Red Man Down (13 page)

‘Usually. He is the baby of the family. His mother named him José, but as soon as he was able to watch movies he said, “This is the USA, so call me Joey.” He wanted to be like the tough guys in the movies. I don’t know how tough he is, but he does get in his share of trouble.’

‘Where can I find him?’

‘Ah. Well. Occasionally he sublets a singlewide in one of the seedier RV parks. Or house-sits for people out of town. Sometimes with their knowledge, sometimes not. No fixed address, I think is how he says it. Except when he’s in jail, when he is, of course, fixed.’

‘Oh? Besides trespassing, which laws does he usually break?’

‘Whatever’s paying best at the moment. Some weed, some gun sales. A little social security fraud, which we all thought was too wicked, so Memo made him stop. Now that Memo’s off his back he may have started that up again – he likes non-violent low-risk crimes that yield easy money to skilled victimizers. Joey shares that instinct for profit that Memo had. They get it from our father, who was always quite successful even though he was undocumented. The difference between his sons is that Memo made his money as a legitimate merchant and Joey’s income is entirely … how do they say it? Off the grid?’

‘If I assure him I have no interest in his income streams, will he talk to me, do you think?’

‘Oh, I should think so. Usually the problem with Joey is to get him to stop talking before he has a bloody nose.’

‘And this address here is … Oh, I see, that’s Cecelia’s house, isn’t it? Does he sometimes live in her house?’

‘No, God no, over her dead body.’

‘But she what, takes his messages?’

‘I guess. Mail, anyway.’

‘Are they close?’

‘Much closer than she would like, but … he’s her baby brother and although she often threatens, she never quite cuts him off. She complains to me, “He’s such a leech,” but then the next time I look they are giggling in the corner.’

‘He doesn’t try to take advantage of you?’

‘He used to try, till I developed a strategy. Every time he came to my house, before I even let him sit down, I asked him to do some little task. “Fix the hinge on my gate, will you?” I would say, or “Take that pile of trash to the dump.” He doesn’t want to do any favors – he only came for the free lunch. So I would nag him and he would say he’s too busy right now but he will do it tomorrow. That ensured that he would not come back any time soon.’ She laughed, pleased with herself.

‘As for finding him now … you know that section of Speedway where most of the antique shops are? Well, in one of the bars along that stretch you will usually find Joey, sometime between noon and midnight. Where he survives the rest of the day, I would say is anybody’s guess.’ Luz’s eyes were suddenly bright above her sagging cheeks. ‘Why do you want to talk to Joey, anyway? Are you thinking he knows something about Angela’s death?’

‘We have to investigate everything,’ Sarah said, looking at her notes to avoid Luz’s hawk-like stare.

‘Yes, well … not that you care about my opinion …’

‘On the contrary, I think your opinions are very interesting.’

‘Oh? All right then, here is one for you. I will be very surprised if you prove that Angela killed herself. She was a truly steady person – never particularly joyous, but I have never seen her depressed either, much less suicidal. Cecelia and Chico always said, “My God, whatever possessed Eddie to marry such a dull girl?” But I think her quietness was what Eddie liked about her. He had been surrounded by García women all his life – so much drama and screaming. We get it from our mother, a hysteric if ever there was one. You know what I think you should be asking?’ She laid a claw-like finger alongside her nose and thought a minute. ‘What did Angela see in Eddie? Because, you know, he was my own son and I loved him, but it was obvious that she was the brighter of the two.’

Sarah was surprised. ‘If she was so intelligent why did he find her working in a used clothing store? And what was he doing in that store, by the way?’

‘Well, you know, that’s another family story that’s not quite accurate. I mean, it’s true she was making her living selling used clothes. But they met at one of those do-gooder events that Frank was always dragging Eddie to. Poor Eddie, I don’t think he ever did anything for fun, as an adult, until he found Angela. She gave him a life at last, and he loved her for it.’

‘But why didn’t she have a better job?’

‘I have often wondered. All I can say is there must have been a story there but she did not choose to share it with me. But then, you know, I was the mother who let Eddie go, so … Angela never talked to me much about anything.’

Sarah looked at her list. ‘Well, of the two I haven’t talked to yet, Pilar and Joey … sounds like Pilar will be the easiest to find.’

