‘What killed him? Oscar?’
‘One shot in the ear.’ Oscar, anxious to show his mastery of the files, didn’t even glance at his notes.
‘Which ear?’
‘The left one. The gun was between his legs on the seat, and his left hand was resting near it, on top of his left thigh.’
‘Make and model of the weapon?’
‘A .22 caliber Smith & Wesson pistol. The 22A Sport Series, semi-auto, four-inch barrel. Equipped with a ten-round magazine, holds .22 caliber long rifle rimfire cartridges. Had eight rounds left in the magazine, one in the chamber. When tested, it showed residue from recent firing.’
‘Was he left-handed?’
‘Yes, he was.’
‘One bullet recovered from the body?’
‘Yes. A .22 caliber slug was found lodged against his skull just above his right eye. It showed lands and grooves consistent with having been fired by the gun on the seat.’
‘So all the forensics lined up just right?’
‘Yes, they did.’
‘It looked like a suicide, and all the evidence supported that conclusion?’
‘Yes.’
‘And the empty casing was found in the car?’
‘By his left foot, yes.’
‘It’s funny I remember so little about it. Who’d we send from here to that autopsy?’
For the first time, Cifuentes consulted his notes. He read off the name, ‘Harold C. Eisenstaat,’ with a little hesitation about the pronunciation of the last syllable. Sarah saw Delaney’s mouth clamp down in a grim line.
‘Any chance we got lucky and found a record of purchase of the weapon, from an authorized dealer?’
‘Not in anything I read,’ Leo said.
‘I didn’t find anything on it either,’ Oscar said.
Sarah said, ‘We touched on it in our interview with Angela, remember?’ and looked at Oscar intently. She had read through her notes again over the weekend.
‘Oh, ah, yes, that’s right,’ Oscar said. ‘We asked her if she knew Frank Martin had a gun and she said no. And she couldn’t remember him ever talking about guns with Ed – he wasn’t a hobby shooter or anything like that. So Sarah asked her …’ Having abandoned his pretense of having done the whole interview himself, Oscar’s face was wrinkled fiercely in the effort to remember. ‘Sarah said, “Do you think he bought a gun just to shoot himself?” And she said, let me think, it was something sardonic …’
‘She said, “Or borrowed it,” Sarah said. ‘She claimed that Frank was “like most accountants, always very careful with a dollar.”’
‘Anybody else suggest Frank was a miser? Sarah?’
‘Not a miser. Cecelia mentioned that he was very frugal, always bought two-year-old cars and kept them for eight or nine years. Oh, and Luz said something about carrying his own lunch from home. But they said it in a praising way, as though it was kind of quaint.’
‘And everybody in the family stressed his generosity to Ed,’ Oscar said.
‘Isn’t it wonderful how the truth keeps changing shape? Was there a will? Who got what?’
‘Frank left his house to Ed,’ Leo said. ‘The rest of his estate was divided among the surviving Garcías. Not much – no big piles of money, for sure.’
‘Did Ed leave a will?’
‘He died intestate, but it didn’t really matter – he left almost nothing. He’d sold Frank’s house and used the money to support himself and his drug habit.’
‘So we’ve got one suicide disguised as a burglary shootout, and one declared suicide we’re beginning to have doubts about. What about the third one? Any strong opinions about Angela?’
‘Marjorie Springer sounds like she might have some,’ Sarah said, ‘but I haven’t had a chance to interview her yet.’
‘Who?’
‘Angela’s employer and her landlady. Oh, and Luz – Ed Lacey’s mother – said she didn’t believe Angela was suicidal.’
‘OK. Who stands to gain by her death?’
‘She left behind a recently-made will in favor of Marjorie,’ Ollie said. ‘But besides her house, which was mortgaged for just about current market value, she had only a small savings account, her trunk and her car. Anybody find anything of value in the items from the trunk?’
All around the desk, detectives shook their heads. ‘Evidence of good taste,’ Leo said, ‘but not much value.’
‘Angela mentioned that she’d been doing “a little research in the evenings,”’ Sarah said. ‘That’s how she learned that Ed’s father and grandfather were both addicted to drugs and alcohol.’