Deception

CHAPTER

5

We left the chief mulling flan versus flourless chocolate cake.

As the unmarked idled, Milo found Sal Fidella’s cell number in his pad and called.

“Helpful fellow, ready to meet us right now, onward to Sherman Oaks.” He looked up the address in his Thomas Guide. “Hmm… this says it’s Van Nuys. Maybe Ol’ Sal’s a little pretentious. Be nice if he turns out to be a degenerate psychopath and lies about everything?”

I said, “Be nicer if the chief’s kid had a low IQ.”

The house was a Spanish one-story on Burdette Court just north of Burbank Boulevard, turned mangy by flaking gray spray-coat.

A brown seventies Corvette occupied the driveway. The neighborhood ranged from spotless cottages sporting pride-of-ownership gardens to dumps with paved-over frontage hosting trailers and junkers.

Fidella’s place was somewhere in the middle, with a neatly edged lawn but no landscaping other than a struggling banana plant inches from the sidewalk. The picture window was draped with what looked like a bedsheet. The Corvette was dirt-streaked, the concrete beneath its well-worn tires cracked and crumbling.

Milo said, “He didn’t spend his casino dough on décor.”

Fidella came out the door, unlit cigar in hand, and gave a small wave. Five six with a low center of gravity, he wore a whiskey-colored velour sweat suit and yellow flip-flops. He’d traded the red beard for a soul patch and let it go white. A hunk of something shiny gleamed from one earlobe.

“Play-ah,” mumbled Milo. “What’s your guess, diamond or zircon?”

Fidella studied us but didn’t approach. Licking the tip of the cigar, he folded an arm across his chest.

“He look grief-stricken to you?”

“Wouldn’t that be nice,” I said.

“What?”

“He really is a murderous psychopath, you close it quick, Charlie gets into Yale and becomes president of the United States.”

“Dare to dream.” He got out of the car.

Sal Fidella extended a hand to Milo, then to me. “Hey. This stinks.”

He had deep blue eyes, pudgy, oversized fingers, and a back-slanted gait that made his upper body look as if it were hurrying to catch up with his feet. A smooth basso radio-announcer voice could sell you things you didn’t need.

The living room he led us into was Bachelor Cliché Central: black leather couches fitted with built-in head pillows and cup holders, matching ottoman in lieu of a coffee table set up with ashtrays, cigarette packs, a cigar box, a collection of remote controls. A wet bar favored tequila and rum. A stack of audiovisual gizmos took up most of the hearth. The sixty-inch flat-screen above the mantel was tuned to ESPN Classic, no sound. Lakers-Celtics play-off from back when giants were okay wearing short-shorts.

The adjoining dining room was unfurnished. An open doorway flashed a glimpse of bare kitchen counters. The window cover wasn’t a bedsheet; a frayed, beige curtain had come loose from its rod, was held in place by duct tape and clothespins. The place smelled like a cocktail lounge after closing.

Fidella said, “Beer, guys? Something else?”

“No, thanks,” said Milo.

“Mind if I do?”

“Suit yourself.”

Fidella slouched to the bar, poured himself a double shot of Silver Patrón, selected a lime wedge from a bowl of mixed citrus segments, and squirted the tequila.

Half the drink was gone by the time he sat facing us. “Can’t believe Elise is gone. Crazy.”

“Must’ve been tough discovering her,” said Milo.

“Oh, man, it was out of a movie.” Fidella sucked on his cigar and sipped. “I mean the moment I saw her, wow, it was… I knew she was gone. But I guess I didn’t wanna accept it so I kept telling myself she’d be okay. It wasn’t till later that it started sinking in.” A meaty hand slashed air. “Permanent.”

Fidella began rooting inside an eyelid with a fingertip, pulled something out, studied, flicked. “Guess she wasn’t being paranoid.”

“About what?”

“Bastards at Prep—the school she worked at. She told me they were out to get her.”

“Which bastards?” said Milo.

Fidella shook his head. “That’s the thing, she wouldn’t mention names. I tried to get it out of her but she changed the subject.”

“All she said was someone was out to get her.”

“Yeah.”

“Not how or why?”

“Uh-uh.”

“When did this conversation take place, Mr. Fidella?”

