“I better not, but thanks.”
“Well, have a seat in that case.”
She filled her mug from a stainless steel urn, and once she sat down again, her phone gave a chirp. “That’s him. You can go on in.”
Calvin Wilcox was in his early sixties, wearing a short-sleeve denim work shirt and jeans belted under a modest swell of abdomen. I could see the outline of a hard-pack of cigarettes in his shirt pocket. He had thinning red hair and ginger freckles on his arms. His cheeks were wind-burned, which made his green eyes look electrified in the ruddy glow of his face. I knew I was looking at a male variation of Violet’s green eyes and her faux red hair.
We leaned toward each other across the desk to shake hands. He was a big guy, not tall, but solid. He waited until I sat down and then settled in his swivel chair. He tipped it back in what was probably a typical move, one work boot propped on the edge of his desk. He lifted his arms and laced his fingers above his head, which gave him an air of relaxation and openness I doubted was there. Behind him, on the wall, was a black-and-white photograph of him at a construction site. His hard hat shaded his eyes, while the businessmen on each side were bareheaded and squinting. One held a shovel and I assumed the occasion was a ground-breaking ceremony.
He smiled, watching me with a certain shrewdness evident in his eyes. “My sister, Violet. Here she comes again.”
“Sorry about that. I know the subject comes up every couple of years.”
“I should be used to it by now. What’s that old saying? ‘Nature abhors a vacuum.’ People want closure. Otherwise you’re always waiting for the other shoe to drop. How long have you worked for Daisy?”
“Not that long.”
“I guess she can spend her money any way she wants, but what’s she hope to accomplish?”
“She wants to find her mother.”
“Yeah, I get that and then what?”
“That depends on where Violet is.”
“Hard to believe it’s still bugging her after all this time.”
“What about you? Does it bother you?”
“Not a bit. Violet did what suited her. Her life was her business. She seldom consulted me, and if I offered her advice, she’d turn around and do just the opposite. I learned to keep my mouth shut.”
“Did she ever talk about Foley beating her?”
“She didn’t have to talk about it. It was obvious. He broke her nose, broke her tooth, broke two ribs. I don’t know why she put up with it. If she’d wanted out, I’d have helped, but she went back time and time again, so I finally gave up.”
“Were you older or younger?”
“Older by two years.”
“Any other siblings?”
“Don’t I wish. Parents get old, it’d be nice to have someone to help shoulder the burden. Violet wasn’t about to do it, that’s for sure.”
“Are your parents still alive?”
“No. My father had a series of heart attacks in 1951. Three in rapid succession, the last one fatal. The doctors blamed it on a defect he’d carried since birth. He was forty-eight years old. So far I’ve managed to outlive him by thirteen years. Mother died a couple of years ago, at eighty-four.”
“You’re married or single?”
“Married. How about yourself?”
“Single, but my parents are both gone.”
“You’re fortunate. My mother was in a nursing home for years. Well, let’s call it a ‘facility.’ I wouldn’t label it a home. She used to phone me six and seven times a week, begging me to come get her. Up to me, I’d have done it, but my wife was opposed. She’s a stockbroker. No way would she have given that up in order to take care of Mother. I didn’t blame her, but it was tough.”
“You have children?”
“Four boys, all grown and gone. Two live here in town. I got one in Reno and another one in Phoenix.” He took a quick peek at his watch. “You want to ask about Violet, be quick about it. I got a meeting coming up.”
“Sorry. I get curious about people and I forget myself.”
“All right with me. It’s your call.”
“I take it you and Violet weren’t close?”
“You got that right. Last time I saw her, she came by the office and asked for money that I was dumb enough to give.”
“How much?”
“Two grand. That was the first of July, in case you’re wondering. After she left here, she went over to my mother’s house and hit her up as well. Mother didn’t have much, but Violet managed to wheedle five hundred dollars out of her. Month later, we found out she’d stolen Mother’s good jewelry: diamond bracelets, earrings, two pearl necklaces—the works. Three thousand dollars’ worth we never saw again.”
“How do you know it was her?”
“Mother remembered her asking to use the bathroom, which you could only get to by going through her bedroom. Jewelry box was on the dressing table. Mother didn’t have occasion to open it until her birthday that year when Rachel and I were taking her to dinner at the club. She wanted to get all gussied up and that’s when she realized everything was gone.”
“Did you report it to the police?”
“I wanted to, but she refused. She said if Violet needed it that bad, she could have it.”
“Had Violet stolen things before?”
“No, but she borrowed money every chance she got, usually small amounts. She’d claim it was for Daisy so we wouldn’t turn her down.”
“That seems curious. She bragged about having fifty thousand dollars of her own, which Foley says she got from an insurance settlement. He can’t confirm the amount, but he knows she collected.”
“She told me the same thing, but I thought it was b.s. If she had that much money, why bother to weasel the two grand from me?”
“Suppose she was putting a stash together so she could take off?”
“Always possible.”
“Could she have kept in touch with your mother? I keep thinking that even if she managed to make a new life for herself, she might still want some tie to the past.”
