Coming to Rosemont (11 page)

Chapter 16

Tonya Holmes rose early on Sunday
mornings. She relished the quiet time with her coffee and the Sunday paper
before she and her husband sprang into action, getting their three school-aged
children up and ready for church. They loved their church family and between
Sunday school, the worship service, and fellowship time afterwards, Sunday
morning was consumed with this ritual. The kids had friends that they only saw
at church and, once they were out of bed, were excited about going. She
retrieved her cell phone from her desk as she headed downstairs and saw her
message light flashing. “It’s Sunday morning, for heaven’s sake. Whoever needs me
can wait,” she grumbled.

She set the phone on the kitchen counter while she
made a pot of strong coffee and retrieved the paper. The incessant red light
finally got the better of her and she checked her messages. She was alarmed to
see an email from Maggie at almost three a.m. and was shocked at the terse
message: “Fires destroyed Alex’s home and office. Suspected arson. He and Marc
are staying with me. John is picking them up at 8 a.m. to retrieve anything
worth saving. May be related to our investigation. The committee needs to meet.
Please call me. Be careful. Maggie.”

Tonya checked the time—six o’clock. Too
early to call someone who was still up at three. She flipped the paper open to
search for any mention of the fires. On the bottom of page four, section B, was
a tiny article noting that fires had broken out simultaneously at the home and
the office of local attorney Alex Scanlon. No causes for the fires were known,
it reported. “No church for me this morning,” she sighed. Tonya tossed the
paper onto the counter, filled two mugs with coffee, and climbed the stairs to
wake her husband and fill him in on her plan.

***

Maggie had collapsed into bed as
soon as she finished her email to Tonya. She faintly heard the TV in the room
down the hall. Eve was conflicted over whether she should guard Maggie from the
intruders or simply curl up and go to sleep. Sleep won over, and Eve hopped up
to her usual spot at Maggie’s feet, circled, and settled down.

Maggie was awakened by Eve as it was just
beginning to get light. For a moment, Maggie’s only thought was that she was
way too tired to get up. Then the memories of all that transpired the night
before flooded back, bringing Maggie to her feet, fully alert and ready to
start the day. She threw on an old pair of jeans and a sweatshirt and headed
downstairs. The grandfather clock on the landing told her it was seven thirty.
John would be here soon to pick up Alex and Marc.
John,
she thought
warmly. She would have to get back upstairs to run a comb through her hair, brush
her teeth, and slap on some blush.

Maggie let Eve out, picked up her paper, and
started the coffee. She checked her email and saw that Tonya had read her
message. She fed Eve and raced upstairs to make herself more presentable. She
was back down in the kitchen chopping ham and green onions for omelets when she
heard John’s car on her driveway. She let him in before he could ring the bell.
She ushered him into the kitchen. They were softly talking when Alex came
downstairs.

“Help yourself to coffee,” Maggie said, pointing
to the mugs on the counter. “Did you get any sleep?”

“Some,” Alex said. “I kept waking up and seeing my
office in flames. I kept thinking about who would do this to us. And thinking
about how I can take care of my clients.”

“You’ll have a lot to do the next few weeks,” John
said. “One step at a time. Taking action will be the best medicine. You’ll get
through and beyond all of this. You’ll see. I know it sounds trite, and easy
for me to say, but you only lost stuff. Nothing that can’t be replaced.”

“John is absolutely right,” Maggie agreed. “You’ll
start in today and will feel better about things tonight. Just don’t look too
far ahead; don’t let yourself get overwhelmed by all that you have to do. It
doesn’t have to be done in one day. And you’ve got friends to help you,” she
said. “Now, the first step is to eat breakfast.” She slid a fluffy omelet onto
a plate with one of the strawberry croissants she purchased from Laura. “Enjoy.
You’ve got to eat,” she told Alex firmly, as Marc entered the kitchen.

“Wow, something smells good,” Marc said, giving
Maggie a tired smile.

“You can be off as soon as you eat something.”
Maggie was pouring eggs into the pan when Eve began to bark and the doorbell
rang. John answered the door and soon returned with Tonya.