“Maybe… a month ago? Three weeks? To be honest, guys, I figured she was being a drama queen. Elise could get like that. ’Specially that time of the month, know what I mean? Hormonal, almost kinda bipolar?”

“She could be moody.”

“One day she’s sweetness and light, next day it’s like a dark cloud’s over her, she’s all closed up. When she gets like that, she doesn’t answer her phone. What I used to do was come over, try to work things out, you know? But she never answered the door. And if I used my key, she’d freak out. Even though she was the one gave it to me in the first place. Tell the truth, that’s what I kinda assumed when she didn’t return calls for three days. That she was in one of those closed-up situations. But I went over anyway. ’Cause it wasn’t that time of the month, know what I mean?”

“You keep tabs on that kind of thing,” said Milo.

“Huh? No, it’s just that when you’re with a girl you get to know her rhythm.”

“So you knew Elise wasn’t premenstrual and you went over.”

“Because she didn’t answer the phone.”

“You let yourself in with your key.”

“I call out her name, no answer, figure maybe she’s sick, in the bedroom, whatever. I’m worried, so yeah, I go in. She’s not in the front, not in the bedroom, I go into the bathroom, the door’s closed. I call her name, she doesn’t answer, that’s when I get this weird feeling. I open the door.” Wince. “See her. I was gonna pull her out but she was clearly gone, you know? Blue, not moving. I figured moving her wouldn’t be a good thing. For you guys’ sake.”

“Preserving the scene.”

“If I’d moved her and messed things up, you’d be pissed, right? ’Cause she was obviously… don’t think I wouldn’ta helped her if I could.”

“You did the right thing, Sal.”

“That was my intention.”

“So,” said Milo, “a month or so ago she told you people at Prep were out to get her. She definitely used the plural?”

“Huh?”

“They were out to get her. More than one person.”

“Hmm. Yeah, I’m pretty sure… yeah, yeah, definitely they not him. That’s another reason I thought she was being dramatic.”

“What do you mean?”

“Everyone’s against her? Like a conspiracy?”

“Was Elise into conspiracies?”

“Like Kennedy stuff, UFOs? Nah. But you know what I mean.”

“You didn’t take her seriously.”

“I would’ve if she’d told me something,” said Fidella. “Also, to be honest, when Elise drank she could get that way.”

“What way?”

“Feeling sorry for herself, maybe a little paranoid.”

“About what?”

Fidella looked at the carpet. Twirled his cigar. Slugged back tequila and put the glass down.

“To be honest, guys, mostly about me. Enough juice in Elise’s system, she’d start convincing herself I didn’t like her no more, was gonna find myself another girl, someone younger. Stuff like that. But normally, she was a great girl, she could be fun. I’m nauseous-sick over what happened to her, you gotta nail whoever did it.”

He rubbed one fist with an open hand. “I know I’m not supposed to say stuff like this but you get this asshole, you just leave me alone with him. I used to box Golden Gloves back in Connecticut.”

“Last I heard,” said Milo, “Golden Gloves didn’t use tag-teams.”

“Huh?”

“They, Sal. More than one person.”

“Oh, yeah. Well, whatever, leave me with all of them.”

Milo crossed his legs and spread his arms along the back of the sofa. “Where’d you meet Elise?”

“A bar.”

“Which one?”

“Not here, Santa Barbara. Place called Ship Ahoy, off South State. I was there on work—Santa Barbara, not the bar. Elise was on vacation. She was all by herself and I was all by myself, we got to talking, we hit it off.”

“What kind of work do you do?”

“I’m in between right now. Back then, I was a sales executive.”

“What’d you sell?”

“Used to rep band equipment to schools, for G.O.S.—Gerhardt Orchestral Supply. They’re headquartered in Akron, Ohio, I was their West Coast guy. The state budget for music classes got cut, my contracts started drying up. For a while, Santa Barbara was still good, it’s a rich town. But then even they started holding on to their old instruments longer. I tried to switch to guitars and amps because they’re hotter than trumpets and tubas. But the schools don’t buy them and the mega-stores have that buttoned up. I tried to work for Guitar Center or Sam Ash, figured my experience would be a big deal. They use guys in their twenties, got eight million tattoos, pierces, heavy-metal hair extensions.”

Touching his own bald head. “Before that, I used to sell truck tires, airspace for office buildings, exercise equipment, you name it.”