“Certainly not with me. Violet didn’t have any sentimental attachments that I know of. There’s no way Violet could have made contact with Mother without my knowing. For one thing, her number was unlisted, and any mail she got had to go through me first. For a while, the scam artists had her on their radar screens and they were sending her letters proposing ‘lucrative’ financial schemes or telling her she’d won the lottery and needed to send in the processing fee. She was so gullible she’d give away the furniture if anybody asked.”
“And security at the facility was tight?”
“You’re thinking Violet could have sneaked in? Forget it. She had no use for Mother beyond ripping her off. Of course, it’s irrelevant now since Mother’s passed away, but if Violet had managed to make a new life, she wouldn’t risk discovery for a woman she didn’t give a shit about.”
“Any idea where she might have gone?”
“Wherever the road took her. She was a creature of impulse, not one for long-range plans.”
“But what’s your take on it? You think she’s out there somewhere?”
“I never said that. If she were alive, she’d have come back to beg, borrow, or steal what she could. I don’t think she went a month without a handout.” He took his foot off the desk and leaned in on his forearms. “You want my take on it?”
“Sure, why not?”
“You want to make Daisy happy? Fine. Earn a few bucks for yourself? It’s no skin off my nose. But don’t turn it into your holy mission in life. You find Violet, you’ll only be making trouble.”
“For whom?”
“Everyone—and I’m including Daisy in that.”
“What do you know that I don’t?”
“Nothing. I know Violet. It’s just a wild-ass guess.”
11
Chet Cramer Chevrolet was located on Main Street in Cromwell, three acres of shiny cars, fifteen capacious service bays, and a two-story show
room with floor-to-ceiling plateglass windows. Inside, at ground level, there were six small glass-fronted offices, each outfitted with a desk, a computer, a run of file cabinets, two chairs for customers, and prominent displays of family photographs and sales awards. One cubicle was currently occupied by a heavyset salesman in earnest conversation with a couple whose body language suggested they were not as eager to do business as he had hoped.
I didn’t see a reception desk, but I spotted a sign with an arrow pointing to the parts department. I walked down a short hallway, passing the restrooms and a lounge with comfortable chairs, where two people sat reading magazines. Doughnuts were available and a vending machine dispensed tea, hot chocolate, coffee, cappuccino, and lattes without charge. I found the cashier and told her I had an appointment with Mr. Cramer. She took my name and rang his office to tell him I was there.
While I waited, I wandered back to the showroom floor, moving from a Corvette convertible to a Caprice station wagon. The best-looking car was an Iroc-Z Camaro convertible, bright red with a tan interior. The top was down and the leather seats were soft. Try tailing someone in a car that slick. I turned to find Mr. Cramer standing with his hands in his pockets, admiring the car as I did. I knew from counting on my fingers that he was in his early eighties. I could see he’d been handsome in his youth, and I sensed, like an aura, the volume of air he must have displaced before he shrank from age. His suit was a size that a young boy might wear. He said, “What kind of car you drive?”
“1974 VW.”
“I’d make you a pitch, but you look like a woman knows her own mind.”
“I’d like to think so,” I said.
“You’re here about Mrs. Sullivan.”
“I am.”
“Let’s go on up to my office. People see I’m down here, I never get a moment’s peace.”
I followed him across the showroom floor and up the stairs. When we reached his office, he opened the door and stepped aside to let me in. The room was plain—a straight-legged wooden desk, a couch, three chairs, and white walls on which he’d mounted numerous black-and-white photographs of himself with various local bigwigs. The Cromwell Chamber of Commerce had given him a citation for community service. The furniture might well have been the set he started business with. “Did you graduate from college?” he asked as he rounded his desk and took a seat.
I sat down across from him, putting my shoulder bag on the floor at my feet. “Hardly. I had two semesters of junior college, but I don’t think that counts.”
“Better than I did. My father dug ditches for a living and never saved a dime. My senior year in high school, he was killed in an auto accident. It’d been raining for a week, highway was slick as glass, and he went off a bridge. I was the oldest of four boys and I had to go to work. One thing my dad taught me was never do manual labor. He hated his job. He said, ‘Son, if you want to make money, find a job where you have to shower before you go to work instead of when you get home.’ He maintained there was always someone for hire when it came to the dirty work, and I’ve followed that to this day.”
“How’d you end up selling cars?”
“Desperation. Everything turned out fine in the end, but it didn’t look so promising at first. The only fellow who’d hire me was George Blickenstaff, owner of the local Ford dealership. He was an old family friend and I guess he took pity on me. I started selling Fords when I was nineteen years old. That was 1925. I didn’t much care for it, but at least I wasn’t working with my hands. Turns out I had a knack for sales. Four years later, the stock market crashed.”
“That must have put a dent in the business.”
“Some areas, yes, but not as much out here. We were always small potatoes and we didn’t take the same hit the bigger dealers did. By the time the Depression came along, I was doing pretty well, at least compared to what a lot of other folks endured. By then, I’d turned into Blickenstaff’s star salesman. You’d have thought it was something I was born to do. Of course, I was full of myself and thought I deserved a dealership of my own.”
