Trunk Music

went?”
    “Once or twice a month.”
    “For how long each time?”
    “Anywhere from two days to once he spent a week. Like I said, it all depended on how he was doing.”
    “And you never called him there?” Rider asked.
    “Rarely. Not at all this time.”
    “Was it business or pleasure that took him there?” Bosch asked.
    “He always told me it was both. He said he had investors to see. But it was an addiction. That’s what I believed. He loved to gamble and could afford to do it. So he went.”
    Bosch nodded but didn’t know why.
    “This last time, when did he go?”
    “He went Thursday. After leaving the studio.”
    “You saw him last then?”
    “Thursday morning. Before he went to the studio. He left for the airport from there. It’s closer.”
    “And you had no idea when to expect him back.”
    He said it as a statement. It was out there for her to challenge if she wanted to.
    “To be honest, I was just beginning to wonder tonight. It usually doesn’t take long for that place to separate a man from his money. I thought it was a little long, yes. But I didn’t try to track him down. And then you came.”
    “What did he like to play over there?”
    “Everything. But poker the most. It was the only game where you weren’t playing against the house. The house took a cut, but you were playing against the other players. That’s how he explained it to me once. Only he called the other players schmucks from Iowa.”
    “Was he always alone over there, Mrs. Aliso?”
    Bosch looked down at his notebook and acted as if he was writing something important and that her answer wasn’t. He knew it was cowardly.
    “I wouldn’t know.”
    “Did you ever go with him at all?”
    “I don’t like to gamble. I don’t like that city. That city is a horrible place. They can dress it up all they want, it’s still a city of vices and whores. Not just the sexual kind.”
    Bosch studied the cool anger in her dark eyes.
    “You didn’t answer the question, Mrs. Aliso,” Rider said.
    “What question?”
    “Did you ever go to Las Vegas with him?”
    “At first, yes. But I found it boring. I haven’t been in years.”
    “Was your husband in any kind of serious debt?” Bosch asked.
    “I don’t know. If he was, he didn’t tell me. You can call me Veronica.”
    “You never asked if he was getting into trouble?” Rider asked.
    “I just assumed that he would tell me if he was.”
    She turned the hard dark eyes on Rider now, and Bosch felt a weight lift off him. Veronica Aliso was challenging them to disagree.
    “I know this probably makes me some kind of a suspect, but I don’t care,” she said. “You have your job to do. It must be obvious to you that my husband and I…let’s just say we coexisted here. So as to your questions about Nevada, I couldn’t tell you whether he was a million up or a million down. Who knows, he could’ve beaten the odds. But I think he would have bragged about it if he had.”
    Bosch nodded and thought about the body in the trunk. It didn’t seem like that of a man who had beaten any odds.
    “Where did he stay in Las Vegas, Mrs. Aliso?”
    “Always at the Mirage. I do know that. You see, not all of the casinos have poker tables. The Mirage has a classy one. He always said that if I needed to call, call there. Ask for the poker pit if there is no answer in the room.”
    Bosch took a few moments to write this down. He found that often silence was the best way to get people to talk and reveal themselves. He hoped Rider realized that he was leaving holes of silence in the interview on purpose.
    “You asked if he went there alone.”
    “Yes?”
    “Detectives, in the course of your investigation I believe you will undoubtedly learn that my husband was a philanderer. I ask only one thing of you, please do your best to keep that information from me. I simply don’t want to know.”
    Bosch nodded and was silent a moment while he composed his thoughts. What kind of woman wouldn’t want to know, he wondered. Maybe one who already did. He looked back at her and their eyes connected again.
    “Aside from gambling, was your husband in any other kind of trouble as far as you know?” he asked. “Work-related, financial?”
    “As far as I know he wasn’t. But he kept the finances. I could not tell you what our situation is at the moment. When I needed money I asked him, and he always said cash a check and tell him the amount. I have a separate account for household