In the other three videos, Alejandra stood unmoving and silent as Doña Elena spoke to the camera. But the last one seemed different somehow. I couldn’t put my finger on the difference. It was something in the body language or the way the Delarosa woman held the gun. I turned the sound as high as it would go. I played those final seconds over and over and made myself forget all preconceptions in order to just watch and listen.
Finally I realized what was bothering me. It was subtle. I couldn’t be certain that it mattered. But in the second or two before the last video went blank, right after Doña Elena said, “Arturo, they want two hundred thousand dollars, and they want you to bring it yourself,” I thought I saw Alejandra Delarosa’s lips move just a little, framed by the hole in her black mask, as if she were practicing to be a ventriloquist.
I got up and went to the armoire where the stereo equipment was kept. From a drawer in the armoire, I removed a pair of headphones, the kind with a built-in amplifier. I went back to the computer, plugged the headphones into the jack, slipped them over my ears, and turned the sound all the way up. I played the last video again, closing my eyes to listen.
And there it was, right at the very end, a woman’s voice whispering, “You weren’t supposed—”
I removed the headphones and turned off the computer. Carrying the glass of Scotch into the bedroom, I stripped to my underwear, sat on the edge of the bed, and drained the glass before crawling underneath the sheets to try and figure out why Alejandra Delarosa would say those words. Then I realized I hadn’t thought about Haley for at least an hour. It was the effect I had hoped to achieve by taking on the job, but still I felt guilty for some reason.
16
The next morning I rose early and slipped into a pair of boxing shorts, a plain-white muscle shirt, and a pair of New Balance training shoes. I crossed the estate grounds, dodging the irrigation sprinklers, and entered Haley’s mansion by the rear receiving door. I took the back stairs to the second floor, the stairs I had used so many times before, then strolled down the hall and slipped into her bedroom. I did my best to ignore the bed as I crossed to another door on the far side of the room and entered the little gym she had built for me.
I spent the next hour communing with the free weights, stationary bicycle, and rowing machine. I checked my form in the mirrors that lined all four walls. I was a remarkably limber and well-muscled specimen, square-jawed and straight-nosed, the picture of a red-blooded, all-American male in prime condition.
Then I looked into my eyes and remembered not to put much stock in appearances.
After returning to the guesthouse to shower, shave, and change into a black-silk T-shirt, faded Levi’s, and a pair of brown leather deck shoes, I decided to take Haley’s Escalade to Pico-Union. The Cadillac SUV was black, with darkly tinted windows and an impressive chrome package including flashy wheels. It was possible the residents of Alejandra Delarosa’s old neighborhood might assume I was a drug dealer or a pimp and leave my ride alone. Showing up before eight in the morning would also be a plus, since most of the bad guys would be sleeping it off. Plus, I might catch some of Delarosa’s former neighbors before they left for work.
I rolled down Haley’s long, winding driveway. My cell phone rang. I glanced at the screen and saw it was Haley’s attorney in New York, Howard Williams. I paused a few yards away from the monumental pair of gates and answered the phone.
“Mr. Cutter,” said the lawyer, “I wanted to get back in touch with an, ah, an update.”
“Good. How’s it going?”
“Well, as you might imagine, with an estate the size of yours the divestiture process will take time.”
“Are we talking weeks or months?”
“That’s part of what I thought we should discuss. Your more liquid assets can be distributed almost immediately of course, but with the current economic climate it could take a year or more to secure a good return on some of your property. High end real estate in Italy isn’t selling well, for example, and the market for yachts is soft in the seven figure range.”
“Why didn’t you tell me this sooner?”
“To be frank, I must confess your request caught me off guard. We’re not often asked to liquidate an estate of this size. In fact, I’ve never done anything remotely like this, and I don’t know anyone who has. So after you mentioned what you want me to do, I wasn’t thinking as clearly as I would have hoped. I mean, you were clear enough when we last spoke, but ever since then I’ve been thinking maybe I misunderstood your wishes.”
Sitting there in Haley’s Escalade, looking out through her monumental gates, I said, “You probably understood all right. Sell it all. Everything. Don’t worry about getting the best price. Just sell it as fast as you can, and split the proceeds among Haley’s charities. I’ll want to keep fifty thousand for myself. And don’t let anybody know I’m the one doing the selling.”
“I see. Yes. Well, that’s exactly what I thought you said before. And of course it’s none of my business, but would you mind explaining why you want to do this?”
“I’m a generous guy.”
“Generous? Yes. I see.”
“Can it be done or not? Can you keep my name out of it?”
“Undoubtedly, Mr. Cutter. If that is what you really wish.”
“It is.”
“All right, then. Ah, I do hope you won’t take offense at what I am about to say. It is meant to protect your interests, I assure you, but under the circumstances I’m afraid we’ll need to meet in person. Your instructions are, ah, extremely unusual, and of course the assets involved are so extensive, I just really feel I have a fiduciary responsibility to meet with you and verify your wishes personally. I’m sure you’ll understand.”
