True Believers(159)

“Please,” Gregor said. “I believe you. Ian Holden was in court when Harriet Garrity was killed—”

“Not that it matters,” Lou Emiliani put in. “This is poison we’re dealing with. He could have planted the poison at an earlier time and then have been safely in court when the death occurred—”

Gregor sighed. “Could we, please? Let’s see how this worked. The archdiocese paid a court-ordered amount of money every month, into a fund administered by you—”

“Administered by the firm,” Delmark Marquis corrected. “Yes, that’s right. The actual amount of money was determined by the courts in a lump sum. Then we divide it up.”

“Of whom there were sixty-two real plaintiffs,” Gregor said.

“Yes,” Delmark Marquis said.

“But Ian Holden divided the money into seventy one payments. Is that right?”

“Yes,” Delmark Marquis said again. “At least, that is what appears to have happened from the documents you’ve brought me and the information we’ve managed to retrieve. We’re not really going to know what happened until we can get into Ian’s computer, and I don’t think that will happen until we find Ian. I hate these new computer systems. They make everything impossible. They’re nothing but trouble.”

“Let’s go through how it could have happened,” Gregor said. “The archdiocese sent Ian Holden a check in the amount necessary to pay the monthly lump sum restitution installment. Then Ian Holden paid the real plaintiffs. Then—what? He just took the rest of the money out of the account on his own?”

“One way or another,” Delmark Marquis said. “I suppose that when we really get into it we’ll find that he had shell accounts in the names of the imaginary plaintiffs, and then other shell accounts from there. You have to go through a certain amount of silliness to hide financial tracks, but it can be done. Of course, the real experts would never be caught at all. This is something more in the way of an amateur effort.”

“Fine,” Gregor said. “So that’s how he got the money. What did he do with it?”

“What do you mean, what did he do with it?” Delmark Marquis looked blank.

“Did he spend it?” Gregor asked. “Did he drive expensive cars, keep up an expensive apartment, buy all his clothes custom-made from Brooks Brothers? What?”

“Oh. Well, most of the partners buy custom suits. Ian’s remuneration would have covered that.”

“What about the rest of it?’

“I don’t think he spent more than any of us did, in any obvious way,” Delmark Marquis said. “We’re not undercompensated here, Mr. Demarkian. He lived on his income, as we all do, but I don’t remember there being anything unusually lavish about the way he lived.”

“What about gambling?” Gregor asked. “What about drugs?”

“Don’t be ridiculous.” Delmark Marquis was appalled. “The man was a lawyer, for God’s sake.”

“Lawyers have been known to gamble,” Gregor pointed out. “And lawyers have been known to work themselves up to right royal cocaine habits.”

“Well, Ian didn’t have a cocaine habit here,” Delmark Marquis said. “If he had, we would have noticed. He was an efficient and conscientious attorney. He came in on time. He worked weekends. He showed no signs of … mental disintegration.”

“What about the gambling?”

“I wouldn’t know,” Delmark Marquis said. “But I can hardly see where he would have had the time. We work very long hours here, Mr. Demarkian. We don’t have time to play the horses or attend illegal poker games.”

Gregor wanted to say that there were many more ways to gamble than those, ways that did not require someone to take time off work, at least in the early stages. He didn’t because there was no point to making the comment. He already knew what had happened here, or he thought he did. He wanted only to confirm some things that needed confirmation.

“If he wasn’t spending the money,” he said carefully, “what do you suppose was happening to it?”

Delmark Marquis sighed. “He’s got it stashed somewhere, I’d expect. At least I hope he has. If he’s got it stashed, we can get it back. If we can’t get it back, we’ll be liable for it. We’re a partnership. There’s a mess, for you. God, if I get my hands on that man, I’ll kill him myself. You won’t have to wait for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania to ask for the death penalty.”

“I thought you said you didn’t think he was guilty of murder,” Garry Mansfield said.