Calloway said nope, he couldn’t do that, and explained why.
I said, “So I’ll come to Boca Grande and take a look. Probably by boat. Is tomorrow okay?”
“I was planning on flying to Lauderdale, but I’ll have my secretary check the calendar. Maybe tomorrow or Thursday at the latest.”
“Betty Marsh,” I said. “I spoke with her on the phone.”
He said, “Smartest woman I’ve ever met. I don’t know what I’d do without her.”
8
I keep a P.O. address at the Sanibel Post Office, Box 486. But I also occasionally get mail at the marina, and that’s where Amanda had the overnight package delivered: an envelope containing two photographs plus Xeroxes of several bank statements detailing activity on her mother’s personal account. Amanda called me Tuesday just before noon to tell me to go look, maybe the priority package had already arrived.
“You are one very efficient lady,” I told her.
There was a little frown in her voice this morning. Seemed distraught and a little impatient. “Damn right I’m efficient. What I sent you is a framed picture of Merlot I took from our house. Christ, Mom had it up on the mantelpiece over the fireplace. That face of his looking out like he owned everything around him. I’m sending it mostly to get rid of it. She doesn’t like it, tough. And a picture of my mom and Frank together. When you see Frank, you can give it to him. If he wants it.”
I said, “I think I’ll leave the distribution of family photos to you.”
“Okay, whatever. The bank statements, though. That’s the big news. Pretty shitty news, as you’ll see.”
I said, “Oh?”
“Yeah. You know how glad I am you had me check the mail? Mrs. Patterson, our poor neighbor lady, she couldn’t wait to get rid of it. So I’m sitting home going through this stack of stuff and it starts dawning on me what I’m seeing. I mean, holy shit! I couldn’t believe it. It almost made me sick.”
What was she talking about?
“The bank statements,” she said. “I didn’t make myself clear? Take a look when they get there. They’re self- explanatory. My mom, she’s on this deposit, withdrawal deal where all her bills go directly to the bank and the bank makes direct transfers. Electric bills, charge card, taxes, the whole works all done through proxy. Frank probably set it up that way. Take care of the little ex-wife, make sure he’s still in control of how things get done.”
That bitterness again.
She said, “But the reason I’m sending the bank statements is you’ll see she’s transferred a bunch of money in the last few months in four big lumps. I have no idea why. Three withdrawals of forty thousand, then one for seventy-five thousand. Something else, back in December, almost every day for a month, she made the maximum daily withdrawal on her ATM card. That’s like six hundred dollars times twenty-one, twenty-two withdrawals. Something like that. So the total’s another thirteen thousand dollars plus the hundred and ninety-five thousand from the bank. Major bucks.”
I said, “You need to call Frank right away and tell him.”
“I already tried.”
“You need to keep trying till you get him.”
“Why?”
“He’s the money guy in the family, right? The ex-family, anyway. I just talked to him, and he would have said something if he knew. All that money missing, yeah, he would have said something.”
“I guess.”
“He’d even hint about it to you: ‘Your mom’s been moving a lot of money?’ Or: ‘Your mom’s acting a lot differently since her new boyfriend?’ That’s the sort of thing he might have said.”
“No. Not a word.”
“Then he doesn’t know. Activity that heavy, you’d think the bank’s computers would have flagged it and contacted your mom.”
“They did. I found a letter from the bank saying that if they didn’t hear personally from my mom, they would freeze her ATM card. Some of the earlier statements, they’d been opened before she left for Colombia. I found them in her office file. This letter, though, was among the unopened mail the neighbor’d collected. It was dated January seventh. After that, there were no more withdrawals from her ATM, so maybe they did freeze it.”
“Were any of the withdrawals made before you last saw and spoke with your mother?”
“Yeah, almost all of them.”
“So you have to assume that she knew. She was aware.”
“I guess so.”
“And the bank had no reason to contact Frank.”
“Right. Because the money was drawn on my mom’s personal accounts.”
“Is there any money left?”
“Not much. The CD and money market accounts are all wiped out. In the savings, the balance is like thirteen-five, so she’s got a little left. Look at the statements, see for yourself. I’m so pissed off, I can hardly even talk about it. When I was going through those bank statements, my hands were shaking like crazy. That asshole is robbing my mom blind.”
“We don’t know that yet.”
“You have another explanation?”
“There are a couple of possibilities.”
Several, really.
I thought of something. “Do you know if Frank is having any financial difficulties? Maybe he worked it so he still had access to your mom’s accounts. Maybe that’s why he never mentioned that he knew about all the activity.”
“Geez, you really do have a suspicious mind.”
“That’s right. The question is, Do you think Frank is capable of doing something like that?”
“No way. Even if he wanted to, her money was completely separate. I remember Mom talking about how, for once, she was finally on her own. That was right after the courts and the lawyers got done. Plus, the last time I spoke to Frank, he told me that this was the worst April ever, because he’d made more money than he’d ever made in his life. Taxes, he was talking about He had to pay out so much in taxes.”
“Okay, so we eliminate Frank. That leaves Merlot. Wait till I get the papers, let’s see what I can come up with.” I thought of something else. “Did she get any cash advances on her credit card?”
“I don’t know. I don’t think so.”
“Did she sell or cash in any stocks and bonds?”
“There was nothing in the mail about it. Jesus, I’m shaking again. More than two hundred thousand dollars, most of my mom’s cash savings gone in less than four months.” Her voice broke slightly, the transition from fear to anger. “The son-of-a-bitch. You don’t think he took her off someplace to hurt her? Like get rid of her, I mean. The woman he stole all the money from and who witnessed what an asshole he is?”
I said, “Amanda, calm down. There’s absolutely no reason to suspect something like that. Maybe she moved the money to another account she’s set up. Maybe she was investing in stocks or more CDs.”
“With cash from the ATM?”
“Yeah, I see your point. But there’s no reason to get upset until we find out for sure what’s going on. When you were going through your mother’s stuff, did you find any letters, any notes from Merlot?”
“A card, that’s all. It must have come with some flowers or something. It said, ‘Not even these are as beautiful as you.’ Can you think of a slimier line than that?”
I was puzzled. “Your mom has an eight- or nine-month relationship with this guy, but he didn’t send her a single note? Nothing in writing?”
“Nothing that I found. Just the flower note.”
“That doesn’t make any sense at all.”
“They were E-mail friends, I already told you. She’d be on the computer half the night with him. Where’ve you
