The Burnt House

Dresden wasn’t biting. “When do I get my car back?”

“Aren’t you curious why we took it in the first place?”

Dresden said, “Is that also a technique? To answer a question with a question?”

“You caught me.” Decker pulled out a pad of paper and his pen. “We’re trying to rule out the possibility that you had anything to do with your wife’s disappearance. We checked your condo and that was clean. Next step was the car.”

“Then why did you bother with a warrant?” Dresden sulked. “Why not just ask me? You could have checked the car.”

Decker wrote as he spoke. “We just like to do everything by the book.”

“And what book is that? The comic book?” Dresden shook his head. “You said you had a few questions and then I’d get my car back. I came here without my lawyer. I’m trying to be cooperative, but everyone has a limit.”

“Then I’ll sum things up for you,” Decker said. “We talked to Jimbo Jim Franco at Jim’s upholstery. You had the entire car redone about a month after the crash. I’m curious about that.”

“First of all, I didn’t redo the entire car,” Dresden said. “I changed the carpets and the upholstery. Rosea

“The upholstery was cream but the carpets were black. Why replace black carpets with new black carpets?”

Dresden’s eyes shifted. “Didn’t Jimbo tell you the whole story?”

“Jimbo doesn’t talk a lot. Why don’t you tell me?”

An exasperated sigh and a glance at his watch. “How long is this going to take? Am I under arrest or something?”

“Why do you ask?”

“I mean I can just walk out right now, right?”

“You don’t want to do that, Ivan.” Decker leaned forward and pushed the coffee in front of him. “Just tell me about your car and we can all go home.”

Reluctantly Ivan picked up the coffee and began to dress it to his liking. It gave him something to do. “I loaned the car to someone who left it out in the rain with the top down. Everything got ruined. Moldy and wet and smelly. That’s why I had it done.”

“Who’d you loan it to?”

“Does it matter?”

“Yes, it does. We need names to verify your stories.”

Ivan’s eyes narrowed. “This was precisely why I didn’t want to come in here. Not only are you hounding me, you’re going to get someone else involved.”

“And you’d rather not get someone else involved?”

“I know why I’m here.” Dresden glared at Decker. “You think I hurt my wife.”

Decker said, “You sound outraged!”

“Of course I’m outraged. Not only did I lose my wife, but you idio-You people think I had something to do with her disappearance.”

“Do you have any idea what happened to her!”

“How many times do I have to tell you? I don’t know what happened to Rosea

“I believe you, Ivan.” Decker leaned in again. “I really do and that’s precisely why I insisted that we call you up and have you come in voluntarily. So you can explain the problem we have.” He paused, giving the words a chance to sink into Dresden’s brain. “We found stuff in the car, Ivan. We need some help with that.”

“What do you mean by stuff?” His eyes got big. “Oh shit! The cops planted drugs-”

“Not drugs, Ivan.” Decker shook his head in earnest. “No drugs whatsoever. We found blood, Ivan. Rosea

Dresden went white. “What?”

“We found Rosea

Dresden’s eyes went from side to side. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“So let me explain the situation to you. We know that nothing bad happened to Rosea

Dresden nodded.

“But here’s the problem. Rosea

Decker waited for a response but nothing came.

“I’m sure you would like to put this entire episode behind you. And I’m trying to help you do that.”

“You’re not trying to help me. You’re trying to trap me to say something I shouldn’t say.”

“Then don’t talk for a moment and just listen. I’m thinking to myself that if nothing bad happened to Rosea

“What witnesses?”

“I’m getting to that. All I’m saying right now is we’ve been working nonstop on your wife’s disappearance and it finally paid off. We caught a break. On the day of the crash, the day that Rosea

Dresden paled, but remained silent. Decker didn’t know how much longer he had before Dresden lawyered up. He tried not to sound too accusing, but the implication was clear.

“Ivan, this is the kicker. Rosea

“No.”

“Well, Jimbo remembers you telling him that. He’s willing to swear to it in court.”

Dresden was quiet.

Decker said, “Jimbo’s a businessman, Ivan. He doesn’t like to throw away money. So instead of chucking them, he cleaned them and sold them to someone on e-Bay. I think you know where this is leading.” Decker nodded. “We tracked that person down, found the carpets, and tested them for blood. They tested positive…very, very positive. Once the mats tested positive, that’s when we got a warrant for the car to see if it was just the mats were covered in blood or maybe there had been more blood where that came from. See, I really need to find out what happened to Rosea

Again, Dresden didn’t answer. Decker noticed his skin color had turned slightly green. He sipped coffee.

“The next step after we tested the mats was to test the car for blood. We stripped the car down and sprayed it with luminol and it lit up bright blue. That means forensics found lots of blood protein. We also found patterns-blood spurting, blood pooling, blood spraying.”

Dresden buried his head in his hands. “I’m feeling a little sick.”

“Yeah, it’s pretty sickening. You feel light-headed?”

“A little.”

“Can I get a paper bag, some water, and some paper towels, please?” Decker asked the video camera. A minute later, the supplies were delivered. He told Ivan to breathe into the bag while Decker mopped up his brow. “Try to breathe slowly-”