“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.”
“I have a confession to make, Guy. I haven’t been staying here for a few days. I trust you, but I owe it to the person who took me in not to publicize where I am staying now. I hope you don’t mind.”
“No, not at all. I understand. It is wise, really. We should not have met here, though.”
“In hindsight, I think you’re right.”
“And now, as an amateur detective, may I make another observation?”
“Sure.” Uh-oh, I thought, here it comes.
“You are not really interested in-well, shall we say, seeing me again?”
“Oh, I don’t know, Guy,” I said, flustered at his directness. “This is such a mixed up time for me-I don’t know.”
How lame can you get, I chided myself-why don’t you be as direct as he is? “The truth is,” I went on, “I’ve recently met up again with someone that I knew a long time ago. There has always been some spark between us. We probably don’t have a prayer of ever making it work out-he’s a cop, and that creates some problems in itself-but the spark is there. I guess I’d like to see what happens. I should probably have my head examined for not forgetting the whole thing. And for disappointing someone like you-you’re an attractive and interesting man. And I enjoy your company.”
“Oh, Irene, stop. Next you’ll tell me I’m a nice guy, and every man hates to hear a woman say that.” He laughed. “Well, do you have any sisters? Any more like you at home?”
This brought on an idea. “I wouldn’t dare introduce you to my sister-as I said, I like you, Guy. But there are more at home, you might say. Let me think about it. I may have a friend you would like. In fact, I think you would like her very much.”
“Well, Irene, if your old flame turns out to have burned out after all, then keep me in mind. And I’m game to meet your friend. But I hope you will let me continue to help on this story you are working on?”
“More than that, Guy. I really need your help-and I would hope we could be friends.” I paused, looking at him and thinking I really was crazy. “I appreciate your being so understanding,” I said. “I feel kind of bad about not being able to respond the way you would have liked me to.”
“Don’t trouble yourself over it, chиre. I’m always glad to have a friend. When I was twenty, this would have been a disaster. But at this point in life, friends are very important to me. Now, go home, and get a good night’s sleep. I’ll call you when I’ve learned more about whatever it was that frightened Mrs. Marchenko away from the bank.”
“Goodnight, Guy.” I leaned over and kissed his cheek. He smiled and said goodnight, and I got out of the car. I waited until he drove away, then waved to Pete, got in my own car, and drove off to Lydia’s, Pete right behind me.
When I got to Lydia’s, he got out of his car and came over to me. He looked at his watch. “Well, it’s midnight. How does it feel to have had a day when nobody tried to kill you?” he asked.
“Pretty good, really. The business at the house scared me, but I’ve learned my lesson there.”
“Yeah, well, I hope so.”
“You finally going home now, or am I going to see your car parked out front all night?”
“Going home. You take care, Irene.”
“You too, Pete.”
I crept into the house, only to find Lydia and Cody watching television together. At least, Cody was giving the impression of watching it.
“Well, hello there,” she called.
“Hi. How are you doing?”
“Fine, but I’m worried that you’re mad at me.”
“For calling Frank? No, I guess I should thank you for that. You were right-I was being stupid.”
“I don’t know, Irene. Later I thought about it and I figured you were just getting sick of having all of us hovering over you all the time.”
“The jury is still out on that one. Anyway-change of subject-how would you like to meet someone tall, dark, and handsome?”
“This, I take it, is a rhetorical question?”
“Let’s have lunch together on Monday. I’d like to have you meet somebody.”
“Gonna make me wait until Monday, huh? Okay, you’re on.”
“Well, I’m turning in. I’ll let you sleep with that whore of a cat of mine.”
“He is sort of like a living teddy bear, isn’t he?”