"What you need to do is go to that fuckin' school and find out who was hassling Elise. She hated the place, called it a... hotbed of stupidity and pretentiousness. She only stayed there for the money."

"We'll be heading to the school soon as we finish talking to you. What time did you wake up?"

Fidella exhaled. "Maybe eight, eight thirty? I didn't have to get downtown until eleven, I wasn't exactly setting the alarm. What'd I do from then till I left at ten thirty? Real exciting, guys. I had some breakfast, watched some shows I TiVo'd--Rides, they made over a Chevy pickup, if you wanna know. And Repo Men: Stealing for a Living, some guy with a semi got his entire rig taken away, talk about pissed. Then I took a shower, got dressed, drove to Star Toys, and got shafted by the Chinese."

"What happened after you left Star Toys?"

"I ate lunch," said Fidella. "Philippe's, on Alameda. The French dip. Will they remember me? Hell, no, place was jammed like it always is, I waited in line, ate my sandwich, had a beer, got the hell outta there. Where'd I go next--by then it's probably one thirty, two. I drive back to San Pedro, looking for other places I can contact for a job interview, if the signs got no Chinese lettering just English. Did I follow up when I got home? Hell, yeah, with half a dozen. Did it make a difference? Hell, no. Oh, yeah, I also drove around the garment district a little. Never repped clothes before, but it's how you do it, not what you're doing that counts. Did that work out any better? Hell, no."

"Sorry," said Milo.

"For what?"

"Tough times."

"Hey," said Fidella, "it happens. You wanna cheer me up? Find out who killed Elise and leave me with 'em. Five minutes."

"You're sure she was killed?"

"What?"

"There's no official cause of death yet, Sal."

"You said you were Homicide."

"We look into suicides, as well."

"Suicide? Why would Elise commit suicide?"

"She was moody, Sal. Sometimes moods get the best of people."

"She wasn't moody like that," said Fidella.

"Like what?"

"Like suicidal. She never talked about ending it."

I said, "Those times she'd drink and lock herself into her room, there was no way to know how she felt."

"But she always came out of it. And got herself in a good mood."

"How long did she take to cheer up?"

"Like... a day. She'd call me, let's go out, Sal, have a nice dinner."

"Was it ever longer than a day?"

"I dunno... maybe sometimes it was two." Fidella cracked his knuckles. "Elise wasn't some nut-job, you guys are on the wrong path if you're thinking suicide. Lots of times, I saw her happy. Why would she kill herself? She did okay money-wise, was even talking about getting a bigger place."

"She own the house?"