“I’m so glad that I caught you before you all
left,” she said. “I’m devastated by what happened to you, but so thankful that
you weren’t hurt. I’ve already been on the phone with the chief of police and
the fire marshal. They’re all over this. They’re competent and thorough. And
they aren’t connected to the mayor or anyone on the council. The police have
officers guarding both crime scenes. We’re going to get to the bottom of this.
I promise you that,” she assured them.

“I talked to Sam,” she continued. “He’s going to
meet you at your house and help you salvage anything that can be saved. You may
want all of your daylight hours to work on that. I thought the committee should
meet early this evening. Joan offered to make supper for us,” she said.

“We can meet here,” Maggie offered. “Alex and Marc
will be staying with me while we sort all of this out,” she added in a tone
that indicated the issue was not up for discussion. With an immediate plan in
hand, the three men set out, and Tonya and Maggie returned to the kitchen to
fix their breakfast and review the events of the previous night.

***

Sam was waiting in his truck when
John, Alex, and Marc pulled up shortly before nine. The driveway was blocked by
two police cars and the fire marshal’s SUV. “They won’t let anyone on the
property until they finish their investigation,” Sam told them as they gathered
on the street. “The insurance investigator is there, too. He’s the one who told
me. Said that they should wrap it up by noon. The security fence will be
installed this afternoon, and the insurance company will have the restoration
folks here tomorrow to help you retrieve anything salvageable. They’ll clean it
up and store it for you.”

Alex nodded. “That makes sense. I want to see if
they have any more information on how this happened. Then I guess we need to
buy some clothes for the next few days,” he said, turning to Marc. “I really
need to spend time this afternoon getting my office back up and running.”

“I can take care of the home stuff. You work on
your office. Let’s see if they have anything to report,” Marc said, pointing to
the group stationed by their front door.

John and Sam hung back as the two men approached
the fire marshal. “This is bad,” Sam said. “I don’t know if they were targeted
because they’re gay, because of our pension fund investigation, or because Alex
has made noises about running for mayor against Wheeler. Or all of the above.”

“I knew we had an old boy network in Westbury,”
John said. “I thought they were an incestuous group of glad-handers. I never
thought they were criminals.”

Sam described the drug deal he observed at the
clothing exchange. “They may have their hands in that, too,” he said. “They
must have known about it. Tim and I got the list of the centers and the names of
the owners on the deeds. All of them were foreign partnerships or limited
liability companies. Alex was going to find out who owns these foreign
entities.”

“It may be time to turn this over to the police,”
John said. “We can discuss it tonight. Make some decisions.” John pointed over
Sam’s shoulder. “Here they come. Why don’t I take Alex to his car and stay with
him today? You and Marc can pick up his car and you can help him. They’re both
exhausted. I don’t think either of them should be off on their own today.” Sam
nodded his agreement.

Alex and Marc reported that the fire started in
the kitchen. Everything there was a total loss. The master bedroom was at the
opposite end of the house and hadn’t been touched by flames but was badly
damaged by smoke and water. The restoration company would begin work on Monday.
They were given a prepaid credit card to buy necessities immediately. Alex was
clutching a plastic box that appeared to be filled with papers. “These are old
family photos and letters from my parents and grandparents. All I have left of
them,” he choked. “By some miracle, they weren’t damaged. The police let me
take them.”

Alex and John headed off to Alex’s office. Marc
and Sam turned toward the mall to pick up clothing and toiletries. They promised
to meet at Maggie’s at five.

***

Maggie and Tonya decided they
should finish the report on the pension fund properties as soon as possible.
They both feared that the investigation had made Alex the target of the
previous night’s violence. The sooner they got the information into the hands
of the police, the better.

Tonya called Beth as she was headed to a nearby
park to walk her dog. She willingly abandoned her plans and turned back toward
home. Tonya and Maggie joined her there, laptops in tow. Maggie spent the
afternoon on the Internet, researching the owners of the shopping centers. The
ones that had been acquired after a recent foreclosure were owned by a series
of offshore partnerships or limited liability companies. “We’ve reached a
dead-end on these,” she observed. “But we’ve definitely got red flags
indicating fraud. Law enforcement will have to subpoena records to get to the
people behind these offshore entities.”

