Mike sat back himself and put down the pen. ‘Ah.’
‘Exactly. The moment I file for divorce, the bank figures my income’s disappearing and the business loans aren’t viable any more.’ She stopped, and when she resumed her voice was further away. ‘Lou loses a wife and the shop; probably declared bankrupt. Spence and I were trying to work out the, uh, transition.’
‘I see now. Finance was never my strong point.’
He hadn’t quite twigged when Lynch had mentioned all this. He’d presumed it was tricky to sell property or they’d had a joint investment fund or something. Now that he thought about it, unwinding the intricacies of such a relationship – without anyone getting pulled to pieces – wouldn’t be simple.
‘Oh, I’m pretty good at it, actually,’ she replied. ‘No good at sport, can’t sing, but okay at finance. We were looking at me moving out and not telling anyone; carry on helping with the loan until Lou could get on his feet. But it’s a small town and the bank would hear about it. Spence said that’d be worse, because we couldn’t control the when or the how. Besides, it might prove never-ending; you don’t get much closure on either side if you’re still that entwined. Spence’s happy to pay the loan himself or guarantee it himself. But, of course, Lou would rather d— I mean, Lou wouldn’t accept that: his wife’s new partner keeping him afloat. So, as I said, tricky.’
‘No way he could reschedule the debt? Get an investor?’
Megan smirked. ‘So you do know something about it? Ah, the banks would never play ball. They slice and dice people like us every day; barely ruffles a feather. Lou had some guy who seemed interested in taking a share, but it was wrong from both sides. The guy wanted the site, not the store; thought he could get it re-zoned for executive homes. He drifted off a couple of weeks ago when that was a non-starter. Besides, Lou’d fought to get a store he could build up himself: kinda takes the point away if you’re doing someone else’s bidding.’
‘I getcha.’ Megan had an interesting choice of words there, he thought, recalling what he now knew about Alvarez. That angle wasn’t going away; it kept peering out from the shadows. ‘And all the loans were through the banks? No other partners, no family or friend money involved?’
Megan frowned. ‘Not that I know of, only the banks. That was the problem, Detective – there were no other sources to tap.’
Maybe there were, thought Mike. He wondered if Megan – who’d helped to run the Lightning Quick store before moving here – knew Miguel Alvarez. He decided to hold back that particular ammunition.
‘Your husband, Megan. Was he someone who suffered fools gladly? I’m wondering if he pissed anyone off, or they pissed him off.’
‘Your colleague beat you to it,’ she replied flatly.
No, she didn’t; we’re each asking, to see if the answers tally, thought Mike. He waited patiently until Megan huffed, and continued.
‘He wasn’t violent, no. He originally came from a pretty bad neighbourhood, Detective. Out on the Flats. He showed me the block, once. Needles everywhere, burning tyres and scraggy horses in the middle of nowhere. You could put your finger through the render. All the walls dripped. Every day of Lou’s childhood his snot was black, and he coughed like hell. He also saw what resorting to violence did to people. So no; not aggressive. That said, he could mix it if he had to. But here, he didn’t have to. Does that cover it?’
The Flats was an area of sixties architectural disasters on the east side of the city, built on land that was cheap because it flooded. Mould flowered in every house and stairwell; kids died of asthma; property got ruined every few years. It quickly degenerated into a semi-slum and never recovered. If Cassavette had survived there, thought Mike, then as an adult he was either a broken toy or tough as they get. Or maybe both.
‘Why haven’t you contacted Spencer since you got the news this morning?’
‘Hmmm. Precisely to avoid this kind of conversation. And for him to avoid this kind of conversation.’ Her response came quickly – it felt rehearsed. She’d been preparing for police questions about her actions and motives. Not grieving. ‘You embarrass Spence at his office?’
‘He came to my house for a playdate.’
She smiled. ‘Oh, that’s a little better.’ She glanced at the window, maybe hoping her mother would return and distract them both. Her smile faded fast.
‘They’re a bunch of snobs at that firm. Fire him at any hint of police action. Ease him out if he helped break up a marriage.’ She jerked a thumb at herself. ‘Ostracise him if his new partner lacked the right… pedigree.’ She looked back at him again and he felt slightly skewered, in a pleasant way. ‘I didn’t want any of that to fall on him, if I could avoid it. I figured you’d be pulling phone records right away: if all it showed was a woman talking to a divorce lawyer, things might have stayed below the radar.’
‘It’s a homicide inquiry, Megan,’ he reminded her. ‘There’s no space for anything below our radar. And nor should there be, for Lou’s sake.’
‘Yeah, yeah, ’course, you’re right. Sorry. I wasn’t… well, wasn’t thinking straight. Sorry.’
Mike thought she might rush to fill a silence, but he underestimated her. She was very controlled. Almost too much.
Time for the bomb.
‘Has Spencer ever met Lou?’
She shook her head. ‘No. They lead very different lives, Detective: I’m the only link between them. I can’t imagine how they’d ever bump into each other, even in a town this size. Not that Lou would know who Spence is, anyway. Spence knew who Lou was and where he worked, so he could easily steer clear of him.’
Mike took a couple of breaths as a run-up and made sure to take in all of Megan’s body language in her response.
‘So can you explain how Spencer’s fingerprints are in Lou’s store, about three metres from this morning’s incident?’
Megan’s eyes widened, then she frowned.
‘No, I… no, you must be wrong. Why would Spence go to the store?’
‘You tell me, Megan.’
‘I, uh, no. No, I can’t. In fact, I don’t believe it. Spence and I talked about this, talked a lot. He was tol— we agreed he wouldn’t go near Lou and we’d sort it all out like adults. Why would he go there?’
Answering an obvious question with a question felt like a distraction tactic more than incredulity.
‘Off the top of my head? Check out the opposition. Threaten, cajole… murder.’
She was adamant. ‘No, no. Spence isn’t like that. No. We were going to get divorced one way or another, that’s all. Spence and I were prepared for a long haul. We wouldn’t need to… I can’t believe Spence has been there. Did you ask him? What did he say?’
‘I can’t answer that. Ongoing investigation.’
Although he had no doubt she’d soon be ringing and leaving increasingly belligerent messages on Spence’s voicemail. Mike would need to have a listen when he got back to the station.
‘But this, uh, divorce trickiness thing, Megan. It offers motive, as I’m sure you can see. A cynical detective might conclude that the easiest way to solve the dilemma would be if Lou wasn’t around.’
He expected some outrage, some anger. But she’d regained her balance after finding out Spence had gone freelance. Back in control. What Mike got was an appealing tilt of the head and an intelligence he was now regarding as feline.