Red Man Down (8 page)

‘But after all, what else could they do? Depositors kept insisting their money was missing, and it happened on Frank’s watch. His signature was on the deposit slips that they claimed were short. People were demanding answers and the credit union had to fix blame.’

‘You were right there through the whole thing, weren’t you? Did the two of you try to figure it out together?’

‘Ed was pretty much past the point where he could figure anything out by then. I told him, “Honey, it’s sad and all, but you’re not going to make it better hitting the bottle the way you’re doing.” But then when Frank killed himself, Ed just couldn’t stand it. “It’s not right,” he kept saying. “I should have been able to do something.”’

‘One thing I wondered … were you aware, while you were living with him, that Frank Martin owned a gun?’

‘No. I don’t remember that he ever mentioned it.’

‘Do you think he bought a gun just to shoot himself?’

‘Or borrowed it,’ Angela said, with the slightest hint of distain. ‘He was like most accountants – always very careful with a dollar.’

‘They didn’t go target practicing together, Ed and his uncle?’

‘No. Never, in my experience. What they always did together was
good works
.’ Angela’s lip curled a little on the last two words.

‘You weren’t so crazy about helping people?’

‘I just thought they overdid it. Ed had a hard job; I thought he needed some fun and relaxation like he had with me. But Frank would call and off he’d go.’ Her eyes narrowed.

‘They were close, were they?’

‘Oh, well, sure. Frank was the knight in shining armor that
saved
him, so close doesn’t even begin to cover it. They were like
this
.’ She put her fork down and clenched both hands into one big fist. ‘And that was what made him so sure Frank was innocent. “I was right there,” he said. “I’d have known if he was stealing money.”’

‘That does sound reasonable in a way, doesn’t it?’

‘Except it wasn’t true. We were married and living in our own house by the time Frank allegedly started stealing. So … we saw him, of course, but not every day.’

‘Cecelia Lopez told me how Frank took Ed in and raised him, helped him get through school and all.’

‘Oh, you talked to Cecelia? Well, then you got the hearts-and-flowers version of the embezzlement, didn’t you?’

‘What does that mean?’

‘Oh, just … everybody in Ed’s family is in deep denial about Uncle Frank and the money. “He couldn’t have done it – look at all the good he did all his life.”’ Angela had a tiny shrug and ironic half-smile that was not quite a sneer but somehow did the same work. ‘Helping with the bike race to fight cancer, making the clothing pickups for the homeless, I heard it over and over till I could recite it in my sleep. And it’s all true, but it doesn’t change the fact that his signature is on the deposits, you know? So what else could they do?’

Something in Angela’s manner made her seem twitchy. She clearly wasn’t happy talking to them, but Sarah couldn’t decide if that was down to shyness or something more suspicious. She remembered Chico’s words:
She can’t be trusted
. It wasn’t easy figuring Angela Lacey out, that’s for sure. ‘You were working there,’ Sarah said. ‘Can you explain how he did it?’

‘Not entirely,’ she said. ‘It’s a small credit union, he was the comptroller, and some functions he always did himself. He had all of us, his little helpers, out front smiling and taking in the money. And that regular work, the individual and business deposits, nobody ever claimed there was anything wrong with that. Making the deposits for the charities, that part he did himself. Because he was usually at all those events, helping in some capacity, it was only natural to have him take the money and make the deposits. And the stealing was only going on for four years or so – they were pretty sure of that by the end. Till then, I think, he was just as pure as everybody thought he was.’

‘Even small banks get audited, though, don’t they?’ Sarah asked. ‘How could he be cooking the books and nobody noticed?’

‘That’s the thing. He wasn’t cooking the credit union’s books at all – the money all came out in cash before the deposits were ever made.’

‘I think it’s amazing he could steal such large amounts for so long. What did they say, somewhere between seventy and eighty thousand dollars?’

‘But over four years, maybe more. If you do the math, that turns out to be a small percentage of what the bank was taking in – less than people in this town throw away on bingo every year.’

‘I see. You knew Frank well, didn’t you?’

