Jonathan Kellerman - Deception

"She always called me. The last one was two weeks ago-the phone call you saw, but that time I didn't go over."

"Why not?"

"Other obligations." Franck scratched a corner of his mouth. "I'd grown ambivalent about the relationship. For one thing I came to learn that Elise has a drinking problem. Nothing chronic, but she binges. My mother has a problem in that area and I've seen how it's affected her. Secondly, I prefer to date women my own age. I'm not claiming to be some kind of big-time player, but right now there's someone I'm involved with. She knows nothing about Elise and I'd like to keep it that way. I'm deeply sorry Elise is dead, I couldn't feel worse, she did a lot for me. But I'm really nervous about my personal life going public. That would be hell."

"No reason for your girlfriend to know, unless she's your alibi."

Franck's eyes widened. "I need an alibi?"

"Let me give you some-I guess you'd call them parameters-for the period of Elise's death."

As Milo outlined the time frame, Franck's shoulders loosened almost immediately. His grin was Christmas-morning bright, a kid in a room full of presents.

"During that entire time, I wasn't even in L.A., I was in Palo Alto for a series of research meetings with Professor Milbank-Professor Seth Milbank. He's conducting research at Stanford that might conceivably relate to mine. Professor Moon-my advisor, Professor Norman Moon-thought it would be a good idea for the three of us to sit down face-to-face and discuss possibilities. Professor Moon has travel money on his grant so we flew up. Feel free to check my plane tickets and my hotel reservation. I'd show you restaurant receipts-we ate out every meal-but Professor Moon paid for everything with his business card."

Milo said, "Tickets and hotel sound like a good start, Trey."

The young man slid off the sofa bed, retrieved his laptop from the floor, held the computer like a glockenspiel, and typed while standing.

Seconds later he showed us an online travel site screen.

Four-day stay at the Palo Alto Sojourner Inn, incoming and outgoing flights on Southwest.

"Satisfied?" said Franck.

"Four days," said Milo. "That's a lot of meetings."

"We made a side trip to Berkeley to confer with Professor Rosen."

Milo phoned the hotel, spoke with the desk, hung up. "Looks like you're cleared, Trey. Unless you've figured out how to be in two places simultaneously."

"Not yet, but maybe one of these days," said Franck.

"You're working on that?"

"Wait long enough, Lieutenant, and everything happens."

We left the shabby building, nearly collided with a helmeted student speeding up the footpath on a skateboard.

"Hey, watch it!"

Milo said, "Put more time into your physics homework."

"Huh?"

"Plotting trajectories, pal. Yours sucked."

The kid stared, waited until Milo 's back was turned before flipping us off. Back in the car, I said, "Fish-and-chips?"

"Something's off with Franck but I can't pinpoint it."

"There's a minuscule speech delay," I said. "Like a machine processing."

"That's it. Reminds me of a witness on the stand who's been coached. A four-year affair leaves plenty of room for rage. Too bad he's alibied tight."

"You're not buying the booty-call defense?"

"That's what it was to Elise. But young guy, experienced older woman? I'll bet Franck was a virgin when she seduced him and he grew a lot more emotionally involved than he's letting on."

The door to Franck's building opened. Franck stepped out and walked straight toward us.

"This should be interesting," said Milo, starting to roll down the window.

But Franck, staring down as he hurried, never saw us. Cutting across the lawn, he continued south.

We waited a few minutes before following him.

Two blocks south, he entered another apartment building. A whole different world from Franck's dump; this one was thirties Spanish architecture, immaculate upkeep, thoughtful landscaping. The right side of the building was a wide veranda arranged with wrought-iron furniture. Real estate ads would call the place charming and, for once, they wouldn't be lying.

We didn't sit long before Franck was out again, arm in arm with a petite dark-haired girl in jeans and a Brown sweatshirt.

Milo said, "Obviously, she went to Columbia."

Franck and the girl faced, pecked lips. Strolling to the veranda, they pushed a love seat toward the shadows, settled, held hands, kissed some more. The girl's head rested on Franck's shoulder.

Milo said, "Now I feel like a voyeur. And now it is fish-and-chips."

The pub was gone, replaced by half a storefront peddling vintage jeans, another serving fast-food Thai.

"Time to be geographically eclectic," he said. "What can I get you?"

"I'm fine."

"Don't think your discretion will shame me into fasting."

I idled by the curb as he loped into the Thai place. Something he told the counter girl made her smile. He got back in the car with bags full of takeout.

"Double order of pad to go, just in case you change your mind. Extra spice, extra shrimp, extra everything she could think of."

I cruised west on the 210 as he wielded a plastic fork and gobbled.

When he stopped to breathe, I said, "The daisy chain continues."

He wiped his mouth. "Meaning?"

"Another helpful witness. Winterthorn punted you to Hauer, Hauer to Fidella, now Franck gives you a twofer: Fidella and Martin Mendoza."

He flicked the prong of the fork. "Let's hear it for upright citizens doing their duty. Maybe two votes for Sal should put him square on my radar. If he did find out Elise was cutting him off sexually and financially, we're talking big-time hurt feelings. Which puts me right back where I started: the so-called boyfriend."

He poked noodles, wrapped up the bulk of the Thai food and bagged it.

"Not good?" I said.

"Good enough."

He appeared to doze off, but a few miles later, without opening his eyes, he said, "As far as young Master Mendoza with the temper, he's Latino, meaning he might know Spanish. Meaning he'd find it easy enough to pay Mr. Anteater for buying ice. On the other hand, murder's a pretty strong reaction to being tutored against your will and according to Franck, Mendoza had stopped showing up at Elise's place."

I said, "For tutoring."

His lids rose. "She was doing him, too?"

"Another younger man."

"Oh, boy… but with a young offender, something sexual gone bad, I'd expect disorganization, overkill. This was just the opposite, Alex. Antiseptic, staged. It doesn't feel right."

"It doesn't, unless Martin's one of those long-simmering types."

He called in an AutoTrack on Martin Mendoza. Plenty of registered drivers with that name but none in the age range. Same for a criminal record.

"Kid doesn't even have a license. Must love watching rich kids zoom into the student parking lot. Okay, gotta find him."

I said, "His father works at one of the country clubs. That narrows it down a bit."

"Hell with that." He bared teeth. "It's back-to-school for Uncle Milo."

The Hotel Bel-Air sits on twelve of the most expensive acres on the planet, sharing precious dirt with eight-figure estates. No sidewalks in Old Bel Air discourages pedestrian riffraff. So do high walls and gates, closed-circuit cameras, guard dogs, and rent-a-cops.

Try building a hotel in Old Bel Air today and the Not-in-my-backyard roar will set off sonic booms. But when the foreign potentate who purchased the property several years ago proposed to convert the hotel to his private Xanadu, the avalanche of neighborly rage caused him to fly back home and become an absentee innkeeper.

Time can rot but it can also lay on patina, and people learn to love what they're used to. That, it occurred to me, might explain the pride north-of-Sunset Brentwood takes in hosting Windsor Preparatory Academy's sixteen-acre campus. A core belief in the value of education isn't the reason; the merest suggestion of constructing a public school in the district can bring down a city councilman.