Part 27 (1/2)
”Unbelievable ... only reason I found out the police were involved was by reading the Daily-the U of W paper. Something to the effect that no progress had been made but local kids were being questioned and Desi's name was mentioned. Did I say anything? No.”
Milo said, ”What do you know about Desi's ten years on the road?”
”Just what I told you yesterday.”
”Doing the hippie thing.”
”Retro-hippie,” said Ricki Flatt. ”Original hippie was my parents' generation. Then all of a sudden, he shaves his beard, cuts his hair, buys nice clothes, enrolls in architecture school. I remember thinking, so now he wants to build, not destroy.”
”The fire stayed on your mind.”
”I'm not moral enough to be haunted by it, but every so often, it would creep into my mind. Because that boy had died and the police had suspected my brother enough to question him and my parents had acted so weird.”
”Do you have any idea how Desi reconnected to Doreen?”
”None whatsoever.”
”He never mentioned her.”
”He never brought up any woman, Lieutenant. I just a.s.sumed he was being himself.”
”Meaning?”
”Playing the field and keeping it casual.”
”Did he mention any women from his years on the road?”
”Not a one. The fifty thousand, you're pretty convinced he was into something seriously illegal?”
”That's a lot of cash, Ricki.” She grew silent.
Milo said, ”A couple of other kids in Desi's hiking group were also questioned after the fire: Dwayne Parris and Kathy Vanderveldt. Anything you remember about them?”
”I wouldn't know them if you showed me a picture. I was three years older. To me they were all a bunch of stupid kids.”
”You mentioned before that Desi was into health. Did he ever mention vegan Jell-O?”
”Sure.”
”He did, huh?”
”Why?” said Ricki Flatt. ”What does food have to do with it?”
”Vegan Jell-O's homemade napalm, Ricki. It might've been used in the Bellevue fire.”
She went white. ”Oh, my G.o.d.”
”What did Desi say about vegan Jell-O?”
”I... I don't know, it's just something I heard him mention. It's really that?”
”Yes, Ricki.”
”I honestly thought it was food, some crazy organic thing.”
”Did he talk about it before the Bellevue fire or after?”
”Let me think, let me think ... all I can recall is Desi and some friends in the kitchen, having a snack before ... maybe before a hike-I think they were packing trail mix, water bottles, and then someone, maybe it was Desi, maybe it was someone else, I really don't recall, said something why don't we pack vegan Jell-O. And everyone started laughing.”
”Was Doreen there?”
”Was she there ... probably. I can't be sure, maybe not, I don't know.” Wincing. ”Vegan Jell-O ... Now I have to think about my brother in a whole new way.”
CHAPTER.
23.
Milo closed the motel door on a fetal Ricki Flatt. ”Sweet dreams? Unlikely.”
Back in the car, he said, ”Those parents had to know their boy was involved in torching that house.”
I said, ”Firefighter dad, too much to handle.”
”Backer does G.o.d-knows-what for ten years then decides to be an architect? What the h.e.l.l's that, I destroy, I build, the whole G.o.d thing?”
”Or a stab at atonement.”
”Fifty grand says he felt no guilt. Wonder if anything in San Luis got the vegan Jell-O treatment while Backer attended Cal Poly.”
”It's Robin's hometown, I'll ask her.”
I instructed the voice-recognition system to ”phone cutie.”
She said, ”I've never heard of anything but I'll ask Mom.”
Robin's relations.h.i.+p with her mother is, to be kind, complicated. I said, ”Selfless public service.”
She laughed. ”If we keep it at serious crime, we'll be fine.”
Milo said, ”I'm in debt to you, kid.”
”Bring wine the next time I cook for you.”
”What did I give you the last time?”