Sergeant Donovan left. We all spread out a bit and made statements. They were read, checked and signed.
Susanna and Greg grabbed their coats and left without a word to anyone.
I turned to Angela. “How about lunch?”
“Sorry,” she said, “I have to get back to work.” She opened her wallet and pulled out a card. “Your room key,” she added. “I borrowed it. Call me tonight.”
I watched her walk out with Mark Davies, laughing about something.
“Tough luck,” said a voice behind me. A familiar voice.
“Hi, Tony,” I said.
“Quit worrying about Angela and let’s get some lunch. We have a lot of stuff to talk about.”
“Good idea,” I said.
“She quit, you know,” said Tony. “Right after you left town. She was upset. And a couple of the guys were making bad jokes about you being in trouble. She blew up and walked out.”
“She has a temper,” I said. “Let’s go.”
* * *
Tony’s favorite Italian restaurant was crowded. But the owner found us a table. They like him there.
“How’s Susanna?” asked Tony. “I wanted to talk to her too. But she took off like a scared rabbit with that overgrown kid, Greg. Is she okay?”
“I don’t know,” I said. “I saw her yesterday, right after the fire. She looked to be in shock, shivering with cold. So I took her for a pizza.”
“I’m not surprised.”
“But the weird thing is that she looked amazing. She had a gorgeous red dress on. Hair and makeup like a model. You must have seen her. Didn’t you notice?”
“Yesterday?” I nodded. “No. No red dress. I think I saw her in her usual jeans and black sweater. Neat, clean jeans and sweater.”
“I guess she changed at work.”
“Probably. Look, Rick—that stuff you said last night about Rodriguez was all bullshit, wasn’t it?”
“Yeah, it was. I was sort of out of it. It seemed a good idea at the time. I wanted to see how you’d react. But, of course, you didn’t.”
“You should know by now that I don’t fall into your traps.” He grinned. “But I want to know what made you come back? Just in time for Freddie to get incinerated?”
“Believe it or not, it was because my job was over. I picked up my pay and came down to the terminal with the last load of apples. End of season.”
“Nothing to do with Freddie?”
“Everything to do with Freddie. Except for the date. But I was not expecting him to be in my apartment. And I was certainly not planning on him being dead. I wanted to talk to him.”
“And did you?”
“No. I got to the apartment. I saw that someone was living there. I had no idea it was Freddie. But I was mad as hell. It was around six, I guess. I’d been up and working since four in the morning. I needed to shower and change. I figured it could wait. I got a room, went to bed and slept for twelve hours.”
“Did you go down to the house then?”
“No, I spent the morning getting cleaned up and buying some clothes that fit me. Then I went to see the lawyer. I saw something on the news about the fire and went down to see what had happened. I figured that Cheryl and Susanna were at work.”
“But it was Wednesday.”
“I know you won’t believe me, Tony, but I lost track of the days up there.”
“I don’t believe you.”
“I was working seven days a week from before dawn to after dusk. Doing the same thing, over and over again. The days blend into each other. It sounds feeble. But it’s the truth.”
The waitress set down two bowls of pasta. As soon as she left, Tony leaned forward.
“So who’s on your short list of guys with torches? Besides me, of course.”
“You?” I said.
“Of course. We’re at the top of everybody’s list. We’re the guys Rodriguez would try to bribe.”
“Makes sense,” I said carefully.
“So if it was Rodriguez, he was aiming to get rid of Freddie and one of us.”
“Kill Freddie and put the blame on me, more likely. He’d already set me up with that money stuffed under my mattress.”
“The problem’s going to be getting to Rodriguez,” said Tony.
“He’s left town,” I said.
“I heard that. Where is he?”
“Mexico. For Christmas.” I raised my hand. “Don’t say it. It’s still October. But that’s what I was told.”
“That’s not going to be easy.”
“Not that hard. I sent him an email. I asked him who torched Freddie. He answered.”
“No shit. He answered?”
I took the printout from my pocket and handed it over.
“It’s in Spanish.”
“Well, of course it is. But he says two things. He isn’t the one trying to cut my throat, and he wouldn’t burn down a barn to kill a rat. It’s just possible he had nothing to do with it.”
“Maybe. Who else then?”
“Who could get in the house?” I asked.
“Without breaking in? The two of us.”
“And four other people, I think. Susanna, Angela’s friend Mark, Angela…”
“And Susanna’s friend, Greg,” said Tony. “And since Freddie was living there, any one of Rodriguez’s guys.”
“Let’s start with Angela. I refuse to believe that Angela would set fire to Cheryl’s house.”
“Where is she working now?” asked Tony.
“I don’t know. Do you?”
“I haven’t heard. She hasn’t exactly been on good terms with our side lately,” he said. “Although she did go down to the morgue and tell me the body wasn’t you.”
“She was probably disappointed,” I said bitterly.
He shook his head.
“No, Rick. Actually she sounded worried. But something else is bothering me.”
“What’s that?”
“Mark Davies. He said that Cheryl had installed alarms and fire extinguishers. So why didn’t she hear the smoke alarm?” asked Tony. “They told me she didn’t even try to get up. It doesn’t make sense.”
“I wonder,” I said. “And I want to know when Susanna changed her clothes. Did she bring all that stuff with her to work? Are her jeans and sweater still there?”
“I’d like to find out something about Greg,” said Tony.
“And who in hell is Mark?” I said.