“No, I want to know why you’re harassing me after I cooperated with every request you made. This is what I get from being a good citizen?”
Decker said, “If you would just hold your outrage for a few minutes, maybe I can ask you a few questions and straighten this mess out. Then we can all go home, happy campers.”
“That’s what you said the last time I was here!”
“Mr. Holmes, I understand your frustration. We are just doing our job.”
“Have you been talking to that scumbag husband of hers?”
“Ray-”
He stood up abruptly. So did Decker. “Relax,” Holmes said. “I have to go to the bathroom.”
Decker nodded. “I’ll take you.”
“You’re not going with me. For all I know, while I’m in there with you, you’ll zap me with a taser.”
“Your lawyer can come as well.”
“This is just plain embarrassing!” He looked at his lawyer. “Make sure he stays away from my dick.”
The excursion took up another ten minutes. After they were reseated, Holmes appeared as if he had lost a little of his steam. Decker said, “I’d just like to ask your client a few questions, all right?”
“Go ahead,” Dudley said.
“Thank you.” Decker looked at Holmes. “The night before Roseanne Dresden disappeared, you told me that you were home with your wife all evening.”
“Yes,” Holmes answered.
“I really think it would be in your best interest to have your wife come in and sign a statement backing up your claim.”
“You know that’s just a form of intimidation, Lieutenant,” Dudley said. “Mr. Holmes has admitted to an affair with Roseanne Dresden. He has also told you that he had not seen the woman in six months prior to her disappearance.”
“We’ve been through this already,” Holmes broke in. “I swear to God, I don’t know what happened to Roseanne. I don’t know if she died in the crash, I don’t know if that scumbag husband did her in, or I don’t know if she hooked up with some loser with a nasty temper. I don’t know, okay?”
“Okay,” Decker said.
Holmes wiped his wet face. “Okay.” Sensing that the heat had been lifted, he sat back in his chair and took another glass of water. “Can I go home now?”
“Not quite yet,” Decker said. “I have a good reason for asking your wife to sign a statement, sir. It would just be one less charge to deal with.”
Holmes sat up. “What are you talking about?”
“Let me handle this,” Dudley said. “Are you going to explain or is it your intention to keep us holed up for nothing?”
“Mr. Dudley, your client has an identity problem.” He looked at Holmes and then reached in his suitcase and pulled out a legal document dated twenty-three years ago. “You weren’t always Raymond Holmes, were you?”
Dudley picked up the paper, but Holmes grabbed it from his hand. The big man looked at the paper and a new wave of sweat washed over his face. “This is what you’re asking me about?” He shook it in front of Decker. “This is what you’re in an uproar about? So what? So I changed my name. I didn’t think Tomas Martinez would go over too well in the Silicon Valley. You think I’m an upstart spic, is that what you think?”
The best offense…
Dudley took the paper from Holmes’s hand. “This is a legal name change.” He stared at Decker and then at his client. “What’s the prob-” He stopped himself.
“What’s the problem?” Decker finished the sentence. “Yes, Mr. Dudley, we do have a problem. Tomas Martinez was born in Madrid, New Mexico, and died of pneumonia when he was eight years old.”
“Oh, for God’s sakes!” Holmes bellowed. “Do you know how many Tomas Martinezes there are in New Mexico? It’s a very common name.”
“I’m sure it is, but there’s only one Tomas Martinez that matches your Social Security number and date of birth.” Holmes was struck silent; his lawyer as well. “You want to tell us how you came to take Tomas Martinez’s identity?”
Dudley moved in. “I’d like a few minutes alone with my client.”
“Of course,” Decker said. “Just look up at those cameras when you’re ready to talk to me.”
“OKAY,” HOLMES SAID after Decker returned. “This is the story and it’s the God’s honest truth. Are you ready to listen?”
“I’m ready to listen.”
“Okay. I’m going to tell you what’s going on with that and we can all go home.” The big man let out a big sigh. “I got into trouble when I was younger. I had a hard life, I had an old man who beat the crap out of me. I had an old lady who was a junkie. I was the oldest, so everyone gave me shit. I’m not asking for sympathy. I’m just giving you some background as to why I did what I did, okay?”
“Sure,” Decker said.
“I grew up in New Mexico, which, if you’ve ever been there, is a sparsely populated state with lots of wide-open space. Like I said, my old man was a con and my old lady was a junkie. I became a wild kid and there was no one around to stop me. Just me and a bunch of bums and the open road.”
“Go on.”
“No discipline, no nothing. I did some things that I’d like to forget.”
“Like?”
“Ah, c’mon! Do I have to spell it out?”
“It would be nice.”
“Jesus! Okay. Auto theft, B-and-Es, assaults. I got into a lot of fights. I was an angry, wild kid with no discipline. It finally caught up with me when I was eighteen. I did a few years in Roswell Correctional Center, and then they paroled me for good behavior. I came out a changed man, Lieutenant. This is the key. I became a completely changed man.”
“A stay in prison can change a man.”
“You better fucking believe it! I wasn’t ever going back inside again. Never ever! All I wanted was a fresh start and a couple of breaks. I moved to Madrid, which is only about ten miles south of Santa Fe. I only stayed there for a little while because it was too close to Santa Fe for me to be comfortable. Lots of bad memories. Tomas Martinez was dead. Tomas Martinez didn’t have a record. I figured what’s the harm? He was my fresh start.” Holmes’s shirt was sodden. “I worked construction in southern New Mex and all the way up in the Four Corners. I worked hard and kept my mouth shut. I had natural talent for woodworking. I learned all I could until I felt good enough to branch out on my own. I searched for good places to live, and at that time, Silicon Valley was the up-and-coming place. The men here…”
Holmes laughed derisively and waved his hand.
“They’ve got brainpower, I’m not going to deny that. They can do amazing things with chips, motherboards, and computers, but they don’t know a hammer from a screwdriver. It’s Nerd City. I figured it was a good place to make a kill-to do well in the construction trade. People were coming in all over the place, and housing was sprouting up like weeds. After my visit, I said to myself, ‘Buddy, you hit gold.’ So I changed my name to something more white-collar and set up shop. You look at my records and you’ll see I’m telling the truth.”
“So I have your permission to look at your records?” Decker asked.
“No, you don’t,” Dudley answered. “He was speaking metaphorically.”
“There’s nothing to see even if I gave you permission,” Holmes said.
Decker was quiet for a moment. Like all good tall tales, this one had snippets of truth. “What was your given name?”
Holmes’s eyes darted from side to side. If the guy had any smarts, he had to figure that this was going to be Decker’s next question.
“Is that really necessary?” Holmes stalled. “I want to put that part of my life behind me.”
“Yes, it is really necessary.”
“Why?” Dudley asked. “Unless it has direct impact on the so-called charges that you’re going to present us with, it is irrelevant.”
“It has to do with the truthfulness of your client, sir.” Decker faced Holmes. “What’s your given name?”
Holmes was silent. Dudley filled in the silence. “If you want to know the answer to that question, come back with a warrant.”