Red Man Down(22)

‘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?’