“So when you met Elise you were on a business trip,” said Milo. “How long ago are we talking about?”

“Two years, give or take.”

“You two ever move in together?”

“No reason to,” said Fidella. “I was traveling a lot and Elise liked her own space. Plus she enjoyed going off on her own—girlie vacations, you know? That’s what she was doing in Santa Barbara. Some spa, they had a special. Elise was good at finding bargains. We didn’t get possessive, you get what I’m saying?”

“Everyone had their own life.”

“When we were both in the mood, we enjoyed each other’s company.”

Milo said, “Like that time in Reno.”

“Huh?”

“There was a picture in Elise’s house, you and her having a great time.”

“Oh, that,” said Fidella. “Jackpot day, yeah that was a fantastic day, how often does that happen?”

“Never to me.”

“Me, I’ve had some nice experiences but not like that. Elise and me were getting eaten alive at the blackjack table, left for the buffet and walked past a dollar slot. Just for the hell of it, I tossed in a token and boom, bells start ringing, lights start blinking. Five thousand bucks. I split it with Elise, told her she was my lucky charm.”

“You both like to gamble?”

“We like our games, no harm in that if you keep it under control, right?”

“Elise keep it under control?”

“Absolutely.”

“Unlike her drinking.”

“Yeah, vodka was a problem for her,” said Fidella. “Sometimes.”

“Sometimes?”

“What I’m saying is she wasn’t one of those drunks, sucks it back every day. But give her a long afternoon, she’s not working, she could put away a bottle of Grey Goose. Doing it slowly, you know? You wouldn’t even notice unless you were with her the entire time.”

“How often did she do that?”

“It wasn’t binging,” said Fidella. “She could control whether or not she drank. But if she felt like being a fish, she had the capacity.”

“Same question?”

“Huh?”

“How often did she polish off a bottle?”

“I dunno… maybe two, three times a month. Maybe other times when I wasn’t there, I really can’t tell you.”

“She paced herself.”

“What would happen was, she’d have spare time. Or one of those moody times. I’d say something innocent, she’d march out and lock herself in her bedroom with her Grey Goose, or sometimes it was gin. I learned to just leave ’cause when it happened talking to her was no use.”

“Silent treatment,” I said.

“Silenter than…” Fidella let out an odd laugh—girlish, squeaky—slapped his own mouth.

Milo said, “Something funny, Sal?”

“Something stupid, guys. As in me. I was gonna say Elise could get silenter than the dead.”

We didn’t reply.

Fidella picked up his glass, finished the tequila. “Sure you don’t want nothing?”

“We’re fine.”

“I’m sure as hell not.” He got up, poured more Patrón. “Guess I’m still in that denial stage. Like when my mother passed. I kept expecting to hear her voice, it went on for weeks. Last night, I dreamed about Elise, saw her walking through the door, like the whole ice thing was a stupid joke. What was the point of that? The ice?”

“That’s what we’re trying to find out, Sal.”

“Well, I say it’s weird. Elise didn’t even like ice in her vodka. I don’t want you to think she was some drunk, there was plenty of times, like out to dinner, she’d have a nice cocktail—a Stinger, a Manhattan, like anyone else. She could keep control, you know?”

“She’d pick the time and place to finish a bottle.”

“The place was always her house.”

“What about the time?”

“When she worked she needed to be sharp. Who’s gonna hire a teacher stumbles in drunk as a skunk?”

“What subjects did she teach?”

“English. She substituted at that place, anytime a regular English teacher was out, she was on call. Like a doctor.”

“Did she teach anywhere other than Windsor Prep?”

“Not since I knew her. She said they made her an offer she couldn’t refuse.”

“Do you know the details?”

“Something like thirty grand just to be on call, then thirty bucks for every hour over ten per week that she actually worked. She was putting away decent dough. Also, she did tutoring at night, for that she got eighty, ninety an hour, more if she sniffed out the family was filthy rich.”

“How much tutoring did she do?”

“To be honest, I couldn’t tell you. But she was busy, plenty of times I called to go out and got her machine. The pressure worked for her.”

“The pressure?”

“On the kids. She didn’t tutor just dumb kids, she had smart ones, too, parents pushing on them. She told me sometimes a kid would come in with an A-minus, parents wouldn’t let up till the minus went away.”

