Marge said, “Never underestimate the power of jewelry.”
Ivan snorted again. “In answer to your question, sure it’s possible that Roseanne went to see him.”
“But you said that Roseanne told you she was subbing for someone,” Marge said.
“So what? It’s still possible that while she was in San Jose, she saw the fat prick and they had a fight. Roseanne was really good at starting arguments. And she was even better at really pissing you off. I could totally see that asshole losing it.”
“You knew him personally, Ivan?” Oliver asked.
“Nah…never met the dude. Just saw a couple of pictures. He looked like a football player gone to seed.”
“So how could you know if Raymond Holmes had a temper?”
“Even if you didn’t have a temper to start with, a couple months with Roseanne, you’d develop it real quickly. Look, I know that Roseanne broke it off. I finally gave her an ultimatum-him or me. She didn’t have to think too long. I was there when she made the phone call. Still, Mr. Fat Ass has some problems with the word no. He kept calling her. I happened to answer the phone once. I told him to lay off my wife and he got really nasty. I said if I ever saw his ugly face around Roseanne, I’d kill him. He told me that I’d better be quick, otherwise he intended to shoot first.” He looked at Marge. “We never met and nothing ever happened, but even with just the one conversation, I could tell that the guy had a nasty temper.”
“Sounds like you have one yourself,” Marge said.
Dresden rolled his eyes and looked at Oliver for solace. “I never met the guy in person. I’m just trying to giving you opinions, that’s all.”
“And we’re happy to hear them,” Oliver said. “But we got a problem, Ivan. We think that WestAir never issued a work order for Roseanne for flight 1324. As a matter of fact, we can’t find any work order for Roseanne in San Jose, period.”
The room fell silent. Dresden became irritated. “So maybe I remember the message wrong. Maybe Roseanne just said she was in San Jose and we’ll talk about the fight later and I assumed that she had flown up on an assignment. So much has happened between then and now…” His anger suddenly retreated into sorrow. “So much that I want to forget. So you’re just going to have to accept my lapses of memory, all right?”
“Fair enough, Ivan, because we do know that the last call on Roseanne’s phone went through a tower in San Jose to your home phone,” Oliver told him. “So how’d you find out about Raymond Holmes?”
“Roseanne started showing up with things that went way beyond her salary. The last straw was her trying to make me believe that a Chopard watch was a giveaway from her airline, which was one step away from Chapter Eleven.”
Oliver laughed. “Yeah, we’ve heard that WestAir has financial problems.”
“The company was always late with its payroll, so talk about lame lies. At that point, I pressed her and she confessed.” A bitter laugh. “All those times she was on my case just because I enjoyed a night out with the boys. Meanwhile, she’s boffing a butt-ugly old guy for a fucking watch.”
Oliver raised his eyebrows. “I guess you two really did argue a lot about money.”
“I told you, all the time. Roseanne was always getting on my case because I liked an occasional good time.”
Marge said, “Maybe she got on your case because your occasional good time was costing a hell of a lot more than her occasional good time.”
Dresden’s eyes darkened. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“It means, Ivan, that we’re not idiots and that we’ve checked out a couple of things before we came down to see you,” Marge said.
Oliver said, “Not that I’m making any value judgments, because I’ve been to Leather and Lace myself. But on my salary, I forgo the lap dancing that’s reserved for the honchos that can afford to stick a C-note down a babe’s G-string.”
Dresden was silent.
“Mr. Michelli likes to maintain cordial relationships with the police,” Oliver went on. “We know you paid off an enormous lap-dance bill. You certainly don’t have to answer this question, Ivan, but we are a bit curious. Where’d you get that kind of money?”
“I work, you know.”
“That’s a lot of overtime,” Marge said.
“Fucking-A right about that!”
“How’d you come up with fifteen thousand dollars in one lump payment?”
“Like you said, I don’t have to answer that.”
“Of course not,” Oliver answered. “Although maybe you don’t want to leave us in a curious state. That’s when we start snooping around.”
“Snoop all you want,” Ivan growled. “I have nothing to hide.”
How many times had Marge heard that before? She said, “We’ll find out if you have a second on the condo.”
“I don’t even officially own the condo,” he spat out. “Until she’s declared legally dead, all of her assets are frozen, for your goddamn information.”
Oliver held up his hands. “Peace, bro, we’re just trying to figure things out.”
“Well, if you want to figure things out, why don’t you ask Raymond Holmes where he was the night she phoned me.”
“Absolutely.” Oliver stood up and put his hand on Dresden’s muscled shoulder. “I’m not trying to take you down, bro. I’m just trying to get to the truth. In the long run, it’s good for you, because once we find out what happened to Roseanne-either in the crash or up at San Jose-you can get your money.”
Dresden was still fuming about his exposed personal life. Still, he blurted out, “I sold my car and I’m driving Roseanne’s Beemer. I can’t sell it, but I can sure as hell use it.”
“See how easy that was?” Oliver said.
“I should be taking a vacation in Mexico to clear my mind. Instead I’m working harder than I ever did. I’m also doing overtime.”
“Fifteen thousand dollars must constitute a lot of overtime,” Oliver said.
“Three thousand worth of overtime, ten gees for my old clunker. The rest came from pawning the jewelry given to Roseanne by Mr. Fat Ass. The Chopard watch went for about twenty cents on the dollar. Some lucky babe is going to get a very sweet deal.”
18
M ARGE KNOCKED ON the open door to the Loo’s office. “Have a few minutes?”
“Sure, have a seat.” Decker looked up from the list, noticing that Marge and Oliver were smiling. “How’d it go with Ivan Dresden?”
After relating the bulk of the conversation, Marge said, “He told us Roseanne had left a message on the answering machine. She said she was up in San Jose.”
“And that was about the only part he got right,” Oliver said.
Marge said, “The first time he told us about Roseanne’s message, he said that she was subbing for someone in San Jose. After we adroitly pointed out that WestAir hadn’t assigned Roseanne a shift in San Jose, he changed the line and said that she was up in San Jose, but he didn’t know why she was there.”
“So why was she there?” Decker said.
“Dresden pointed to the obvious, that she went up north to visit Raymond Holmes.”
“Yeah, he was also quick to tell us that Raymond Holmes has a temper,” Oliver said.
“Dresden met Holmes?” Decker asked.
Marge said, “No, he never met him, although he claimed he talked to the guy on the phone. From what we gathered, they got into a verbal pissing contest, but that was as far as it went.”
Decker said, “Do we know where Ivan Dresden was when his wife was in San Jose?”
“He was out for the evening, but didn’t say where,” Marge said.
“My guess is Leather and Lace,” Oliver said. “I think he’d like to keep his proclivities quiet until he gets his insurance money.”
Decker said, “If Roseanne was planning to come home from San Jose the next morning to talk over the fight, she probably took the five A.M. WestAir flight from San Jose to Burbank. So there’s a possibility that someone on that flight might have remembered her.”