While the crime scene crew did their thing with the van, Milo located the VIN number and did a search.
Stolen four years ago in Highland Park and never recovered, the registered owner Wendell A. Chong. Chong had a home address in South Pasadena that Milo copied down.
I said, “Peaty cleans lots of buildings on the east side, probably spotted an opportunity a year after he arrived in California and never bothered to tell the boss. Brad Dowd’s paying for van-pool pickup. Peaty used the service most of the time. Meanwhile, he had an option.”
“Equipped with a burglary/rape kit.” He frowned. “Okay, let’s boogie.”
It was twelve thirty-four when I followed him to a Coco’s at Pico and Wooster. He spent a long time in the men’s room, came out with hands scrubbed pink and damp hair.
“Didn’t know they provide showers,” I said.
“I prayed to the sink.” He ordered Boston cream pie and coffee for both of us.
I said, “Not hungry.”
“Good. This way I get two without looking like a pig. So Peaty’s an extremely bad guy. What does the globe mean?”
“The globe Dylan gave to Nora could’ve been part of a duo. Or a collection. One got left in Dylan’s car because Peaty was bragging. The other he kept for masturbatory memories.”
“Meaning, if you’re Prudential, don’t write a policy on Nora and Meserve. Any guesses where to start looking for their bodies?”
I shook my head. “The van and the kit say Peaty could’ve traveled anywhere. They also provide a scenario for Michaela. He targeted her at the PlayHouse, followed her home, found out she lived close to him. After that, it was easy for him to watch her from the van. When the time was right, he snagged her, drove her somewhere secluded, and strangled her. Maybe even in the van.”
He frowned. “Abduction and seclusion sounds like bringing Dylan and Michaela’s hoax to life. You think that’s what stimulated Peaty?”
“He’d probably been watching Michaela for a while but the hoax clinched it. And Michaela getting kicked out of class meant she spent more evenings at home alone.”
“Wherever he did her, Alex, he brought her back to the neighborhood. What’s that, staying in his comfort zone?”
“Or just the opposite,” I said. “Whoever killed Tori Giacomo dumped her in Griffith Park and concealed her body quite efficiently. The park’s miles from Tori’s apartment in the Valley and even farther from Peaty’s. It’s also a brief freeway detour from the Valley to Pasadena- get off the 101 and take the 5 for one exit, do your thing, get back on.”
“Dropping her off on the way to work,” he said. “Same way he stole the van.”
“But getting away with Tori could’ve made him more daring with Michaela. With everyone thinking he had no wheels, he didn’t worry about the body being traced back to him. So he left her right out in the open.”
“The no-wheels lie wasn’t hard to uncover.”
“Wanting to brag overrode his caution,” I said. “He was no criminal genius. Like most of them.”
The pie arrived. He ate his, reached for mine. “Maybe with Michaela, he was just being lazy. Seeing as she lived so close to him, no reason to roam. Tori was in North Hollywood, no sense bringing her home. So what about the Gaidelases? Peaty’s video collection is consistent with his Peeping Tom arrest. Good-looking young women.”
I said, “It’s hard to square the Gaidelases with that, but like I said before, he could’ve had other kinks. The car recovered in Camarillo ’s a tougher fit. If he left his van near the murder site and drove the Gaidelases’ rental to the outlets, how’d he get back to Malibu?”
“To me that’s no problem. He hitchhiked, stole another set of wheels, took a bus- or he never drove the rental in the first place. All he needed to do was leave it parked on Kanan Dume, windows wide open, keys in the ignition. Open invitation for some joyriding kid.”
“Joyride to the outlets?” I said. “Juvenile delinquents looking for bargains?”
“Why not? Shoplift some cool Nikes and hip-hop sweats. Any way you look at it, having Mr. Peaty swept off this mortal coil is no loss.”
“True.”
Several bites later: “What’s on your mind?”
“The scenarios we’ve constructed depend on planning and patience. The way Peaty died- not backing off from an armed man- showed a lack of control.”
“He was drunk. Or Vasquez didn’t give him a chance to back off.”
“Vasquez just went out there and shot him?”
“It happens.”
“It does,” I said. “But think about this: the Gaidelases’ bodies have never been found and their credit cards were never used. Plus someone took the trouble to phone utilities in Ohio and have their power shut off. That’s high-level calculation and discretion. Peaty was nabbed by a bystander watching college girls while beating off. He continued to stare openly at women and gave them the creeps. That sound discreet?”
“Even morons learn, Alex. But let’s put the Gaidelases aside for a moment. Are you okay with Michaela and Tori as Peaty’s handiwork?”
I nodded.
“Good, because stolen wheels, duct tape, rope, a knife, a loaded gun are the kind of evidence I can write up. Basic gear from your local Psycho Killer Emporium.” He massaged a temple. Ate pie, drank coffee. Pushed the empty plate back in front of me and called for a refill.
The waitress said, “Boy, you guys were hungry.”
Milo grinned. She thought it was sincere and smiled back.
When she was gone, his eyes clouded. “Almost two years passed between Tori and Michaela. The nasty old question resurfaces.”
“How many others in between,” I said.
“Peaty tags ’em at the PlayHouse. No curriculum, no attendance roster, people drop in and out. It’s a predator’s dream. I thought maybe Nora was being evasive when she told me that. Now, with her looking more and more like a victim, I believe her.”
“We found no additional trophies in Peaty’s apartment or the van. So maybe there are no other victims.”
“Or he’s got a storage bin somewhere.”
“Could be. I’d start with the buildings where Peaty did janitorial work.”
“Grabbing freebie storage,” he said. “Maybe that explains stashing Meserve’s Toyota in Brad’s garage. It also fits big-time hostility toward authority. All those properties the Dowds own, Peaty doing the scut. Be hard for Brad to monitor every bit of space…so what were you calling me about before I told you about Peaty?”
“Not important.”
“It was important enough to call.”
I recounted the scene with Hauser.
“You and Robin?”
“Yup.”
He worked hard at stoicism. “Guy’s a shrink? Sounds like a nut.”
“At the very least he’s an ugly drunk.”
“They arrest him?”
“Don’t know,” I said. “They took him away in an ambulance.”
“You clocked him good, huh?”
“I used discretion.”
He squinted, turned his hands to blades, chopped the air, whispered, “ ‘Heeyah!’ I thought you’d given up on all that black belt stuff.”
“Never got past brown belt,” I said. “It’s like riding a bike.”
“Hopefully the fool will wake up with a sore nose and realize the error of his ways. Want me to get the
