“Is it that bad? Should I take a Valium first?” I wisecracked. I made my way through the obstacle course of Legos and other toys scattered on the carpet and flopped down on her recliner.
“It’s not good,” she said. She seated herself on the sofa, an arsenal of papers arranged on the coffee table in front of her. Carefully placing her pen on the table next to the papers, she gazed up at me with the look of a teacher about to begin her lesson plan.
“I did a lot of research on embezzlement on the Web,” Gloria began. “I’ve acquired quite an education on the subject. This sort of white-collar crime is amazingly common, and often only a portion of the money is ever recovered. Most embezzlers go to prison, but others get off with just probation. Sometimes companies don’t even press charges because they don’t want the word to get out about how stupid and gullible they were.”
“Obviously, that’s not the case here,” I said, sinking back into the cocoon of the recliner. “So I’d like the Cliff’s Notes version. What’s going on?”
“Richard talked to an attorney friend of his about this situation. According to him, putting a lien on the house was an aggressive strategy on the company’s part. Your mother’s employer is undoubtedly angry and looking for a way to recoup their losses. So they’re staking a claim on some part of the proceeds when the bank forecloses and the house is sold.”
I couldn’t believe my ears. “What do you mean ‘when the bank forecloses’?” I sputtered. “How can they sell our house?”
“Unless your mother gets back right away, it’s going to happen very soon. The bank will take the house back and boot you out...evict you...because no payments have been made for nearly ninety days. It takes one hundred and eleven days by law in California for a mortgage lender to foreclose. Once they do, the sheriff will come in, nail up an eviction notice, and toss you out. That would be a humiliating experience, believe me.”
“What!” I screeched, sitting upright as if a bolt of electricity had just been applied to my backside. “How can they do that? That’s our house. It was my grandmother’s house. They can’t steal our house like that.”
“Look, they’re not stealing it. Even though Diane inherited the house from your grandparents, she’s remodeled it extensively and taken money out of it over the years. The bank holds both a first and second mortgage on the place. They want their money. There’s nothing complicated about it. Unfortunately, there’s nothing left in your mother’s checking account, and she doesn’t seem to have a savings account, not even a college fund for you. I have to admit that surprised me. Do you know of any accounts that I don’t know about or some investments perhaps?”
I shook my head wordlessly.
“How about a safety-deposit box?”
“No.”
“I just don’t understand it.” She shook her head, then began gnawing on her lower lip. “How on earth could she have mismanaged her finances so badly?”
She paused for a moment, as if waiting for an answer, but I didn’t provide one.
Gloria let out a long, exasperated sigh. “Well, here’s the bottom line. You need about eight thousand dollars just to catch up on the mortgage payments. Even if you had the eight thousand, you’d still need enough money each month to keep up the mortgage payment plus another five hundred a month in taxes, insurance, and utilities. I just don’t see any way you’re going to be able to come up with that plus your own personal expenses for food, gas, and so forth. And there’s no way that I can pay your mortgage in addition to ours every month.”
I sagged back into the chair as Gloria kept talking and ruining my life.
“If I thought you could sell the house and make some money off the deal, I would go ahead and lend you the eight thousand contingent on the sale. But this lien means that you’d probably never see a dime of any sale proceeds. The Simmons Company wants to recover some or all of the missing money, and they’ll fight you for every penny. Who knows how long that will take, even if they lose. Plus, we don’t know where your mother is, and the house is in her name, so how can you sell it? It’s a mess. I think you should move out and take everything you can while you still can.”
I felt as if someone had just punched me. But her voice droned on.
“Hopefully, your car is in your name?”
I didn’t respond, and she repeated impatiently, “The car is in your name, Ashley?”
I nodded assent.
“Good. Move out of there as soon as possible, and take everything that isn’t nailed down. Probably they can’t seize anything, but better safe than sorry. It could take years for the dust to settle. They’re obviously very angry and willing to take an outrageous position to punish you and your mother.”
