Free Fall

40

Monae Dunn actually lives on the mainland, in a town called Williamsville on the far side of the causeway bridge.

Her house is kind of smallish. Which makes the silver 370-Z coupe sitting in her driveway look a little out of place. I checked out the Z the last time I went car-shopping. They start at $33,000.

We let her know that Dr. Rosen had been poisoned.

“Uhm-hmm,” she says knowingly. “I figured as much.”

“You did?”

“I’m semi-psychic. So, who did it?”

“That’s what we’re trying to determine,” says Ceepak.

“Well, I know it wasn’t me.”

“Did you typically organize Dr. Rosen’s pillbox?”

“Uhm-hmm. Doesn’t mean I poisoned him.”

“We know that.”

“You think I murdered Dr. Rosen because I’m black?”

“No, ma’am. We’re just trying to get an idea as to who might’ve had access to the pill organizer.”

“Anyone who walked in the damn door, that’s who. We just left it out on the kitchen counter. Wasn’t locked up inside a safe or anything. This week, I filled up all the slots on Wednesday morning. You talk to Christine?”

“Yes, ma’am,” says Ceepak.

“Good. The last old lady she worked for, that Mrs. Crabtree, she died, too.”

“So we have heard. Was anyone else at the house on Saturday morning-besides you and Christine Lemonopolous?”

“David and Judy showed up. A little after eight.”

Ceepak pulls out his notebook.

“Why were David and Judith there?”

“To make me work overtime.”

“Excuse me?”

“David and his wife, they don’t like Christine. Not since she and her lawyer put a public whooping on that Shona Oppenheimer woman-that’s Judy Rosen’s sister.”

“Yes. We know that.”

“She wants everybody to call her Judith so I call her Judy.”

“I see.”

“Christine can’t be in the same room when David or Judy stop by. So, she has to disappear and I’ve got to be with Dr. Rosen in case he needs to use the bathroom.”

“And why were David and Judith at Dr. Rosen’s home on Saturday morning?”

“They said they wanted to see how ‘Dad was holding up’ after the ‘ugly family dinner’ on Friday night.”

She makes the face she makes every time she says “Uhmhmmm”-a look that tells you, no matter what you’re selling, Monae Dunn isn’t buying it.

“See, on Friday, Michael came to town with some kind of big news and wanted to take a father-son stroll on the beach with his dad, tell him all about it. That’s why he bought Dr. Rosen that battery-powered beach wheelchair.”

“Did they take their walk?”

“Are you kidding? Dr. Rosen told Michael his ‘Mars rover’ was a ‘monstrosity.’ That the neighbors would laugh at him if he ‘so much as sat down on it.’ So, when Michael gets to the house on Friday morning, after flying all night from L.A., the first thing he hears from his father is what a ‘foolish wastrel and spendthrift’ he is. That means he spends money like it’s water.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“Anyway, I like Michael, so I come out of my room to see if I can help him.”

“Christine was on duty when Michael arrived at the house Friday?”

“That’s right. Anyway, Dr. Rosen, he gets all snippy with his son. ‘What’s this big news, Michael? Just tell me!’ But Michael, he says, ‘No. This isn’t the proper setting.’ See, Michael works in Hollywood. Setting and mood are important to people in Hollywood.”

“I imagine so,” says Ceepak.

“That’s when I pipe up. ‘Why don’t you make your big announcement at dinner tonight? Someplace special.’ Michael? He hugs me. Says it’s perfect and I should move to Hollywood and write movie scripts. I might. I got a knack for storytelling. Anyway, Michael being Michael, he makes a reservation at the fanciest restaurant in town.”

“The Trattoria?” I say, remembering what Christine told us.

“Uhm-hmm. ‘Let’s invite David and Judith to join us,’ says Dr. Rosen. ‘Make it a family affair.’ Michael didn’t like that idea. Insisted that it just be what he called ‘the real Rosens.’ The two boys and their father.”

“So, Saturday morning,” says Ceepak, “Judith and David really came over to complain about Judith’s exclusion from the family dinner?”

“That’s right. Kicked Christine out of the room and made me wake up poor old Arnie. ‘Aren’t I family?’ Judy says, getting all weepy. ‘Don’t I deserve a dinner at the finest restaurant in town? I gave you your only grandson. How dare you let Michael treat me like that?’ On and on she goes.”

“How did Dr. Rosen react?”

“Like he always does when she starts ragging on him. He just nods and says, ‘Yes, dear; you’re right, dear’ a lot. But inside I know what he’s probably thinking.”

“What’s that?”

Monae laughs. “‘I spend too much money on your liposuction treatments for you to be stuffing your face with lasagna and cheesy bread.’ But he didn’t say it out loud. He only said that kind of stuff when it was just him and me in the house.”

“Dr. Rosen wasn’t pleased with his daughter-in-law’s weight problems?”

“No, sir. Said her tuckus was too big. Tuckus is a Jewish word. Means butt.”

Ceepak dutifully makes a note in his pad. “But you went to that Friday-night dinner, correct?”

“Well, I took Dr. Rosen. Drove him over. Wheelchaired him into that private room they have in the back. Then I sat by myself at a table near the kitchen and had some spaghetti and meatballs. They call it Pasta Vesuvius, but it’s just spaghetti and meatballs, even if they do charge twenty-four ninety-five for it.”

“What was Michael Rosen’s big announcement?”

“I don’t know. I wasn’t there when he made it.”

“Did you hear or observe anything else?”

“Just some hollering. Then the Rosen men come stomping out of that room, none of them even looking at each other. Nothin’ but cold hate and old grudges in their eyes. I drove Dr. Rosen home. Never heard him be so quiet.”

Ceepak shifts gears. “It seems you and Michael are on very friendly terms?”

“We sure are.”

“Did he buy you your car?”

I grin. Ceepak noticed the Z, too.

“Did Michael tell you about that? Because I wasn’t supposed to tell anybody. Promised him and Revae I never would.”

“Who’s Revae?” asks Ceepak.

“My sister. She’s known Michael longer than me. Revae’s the one who got me this job.”

“How?”

“By telling Michael his daddy had to hire me.”

“How come.”

Monae shrugs. “I don’t know. You’ll have to ask her.”

“Don’t worry,” says Ceepak. “We will.”