Coos of sympathy all around while I tried to count how many lies I had just told. I hadn’t figured Kenny for having any political interest. He had a construction business, so maybe he needed to grease some wheels at City Hall. But I couldn’t figure out what a district attorney could do for him.
Dessert and coffee were served, then Andrew Hollingsworth rose and made a brief speech of thanks to his guests. As he spoke, I thought of how easy it must be for him to win over a jury. He had a way of mixing enthusiasm and forceful persuasion that made you feel as if he must be right about whatever he had to say. Perhaps only later would you realize that, unlike the warning on cereal boxes, the package had been sold by volume, not by weight.
The party gradually wound down. We took our leave, and I thanked Elinor again for the special treatment. Her husband and the mayor broke off a tete-a-tete when we approached to say our good-byes, and seemed quite happy that we didn’t linger.
As we walked out to Guy’s car he said, “Oh, I almost forgot to tell you. I tried calling Ann Marchenko. I’m not sure what’s happened to her. Her phone is disconnected and she seems to have gone out of town. I’m afraid it may be quite difficult to get in touch with her anytime soon.”
“Nuts,” I said. “She knows something, and now I may never find out what it is.”
“Yes, it’s all very strange, isn’t it?” he said. He paused as we got into the car. He started the engine and we drove out of the parking area and past the guardhouse. Pete had turned his car around and was waiting for us. I looked in the rearview mirror; sure enough, he was following us.
“I see we still have our shadow, eh?” said Guy. “Anyway, as I was saying, I thought there was something very strange about what had happened with Mrs. Marchenko. As I’m sure you know, bank employees who quit suddenly and then disappear from view raise our suspicions, so I did a little investigating of my own.”
I looked toward him. He had a grin of self-satisfaction.
“And?” I said.
“And I am convinced that she herself is not guilty of embezzlement or anything of that nature. But I think she saw something. As you know, she worked in our safe-deposit area. Do you know much about safe-deposit boxes?”
“I’ve never had much of anything worth keeping in one.”
“Then I’ll tell you something about how it works. The bank has one key; the customer has another. The customer must sign in, and the signature is compared to a signature card. The customer and a bank official walk into the vault, and the customer hands over his or her key to the bank official only long enough to open the small door behind which the box is kept. The two keys are inserted, and the box removed and handed to the customer; the customer’s key is returned. Usually, the customer is shown to a private viewing area. Under no circumstances are we allowed to see what the customer has in the deposit box, or to watch as he or she opens it.”
“That doesn’t sound so great when you stop and think about it. The bank has no idea what people are storing in its vault?”
“That is the policy of every bank I have ever worked for. They do not want to have liability for what is in the boxes. There are certain laws, though, which make us pay attention to patterns of use of safe-deposit boxes — laws which concern money laundering.”
I perked up, remembering the computer notes. LDY?$VS$. “Maybe that was what O’Connor had been referring to in his notes — something about money laundering.”
“Really? That’s very interesting.” He was quiet for a moment, as if thinking over what I had told him, then he went on. “Let me try to explain how a safe-deposit box might be used for money laundering. Drug dealing and other illegal activities often produce large amounts of cash. There are federal reporting laws which require us to have a customer fill out a form whenever more than ten thousand dollars in cash is deposited.”
“What if they just launder it in slightly smaller amounts?”
“The law also requires that the bank report what are known as ‘suspicious transactions.’ Say someone always deposits $9999, staying just under the limit — the bank is required to report these transactions to the IRS. We must file a Currency Transaction Report.
“And so anyone who has some reason to hide cash or movements of cash must find ways to do it without attracting the bank’s attention.”
“But someone attracted Ann Marchenko’s attention?”
“Exactly. Safe-deposit boxes can be used in a number of ways to launder money. One method is to put two people on the signature card, and use the safe-deposit box itself as a way of transferring funds. Person X goes into the vault and deposits a certain sum in the safe-deposit box. Person Y shows up sometime later and takes the cash out. Who will know?”
“Do you think Ann Marchenko suspected something like that?”
“Until you came by asking for her, I really had no idea. But I did a little snooping around and found that she has a very close friend at the bank, another employee that she often went to lunch with. I talked to this woman, and she told me, after a time, that Ann had noticed something suspicious in the safe-deposit area. She had reported it to her supervisor, Ramona Ralston. Apparently Miss Ralston told Ann not to mention it to anyone else, and said she would take care of it. This was some weeks ago. As far as I can tell, Miss Ralston never mentioned it to any other person in bank management. I am one of the people who should have heard of this.”
“Any idea what she learned?”
“No, but at least we have something to go on. I will be going over our records of movements in and out of the safe-deposit area to see if I can discover anything, find any patterns.”
“Guy, this is great. Please let me know if you find out anything more.”
“Certainly. I’ve sort of enjoyed being an amateur detective,” he said.
We arrived at my house. He pulled over to the curb and shut off the engine. He turned toward me. I was a little uncomfortable. Pete had pulled over some distance behind us and discreetly turned out his lights. But more than that, I was afraid of what Guy’s expectations might be at this point.
“Irene, I am concerned about your staying here tonight.”