“These are students from Windsor Prep we’re talking about.”

“Yeah,” said Fidella. “She did SAT tutoring. And that other test, I forget the name.”

I said, “The ACT.”

“That’s the one. She said all those tests were stupid and meaningless but God bless whoever invented them because rich people were so insecure they needed their kids to be perfect, she could charge ’em big bucks for something they could do themselves.”

“What was her training?”

“What do you mean?”

“To tutor SATs.”

“She went to college.”

“Where?”

“Somewhere in the East, I don’t know. The thing about Elise, she didn’t like to talk about herself.” He spread his palms. “I’m the kind of guy, you want to know something about me, ask. Elise was just the opposite. ‘We’re not going there, Sal.’ She said that a lot. ‘We’re not going there.’ But I stuck with her, she was good-looking, could be a ton of fun.”

Milo said, “The times she got moody and nursed the bottle, did things ever get unpleasant?”

“What do you mean?”

“She ever get aggressive?”

“Elise? You kidding? She was a pussycat. Like I said, she’d just go into her room.”

“And you left.”

“No point staying.”

“Did things ever get argumentative?”

“How can you argue with someone who won’t talk?”

“That musta been frustrating, Sal.”

“I figured it out soon enough.”

“Any idea what happened to Elise’s computer?”

“Huh?”

“Her computer’s gone.”

“Really.”

“You didn’t notice?”

“I was looking for Elise, not some computer.”

“What kind of computer was it?”

“I dunno.”

“Laptop or desktop?”

“Laptop—a Dell, I think.”

“When’s the last time you saw it?”

Fidella’s mouth screwed up. “Hell if I know. You’re saying the killer took it? Makes sense if it was those bastards from the school.”

“Why’s that?”

“Maybe Elise learned something weird about some rich family, put it on her computer. That makes sense, right?”

“Anything’s possible, Sal.” Milo uncrossed his legs. “I need to ask this: What was your schedule the day before you discovered Elise?”

“The whole day?”

“As much of it as you can recall.”

Fidella brushed his soul patch with the side of his thumb. “You’re asking this because I was the one found her?”

“There are basic questions we always need to ask, Sal.”

“Fine, I get it, no offense taken.” But the blue eyes had narrowed and Fidella’s thighs tightened, lifting his shoe-tips above the carpet. “Let me just say one thing: Sal Fidella loves women and respects them.”

“Granted,” said Milo. “We still need to ask.”

“Where was I that day?” said Fidella. “I was at Star Toys and Novelties, San Pedro Street, the toy district. Why was I there? Trying to get a job repping crap from China. They had an ad on Craigslist for an opening. I show up, it’s all bullshit, they had to run it to show they were being fair, know what I mean? They’re all Chinese, every one of them, some of them didn’t even speak no English. You’d think my speaking English would be a good thing, right? Wrong.”

“They wanted someone Chinese.”

“They didn’t come out and say it but it was pretty damn obvious when they asked me if I spoke Mandarin. They couldn’t put that in the ad? Must speak Mandarin?”

“What a hassle,” said Milo. “So what time were you there?”

“Let’s see… the appointment was for eleven. I showed up early, maybe a quarter to, they kept me waiting till noon, I’m in there maybe five minutes, sitting and listening to the guy behind the desk talk in Chinese over the phone. Then he smiles, walks me out, don’t call us, we’ll call you.”

“So you were out of there shortly after twelve.”

“Guess so.”

“What about the early part of the morning? What time did you wake up?”

“You’re kidding,” said Fidella. “C’mon, guys, I loved Elise.”

“We still need to ask, Sal.”

“What you need to do is go to that fuckin’ school and find out who was hassling Elise. She hated the place, called it a… hotbed of stupidity and pretentiousness. She only stayed there for the money.”

“We’ll be heading to the school soon as we finish talking to you. What time did you wake up?”

Fidella exhaled. “Maybe eight, eight thirty? I didn’t have to get downtown until eleven, I wasn’t exactly setting the alarm. What’d I do from then till I left at ten thirty? Real exciting, guys. I had some breakfast, watched some shows I TiVo’d—Rides, they made over a Chevy pickup, if you wanna know. And Repo Men: Stealing for a Living, some guy with a semi got his entire rig taken away, talk about pissed. Then I took a shower, got dressed, drove to Star Toys, and got shafted by the Chinese.”