Beth and Tonya spent the afternoon feverishly
organizing and inputting data into a spreadsheet. Their efforts documented a
sophisticated scheme.

“Absolutely astounding,” Maggie cried. “There’s
nearly twenty-five million dollars misappropriated here! That’s enough to make
them do some pretty desperate things.”

The women finished up shortly before four. They
emailed their report to the committee and printed copies. Tonya set off for
home to spend a few minutes with her children before the committee meeting.
Beth said that she would stop by Joan’s to help her pack up the dinner to take
to Rosemont. Maggie returned home and set the table.

***

The liquor store was closed, and
Chuck and Ron Delgado were in Chuck’s office, indulging their Sunday afternoon
habit of boozing and watching sports. Chuck cursed when he heard the telltale
rap on the door below. He thought about ignoring it, but Frank Haynes was not a
man to be ignored. Chuck switched off the TV as he buzzed Frank Haynes in.

“What’s wrong with the two of you? You had to
torch both places?” Haynes exploded as he burst into the room. “What were you
thinking?”

“We wanted to create a distraction for Scanlon.
He’s the only one on their little committee that can do us any damage,” Ron
replied.

“Two fires? No one will ever believe that these
aren’t suspicious.”

“My guys got their wires crossed. They were only
supposed to torch one,” Chuck interjected. “We got a two-for-one deal out of
it.”

Haynes spun on him. “You think this is funny?
Instead of creating a distraction, you’ve upped the ante on the investigation.
We’re now going to have the cops and the fire marshal all over this. Maybe the
feds.”

“I’ve been thinking about that,” Ron said. “This
may not be such a bad thing. If they’re investigating the fires, they won’t be
looking at the town’s books. Maybe Chuck’s created a distraction for both Scanlon
and the authorities.”

“Yeah, and they may think that Scanlon was a
target because he’s a queer. One of those hate crimes,” Chuck added. “The newspapers
will eat that up.”

“How good are your guys?” Haynes asked. “Will the
cops be able to trace anything back to you?”

“No worries, Frankie. They’re the best. They’ve
been torching stuff in the tri-state area for years. Never been caught.”

Good God,
Haynes thought.
How in the
hell did I ever let myself get mixed up with a low-life thug like Delgado?

“Don’t look so high and mighty, Frank,” Chuck
said. “You’re in this up to your eyeballs, just like we are.”

“We shouldn’t fight among ourselves. We need to
keep our heads down and get money back into the pension fund as soon as possible,”
Ron advised. “We don’t need to do anything else that could bring attention to
us,” he said, looking pointedly at his brother.

“I’m not stupid. I know that,” Chuck replied. He
turned to Haynes. “We’re getting the money together, Frank. You’ll see. Quit
worrying about it and let us work.”

Haynes took no comfort from their assurances, but
couldn’t think of anything else to do or say at the moment.

***

The mood around Maggie’s kitchen
table was somber as the exhausted group sat down to a simple meal of homemade
lasagna, Caesar salad, freshly baked breadsticks, and Joan’s renowned lemonade
pie. “In a crisis, you need to carb-load,” Joan advised.

Sam asked if the group would mind if he said
grace. “I’ve spent the day thinking how fortunate we are that no one was hurt
and how much guidance we need on the way forward.” Sam addressed his maker with
a sincerity and directness that indicated he did this on a regular basis. He
ended his prayer by thanking God for this challenge and for the group working
together by His grace to address it.

Uplifted by the strength of this gentle prayer and
by the pleasure of the delicious meal, tension eased out of the group gathered
around Maggie’s table. Easy conversation flowed about the first spring flowers
and the excitement over the success of the high school basketball team. As
plates were cleared and coffee refilled, talk turned to the day’s events.

Alex stated that his firm would be able to
function fairly normally the next day. His landlord would move him to an
executive suite in a nearby building until his office was restored. The
automatic sprinkler had functioned well and the repairs were expected to take
six weeks.