I just sat there, motionless. My whole body felt numb as her words spilled over me like wet concrete, cementing me to the chair.
“This is so unfair,” I whimpered.
“This isn’t about fair, Ashley. Anyway, it could be construed as fair if your mother took that money. That really hasn’t been established yet, not in a court of law. The presumption is that she’s guilty because she’s fled. She’s not around here to argue any differently, and you’re not in a position to do it for her.”
She began rearranging the papers on the coffee table. “Who knows? Maybe they won’t be that hard-nosed. They may be just trying to frighten you, reasoning that Diane will come back to rescue you. What they don’t understand is that you really don’t know where she is, and frightening you isn’t going to help.”
“How can I leave? Where will I go? What about our furniture?”
“Can you stay with some friends for a while? How about Nicole?”
“Cindy would never allow that.”
“Then you need to start looking for a place to live. Check the newspaper and those apartment rental agencies. Or look on the Internet for someone who needs a roommate. As for the furniture, I talked to Richard, and he’s agreed to store as much as will fit in our garage. But I can’t get it all in, so you’re going to have to select what you want to keep, and get rid of the rest.”
“How can you do this, Gloria? She’s your best friend, and you’re going to let her house and her daughter go to hell just like that...as if it’s nothing.”
She shot me a hostile look. “I’m not doing this, dammit. This whole situation is out of control, and I can’t do anything to stop it. I don’t even know what I should do. She’s my best friend and I’d do anything for her, but I don’t know what she would want me to do. She’s left us both in the dark. If only she would call or something, anything. I just don’t understand it....” Her voice trailed off, and she looked as bewildered as I felt.
She shook her head and started again. “The only thing that’s clear to me is that you’ve got to start acting like a grownup. And I’ll help you keep as much of her stuff as I can. The house is a lost cause at this point. We can’t fight that battle until Diane comes back. I wish I could do more, but with the kids and our own financial issues...”
I buried my face in my hands. “How could she do this, Gloria? Why? I know I was a brat sometimes, but I didn’t ask her to steal money to make me happy. She was the mother. She was supposed to tell me no, wasn’t she?”
Gloria paused, and then said, “I know, Ashley. It was her job, but as long as I’ve known her, Diane was a pushover for everyone else’s needs and wants. We both know that your mother was always too nice and took the easy way when anyone pushed her. God, even I was guilty of it. When I wanted one thing and she wanted another, she always gave in and I got my way. Maybe that’s why we were such good friends—I always was kind of the bossy one.”
I was smart enough to refrain from agreeing with that assessment. “Why? Why was she like that? I’m not like that.”
“No, you’re not.” She gave a hollow laugh. “I think it was because your grandparents were so strict and controlling. Me, I would have rebelled. But she bent over backward trying to be their good little girl. Once, in high school, she told them
she was going to my house to study, but we met up with some boys instead. Her father called to check on her, and my mother told him we had gone out. When Diane went home, he told her that they were ashamed to have her as a daughter. She went crazy, begging him to forgive her. Even so, he wouldn’t even talk to her for a month! She was completely cowed and would never go to parties with me again.”
“Poor Mom!” I interjected.
“You’d think it would have been a relief when they died, but Diane was only twenty and she was so needy. She was lost without someone to love her and tell her what to do. Then she met Jimmy, and in no time he had her eating out of his hand. I don’t suppose she had enough guile to get pregnant just to get him to marry her, so it must have been an accident.”
I rose up out of the chair and stared at her in shock. “My mother had to get married? She was pregnant with me before they got married?”
“Yes.” She raised her eyebrows and gave a little snort. “It shouldn’t surprise you that Jimmy would seduce a naïve girl with a strong need to please. I imagine it was easy for him, though I don’t think he meant to knock Diane up. He wasn’t exactly the fatherly type. And then there was his gambling. Now that I think back, that could have been what led your mother to begin dipping into company funds. Sometime back, I remember your mother being beside herself because he was in debt to some pretty rough characters. He probably encouraged her to ‘borrow’ money from the company to bail him out.”
