J. Jance - Fire and Ice

Tom shook his head. “No point,” he said. “We’re registered domestic partners. Her AIDS strain is different from mine. If I happened to give mine to her or if she gave hers to me, it could be fatal. Actually, long-term, with all the medications we take, it’s probably fatal anyway. If the disease doesn’t get us, side effects will. If she dies first, I’m set for life. If I die first, the folks from the AIDS Partnership will dance on my grave.”

“Why’s that?” Mel asked.

“Because a big chunk of whatever I don’t get will go to them. Overnight, they’ll turn into the city’s eight-hundred-pound charitable gorilla. But somehow I don’t think you came all this way to ask about Rosie’s and my health or the state of our domestic tranquillity.”

“We had a few more questions about Marina Aguirre,” I said.

Just then one of the French doors opened, and Mama Rose wheeled her walker out onto the veranda. It was a chilly spring day, with temperatures still in the fifties. She was wrapped in a heavy-duty sweater over a maroon-and-gray Cougar sweatshirt. It made me wonder what connections a former prostitute and her best boy might have with Washington State University.

“What’s going on?” she called down to us.

“We’re just asking a few more questions,” Mel told her.

“Well, come inside to ask them,” Mama Rose ordered. “I’ve asked the cook to make more coffee. It’s cold out, Tom. If you just stand around talking, you’ll end up with pneumonia.”

With that she turned around and tottered back into the house. I was surprised Tom didn’t object to that summary summons-at least he didn’t voice an objection aloud to her. I suppose if you’re already walking around with AIDS, coming down with pneumonia isn’t a good idea. I could see that Mama Rose’s calling Tom inside was a lot like Mel telling me to take my Aleve. Only more so.

“I don’t want to discuss this in front of her,” Tom said urgently. “Ask me now and then get the hell out of here before you make things worse.”

“I take it Marina is a sore spot?” Mel asked.

Tom nodded. “But not the way you think. I never touched her. Rosie loved that girl; thought she walked on water. I think she saw a lot of herself in Marina, and she really wanted her to succeed in getting out of the life. I’ve never told her what really happened.”

“And what was that?”

“Look,” he said impatiently. “I never would have done it if I hadn’t thought Rosie’s life was in danger. She means the world to me, understand?”

“What happened?” I insisted.

“Some guy showed up out here-right here in the yard. A tough guy-a Hispanic tough guy. I don’t know how he found us but he did. He said Marina had ripped off a friend of his. He said he knew Marina had taken off again, but he thought she might have left the money in her trailer at Silver Pines or else with us.”

“When was this?” Mel asked. She was already taking notes.

“Sometime in early November,” Tom said. “I know it was before her rent was due. The guy knew Marina lived at Silver Pines, but he didn’t know which unit. He wanted me to go into her place and look for it.”

“Did you?” I asked.

“Yes, I did. I checked it out.”

“Why?”

“Because he made it pretty clear that if I didn’t, something bad would happen to me or to Rosie.”

“Did you find anything?” I asked.

“Yes, I did,” he answered shamefacedly. “It was there in the freezer compartment of her fridge-several Ziploc bags filled with cash. Not a very original hiding place, if you ask me.”

“How much was there?” Mel asked.

“I didn’t count it all. It looked to be fifty thou or so. Maybe more. Tell me this. Where does a girl who’s waiting tables at Denny’s come up with that much moolah? I figured she was either dealing drugs or else she stole it, both of which are against Mama Rose’s rules. So I gathered it up, hauled it out of the house in a brown paper bag and gave it back to the guy who came looking for it.”

“Are you kidding?” Mel asked. “You gave away that much money just like that-because some asshole claimed it belonged to a friend of his?”

“It had to,” Tom said. “Who else’s would it have been, and how would they have known about it? Besides, in the larger scheme of things, it wasn’t that much money. Choosing between giving it back and protecting Mama Rose or calling in the long arm of the law wasn’t a big contest.”

I couldn’t help wondering if Tom was telling us the truth or if he was conning us. His cell phone rang just then. “I’m coming,” he said without bothering with a hello. “I’ll be right there.” Then, after a pause, he added, “It’ll just be the two of us. They won’t be staying.”

“And you didn’t tell Mama Rose about any of this because…?” I asked when he ended the call.

“Because Marina was supposed to be one of Mama Rose’s rising stars. She had a job and a boyfriend. The boyfriend was legitimate, as far as I can tell. I don’t think he had anything to do with the drug money. I was planning on finding a way to bring it out in the open the next time we went to collect Marina’s rent, but it turned out there never was a next time. The guy who came here was right. Marina had already taken off for good. She must have realized the bad guys were closing in on her. She bailed in such a hurry that she left the money behind.”

Mel stood with her pen poised over the paper. “Any idea about the ID of the crook who threatened you?”

Tom shook his head. “No idea. I did some checking at the time. Like I said, we’re not too popular with the city administration in town, but out here in the boonies, Mama Rose is something of a folk hero. When the guy came back to pick up the money…”

“He came here?” I asked.

“Yes. I already told you. He knew where we live. But when I handed off the money, I made a mental note of the vehicle license. You know how it goes. Once a cop, always a cop. You’re trained to remember those kinds of details, and that training never goes away. But then, just to be sure, as he was leaving, I went one step beyond that and managed to take a photo of his license plate. Later I checked with one of our local deputies. The vehicle turned out to be stolen-no surprise there. What was left of it wound up in a chop shop down in Tacoma a few days later.”

“So you don’t know who the guy was,” Mel said again.

“No, I don’t. And I’ve got to go now. Otherwise Rosie is going to start asking questions.”

My impression was that he was playing it straight, so I gave him one of my cards. “If you think of anything else, call us.”

“Right,” he said. “I will.”

He walked away, heading inside for his coffee. Mel and I got back into the Mercedes. Mel looked unhappy.

“What’s wrong?” I asked.

“I think he was gaming us,” she told me. “I think he’s the kind of guy who could look you straight in the eye and lie through his teeth.”

Which only goes to show that we’re not always on the same wavelength.

“We were gaming him,” I pointed out. “We didn’t tell him we’re pretty sure she’s dead.”

“So?” Mel asked.

I sighed. “Where to now?” I asked.

She picked up her phone. “I’ll call into the office and see if Barbara has any marching orders for us. And it’s Lola, by the way,” she added, waiting for Barbara Galvin to pick up.

All of a sudden I was lost. I had no idea what we were talking about.

“It’s ‘Whatever Lola wants, Lola gets…’ Not Rosie. It’s a song from Damn Yankees. The Year the Yankees Lost the Pennant.”

It annoyed me to think that Mel felt it necessary to repeat the title like that. I mean, I understood Damn Yankees the first time. And I didn’t understand why, just because Tom had misquoted a song lyric, that somehow made him more suspect than he was before.