‘Yes, she will. Not forthcoming, I’m afraid, but reliably there at that same address.’

‘Your relationship is not warm?’

Luz chuckled. ‘Our relationship would curdle milk. Pilar disapproves of me.’

‘And if I find Joey, will he have anything to say about Angela? Did they get along?’

‘I doubt if they ever met. Joey does not usually show up at family parties. People might want some of their things returned. Joey is not a credit to the family, we all agree to that. He was the youngest of ten children and I think Papi was getting too tired by then to dust him off. That’s what Papi called it when the boys needed a touch of the belt.’

She held up her glass. Sarah got up and poured water into it and Luz took a long drink, sighed, and put it down. She was getting tired, Sarah saw, so she asked quickly, ‘Can you think of anyone who had a reason to want Angela out of the way?’

‘Oh, well, Detective, speculation is always amusing, but you know, from where I sit now …’ she waved a languid hand, ‘… I don’t see much.’

After you just showed me you see everything from here.
Surprised to find herself feeling friendly toward this shrewd woman whose life seemed to have been one long folly, she smiled into the ruined old face and thanked her. ‘You’ve been very helpful. I hope I haven’t taken too much of your time.’

Luz wiggled her fingers dismissively. ‘I have nothing else to do. Which, believe me, is not as bad a situation as everybody seems to think.’

Pilar’s married name was Campion. She lived in a tidy tract house in Marana, with a vest-pocket pool shaded by desert willows. Her eyes were dark and beautiful like Cecelia’s, but her glossy black hair was cut short and her body had been to the gym. Lithe in jeans and an untucked shirt, she led Sarah to a pair of facing couches in a dim, cool living room. A couple of middle-school girls in braids, doing homework in the study, smiled politely.

‘My high-school boys have practice today,’ Pilar said. ‘Basketball and soccer – they both made the team they wanted this year. So we have some time to talk before the house gets noisy. Soon as you finish that,’ she told the two little girls, closing the study door, ‘you can watch your game show.’ A flat-screen TV beckoned from the console – Pilar’s house was old-school American Dream.

‘Good. I won’t take too much of your time,’ Sarah said. ‘First, let me say I’m sorry for all your losses. Your family has had one calamity after another, hasn’t it?’

‘What? Oh, you mean Ed and Frank? Well, I think some members of the family took those things pretty hard. But we … my husband and I … are quite occupied with our own family …’

‘I suppose. Four children, is it? Plenty to do.’

‘Yes. And we both have mothers to look after now too, so … we try to get together with the clan for big events like weddings and funerals but, otherwise, we pretty much go our own way.’

‘Oh … your mother is … forgive me, I guess because everybody spoke of your father’s old age and death … but your mother is still with you?’

‘Yes, actually Mom is still in her early sixties. A little younger than Luz and Chico – and in good health, fortunately. But because she was always a homemaker and left decisions to my father, she has had a hard time establishing an independent life. So we try to help her with that.’

‘I see. Was she as fond of Frank Martin as all the rest of you?’

‘Well … she felt sorry for him when his wife died, I suppose. I was a child then, I don’t remember much about that time.’ Pilar seemed cool about many things the other Garcías were passionate about. In this volatile family her manner was surprisingly circumspect. Sarah had come into her house expecting a nun-like woman with modestly downcast eyes who strung rosaries around pictures of a crucified Savior. But everything about Pilar’s surroundings and demeanor bespoke a modern woman cherry-picking her influences to suit herself. The pictures on the piano included one of Pilar radiant in a white wedding dress and veil, on the arm of a grinning young man who looked decidedly mainstream Anglo.

Also, she was the first García to mention being in touch with her mother, the second wife.
Let’s add that name and address to our collection, shall we?
‘I need to talk to your mother, Pilar. May I have her address and phone number, please?’ she asked in a rhetorical way, not expecting opposition, and stood with her ballpoint poised above her notebook. When Pilar didn’t answer she looked up. Cool had turned to cold; Pilar was hostile now.

‘I’m not going to let my family get dragged into this,’ she said.

‘This is a homicide investigation, Pilar.’ Sarah kept her voice gentle, the kindly teacher explaining police work. ‘Your family has experienced three violent deaths in three years. You’re in it because you’re part of that family. I’m not dragging you anywhere.’

