The Burnt House

20

A S THE THIRD-LARGEST city in California and the tenth largest in the United States, San Jose didn’t get much respect. Mainly noted from the sixties Hal David and Burt Bacharach song “Do You Know the Way to San Jose?”-a name they used because it fit the lyrics rather than for any other specific purpose-the city wasn’t the sleepy little burg that most people assumed. It was a megalopolis of a million people with skyscrapers, museums, parks, colleges, and lots and lots of high-tech headquarters. San Jose and its burbs of Sunnyvale, Cupertino, and Santa Clara made up the heart of Silicon Valley-the core of everything electronic and technical.

There were about a dozen people who lived in the area who were not associated with Apple, IBM, Intel, Adobe, Sun Microsystems, Oracle, Cisco, Hewlett-Packard, etc., etc., and Raymond Holmes was one of them. The man was self-described as a real-estate developer, but his house wasn’t an advertisement for his financial prowess. It was a modest one-story, wood-sided, ranch-style abode-white with green shutters-and sat on a lot of around six thousand square feet. There was a nice patch of green lawn that ended in an eclectic, multicolored flower bed that was in bloom-impatiens, begonias, daisies, rosemary bushes, azaleas, and purple statis.

Decker parked the rental curbside and killed the motor. He turned to Marge. “If he’s married, why did he ask us to meet him at his house? Even if his wife and kids are out right now, she could come home with an emergency.”

“Beats me,” Marge said. “People do strange things.”

They shrugged simultaneously, got out of the car, and walked up to the front door. Decker rang the bell and Holmes answered it a toe tap later.

He had been described as a big guy and that was no lie. His five-foot-ten-plus frame must have been carrying an extra one hundred pounds of weight, most of it gut hanging over his belt buckle like a muffin top, stretching the fabric of his black polo shirt to the limit. His hips, being much smaller, were housed in baggy khaki pants and his feet were shod in running shoes but no socks. His face was round and smooth with a slight double chin. His eyes were saucers of coal, his nose upturned, and his mouth lined by a gray-and-auburn goatee. White was taking over what had once been a full head of dark hair. Half-style reading glasses were perched on his nose. His eyes were looking over the lenses. “You’re the detectives from Los Angeles?”

“Yes, sir, we are,” Decker answered. “And you are Raymond Holmes, sir?”

He sidestepped the question. “Could I see some identification?”

“Of course.” Decker took out his badge and ID card and Marge followed suit. The big man studied them very carefully then spoke in a reedy voice that belied his size. “Can’t be too sure these days. All this terrorism and identity theft. You never know who’s really who. Come in.”

Marge and Decker stepped into an empty room in a half-finished state of remodeling. The space had been drywalled but not painted, and they were walking on subflooring. Punched-out holes in the walls indicated where outlets and light switches were supposed to go. The area was filled with light from generous windows. Holmes led them through what was most likely a dining room and into an area that was the kitchen, judging from the rough plumbing. The main attraction was a folding table and four chairs. The contractor indicated for them to have a seat.

“Sorry about the dust, but it was easier to meet here than at my office.”

“You’re in the construction business?” Decker asked.

“Real-estate development,” Holmes told him. “This is one of my many projects.”

Decker looked around. “This is what…1940s vintage?”

Holmes parked himself on a chair, his knees spread apart to allow room for his stomach. He took out a handkerchief and wiped his forehead. It wasn’t particularly hot, but it wasn’t unusual for big men to sweat. “Are you interested in real estate, Detective?”

Decker smiled. “My daughter and son-in-law are about to undertake some renovation, so I guess I’m curious. How long have you been in the business?”

“All my life.” He checked his watch. “Listen. I don’t mean to be rude, but I chased away the crew to have some privacy because we’re talking about a…delicate matter. They’re supposed to come back in about forty minutes.”

“Then we should speed things up,” Decker said. “First of all, Mr. Holmes, I want to thank you for seeing us on such short notice.”

“You were a little sketchy on the details,” Holmes said. “Something about Roseanne Dresden. Did she leave me some money or something?”

Marge and Decker exchanged glances. Decker said, “Her estate hasn’t been settled. That’s why we’re here. Recovery hasn’t found her body at the accident site. It’s been a while, so we’re considering Roseanne Dresden as a missing-persons case.”

Holmes pulled out another tissue and mopped his brow. “I don’t want to sound callous or strange, but in these cases, do you always find the body?”

“No,” Decker said, “but there’s usually something that indicates that the person was on board: personal items or at the very least a ticket. For the flight attendants who don’t have tickets, there’s usually a work assignment. So far, we’ve come up empty.”

Marge said, “No one remembers seeing her boarding the plane.”

