Red Man Down(33)

Ollie said, ‘What if it doesn’t have anything I need?’

‘That’s what the third column’s for. Listen to this, everybody: you get done looking at anything signed out to you, bring it to me and we put it in the column marked, Returned.’

‘And we put the item back in the trunk?’

‘Yes.’

‘You’re keeping the list?’

‘Better believe it. Next? Four nested stainless steel pans—’

Jason said, ‘This isn’t all going to be useful stuff, is it? For us.’

‘No, but we better look at all of it once before we decide. So take the pans, Jason. What’s next?’

They each acquired a stack of goods they’d be responsible for inspecting and entering in the case record. Eventually, Delaney claimed, all items would get signed back to Returned and put back in the metal trunk. Sarah got a collegiate dictionary, four sweaters in a plastic bag, a stack of six white porcelain soup bowls, two pillow covers featuring needlework in shades of lavender and rose, and a quilted tea cozy.

Handling the things Angela Lacey had carefully stored away – to wait for what? – seemed rude, like a violation of her privacy. At the same time, Sarah began to feel the satisfaction a successful search always brought. This was the nearest she had come, in all the Martin/Lacey investigations, to a sense of what had been killed. Whatever the cause, it had sometimes seemed as if these three people had public lives but no private ones.

But looking at some of the things Angela had considered worth keeping, Sarah began revising her opinions of Ed Lacey’s wife. The woman she’d met at lunch had seemed cold, contemptuous and edgy. This one showed evidence of caring and warmth. Angela Lacey had never had much money or social status in the time they were examining, but these items suggested an attempt to live well, hold things of lasting value and to give and take small comforts. For Angela, during the few years when her marriage with Ed Lacey thrived, it appeared that life had been a pleasure. Even when it ended, she had made a careful effort to preserve the best of it. Would such a person embezzle money from a bank and pin the blame on someone so dear to her loving husband? Sarah felt another strong suspicion fade.





EIGHT


Ray Menendez drew the autopsy assignment and spent most of Wednesday at East District Street. Delaney called all the rest of his crew into his office first thing to kick-start the Angela Lacey investigation.

‘A couple of reporters turned me every way but loose last night,’ he said, ‘trying to get me to say what killed Angela Lacey. I told them, “She died of suffocation.” They said, “But was it self-inflicted?” and I said, “We don’t know yet. You’re just gonna have to report that no conclusions have been reached.” They carried on like I owed them an answer.’

‘My wise old gut says this is one too many suicides in the same family in so short a time,’ Tobin said. ‘But of course my wise old gut has been wrong before, once or twice.’

‘I don’t think it is this time,’ Sarah said.

‘Me neither,’ Jason said. When they all looked at him, he ducked his shining scalp and mumbled, ‘For what it’s worth.’ But then Ollie and Oscar said together, ‘I agree.’

‘It seems to me,’ Sarah said, ‘that we ought to go back and re-open the investigation into all three deaths. Take another look at Frank’s alleged theft of the money and that crazy message he left. Every one of these deaths is bizarre in some way. And all in one family – it feels now as if they form a series, doesn’t it? Like they’re each part of the same story.’

‘Maybe,’ Delaney said. ‘I don’t know. Remember, when Ed Lacey pulled his wire-pulling stunt and got shot we were speculating over why he went so bad so fast, and somebody mentioned that his uncle got disgraced. So I asked you all, “When’s the last time you knew a guy to go off the rails over something that happened to his uncle?” And as I remember it, none of you said a word.’ He looked around. ‘So what’s changed that makes you think different now?’

‘We found out he wasn’t just any uncle,’ Oscar said. ‘He was the man who rescued Ed Lacey from his mother’s house, where the boyfriend was beating him up. And besides raising his nephew, he did all these volunteer things for the whole community. Everybody loved him because he drove for Meals on Wheels and helped with Bike Safety Day …’

‘Stop before you make me cry,’ Delaney said. ‘How do you know this?’

‘Angela told us,’ Sarah said.

Oscar said quickly, with a little head-shake at Sarah, ‘And other members of his family – Cecelia and Chico – both said everybody loved him.’