‘Sure, I told you, we lived with him after we were married.’ In her years of questioning suspects, Sarah thought, she had rarely met one whose lifted eyebrow could imply as much distaste as Angela’s. ‘Yes, we stayed with Frank three years. Till we got enough saved for the down payment on our own house.’

‘How’d you all get along?’

‘Fine. Frank was easy to be around, is that what you want to know?’ She took a long swig of her drink, put it down and regarded Sarah with a demanding stare. ‘But it doesn’t bring the money back, does it, to know that whenever I cooked, he insisted on doing the dishes?’

‘No.’ Sarah thought about the unlikely mix in her own household – four mismatched people who didn’t really belong together but shared space because each of them needed something the household provided. They were all still being extra polite and careful with each other, eager to please.
Like four people on a honeymoon.
But I’d know if one of them was stealing or doing drugs. Wouldn’t I? Of course I would.

‘Sarah, you need some more water?’ Oscar spoke sharply, reaching for her glass.

‘What? Oh, yes, please. Angela, how’s your drink, want some more?’

Oscar went off to fetch drinks after an anxious glance. Sarah re-focused and asked Angela, ‘You never saw any sign of stress? No clue what Frank might need money for? Was he gambling?’

‘Mr Homebody? Hardly. I was as big a sap as everybody else, I guess. I just thought he was a nice old guy. While we lived together he would do anything to make me happy – anything – because he thought it was wonderful that Ed had found a wife. I remember being surprised by how happy he seemed to be when we got married. I believe he thought of it as kind of like a
passing grade
, you know?’

‘A passing grade for what?’

‘For how well he had done at raising Ed. Like it proved Ed was all normal and could be happy like anybody else.’

‘Why was that a question?’

‘I don’t know. Maybe because he had been neglected by his mother and kicked around by her boyfriends when he was small. And frankly they were all … kind of odd, but in different ways. Luz was just this side of a whore, if she missed it at all. Marisol was like a nun, always in church. And Memo was hell-bent on becoming a tycoon – I think he thought if he made enough money he could make them all respectable. I used to look at them sometimes and wonder if they really did all have the same father. But everybody assured me that the first wife had been a saint, and you only had to watch Teresa look at Vicente to see she would never stray. And in spite of all the commotion I was happy, too, till Frank got arrested and Ed went nuts over it.

‘After Frank got hauled off to jail Ed began to say, over and over, “I owe him everything. I should be able to help him.”

‘Then Frank got out on bail, and for a few days Ed was like his old self. He was sure all they had to do was find a good lawyer and beat this thing. But when Frank killed himself and left that note the way he did, without saying a personal goodbye or anything, well, that was the last straw for Ed. He really never got over it.’

‘But you weren’t, um, sympathetic?’

‘What do you mean?’ Angela was instantly on the defensive. ‘Of course I was.’

‘But you said he was impossible.’

‘Well … sympathy is all very well but facts still have to be faced, you know what I mean? I was sorry for him, and for a few months I waited for him to start getting over it. Then I saw that he wasn’t healing – he was going down the tubes instead. So I started asking people, counselors and so on, what I should do. Because anybody could see he was headed for a crack-up. We were starting to have financial problems, too. His drug habit cost big time.

‘All the pros said, “You have to confront him. Tell him he’s got to get some counseling and snap out of this now or you’re done.” They said, “He’s got a life, he’s got you! He’s got a good career, it’s ridiculous that he’s throwing good life after bad. You have to make him stop.”’ She shook her head. ‘Counselors say things like that with great confidence. As if the wife could just … push a button.’

‘But you did make an effort?’

‘Yes, of course I did. And Ed tried, for a couple of weeks. He made appointments with the department counselor, and he kept the first two or three. But then he said he couldn’t do it any more – talk to a stranger about personal matters – so he didn’t go. What none of us realized was that by then he was addicted to meth.’

‘Oh.’

