I had an inspiration as we drove out of Reeder, so we switched places and Amanda drove while I called Lieutenant Beech. ‘There’s a problem with the body found at Arlin’s house?’ I asked.
‘Arlin’s insurance medicals?’
‘When are you telling the reporters about the problem?’
‘We welcome visitors, including the press. We’re right on the ocean. Our sunsets are spectacular.’
‘What’s wrong with the corpse?’
‘I’m working until midnight, every night this week.’
‘What about that red-haired fellow hanging around Arlin’s house the night before the explosion?’
‘Do drop by with medical records,’ he said, and hung up.
‘He wants the pleasure of my company,’ I told Amanda.
‘To arrest you for withholding evidence?’
‘I might have leverage to keep him from doing any such thing.’
I asked her to pull over. I wanted her to call the Laguna Beach Police so whoever answered wouldn’t recognize my voice calling back. She put it on speaker.
‘Laguna Beach Police,’ the woman who answered said.
‘A friend borrowed my car,’ Amanda said. ‘She left it in a no-parking zone and it got towed. Where’s the city impound lot?’
‘No city lot. We use Ajax Towing. Here’s their number.’
I made the call to Ajax. ‘You’ve got my white Crown Victoria, Oregon plates?’
The man at the other end put the phone down for a moment, then came back to say, ‘Sixty-five a day brings it to seven hundred and eighty. Cash only.’
Ajax’s deal with the city was to tow for free. They made their money on storage charges. Or not, if the owner never came back to claim a car.
I did the backward math based on the impound charges. Runney’s Crown Victoria was towed the day after Arlin’s house blew up.
Amanda read my face like a page printed large and smiled. ‘Two hundred extra for a dog leg on the way back to Chicago?’
‘Done,’ I said, peeling off four fifties.
She dialed a new number and said, ‘I’d like you to file a new flight plan.’