“Yeah.” I thought about that for a moment. “I can see that. But if she was ripping off the company to pay Jimmy’s debts, why didn’t she stop after he died?”
“Maybe she couldn’t or she didn’t know how to untangle the mess she was in.” Gloria stood up and walked over to look out the window. “Look, this is all speculation. We don’t know anything for sure.”
“But they’re accusing her of waltzing off with a million dollars. I can’t see my mother slinging a mil in her handbag and flying off to Rio.”
“I know.” Gloria turned around and spread her hands in a helpless gesture. “I can’t either.”
“Well, my family seems to have a history of nastiness and criminal behavior. I’m amazed I’m not in Juvenile Hall already.”
“You have plenty of good qualities too. You’re an intelligent girl and can be very charming, just like your father. I know this is hard, but I’m betting you can handle it if you just learn how to use those assets. Your mother could have used some of your spunk. You can even demonstrate your mother’s sweetness, though not very often.”
I was astonished to hear Gloria praise me. I should have ducked outside to see if the moon was blue or something.
“You just need to learn from your parents’ mistakes.” She let out another long sigh. “You know, I thought Diane had finally gotten on track and found Mr. Right. Phil is a really nice guy, the exact opposite of your father.”
I snorted. “Oh, yeah? That really nice guy is seeing someone else.”
“What!”
I noticed with satisfaction that I had shocked her for a change.
“You didn’t know? Phil told me that he and Diane hadn’t been seeing each other for a while, whatever that means.”
“That can’t be true. She would have told me if she wasn’t seeing him anymore. Just a couple of weeks before she disappeared, I remember her telling me how much in love she was.”
“Did she say it was Phil? Because he claimed she was seeing someone from her office.”
I had actually succeeded in silencing Gloria, which was quite an accomplishment. She stared at me, then whirled around and stared out the window again. Finally, she muttered, “I don’t believe it. She would have told me. That can’t be true.”
“Believe it,” I said.
Chapter Ten
I was awake half the night worrying about what Gloria had said. And things didn’t look any clearer to me the next morning. I was desperate for someone to talk to, but Nicole was spending a few days with her grandmother in Pasadena, so I called Tattie. There wasn’t any answer. I kept trying all day, and finally around six that evening, her mother picked up.
“Who is this? Ashley? Oh yeah, the embezzler’s kid,” she said, and I winced inwardly. “Well, you can’t talk to her. She’s done it now. The stupid little pill-popper has gotten busted, and that car of hers has been impounded. She’s in jail and probably won’t get out until Monday, if then.”
“What!” I gasped. “Oh, my god! What can we do? Surely there’s something we can do?”
“Not unless you have five grand for bail,” she snorted. “I’m trying to reach that crazy Russian and get some dough out of him. His daughter will have to sit on her ass in jail unless he comes across with some, ‘cause I sure as hell don’t have any. Say, why don’t you give me some of that money your mother stole?”
I hung up on the bitch.
A phone call to Brain, who always seemed to be in the know, confirmed what Tattie’s mother had told me.
“Yeah, I heard about it,” he told me. “She got pulled over for speeding and reckless driving. They found some pot and some pills. So they hauled her off to jail and impounded her car. Tattie is totally screwed.”
I hung up the phone, horrified about Tattie’s situation and sorry that I couldn’t help her. At the same time, I found myself incredibly relieved that I hadn’t been with her. You see, Ashley, I told myself, you thought things couldn’t be worse. Obviously they could be worse.
Tattie’s situation convinced me that I had to do something. But I didn’t know how to get started. How could I find another place to live when I had no money to put down for rent or pay for moving expenses?
I did have one idea, though, an idea that had been buzzing around in my brain since Tattie had first mentioned that I should sell my mother’s stuff at a garage sale. It certainly seemed like the easiest way to acquire a wad of cash.
