The Clinic

past pregnancy were noted.

That made me think. As did the last line:

“The fallopian tubes have been ligated; from the degree of atrophy, probably within a year or two.”

“Sterilized? Any record of her having a child?”

Milo shook his head.

“And she'd been pregnant before,” I said. “Meaning an abortion- unless she miscarried. Either before the ligation or at the same time. It's a long shot, but that kind of surgery is Dr. Cruvic's specialty. What if he was her L.A. connection?”

He put the beer down. “There are lots of obstetricians. That's some leap.”

“Just throwing out ideas. Should I stop?”

“No, go on.”

“Cruvic has money,” I said. “Drives a Bentley. Those clothes we saw weren't Kmart. Not inconsistent with the kind of guy who might fly down a party girl and pay for her ticket in cash.”

“First he's her doctor, now he's her party pal?”

“He could be both. Maybe that's why he performed the ligation rather than having a doctor in Vegas do it. Hell, maybe he was even the father of her child- who'd be in a better position to get himself out of a mess than an OB? We've got him in at least one fib- not knowing Hope before the fund-raiser. Why try to mislead us? Probably because your hunch was right: Their relationship had been more than friendship. And I've got additional support for that.”

I told him what Holly Bondurant had seen in the parking lot, Marge Showalsky's protest-too-much denials. “Then there's the matter of his direct billing for Hope's services. It just doesn't smell right. Plus, I learned something today that tells me he may skirt other ethical boundaries.”

I repeated my conversation with Mary Farney. “Operating on a mentally deficient minor and knowing she probably couldn't give informed consent. Maybe he used Hope for backup. Maybe they were involved in other iffy things.”

“Like what?”

“Who knows? Financial shenanigans. Or maybe they did something really ugly, like take eggs out of one fertility patient and sell them to another.”

“So where would Mandy fit in?”

“Wild guess? She could have been an egg donor- young, healthy girl. And she learned something she wasn't supposed to. Or tried to blackmail Cruvic. Or maybe Cruvic's just the kind of guy who loves 'em and kills 'em. Hell, I can go on all day but the bottom line is my gut tells me Dr. Cruvic is worth looking into, despite the sex-killer scenario.”

He got up and walked around. “We both noticed how hyper Cruvic was, bouncing all over the place. He tried to tell us it was fitness, but maybe it was coke, and there's our link with Mandy. Though Hope's autopsy showed no dope in her system and nothing indicates she ever used. Bringing me full circle: If she was cheating with Cruvic- or Locking, or anyone else- Seacrest could have found out and decided she'd rubbed his face in it long enough.”

“But what connection would Seacrest have to Mandy Wright?”

He paced some more. “It's not just flashy guys who fool with girlies. A quiet middle-aged professor might want a hot little playmate, too. And a quiet middle-aged professor would have reason to pay cash to the playmate. And if the playmate realized how vulnerable the professor was and decided to blackmail him, the professor could decide to end his problems: heart, vagina, back. And after succeeding at that, why not go after the wife who's become such a pain in the ass?”

“Creative,” I said.

“You're a good influence.”

“Okay, as long as we're screenwriting, how about this: a threesome. Cruvic, Hope, and Mandy. Or Seacrest, Hope, and Mandy. Or even an unknown guy. Flying down a call girl to spice up a tired relationship. Then, for whatever reason, the guy decides to call it quits. Permanently. Gets rid of Mandy first because murdering a call girl three hundred miles away won't attract attention in L.A. But Hope's a different story. She's prominent, local, smarter. So he waits, planning, waiting for the right time. Then Hope helps him by getting notorious with her book. Which sets up a perfect cover: some nut acting out because of the controversy she generated.”

He thought about that. “But if Mandy and Hope knew each other, wouldn't Mandy's murder have alerted Hope?”

“If they'd parted ways, how would she know Mandy'd been killed? Did Mandy's murder get any media coverage?”

He shook his head. “Just one small blurb in the Sun the same day. Still, if Hope had been engaged in a three-way with Mandy, wouldn't she be likely to find out?”

“Okay,” I said. “Let's say she knew Mandy'd been murdered but didn't connect it to herself. Like you said, prostitutes get killed all the time.”

He drank, looked out the kitchen window. The sun was small and pale, silvering the tops of the pines, turning them as shiny as Mandy Wright's dress.

“Great screenplays,” he finally said. “It would sure be nice to have some facts.”

“At least,” I said, “I can look into Cruvic's credentials, see if anything funny shows up.”

“Do that. My next stop's a chat with Kenny Storm. I want to clear the whole committee angle. I'll also check with Vegas to see if Mandy had health insurance, maybe her sterilization was documented and we can find out who did it. The boyfriend, Barnaby, might know about that, so we'll put out the word for him, too. Anything else occur while I was gone?”

“I found Reed Muscadine. Like Kenny, he dropped out of school, but for another reason. He was up for a soap- opera part, thought he had it, but it fell through. He denied raping Tessa Bowlby, repeated the same story he told at the hearing.”

“Credible?”

“No alarm bells went off, but he's an actor. Take it for what it's worth.”

“What do you think it's worth?”

“I don't know. Tessa looked extremely traumatized. I'd like to know what's eating at her. Maybe I'll give her another try.”

“What's Muscadine like physically?”

“Very big and muscular, good-looking, body-conscious. His place is basically a gym.”

“The kind of guy who could overpower a woman and hold her still in order to stab her in the heart.”

“Easily. He could have subdued her with two fingers. But he seemed pretty calm about being questioned, so either he's innocent or he's honed his craft and was prepared for me. His landlady likes him, says he never causes problems. He claims he's HIV-negative and if he's lying, he's not showing the effects yet. Tessa, on the other hand, looks worn-out. But now that we know about Mandy, what connection could there be to the committee?”

“Good question, but I want to finish with it, seen too many screwups that seemed perfectly logical at the time. Only one student left, right?”

“Deborah Brittain. I'll try to get to her tomorrow.”

“Thanks. I really appreciate this, Alex.”

He put the file back in the briefcase. “Thanks for the theorizing, too. I mean it. I'd rather have theories than nothing.”

I walked him to the door. “Where to now?”

“Home for a shower and then talking to fellow gendarmes. Maybe I can turn up some other pretty ladies triple- stabbed under big trees, and retreat to the comfort of utter powerlessness.”

Cruvic's lie about not knowing Hope before the fund-raiser stuck in my head and at 7:00 P.M., with Robin working in her shop, I took a drive over to Civic Center.

Hoping for what? A glimpse of his Bentley as he left the office? Some pretty face in the passenger window?

Futile. The pink building's windowless facade gave no indication if anyone was in.