'Did she do it?' Sara said.
She was still in her position of official mourning and as she talked she rocked a little, forward and back.
'She?' I said.
'Mary Lou. Did she kill him?'
'I don't know. You think?'
She raised her head.
'I think that she would do anything.'
'Really?' I said.
'You wouldn't see it. You're a man.'
'And you're a woman,' I said.
'What?'
'Just trying to hold up my end of the conversation,' I said.
'Well you wouldn't. She'd fool you. Blue eyes. Cute. Sweet. She'd show you her dimples and ask for your help and you'd be falling over yourself like some big puppy.'
'Woof,' I said.
'You can laugh at me if you want to,' Sara said, a little pouty. 'But it's true.'
'Probably is.' l said. 'Why do you think she might have killed him?'
'Because she couldn't control him, though she never stopped trying. She resented authenticity. She was frightened of the untamed self.'
The sky was cloudless. It was 75 and bright. I could smell olive trees.
'His?' I said.
'His, her own…' Sara made a you-know-what-Imean gesture and her voice trailed off.
'How untamed was that?' I said.
'As untamed as yours… or mine.'
'That untamed?' I said.
'You're laughing at me again.'
'That was just a quizzical smile,' I said. 'You know this, how?'
'We were… friends.'
'Not just someone you knew at work.'
'I'm sorry,' she said. 'That was reflexive. I've become used to evasion.'
'The world is too much with us, lately.'
'My God, a literate detective?'
'Goes with good-looking,' I said. 'You and Steve were close friends.'
'Yes.'
'Do you know if he had any source of income other than Fairfax High?'
'Well they ran that camping business out in the desert. She did, really.'
'Anything else?'
'No. Why do you ask?'
'Well Mary Lou is paying me a fair sum to investigate,' I said. 'Without complaint. Life insurance?'
'I suppose so, but I can't imagine that it was huge… a teacher's salary. She's paying you?'
I nodded.
'Did Mary Lou know you and Steve were good friends?'
'I don't know what she knew. She was no trembling virgin herself.'
'Mary Lou?'
'See, you're shocked aren't you? Any woman could see through her.'
'Why that untamed vixen,' I said.
'It was all right for her, but not for Steve.'
'Gee that doesn't sound fair,' I said.
'No,' she said, pouty again. 'It wasn't.'
The landscaper finished his power trimming and the sudden quiet was almost intrusive. Then as my ears adjusted I could hear the traffic on Wilshire. I kept at Sara for as long as I could stand to, but I had learned what I