When Nicole came back on Sunday night, I told her about my idea, and she was a big help. Turns out Cindy had been a garage-sale devotee for years. It figures—she was the type to take advantage of other people’s misery. I had never been interested in someone else’s used stuff, even though I had read that movie stars found antiques and fabulous vintage outfits that way.
Nicole said she’d make some signs for me and help me place an ad on Craigslist. That got the ball rolling on my cash-shortage problem, but I had two other problems: a place to live and a job.
“You should go to work at the Gap or, no, I’ve got it,” Nicole suggested. “That store on Burlingame Avenue with the really trendy, cool stuff, you know, Star Baby. With your sense of style, you’d be perfect for them.”
“True,” I agreed. I have never believed in false modesty. “But what if I had to wait on one of the girls from school? It would be so awful to have Mara or someone like her order me around. Besides, do you really think that some store is going to hire an embezzler’s daughter to run their register and count their cash?”
Nic was taken aback at that thought. “But how would they know?”
“Oh, come on, around here? If the store manager didn’t know, one of the girls who worked there would, and she’d blab the whole thing. I’ve got to get a job in San Francisco.”
“In the City!” Nicole said, shocked.
“It’s not deepest, darkest Africa,” I said impatiently. “It’s only fifteen miles away. A city is the only place you can be anonymous.”
“Why do you want to be anonymous?” she asked.
“Because if my whole life has to change, I don’t want all my former friends looking down their noses and feeling sorry for me.” I grimaced. “I can hear Mara now. ‘Oh, poor Ashley, she can’t go to college and has to shop at Target now. It’s so sad—do you want some of my old clothes, Ashley, the ones I’m giving to the Salvation Army?’”
Nicole giggled. “She wouldn’t do that.”
“The hell she wouldn’t,” I snapped back. “Anyway, I’m not going to give her or anyone else the chance. I need to create a
whole new Ashley. I’m going to make a new life and new friends.”
“What about me?” she said sadly.
“Oh, Nic, you’ll always be my best friend,” I said, and hugged her. “I don’t want to do all this, I have no choice. I’m thinking a waitress job in the city would be good—you make all those tips and get free food. That has to be better than trying to squeeze some pathetic fat woman into a dress two sizes too small.”
“Right,” said Nicole, her voice trailing off in obvious doubt.
I longed to move far, far away to some new place where no one knew me, but I couldn’t. How would I know when my mother turned up, unless I stuck around?
• • •
First, I thumbed through the newspaper want ads looking for a place to live. The listings were slim in number and expensive. So, I booted up the computer for the first time in weeks and started searching the Web for San Francisco rentals. I was shocked at the prices, which ranged from high to unbelievable.
I didn’t even bother to write down the info on anything above $700 a month—and even that was stretching it. It was amazing to me that a room in a three-bedroom flat in North Beach could cost $1,100 a month. At first I thought it was a mistake and that was the cost of the whole apartment, but no, it was $1,100 for each roommate.
Most of the affordable rentals were out of the city in Oakland, the East Bay, or San Jose. Finally, I found three I might qualify for, so I called and made appointments to see the apartments. The next evening I dressed very carefully—trying to look good but not too good in black jeans, a crisp white shirt, and a tan suede jacket—and drove into the City.
• $525. Small room but nice, live with two others. Female preferred.
This room was inside a smallish white frame house in Glen Park, a working-class district perched on the south side of Twin Peaks. The location was near a BART subway station, and the neighborhood looked safe enough.
I was invited in and given a form to fill out by two unfriendly girls in their twenties. One was a skinny blonde with a bad complexion, and the other—a brunette with greasy hair—was a size 16 at least. Right away I knew it would only work if they were unattached. Unattractive girls without boyfriends like you because they think you’ll attract guys and they can have the leftovers. But unattractive girls with boyfriends hate you because they always think you’re trying to steal their dorky dates.
My Lost and Found Life Page 7