“Matter of fact we have the opposite,” Decker said. “The desk clerk who was working the gate at Burbank swears that Roseanne didn’t board the plane.”

“So that’s why at this point, we’re considering it a missing persons,” Marge said.

Decker said, “If something is recovered from the accident site that puts Roseanne on the flight, then of course this discussion is moot. But since no one has seen or heard from Roseanne, we’re investigating her disappearance.”

“I thought that I read that they found her body. Like a couple of weeks ago.”

Decker said, “Recovery found a body, but it wasn’t Roseanne.”

Holmes dabbed his brow. “Who was it?”

“We don’t know.”

“So how do you know it’s not Roseanne?”

“From our forensic odontologist. The teeth don’t match.”

“And that’s what they’re basing it on?” Holmes blinked several times in rapid succession. “Teeth?”

“Yes, sir, enamel is the hardest substance in the human body. Often teeth do survive when everything else is burned up.”

“So let me tell you why we’re here,” Marge said. “The last phone call on Roseanne’s cell went through a San Jose tower.”

Holmes didn’t respond.

Marge gave him the date of the call. “We’re just trying to locate Roseanne’s final movements before she disappeared. The call was from San Jose, you live in San Jose, you have a relationship with the deceased-”

“Had, Detectives,” Holmes said. “Past tense. I had a relationship with her. We broke up about eight months ago and I haven’t seen her since.”

The detectives were silent. Decker counted to six before Holmes spoke.

“I’m sorry I can’t help. If you would have just said something on the phone, you wouldn’t have had to come up here and waste your time.”

“As long as we are here, we’d like to ask you a few questions,” Decker said.

“Just to get a little background on Roseanne,” Marge added.

Again, the big man looked at his watch. “You got about thirty minutes.”

Decker said, “Could you tell me the last time you saw Roseanne?”

“I don’t remember the exact date, but I can look it up in my old calendar book. It’d be there because we went to Percivil’s and I made a reservation.” His jaw began to chew something imaginary. “It was her favorite spot.” Chew, chew. “She got all teary-eyed and I knew it was over. She said she was going to try to work it out with that rat husband of hers. Nothing I said would change her mind.”

“And you never heard from her again?”

“No.”

Decker said, “So if I were to check out the date, which you said can be easily verified, and then check Roseanne’s cell number, I wouldn’t find any calls from you to her after your evening at Percivil’s.”

This time his jaw muscle froze in a gigantic bulge as if it were a solid tumor. “What I meant to say is I never saw her again. I think I called her a couple of times.”

“What were the phone calls to her about?” Marge asked.

Holmes said, “I was trying to get her to change her mind. It didn’t work. That’s that and I’ve moved on. End of Roseanne, end of discussion.”

Decker smiled. “How about giving us a few more minutes?”

Marge said, “Just indulge us, Mr. Holmes. It makes you look better.”

When the big man turned quiet, Decker took that as a signal to continue. “I’m sorry to have to ask you this, Mr. Holmes, but where were you the night before the crash?” He gave him the specific date.

“I don’t remember.” He stared at the detectives, wiping perspiration from his face. “If you write down the date-and any other dates you want-I’ll let you know if I was anywhere except home.”

“The specific call was made around midnight,” Decker said.

“If it was midnight, I was probably home sleeping. I get up early in the morning.”

“Well, maybe you could just tell us what you did that night,” Marge said.

“Or even what you did during the day,” Decker said.

“Like I said, I’ll check the calendar and give you a call.” Holmes blinked again. “I’ll even xerox you the page. Any other dates you want to know about? Get it all out. That way, you don’t have to keep asking me where I was.”

Marge and Decker exchanged quick glances. Decker said, “How about xeroxing that entire week?”

“Sure.”

“When can we expect it to arrive?” Marge said.

Decker said, “How about tomorrow? I’ll give you a FedEx number.”

Holmes blinked and wiped sweat off from his brow. “If it gets you guys off my back, why not. Tomorrow by three o’clock via FedEx. What’s the account?”

Decker gave him the number. “Thank you for cooperating so fully with our investigation.”

“Sure. You know, I have mourned Roseanne’s death for a long time even before she actually died, know what I’m saying?”

“I think so,” Decker answered.

“Then we’re done here?”

Marge said, “Not quite yet. And we really thank you for cooperating in such a delicate matter. If you hadn’t talked to Roseanne for a while, how did you hear about her being on the doomed WestAir flight?”

Holmes gave Marge a condescending look. “The crash made front-page news because the plane was going to San Jose. Locals died, Sergeant. It was a very big deal.”

“But how did you find out about Roseanne specifically?”