‘Yeah. The greasy slide to nowhere. I’ve … I’ve done a little investigating of my own since I’ve been single – a little research in the evenings. It’s something to do, you know? Fire up the laptop when
Jeopardy
’s over and it’s still not bedtime?’ Angela hesitated, as if she were weighing up a dilemma, then looked straight at Sarah. ‘The runaway father, Morgan Lacey? He abandoned Luz when Eddie was small, and the family has managed to pretty much forget about him. But he was typical of the men Luz always picked – a lay-about when she married him and a fully-fledged drunk soon after.
His
father was a lifelong alcoholic who died of cirrhosis. Ed had addiction in his DNA all along. It never surfaced before because Frank forbade him to drink. He told him why it was too dangerous for him. Ed was chosen for the training crew partly because he was always so straight-arrow and sober. “Edley Do-Right,” they used to call him at the academy.’

‘And threatening to leave him didn’t help?’

This time the half-smile blossomed into a bitter laugh. ‘Talk about your unintended consequences. Ed saw that threat as an escape hatch and jumped right through it. He said, “You’re right – you’d be better off without me.” He insisted we file for divorce right away.’

‘Any problems about who got what?’

‘Not one. He didn’t care about his own life – why would he give a hoot about a few sticks of cheap furniture?’

Sarah and Oscar, both veterans of divorce wars, raised eyebrows at each other. ‘You kept everything?’

‘Yes, I did. It was all he had to give me and he was glad to be rid of it by then. He’d been fired from the police force and was making no effort to find another job. I took his name off our joint account and gave him his half. It wasn’t much. I told him he could come back any time if he got his head straight and he said, “Right, I’ll let you know if that happens.” He packed two suitcases full of clothes and he left.’

‘Where did he go?’

‘He lived in his uncle’s house for a while. But he couldn’t pay the taxes so he sold it and I think he rented a trailer. In a mobile home park? Not sure which one – he didn’t keep in touch.’ She looked around for her purse and came up with it
.
‘I’ve got to go.’

‘Well, one more question: why did you leave the credit union?’

‘Everybody there thought I had something to do with the theft, that I knew where the money went. I went through a couple of grilling sessions with them about it. Then I said, “You know what? I think I’ve suffered enough over this. I’m not going to do any more of these heart-to-heart talks.” They said if I left before they were ready to release me they wouldn’t give me a reference. I told them they could stick their recommendation where the sun doesn’t shine. Took off my name badge and walked out the door.’

‘It must be kind of hard,’ Sarah said, observing her closely, ‘getting used to the lower pay scale.’

‘Well, my present employer is an old friend and likes my work. So I was able to get a couple of bennies. She owns two apartment buildings as well as the store. I clean the public areas on my days off and live in one of the apartments rent-free.’

‘You sold your house?’

She shook her head. ‘Bad time to sell. But a couple who got foreclosed out of their house is renting mine with an option to buy when we’re both ready. I almost break even on the bank payments and taxes. Have to live poor for a few years but I’m building a nest egg.’

‘Good for you. What’s the other bennie?’

‘Half price on as much of our high-class merchandize as I want.’ The little smile came back as she closed her purse with a snap and put the strap over her shoulder. ‘I may not be elegant but my clothing bill is rock bottom.’

Sarah said quickly, ‘What do you think about the way Ed Lacey died?’

‘I think he was looking for a way out of his life and he found one. I’m sorry for the cop who had to shoot him, but for Ed’s sake I’m glad it’s over.’

‘Uh-huh.’ Then something made Sarah add, ‘If it’s over.’

Angela had slid out of the booth and was turning to go. She turned back, gave them a hard look and asked, ‘What does that mean?’

‘Just that the case isn’t closed yet.’

Angela was not intimidated. ‘Whatever you people decide to call it, for Ed it’s over.’ She flipped a quick glance at Oscar and said, ‘Thanks for lunch,’ in a way that somehow made it seem as if she had said,
thanks for nothing
. She walked away without looking back.

‘Well,’ Oscar said, as Sarah drove back to the station, ‘now you’ve met Angela. What do you think?’

‘She’s either shy, or there’s something she’s not telling us. But if she took the money why is she still here? There’s nothing to hold her that I can see.’

‘Maybe she isn’t quite ready to move it.’

‘From where?’

‘No idea. She still seems angry.’

‘And she’s not very good at hiding it. She’s certainly straightforward when she does talk, isn’t she?’

‘And negative, negative. You can see why I wasn’t anxious to continue that relationship.’

‘Turns out she wasn’t trying to either, was she?’