that Ferry had dropped his complaint, but just as curious as I was about the Jack Bisconte connection.
'Do you know Bisconte?' I asked him.
'No. I see his shop but I never go inside.'
'Know anything about him?'
' Niente.'
'How about you, Dominick?'
He shook his head. 'He's too old for Gianna, hah? Almost forty, you say-that's too old for girl twenty- three.'
'If that's their relationship,' I said.
'Men almost forty they go after young woman, they only got one reason. Fatto 'na bella chiavata. You remember, eh, Pietro?'
' Pazzo! You think I forget 'na bella chiavata? '
I asked Pietro, 'You know anything about Gianna's roommate?'
'Only once I meet her,' he said. 'Pretty, but not so pretty like my Gianna, la bellezza delle bellezze. I don't like her too much.'
'Why not?'
'She don't have respect like she should.'
'What does she do for a living, do you know?'
'No. She don't say and Gianna don't tell me.'
'How long have they been sharing the apartment?'
'Eight, nine months.'
'Did they know each other long before they moved in together?'
He shrugged. 'Gianna and me, we don't talk much like when she's little girl,' he said sadly. 'Young people now, they got no time for la familia.' Another shrug, a sigh. ' Ognuno pensa per se,' he said. Everybody thinks only of himself.
Dominick gripped his shoulder. Then he said to me, 'You find out what's happen with Bisconte and Ferry and those girls. Then you see they don't bother them no more. Hah?'
'If I can, Dominick. If I can.'
The fog was coming in thickly now and the other players were making noises about ending the day's tournament. Dominick got into an argument with one of them; he wanted to play another game or two. He was outvoted, but he was still pleading his case when I left. Their Sunday was almost over. So was mine.
I went home to my flat in Pacific Heights. And Kerry came over later on and we had dinner and listened to some jazz. I thought maybe Gianna Fornessi might call but she didn't. No one called. Good thing, too. I would not have been pleased to hear the phone ring after eight o'clock; I was busy then.
Men in their late fifties are just as interested in 'na bella chiavata. Women in their early forties, too.
6
At the office in the morning I called TRW for credit checks on Jack Bisconte, George Ferry, Gianna Fornessi, and Ashley Hansen. I also asked my partner, Eberhardt, who has been off the cops just a few years and who still has plenty of cronies sprinkled throughout the SFPD, to find out what Inspector Cullen and the Robbery Detail had on Ferry's theft complaint, and to have the four names run through R amp;I for any local arrest record.
The report out of Robbery told me nothing much. Ferry's complaint had been filed on Friday morning; Cullen had gone to investigate, talked to the two principals, and determined that there wasn't enough evidence to take Gianna Fornessi into custody. Thirty hours later Ferry had called in and withdrawn the complaint, giving the same flimsy reason he'd handed me. As far as Cullen and the department were concerned, it was all very minor and routine.
The TRW and R amp;I checks took a little longer to come through, but I had the information by noon. It went like this:
Jack Bisconte. Good credit rating. Owner and sole operator, Bisconte Florist Shop, since 1978; lived on upper Greenwich Street, in a rented apartment, same length of time. No listing of previous jobs held or previous local addresses. No felony or misdemeanor arrests.
George Ferry. Excellent credit rating. Owner and principal operator, Ferry Temporary Employment Agency, since 1972. Resident of 725 °Chestnut since 1980. No felony arrests; one DWI arrest and conviction following a minor traffic accident in May of 1981, sentenced to ninety days in jail (suspended), driver's license revoked for six months.
Gianna Fornessi. Fair to good credit rating. Employed by Home Draperies, Showplace Square, as a sales representative since 1988. Resident of 725 °Chestnut for eight months; address prior to that, her parents' home in Daly City. No felony or misdemeanor arrests.
Ashley Hansen. No credit rating. No felony or misdemeanor arrests.
There wasn't much in any of that, either, except for the fact that TRW had no listing on Ashley Hansen. Almost everybody uses credit cards these days, establishes some kind of credit-especially a young woman whose income is substantial enough to afford an apartment in one of the city's best neighborhoods. Why not Ashley Hansen?
She was one person who could tell me; another was Gianna Fornessi. I had yet to talk to Pietro's granddaughter and I thought it was high time. I left the office in Eberhardt's care, picked up my car, and drove south of Market to Showplace Square.
The Square is a newish complex of manufacturer's showrooms for the interior decorating trade-carpets, draperies, lighting fixtures, and other types of home furnishings. It's not open to the public, but I showed the Photostat of my license to one of the security men at the door and talked him into calling the Home Draperies showroom and asking them to send Gianna Fornessi out to talk to me.
They sent somebody out but it wasn't Gianna Fornessi. It was a fluffy looking little man in his forties named Lundquist, who said, 'I'm sorry, Ms. Fornessi is no longer employed by us.'
'Oh? When did she leave?'
'Eight months ago.'
'Eight months?'
'At the end of September.'
'Quit or terminated?'
'Quit. Rather abruptly, too.'
'To take another job?'
'I don't know. She gave no adequate reason.'
'No one called afterward for a reference?'
'No one,' Lundquist said.
'She worked for you two years, is that right?'
'About two years, yes.'
'As a sales representative?'
'That's correct.'
'May I ask her salary?'
'I really couldn't tell you that…'
'Just this, then: Was hers a high-salaried position? In excess of thirty thousand a year, say?'
Lundquist smiled a faint, fluffy smile. 'Hardly,' he said.
'Were her skills such that she could have taken another, better paying job in the industry?'
Another fluffy smile. And another 'Hardly.'
So why had she quit Home Draperies so suddenly eight months ago, at just about the same time she moved into the Chestnut Street apartment with Ashley Hansen? And what was she doing to pay her share of the rent?
