Page 51 of 2 Sisters Murder Investigations

“Look.” I took a deep breath, feeling like I was on unsteady ground. “The psychology behind all this stuff is ... there are mixed opinions, okay? Sometimes killers cover their victims with a blanket to hide what they’ve done. That happens particularly when it’s a known victim. Could be that burning the ... the scene ... was driven by shame.”

“So now you think it could be him?”

“I don’t know,” I said. “But, Mark?”

“Yeah?”

“I’m not gonna stopuntilI know.”

Mark Rayburn gave a hoarse grunt. I didn’t know if it was appreciation or derision.

“Personally, I think we should be looking harder at that George Crawley guy,” he said. “The man makes me uncomfortable. Always has. Never known him to have a girlfriend. Maybe he got jealous, went to the house, made a pass at Daisy.”

“Maybe,” I said. I thought about George Crawley weeping from stress in my car. “I don’t want to discount anything yet, but I’m following other leads.”

I saw a cluster of lights approaching, a gas station flanked by fast-food joints. I started shifting lanes. “Tell me, did you ever meet Troy’s parents?” I asked Mark.

“No,” Mark said. “They didn’t come to the wedding. Troy said they were elderly. Limited mobility. But I think that was bullshit. From what Daisy told me, they’re hicks from some backwater place up north somewhere.”

“Outside Ukiah, up in Mendocino County.”

“Right. I’m thinking the kids just didn’t invite them. Didn’t want their big day to turn into an episode ofThe Beverly Hillbillies.”

I said goodbye to Mark, pulled the Chevy up to a pump, and started filling it with gas. The site was identical to a thousand highway oases I had stopped at. A dusty, ruddy-faced panhandler begged for change on the edge of the lot. A mom and dad with sleeping kids in the back seat of their car checked their tires, calculated the time left before they hit LA.

In the attached convenience store, I grabbed snacks without much thought — nuts, chips, jerky, whatever I could eat one-handed. As I was filling a forty-four-ounce slushy cup, the attendant grabbed my arm. I was so startled, I dropped the cup, spilling chunky sludge everywhere.

“Yo, lady,” the guy said. He was looking out the big dark windows to the lot. “Don’t go to your car yet, okay? Some dude just crawled up and snuck into the back seat.”

CHAPTER57

BABY TAPPED AWAY ATher laptop at Arthur’s kitchen table, the sunset bleeding into night. Arthur brought her a glass of water, but she ignored it. As she tapped and clicked, the water was joined by a cup of coffee, then a slice of cake, then a cookie, then a hard candy wrapped in shiny foil and served on a little porcelain plate. He was carting over a second cup of coffee to replace the one that had gone cold when she looked up.

“You’re gonna bury me alive in a pile of drinks and snacks here,” Baby said.

“I need something to do.”

“Play with the dog.”

They looked at the dog. Mouse was snoring in the corner, his big pink belly sagging on the floor, all four legs stretched out and stiff, roadkill-style.

“Tell me what you’ve found out.” Arthur sat down beside her.

“I haven’t got a lot to work with.” Baby sighed. “On the record, Su Lim Marshall joined Enorme as an administrative assistant in 2012. Now she’s head of the California acquisition division. Seems to have worked her way up the ranks pretty naturally, if quickly. No weird promotional leaps that might suggest she was being rewarded for doing the company some murderous favors,” Baby said. “The company has two other eco-villages in the state, and they were both set up by Marshall. But they were on vacant land. Marshall didn’t threaten or bully anybody out of their houses there, at least. She didn’t need to.”

Baby brought up Su Lim Marshall’s LinkedIn profile, turned the screen toward Arthur. Marshall was classically posed — three-quarters to the camera, hair shiny and perfect, shoulders relaxed, chin up. She looked like a million other corporate types who silently oiled the gears of commerce in dark gray power suits, driving dark gray power cars to dark gray power towers. Baby showed Arthur the two other California eco-villages, clusters of glass buildings, one in the desert and one in the forest.

“So who was Su Lim Marshall before she became an Enorme attack dog?” Arthur asked. Baby was so distracted, he had to ask a second time.

“Why is that relevant?”

“Because who a person is deep down inside is always relevant,” Arthur said. “It’s why anybody does anything.”

“Look, Arthur, I’m not trying to tap into Marshall’s psyche,” Baby said. “I’m not trying to find out if she was picked on in high school or if she’s ever been married or what kind of guy her dad was. I’m trying to find out how many times she’s donethis specific thing.” She tapped the kitchen table. “Because that’s all I can use against her.”

“Maybe.” He shrugged. Baby waited. When he didn’t go on, she threw her hands up.

“I hate it when you say ‘Maybe’ like that. Like you don’t mean ‘Maybe,’ you mean ‘You’re wrong.’ ”

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