We don't own anything valuable, except the instruments, and stuff gets lost, right? Look at all those one-of- a-kind socks, right? Then it got more obvious. Some cassette tapes, a six-pack of beer-which she could have had if she'd asked. We're pretty free with our food, even though the deal was she was supposed to buy her own. Then some jewelry-a couple pairs of my earrings. And one of Ben's bandannas, plus an antique pair of suspenders he got up in Seattle. Real nice, heavy leather braces, the kind they don't make anymore. The last thing she took was the one that bothered me the most. An old English brooch I got handed down from my grandmother-silver and garnet. The stone was chipped but it had sentimental value. I left it out on the dresser and the next day it was gone.'
'Did you ask her about it?' I said.
'I didn't come out and accuse her, but I did ask her if she'd seen it.
Or the earrings. She said no, real casual. But we knew it had to be her. Who else could it have been? She's the only other person ever stepped in here, and things never disappeared until she came.'
'It must have been an emotional problem,' said Ben. 'Kleptomania, or something like that. She couldn't have gotten any serious money for any of it. Not that she needed dough. She had plenty of clothes and a brand-new car.'
'What kind of car?'
'One of those little convertibles-a Mazda, I think. She got it after Christmas, didn't have it when she first started living with us or we might have asked for a little more rent, actually. All we charged her was a hundred a month. We thought she was a starving student.'
Bobby said, 'She definitely had a head problem. I found all the junk she stole out in the garage, buried under the floorboards, in a box, along with a picture of her-like she was trying to stake claim to it, put away a little squirrel's nest or something. To tell the truth, she was greedy, too-I know that's not charitable but it's the truth. It wasn t until later that I put two and two together.'
'Greedy in what way?'
'Grabbing the best for herself. Like if there'd be a half-gallon of fudge ripple in the freezer, you'd come back and find all the fudge dug out and just the vanilla left. Or with a bowl of cherries, all the dark ones would be picked out.'
'Did she pay her rent on time?'
'More or less. Sometimes she was a week or two late. We never said anything, and she always paid, eventually.'
Ben said, 'But it was turning into a tense scene.'
'We were getting to the point where we would have asked her to leave,' said Bobby. 'Talked about how to do it for a couple of weeks.
Then we got the gig in Sonoma and got all tied up, practicing. Then we came home and.
'Where was she murdered?'
'Somewhere downtown. A club.'
A nightclub?'
Both of them nodded. Bobby said, 'From what I gather it was one of those New Wave places. What was the name of it, Ben?
Something Indian, right?'
'Mayan,' he said. 'The Moody Mayan. Or something like that.' Thin smile. 'The cop asked us if we'd been there. Right.'
'Was Dawn a New Waver?'
'Not at first,' said Bobby. 'I mean, when we met her she was pretty straight-looking. Almost too straight- kind of prim, actually. We thought she might think we were too loose. Then gradually she punked up. One thing she was, was smart, I'll tell you that.
Always reading textbooks. Studying for a Ph.D. Biomathematics or something like that. But at night she used to change she'd dress up to go out. That's what Ben meant by her having the clothes-punk stuff, lots of black. She used to smear on that temporary hair dye that washes right out. And all this Addams Family makeup-sometimes she'd mousse up her hair and spike it. Like a costume. The next morning she'd be straight again, going to work. You wouldn't have recognized her.'