“Is that when you bought this place?”
“Took me years. Problem was, every time I had money in the bank, something came along that took the wind right out of my sails. I put my brothers through college and just about had my mother’s house paid off when she got sick. The hospital bill alone was enough to wipe me out. Factor in the funeral expenses and the headstone and I was flat broke. I didn’t marry till I was thirty-two years old and that set me back again because suddenly I was saddled with a family.”
“But you did persevere,” I said.
“Oh, I did better than that. By 1939, I could see what was coming. The minute Germany invaded Poland, I talked old man Blickenstaff into stockpiling tires, car parts, and gasoline. He didn’t want to listen, but I knew it was an opportunity we couldn’t pass up. U.S. involvement was a given. Any fool could see that—except him, of course. I knew when the time came, rationing would be inevitable, and we couldn’t afford to be caught short. He argued the point, but I knew I was right and I never let up. My instincts were dead on. Once the war started, there wasn’t another dealer in the area who’d had the same foresight. Guys were coming out of the woodwork, begging for gasoline, begging for tires, which was music to my ears. I told ’em I was happy to be of help as long as sufficient cash changed hands. The point was delivering product and service to the customer, and if Chet Cramer could make a buck in the process, then what’s wrong with that? Blickenstaff didn’t have the stomach for it. He lost a son in the war and he thought it was morally reprehensible—that was the phrase he used, ‘morally reprehensible’—to profit when all those boys had sacrificed their lives. In truth, he was tired and it was time he stepped aside.”
“You bought the dealership from him?”
“No ma’am. I bought the Chevrolet franchise and drove that old geezer into the ground: 1945 he closed his doors and I picked up his dealership for pennies on the dollar. May sound cold, but it’s a simple fact of life: You can’t accomplish anything unless you’re willing to act. Make a plan. Take a risk. That’s how you get what you want.”
“What about your brothers? Did any of them come into the business with you?”
“This is mine. I don’t share. I did enough for them and now they’re on their own.” He shifted in his chair, leaning forward on his desk. “Anyway, you didn’t come here to talk about me. You want to know about Violet Sullivan.”
“I do, but I’m also curious about the car. Can we start with that?”
He made a dismissive gesture. “Foley had no business buying that car. He ought to’ve been ashamed of himself. The Sullivans didn’t have a pot to piss in—I hope you’ll forgive the language.”
“Doesn’t bother me,” I said.
“Violet got it in her head she had to have that car, and Foley knew better than to stand in her way. I wasn’t about to turn away a sale, so I cut him a deal.”
“Which was what?”
“I took his truck in trade, for whatever that was worth. Purely a courtesy on my part, but I made one thing clear: The first time he missed a payment, I’d repossess. No excuses, no slow pays, and not one penny short. I didn’t care what the law said, that car was coming back.”
“Given his history, you were taking quite a chance.”
“Oh, I never thought he’d do it. I fully expected to have the car on the lot again within three months and then I’d take it for myself.”
“I thought Winston Smith made the sale.”
“He’s the one Violet dealt with up front. He was a pip-squeak, all of twenty years old. Woman like Violet, she’s always going to find a way to get what she wants. She comes waltzing in here when I’m off the lot and she starts working on him. I’d’ve put a stop to it if I’d seen what was going on. First thing you know she talks him into letting her take that Bel Air on a test drive—alone. I’m serious. Without him in the car. He never should have agreed, but he’s so busy trying to impress her, he doesn??
?t know what hit him. When she finally shows up again, she’s put two hundred and fifty-seven miles on a brand-new car. I fired him on the spot and then called Foley and told him to get his butt in. He finally came around Friday morning and I completed the deal—approved the loan and handled all the paperwork.”
“I still don’t understand why you sold it to him. From what I’ve heard, his finances were a mess.”
“I have no use for Foley; man doesn’t have a brain in his head. I felt sorry for Violet. I thought she deserved something nice for putting up with him, fool that she was.”
“What was in it for you?”
His smile was sheepish. “Hey, even an old dog like me can do a good turn now and then. Everybody thinks I’m a hard-ass, but I can be generous when it suits. Of course that might’ve been the last time I ever did a good deed. When that car went missing, I was sick to death. Foley did pay it off. I have to give him that.”
“So you weren’t out anything?”
“Not one red cent.”
“Violet didn’t tell you how she managed to put two hundred and fifty-seven miles on the odometer?”
“No, but I can make a pretty good guess. That’s the day she showed up at a Santa Teresa bank and emptied her safe-deposit box. I figured it out afterward, because the distance was about right—hundred and twenty-five miles each way. She said the day was gorgeous and she couldn’t resist. At the time, I was under the impression she drove north along the coast, but she never said as much.”
“If she wanted to drive to Santa Teresa, why not take Foley’s truck?”
“That thing was on its last legs. No surprise she’d prefer to tool around in a fancy car like mine. Maybe she was planning to sweet-talk the bank manager into making her a loan.”
“Did she give any indication she intended to leave town?”