"On the boat?"

"Yeah, on the boat. Graciela wouldn't allow it in the house. He told me that, that she didn't like him doing it. Sometimes it got to the point he was sleeping on the boat at night. At the end. I think it was because of the files. He'd get obsessed with something and she'd end up telling him to stay on the boat until he got over it."

"He told you that?"

"He didn't have to."

"Any case or file you remember he was interested in lately?"

"No, he no longer included me in that stuff. I helped him work on his heart case and then he sort of shut me out of that stuff."

"Did that bother you?"

"Not really. I mean, I was willing to help. Chasing bad guys is more interesting than chasing fish, but I knew that was his world and not mine."

It sounded too much like a stock answer, like he was repeating an explanation McCaleb had once given to him. I decided to leave it at that but I knew this was a subject I would come back to with him.

"Okay, let's go back to Otto. You fished with him how many times?"

"This was our third-no, fourth-trip."

"Always down to Mexico?"

"Pretty much."

"What does he do for a living that he can afford to do this?"

"He's retired. Thinks he's Zane Grey and wants to go sportfishing, catch a black marlin and put it up on his wall. He can afford it. He told me he was a salesman, but I never asked what he sold."

"Retired? How old is he?"

"I don't know, midsixties."

"Retired from where?"

"Just across the water. Long Beach, I think."

"What did you mean a minute ago when you said he liked to go fishing and get his ashes hauled?"

"I meant exactly that. We took him fishing and when we'd stop off in Cabo, he always had something on the side."

"So each night on this last trip, you guys brought the boat into port, always to Cabo." "The first two nights in Cabo and then the third night we made it to San Diego."