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.