Red Man Down(71)

Sarah went back to Delaney and said, not meeting his eyes, ‘Looks like we had it backwards, boss. The information officer didn’t get that message from Harry. Harry must have copied it out of the paper.’

On Wednesday the weather brightened and so did Delaney. He had slipped his chain at the city council and was back, he said, to doing what he knew best. So he marshaled the crew and told them, ‘No more Mr Nice Guy. I want that money found now. Leo, why can’t we turn it over to the bank examiners? They’ve got all the clout they need to look at accounts.’

‘They’ve already swept records in the five-state area for accounts belonging to every permutation of Frank Martin,’ Leo said, ‘and every possible version of Ed or Angela Lacey. And so far, we haven’t come up with another suspect to offer them. We’ve no leads on who Joey’s “employer” might be.’

‘I’ve got an idea,’ Ollie said. ‘Ask them to try that other name Angela had for a while – her first husband’s name. It’s in the case notes.’

‘Oh, and why don’t we try searching on her Polish name?’ Sarah said.

‘That won’t work,’ Leo said. ‘You need a social security number to open an account.’

‘That’s right,’ Delaney said. ‘Is it possible Frank gave the money straight to Joey? He’d take it, wouldn’t he, if he could get it?’

‘Oh, in a heartbeat, the way I hear it,’ Sarah said. ‘But why would Frank risk his career to steal it and then give it to Joey? There’s no way that makes sense, is there?’

‘I can’t think of one,’ Leo said.

‘Let’s get Joey in here in the box and make him tell us who’s paying for those long rides. Unless everything he said is a lie, if we find his employer, we ought to find the money.’

‘Fine, I agree with that. Soon as we’re done here, Sarah, you get on the horn with Pima County and arrange to have him transported.’

‘The message,’ Oscar said. ‘Why would anyone do such an evil thing as to send Ed Lacey a fake message when his uncle just died?’

Jason said, ‘Isn’t there some way to hack on that email address, to see if it made any purchases, or—’

‘I like that,’ Delaney said. ‘Ask Tracy. And Ray, you stick around here, will you, so you’re available to go in the box with Sarah when she gets Joey up here? I’ve got about a million messages to catch up on now, but let me know when you’ve got him set up, Sarah. I’ll monitor outside.’

Sarah called Admin at Pima County and placed a request for transport for Joey García. The officer who took the call said, ‘Hold one second, I think I saw—’

He came back on the line a few seconds later and told her, ‘Joey García made bail late yesterday and was released at eight-fifteen last night.’

Sarah held her breath until the red cloud of rage that had formed in front of her eyes dispersed. When she was fairly confident of keeping her voice reasonable she said, ‘Who secured the bond, do you have that information?’

He gave her the name of a bondsman she knew slightly. She called his office in the jail and asked who brought the bail money.

‘His mother,’ the bondsman said. ‘Teresa García.’

‘She can’t drive herself right now,’ Sarah said. ‘Who brought her in?’

‘Um … I think she said it was her daughter.’

‘Which one?’

‘No idea.’

Sarah called each of them and got no answer, then called Chico, with the same result. Feeling as if she might be going to explode from frustration, she hurried into the ladies’ room to splash cold water on her face. When she came out she walked into Delaney’s office and told him their prisoner was loose.

‘Damn,’ Delaney said. ‘I thought you said you were going to get the bail amount raised.’

‘Leo tried. Judge Kahler said she had already set it at the maximum amount allowed. She was trying to teach him a lesson.’

‘Seems like he’s not getting the message,’ Delaney said. ‘What’s the fallback plan?’

Sarah, looking horrified suddenly, said, ‘The mechanic.’

‘The wildcat who worked on his car? How can he help you?’

‘He can’t – but I think we better help him.’

‘How?’

‘We should find him and tell him his customer’s out of jail.’

Delaney popped his eyes and said, ‘Why?’

‘He didn’t want to have anything to do with us, but we muscled in on his life and made him talk about that Toyota.’