I understood, all right. I said, “Don’t hem and haw so much, Mr. Williams. I know you’re only doing your job. Would you also like to meet with a couple of my doctors too, so you can be sure I’m not crazy?”
I heard him clear his throat. “I appreciate the offer, Mr. Cutter.”
“So that’s a yes?”
“If it wouldn’t be too much trouble.”
“How soon can you get out here?”
“Unfortunately I’m in the middle of some litigation on my end. It looks like the trial may go on for another week or two. Maybe even three. It’s not possible for me to leave New York until it’s over, and of course, given your request to remain anonymous I didn’t think you’d want me to send a partner or associate…”
“No, you’re right. How about if my doctor and I come out there?”
“Ah, well, this is indelicate, but you see, we’ve never met, and I, ah, I just think it would be best if I verified your wishes there, on your own property.”
I said, “Harder for a con man to fake it here, where I’ve got friends, and I’ve been living most of the time.”
“Exactly so.”
“We could meet at Haley’s penthouse there in the city. Except you know Haley and I haven’t spent much time in New York, so the only people who could vouch for me would be people I brought along. And there would be no evidence of me being in residence at the penthouse. No photos on the mantle, letters in the desk, that kind of thing. Anyone could meet you there and claim to be me.”
“I’m truly sorry for the inconvenience, Mr. Cutter. And I’m so glad you understand.”
“You’re a smart guy, Mr. Williams. Don’t worry about it. Just get out here as soon as you can.”
I hung up and rolled forward far enough to activate the gates. After they swung open, I drove out onto the street. There, I paused to wait for the gates to swing shut behind me before I headed for the highway.
The address Harper had provided turned out to be a brown-shingle-style building at the northeast corner of Fourteenth and Constance, about a block from Pico. It had been a large, attractive single-family residence at one time, probably the home of a wealthy Jewish family, since the Pico-Union neighborhood had first been inhabited by a predominantly Jewish population.
But that was before the Los Angeles City Council had seen fit to designate LA as a sanctuary city. Now about fifty percent of the neighborhood was occupied by people who had come to America illegally, and with them had come street gangs that preyed upon the poor.
The chain-link fence along the sidewalk made the proud old house look more like a prison. I opened the gate and crossed the front yard, which was mostly light-brown dirt and dark-brown weeds. Beside the front door was a row of mailboxes. It seemed the house had long ago been subdivided into apartments. The box that matched the apartment number Harper had given me had no name attached. The other boxes were marked with names like Lopez, Soto, and Ramírez.
There was a good chance none of these people had lived there seven years before, when Delarosa was a resident, and an even better chance they wouldn’t talk to me. Of course, the police had already covered this territory years before. But I had no other ideas. Sometimes, especially when you have no other options, the only thing to do is to make your presence known and hope the enemy will take a shot and reveal his own position.
I entered the building. What had once been a generously sized foyer was now a lobby, with worn sheet vinyl on the floor and a battered set of stairs with a wooden handrail rising on the left. A tricycle stood in one corner. Every vertical surface, the original plaster walls and wainscoting, more recent Sheetrock, and the doors, had been covered with spray painted graffiti. The number 18 figured prominently in the graffiti, the 18th Street Gang’s tag.
I could still see signs of ornate moldings, which had trimmed cased openings on the left and right. The openings had probably once led to a parlor on one side and perhaps a dining room on the other. Both openings had been filled in with Sheetrock, which surrounded plain wooden doors. On the door to my right was the number 101, and on the left was 102. I wanted 202, so I took the stairs.
The woman who opened the door was under five feet tall and very wide. I put her at about a hundred and fifty pounds. She had hair so black it looked almost midnight blue, and sleepy eyes with the color and sheen of french roast coffee beans.
She looked up at me, brow creased and lips turned down. “Jes?”
“Do not worry,” I said in Spanish. “I am not La Migra.” It was what most Latino illegal immigrants called the Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers. I handed her my business card, which said simply “Malcolm Cutter, Personal Transportation and Security,” with my cell phone number. I told her I was looking for a woman who used to occupy that apartment, named Alejandra Delarosa.
Her frown didn’t change, but now she was also shaking her head. “She does not live here.”
“Yes, I know. She lived here about seven years ago. I was hoping you knew her then? Or possibly someone in her family? A friend?”
She was still shaking her head.
After a few more words, I thanked her and she closed the door. I moved on to try the next apartment. There were three more on the second floor and four below. Out of those, four people answered when I knocked. None of them knew anything about Alejandra Delarosa, or none of them would admit to knowing anything. I left the building.
As I walked across the front yard toward the Escalade, a woman about forty years of age approached the chain-link gate holding two nearly overflowing paper grocery sacks. She wore a rolled blue bandana as a hair band and a billowing white blouse with colorful embroidery around the collar like those I’d seen on Mayans in Mexico and Central America. She also wore a pair of faded blue jeans, which she filled out very nicely. She tried to open the gate without setting down the groceries, but it was clearly a challenge.
