Dirt (Stone Barrington 2)

“What did Dryer have going on?”

“I assume he was hustling for some sort of living, although he always seemed to have money.”

“When you went out somewhere, how did Dryer pay?”

“On the occasions when I didn’t pay, he always paid in cash.”

“Never with a credit card or check?”

“No, always cash. I asked him once why he always carried so much cash, and he said he played poker a couple of times a week and always won.”

“Did he say who he played with?”

“No.”

“Did you ever know, specifically, what he was doing on any night when he wasn’t seeing you?”

She sipped her orange juice and shook her head. “Never; I always had the feeling that he had at least one other complete life going, maybe more than one.”

“Did you ever see him with other people, or always alone?”

“Usually just the two of us, but I took him to a few parties.”

“Did he know people at these parties?”

“Never; I was always introducing him to people I knew.”

“Were you ever in the apartment on East Ninety-first?”

“A couple of times. More often we were at my place.”

“Can you describe the furnishings of the apartment for me?”

She frowned. “I guess you’d say it was the typical single-guy place, but of a younger guy than Jonathan.”

“How so?”

“Well, the furnishings were inexpensive, off-the-shelf things, the sort of stuff you could pick up at the Door Store or Crate and Barrel. There were posters, but no pictures – original art, I mean. There was a cheap stereo and a small TV and a computer; he had sort of a home office. Nothing to speak of in the kitchen, just the bare minimum of plates and glasses and pots and pans. Nothing much ever in the fridge, except breakfast stuff and beer. Jonathan said he was thirty-four, and usually a guy of that age would have accumulated a few more permanent possessions.”

“What about clothes?”

“Lots of clothes; he was always shopping. Most of his stuff seemed quite new.”

“Jewelry?”

“Watches; he had three or four.”

“Do you remember what kind?”

“A couple of Rolexes and one or two dressier things. One from Tiffany’s, I remember.”

“Did you ever know him to leave town for any reason?”

“No, except for the time in East Hampton. He never said anything about traveling.”

“Did he ever tell you anything about where he was from, or his family?”

“I asked him once where he was from; he said nowhere, really, that his family moved around a lot. Something he said – I can’t remember exactly what – led me to believe that his father might have been in the military.”