‘No, and you’re not going to. I come from a large immigrant family with a lot of emotional baggage. Screaming and crying, cousins from Mazatlan turning up in the middle of the night with worn-out sandals falling off their feet. I left all that behind when I married Jim and it’s going to stay behind. I’m never going back to that old barrio point of view.’

‘I’m not asking you to. All I need is a few minutes of conversation – just touching base, really. As soon as I get the answers I need, I’ll be gone.’

‘All right.’ Pilar folded her arms across her chest. ‘What’s first?’

‘Your mother’s name, address and phone number.’

Pilar faced Sarah for a few seconds with her stubborn face set in a refusal stare. Then she seemed to reflect that Sarah probably had the clout to get whatever she needed. Sarah watched her eyes change as she came to a reasonable conclusion, shrugged and reeled off the numbers for a house nearby.

‘Good. Thank you. Now, did you know Ed Lacey’s wife very well?’

‘Oh … Angela? No. Let me think … I know I first met her the day they got married. After that … maybe once or twice at big family gatherings.’

‘Did you like her?’

‘I didn’t have much feeling about her one way or the other. She wasn’t … outgoing. But Eddie seemed happy and I was glad for him.’

‘Do you have an opinion about the manner of her death? Did she seem a likely suicide, to you?’

‘I really have no ideas about that at all.’

‘Do you agree with your sisters that Frank Martin was not the sort of person who would have stolen money from the credit union?’

‘I haven’t talked to them about it.’

‘But do you agree?’

‘I hardly knew the man. I have no way of knowing what he would do.’

This is going no place.
‘Luz didn’t seem to know if your brother Joey has an address,’ Sarah said. ‘Do you have an address, or … any way to find him when you want him?’

‘No.’ Pilar’s cold face grew an expression of amused contempt. ‘Why on earth would I want to find Joey?’

I should have guessed that would be her answer. Time to thank her and get out of here.

Still, it wasn’t all a waste of gas, she decided as she drove away. She had a new name and address and she knew Pilar was not, as Cecelia would say, warm. It wasn’t only Luz she disapproved of – Pilar had turned her back on her entire family.

In fact, the big, warm García family that Cecelia had described seemed to be morphing more and more into a loose collection of outliers. So where to go next?

Before she could decide, her phone rang. Delaney said, ‘All hands back to the station. Ray’s back with autopsy results.’

Cheerful by nature, Ray Menendez was practically incandescent this winter. He was getting married in a couple of months, and two large and loving Tucson families were showering parties and presents on the happy couple. Raimundo’s smile, Jason had recently remarked, was going to break his jaw one of these days if he didn’t dial it back.

And Angela Lacey’s autopsy had done nothing to dim his enthusiasm for police work.

‘Man, you know,’ he beamed at the crew, ‘it’s really something to watch an expert like Cameron examine a body. He proceeds with such confidence – like he’s reading
signs
.’

‘All right,’ Delaney said, trying to be patient with Ray’s enthusiasm. ‘Tell us what the signs told him today, please.’

‘Wow, a whole lot of confusing stuff.’ Ray had made his notes on an iPad. It was small and light, so he could hold it in his left hand, scroll with his right, and still use a pen to jot additional questions on paper. Pressing the
start
key now, he said, ‘I don’t think I’ve ever heard the word “ambiguous” used so often.’ Seeing Delaney start to puff up and turn pink, he said, ‘OK, I’ll give it to you just the way I got it from the doc.

‘Clear signs of suffocation – face and neck puffy and dark red, petechiae numerous and fully developed. Wooden stool found tipped in doorway of closet indicates that subject stood on it to fasten the knot, then kicked it away. But not conclusive because stool could have been placed by anyone. Evidence of hanging ambiguous – subject was found suspended, but marks of strangulation – he’s not happy about the
hanging groove
, he went on and on about it. The hanging groove should be more pronounced, he says, with such a strong, slender rope as the one this victim was hanging on.

‘Also, the hyoid bone was not broken, which it often is by a hanging. Often but not always, he says we should remember. Especially with a short drop like the one she had in the closet. So … it appears possible the body was suspended after death – possible, but not certain.