Still speaking Spanish, I hurried toward the gate. “Let me help.”
“Thank you, señor,” she replied.
I lifted the latch and pulled the gate in toward myself. As she stepped into the yard, one of the two bags burst open, spilling oranges, bananas, and a half-gallon plastic milk bottle onto the ground. The woman uttered a mild curse.
I knelt at her feet and began to pick up the fruit. There were too many pieces, so I stretched out the bottom hem of my T-shirt and started dropping them onto the fabric, using the shirtfront as a kind of bag.
“You do not need to do that,” she said, standing over me with the other grocery sack still in her hands.
I stood up, one hand holding the hem of my shirt and the other holding the milk bottle. My shirtfront bulged with fruit. I said, “It is my pleasure.”
She smiled. “In that case, my apartment is just here, if you do not mind.”
I followed her back into the building and through the lobby to the last apartment in back on the left. She pulled a single key out of a pocket, opened the door, and then turned to me. “I do not wish to be rude, but if you do not mind waiting here?”
“No problem,” I said.
With a nod she disappeared inside and closed the door. Soon she was back with an empty sack in her hand. As I stood in the hall holding out my T-shirt’s hem, she transferred the fruit into the bag.
I said, “Your accent… You are Guatemalan?”
“Most of us are in this neighborhood. And you speak Spanish very well, but I think you are American, yes?”
“Native born,” I said. “Do you by any chance remember a Guatemalan woman named Alejandra Delarosa who used to live here?”
“Sure,” she said. “She lived up in 202.”
“You knew her?”
“A little. My daughter used to play with hers.”
“I guess you remember what happened.”
“Oh, that was horrible. I felt so sorry for Emilio. Learning such things about your wife on television.”
As the woman took the last orange out of my shirt, I released the hem, brushed a few specs of dirt from the fabric, and said, “You mean her husband learned about the kidnapping and murder from the television?”
“That, too. But for him, I think the worst of it was learning that Alejandra had been sleeping with her boss.”
“Did Alejandra tell you she and Arturo Toledo were lovers?”
“Of course not. I saw it on the television like everybody else. But I do not think ‘lovers’ is the word for it. Do you?”
“I suppose you are right. From what I have heard, what she did was more like laying a trap.”
The woman nodded. “Exactly.”
“So… do you think it was true, what they said about her being in the URNG?”
She shifted the grocery sack to prop it on an outthrust hip. “Who knows? Many kinds of people came from Guatemala to escape the junta in the years before she killed that monster. Maybe she was in the URNG, or maybe she just wanted to be. Either way, we are all proud of what she did. Most of us have family and friends who were disappeared. There has been so little justice for us. The anger never goes away.”
“How about her husband? Emilio, right? Was he angry, too?”
She cocked her head and looked me in the face. “Are you with the police?”
“I am a private citizen, just like you.”
“You ask questions like the police. Why do you care about something that happened so long ago?”
“Just trying to clear things up a little. It is nothing ominous.”
“Well. Thank you for your help. Good-bye.”
She turned and went inside.
Before she closed the door, I decided to take a chance. “It is the URNG. They hired me to find out what happened.”
She opened the door again. “Really?”
I smiled. “Would I make up a thing like that?”
“You would be a fool to do it in this neighborhood. They have many supporters here.”
“I know. Do you remember what happened to Alejandra’s husband and daughter?”
“I heard La Migra came. They did not have their papers.”
“Do you think Emilio was involved in what happened?”
She pursed her lips as if in thought. “No… I do not think so. Emilio always seemed like a gentle man. It is difficult to imagine him hurting anybod
y.”
“They have Alejandra on video, of course, claiming that she did it for the URNG. But the URNG says it is not true. They asked me to try to prove they were not involved. So how about that?”
“Why would the URNG want to prove they were not involved? That Toledo was a mass murderer. It was right to kill him.”
I shrugged. “I do not know much about what goes on in Guatemala these days. They just said it was a political thing.”
“Oh. Well, I don’t know anything about that either. She just said she was with them.”
“Did she say that to you?”
“No. In the videos.”
“And did she seem like the kind of person who might join the URNG?”
“Even for the sake of justice, I never understood how a woman could leave a fine husband that way, and most of all her daughter. It was a real mystery. Still, they say Alejandra’s father was among the hundreds Señior Toledo caused to disappear. And they say he stole a lot of money from the people of our country. I suppose it is possible such things could have been be a burden on her mind until the desire for blood became even greater than her love as a wife and mother. I have heard of such people for whom revenge is like a drug, and heaven knows we have a lot of mothers here who prefer drugs to their own children. Now if you will excuse me…”
“Certainly. And I thank you for the information. But if I may ask just one more thing?”
“Yes?”
“Can you think of anyone who might know more about Alejandra or Emilio? Anyone I could ask?”
“Try La Sociedad Guatemalteca Benevolencia, on West Eighth. Some people over there think she is a hero. Especially the angry ones. And there are many angry ones over there.”
January Justice Page 11