“From the victims list.” He rocked his chair until the two front legs came up a few inches. The chair tipped, but he caught himself before he fell backward. “I was devastated! I had no idea she was still flying this route.” He licked his lips. “I still had feelings for her. I didn’t make it to work that morning, I was so upset.” He patted his forehead dry. “I don’t think I fully accepted our breakup until that day. And now you tell me she wasn’t on the flight…God, I don’t know what to think…what to feel.”

“She may have been on the flight,” Marge said. “We just don’t know.”

“Would you also xerox the week of the crash for us?” Decker asked. When he received a sour look, he said, “Might as well get it all done with.”

“Okay,” Holmes snorted. “Are we done?”

Marge said, “Some of the people that we talked to implied that you had a hard time accepting that the relationship was over.”

“What do you mean?”

“Ivan Dresden said that you two had words,” Decker said.

Holmes’s jaw muscles tightened. “So?”

“He told us you threatened him.”

“Not before he threatened me.” The big man leaned forward. “Look, we were both talking out of anger and frustration. Roseanne could be a real frustrating woman.” He threw up his hands. “Hey, it’s all water under the bridge. I’ve moved on. I’m sure the bastard has moved on as well…unless, of course, he’s the reason why Roseanne is missing.”

“You think he murdered her?” Marge asked him outright.

“I wouldn’t put it past him. He was a real asshole. Did he also happen to tell you how many women he was fucking while they were married?”

“I understand that he played around,” Marge said.

“The man was a dog!” Holmes bellowed. “He was spending all of her money on lap dancers, and then he has the nerve to get outraged because Roseanne wanted a little attention.”

“How’d you meet Roseanne?” Decker asked.

“I had a business meeting in Los Angeles and was coming home. She was the flight attendant. She looked a little sad and I asked her about it. She denied anything was wrong. It wouldn’t have been professional for her to talk about her personal life with a passenger. Later, by sheer coincidence, I ran into her at her hotel bar. At first, I could tell that she thought I was just an old fat guy looking for a quick lay. But after we talked awhile…we clicked. I mean we really clicked.” His face darkened. “We spent six months together before we went to bed. We had something special, although I’m sure you find that hard to believe.”

“Not at all,” Marge said.

Holmes checked his watch, placed his hands on his knees, and hoisted himself up. “I’m sorry, but you two really need to leave now. The crew’s coming back very soon and all this talk has opened up wounds. I need a few minutes to compose myself.” He was breathing hard. “I’ll FedEx the calendar pages for you. Then we’re done here.”

Decker stood and gave him his business card. Marge gave him one as well. She said, “One last question, Mr. Holmes. Do you have any idea why Roseanne was in San Jose if she hadn’t been assigned to work here?”

“I couldn’t even hazard a guess,” Holmes said.

“Hazard one,” Decker insisted.

A big sigh. “C’mon, I’ll walk you out.”

Decker didn’t move.

Holmes said, “It might be flattery, but maybe she finally got fed up with Ivan and was thinking about seeing me.”

“But she didn’t visit you.”

“No, she didn’t. Maybe once she got up here, she changed her mind. Or maybe she was visiting some friends. She worked the San Jose route for a while. She had some friends here, you know.”

“Girlfriends or boyfriends?” Marge asked.

“I was thinking girlfriends, but maybe she had another boyfriend. I wouldn’t know because like I said, we weren’t in contact anymore.”

Marge got out her notebook. “Can you tell me the names of some of her girlfriends?”

“Uh…” Another flick of the wrist to see the time. “I remember a Christie and a Janice. Or was it Janet?”

“Last names?” Marge asked.

Another sigh. “Christie…somethingson. Jorgenson, Ivarson, Peterson…”

“A Scandinavian name?”

“I think so.”

“What about Janet or Janice?”

“I never knew her last name.”

“What does Christie look like?” Marge persisted.

“Medium height, shoulder-length blond hair, blue eyes, button nose, anorexic with long legs and skinny calves. I think we met her around two, three times for dinner. Janice or Janet I met only once. She was a brunette, light brown eyes, good figure, and older. You’ve got to go now. My wife never found out about the affair, thank God, and I want to keep it that way. I been very cooperative and I expect some reciprocalness.”

Reciprocity, Decker said to himself. “We’ll do what we can. You have my card, Mr. Holmes. If you think of Christie’s last name or anything else that could help us track Roseanne’s last movements, we’d be much obliged.”

“Aren’t you curious about what happened to Roseanne?” Marge asked.

“Sure I’m curious, but that’s as far as it’s going to go. Now I’m concentrating on my marriage and my kids.” Holmes smoothed his goatee. “But if you do find something, I wouldn’t mind a phone call. Especially since I’m being so cooperative.”

“I know, sir,” Decker said. “We’ll do what we can.”

“Then I’ll do what I can for you, Lieutenant. You know how it works. I scratch your back, you scratch mine.”