‘So who else from your family is around to talk to?’ Sarah consulted her list. ‘Eduardo?’
‘He is deceased.’
‘Marisol?’
‘Gone to her reward also. Mimi married a man from Nicaragua and lives down there now. So except for Chico and me, only the younger family is left in Tucson; the second wife, Teresa’s children – Cecelia, Pilar and Joey. Cecelia you have met, no? Pilar is the perfect example of the Catholic housewife and mother – a slave to her husband and four children. She wants only to serve them and the Lord. A pillar of the Altar Society.’ Luz shook her head sadly. ‘Otherwise she appears quite sane. You have her address there?’ She looked at the list. ‘Yes, that is correct.’
‘And Joey? Nobody’s mentioned him to me before – does he live in Tucson?’
‘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.’