B Is for Burglar

from Alpha Beta, standing just inside the door to the right."
    "Did it look like she'd been shopping? Is that what you're trying to say?"
    He shrugged. "It just looked like junk, I guess. I don't know. Maybe it belonged to whoever was down in the basement."
    "Too bad you didn't make an anonymous call to the cops. Maybe they could have gotten there before the place went up in smoke."
    "Yeah, I know. I thought about that later and I was bummed I didn't do that, but I wasn't thinking straight."
    He polished off his soft drink and rattled the ice in the cup, tilting a cube into his mouth. I could hear the ice crunching in his teeth. It sounded like a horse chewing on a bit.
    "Do you remember anything else?"
    "No, I guess that's it. Once I figured out what was going on, I back out of there and hightailed it down here as fast as I could."
    "You have any idea what time it was?"
    "Nuh-un, not exactly. It was quarter of nine when I got here and it probably took me ten minutes on the motorcycle by the time I found a place to park and all like that. I had to walk the sucker for two blocks so nobody would hear me start it up. It was probably eight-thirty or something like that when I left Uncle Leonard's house."
    I shook my head. "Not eight-thirty. You must mean nine-thirty. She wasn't killed until after nine."
    He took the cup away from his mouth, looking at me with puzzlement. "She wasn't?"
    "Your uncle and Mrs. Howe both say they talked to her at nine and the cops took a call they think was your aunt at nine-oh-six."
    "Well, maybe I got it wrong then because I thought it was quarter of nine when I got here. I looked at the clock when I walked in and then I turned around and asked this buddy of mine what time it was and he checked his watch."
    "I'll see if I can check that out," I said. "By the way, how's Leonard related to you?"
    "My dad and him are brothers. Dad's the youngest in his family."
    "So Lily Howe is their sister."
    "Something like that."
    The purple neon tubes began to blink out in succession and the pink ones went dark after that. The owner of the place called over to the table. "Closing down in ten minutes, Mike. Sorry to break it up."
    "That's okay. Thanks, man."
    We got up, moving toward the back entrance. He was not much taller than I and I wondered if we looked like brother and sister or mother and son. I didn't say anything else until we got to the parking lot.
    "You have any theories about who killed your aunt?"
    "No, do you?"
    I shook my head. "I'd get that shed cleaned out if I were you."
    "Yeah, sure. That was the deal, wasn't it?"
    He got on his cycle and did one of those jumps to start it up. "Hey, you know what? I don't remember your name."
    I gave him my card, then got in my VW. He waited to make sure I was under way and then he roared off.
    I intended to let the case sit for the weekend because I wasn't sure what else to do. Saturday morning, I went over the police reports again at home, added note cards to my collection up on the bulletin board, but for the time being, I simply had to sit it out. Come Monday, it was possible I'd get a response from the classified ads I'd placed in the Florida papers or maybe I'd hear from the DMV in Tallahassee or Sacramento. I was still waiting for the plane ticket Julia Ochsner had mailed, hoping it would give me information of some kind. If nothing new came to light, I was going to have to start all over again and see if I could develop a few new leads. I still had local vets to check, trying to get a rundown on the cat.
    I took a few minutes to do recalls on the three cab companies. The dispatcher I'd talked to at Green Stripe said he hadn't had a chance to dig through his files yet. The owner of City Cab had looked and found nothing and Ron Coachella at Tip Top wasn't in yet, but the dispatcher on duty said he'd be in shortly. So much for that.
    I went down to the office. I hadn't meant to, but I couldn't help myself. I was feeling itchy and restless and dissatisfied. I don't like not succeeding at things. California Fidelity was closed for the weekend. I unlocked my door and picked up the mail that had been shoved through the slot. There was an envelope with Julia Ochsner's return address on it. I tossed it on the desk while I checked my messages. There was only one and it had apparently just come in.
    "Hello, Kinsey. This is Ron Coachella over at the cab company? I got the information you want. Tip Top did pick up the fare at 2097 Via Madrina... let's see