“What happened after you left Star Toys?”

“I ate lunch,” said Fidella. “Philippe’s, on Alameda. The French dip. Will they remember me? Hell, no, place was jammed like it always is, I waited in line, ate my sandwich, had a beer, got the hell outta there. Where’d I go next—by then it’s probably one thirty, two. I drive back to San Pedro, looking for other places I can contact for a job interview, if the signs got no Chinese lettering just English. Did I follow up when I got home? Hell, yeah, with half a dozen. Did it make a difference? Hell, no. Oh, yeah, I also drove around the garment district a little. Never repped clothes before, but it’s how you do it, not what you’re doing that counts. Did that work out any better? Hell, no.”

“Sorry,” said Milo.

“For what?”

“Tough times.”

“Hey,” said Fidella, “it happens. You wanna cheer me up? Find out who killed Elise and leave me with ’em. Five minutes.”

“You’re sure she was killed?”

“What?”

“There’s no official cause of death yet, Sal.”

“You said you were Homicide.”

“We look into suicides, as well.”

“Suicide? Why would Elise commit suicide?”

“She was moody, Sal. Sometimes moods get the best of people.”

“She wasn’t moody like that,” said Fidella.

“Like what?”

“Like suicidal. She never talked about ending it.”

I said, “Those times she’d drink and lock herself into her room, there was no way to know how she felt.”

“But she always came out of it. And got herself in a good mood.”

“How long did she take to cheer up?”

“Like… a day. She’d call me, let’s go out, Sal, have a nice dinner.”

“Was it ever longer than a day?”

“I dunno… maybe sometimes it was two.” Fidella cracked his knuckles. “Elise wasn’t some nut-job, you guys are on the wrong path if you’re thinking suicide. Lots of times, I saw her happy. Why would she kill herself? She did okay money-wise, was even talking about getting a bigger place.”

“She own the house?”

“No, it’s a rental, she was talking about renting a bigger place. And it’s not like she was drinking the day I found her, there was no bottle in the bathroom. And why the hell would she put herself on ice, you answer me that.”

Milo said, “At this point, Sal, we’ve got questions not answers. Let’s get back to your schedule. After lunch, you drove around looking for possible employment. Then what?”

“Then like I said, I drove home and got on the phone and came up empty. You want my phone records?”

“If you don’t mind.”

Fidella stared. “You’re serious.”

“We need to be, Sal.”

“Fine, look at my phone records, I got nothing to hide.”

Milo had him sign a release form.

Fidella said, “You guys are unbelievable. You wanna bother, suit yourselves, but I can tell you what you’re gonna find: I made calls to a buncha places downtown. Real short calls, no one gave me the time of day.”

“Frustrating,” I said.

“Been through it before, something’ll turn up.”

Milo said, “What time did you finish making your calls?”

“Musta been fiveish, five thirty. Took a walk over to Van Nuys Boulevard, there’s a bar, Arnie Joseph’s. I had a coupla drinks, some shrimp and wasabi peas and hickory almonds, and watched TV. Over there, they’ll remember me, they know me. Just do me a favor, don’t tell them I’m a suspect or nothing. I don’t need no one looking at me weird.”

“No problem,” said Milo.

Fidella studied him. “What’re you gonna tell ’em?”

“That you’re a witness. When did you leave Arnie Joseph’s?”

“Musta been eightish, eight thirty. What’d I do then? Go home, fix myself a sandwich—anchovies, tomatoes, and mozzarella cheese. Then I called Elise because she still wasn’t picking up. So I watched more TiVo, had a beer, brushed my teeth and used mouthwash for the cheese and the anchovies, just in case Elise answered. She didn’t, I said forget about her, she’ll call you like she always does. Then I got worried ’cause this was longer than usual and drove over. Musta been close to elevenish.”

“You were home for most of the evening.”

“Seeing as the yacht was out of commission and the Malibu Beach house was being borrowed by Brad and Angelina? Yeah, I was home. Where else should I go?”

Fidella slumped and his eyes grew sad. As if his question had turned metaphysical.

“Nowhere to go,” he said.

We left him pouring a third tequila.