Sprite in his hand was sweating but he wasn't.

The woman next to him was slim, broad-shouldered, nice-looking, with butter-colored multiflipped hair sporting two curlers on top. An electric blue T-shirt was tucked into black shorts and her nails were long and pearly white.

“Who's concerned about Helena?” he said.

“Her friends, people she works with at Cedars.”

No answer.

I said, “She quit her job without explaining why. Has she left town?”

He gave a reluctant nod, but didn't say more. Behind him was a neatly appointed living room, home-shopping show on a big screen hawking a pearl necklace with matching earrings, only 234 left.

“We just wanted to know how she's doing,” I said. “Do you know about her brother?”

He nodded. “He never came around. At least not since we've lived here, which is two years.”

The woman said, “But they both grew up here. It was their parents' house.” Southern accent. “Helena said he was a police officer. How strange, what he did.”

“Any idea where she is?” I said.

“She said she was going on vacation,” said the man. He took a drink from the can and offered it to his wife but she shook her head.

“Did she mention where?”

“No,” he said.

“When did she leave?”

“What'd you say your name was?”

I repeated it and held out my business card and my police-consultant badge.

“You're police, too?”

“I work with them sometimes but that has nothing to do with Officer Dahl.”

His posture loosened. “My work's kind of related to police work. I teach traffic school, just opened my own business- you're sure this doesn't have anything to do with him- investigating his death, for insurance or something like that?”

“Absolutely not,” I said. “I'm just concerned about Helena.”

“Well, she just went away to get some rest. At least that's what she said, and can you blame her?”

I shook my head.

“Poor thing,” said the woman.

Her husband stuck out his hand. “Greg Miller, this is Kathy.”

“Pleased to meet you.”

“She left yesterday,” he said. “Pardon the suspicion, but you can't be too careful, all the stuff that goes on, nowadays. We're trying to get a block association together, in order to look out for each other. Helena asked us to watch her house while she was gone.”

“Crime problems in the neighborhood?” I said.

“It's not Watts but it's worse than you'd think- mostly stupid kid stuff, now they've got the white kids thinking they're gang bangers, too. There was a party last week, over in Granada Hills. Gang bangers showed up and when they didn't let 'em in, they did a drive-by. Sometimes I work nights so I taught Kathy how to shoot and she's good. Probably gonna get an attack dog, too.”

“Sounds like serious problems.”

“Serious enough for me,” he said. “I believe in prevention. All we had til recently was kids driving by booming their stereos late at night, speeding, screaming, throwing out bottles. But the last few months there've been burglaries, even during the day, while people are at work.”

Another glance between them. She nodded and he said, “Last burglary was Helena, as a matter of fact. Just two days ago. With her brother and that, you can't really blame her for wanting to take off, right?”

“Two days ago?”

“At night, hers was a nighttime thing. She went out to do some grocery shopping, came back, found the back door jimmied. Kathy and I were out, thankfully they didn't hit us. They took her TV and the stereo and some jewelry, she said. Next day she was packed up and asking us to look after the house. Said she'd had enough of L.A.”

“Did she call the police?”