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“What about the embezzlement?”

“Well, connection is too strong a word.”

“Pick a weaker one.”

Ronda leaned back in the chair and folded his arms across his chest. “Willie herself had nothing to do with the embezzlements—there wasn’t just one, it was a whole series, covering a period of ten or eleven years—except to the extent that she worked for George Haywood.”

“And George Haywood was involved in the embezzlements?”

“Not voluntarily,” Ronda said sharply. “His integrity has never been questioned. He couldn’t help being involved, though. The embezzler was his younger sister, Alberta Haywood.” Ronda paused, frowning up at the ceiling. “Her case was, in its way, just as tragic as O’Gorman’s. They were both quiet, self-effacing people.”

“Were? You mean she’s dead, too?”

“More or less. She’s been in Tecolote women’s prison for over five years and the chances are she’ll be there for another five or even ten.”

“What about a parole?”

“She has a hearing coming up soon but I don’t think it will change anything for her.”

“Why not?”

“Well, when a parole board meets to consider a case involving stolen money, the members want to be sure of two things, what happened to the money and whether the thief is sorry for taking it. Alberta Haywood may not be able to satisfy them. From what I’ve heard of her conduct at Tecolote prison she’s docile but not penitent. And as for the money, it’s a question of whether they’ll believe her story or not. Some people do, some don’t.”

“What about you.”

“Oh, I believe it,” Ronda said. “She spent the money as she embezzled it, over a period of ten years or more. She gave some to charity, lent some to friends and relatives, speculated on the stock market and blew in the rest of it betting on the horses. This all fits the picture of the average embezzler. I made a study of the subject after Alberta Haywood was caught and I learned some pretty surprising facts. For instance, the amount of money embezzled in a year is a great deal more than that stolen by every burglar, bank robber, pickpocket and auto thief in the entire country.”

“That’s hard to believe.”

“Check it yourself. It happens to be true. Another point interested me. Alberta Haywood seemed such an unlikely person to commit a crime, yet I found out that this very unlikeliness was what she had in common with the rest of them. The average embezzler has no previous record of dishonesty, he doesn’t act like a criminal or consider himself one. Very often the community doesn’t consider him one either, usually because he’s given some of the money back to the very people he’s defrauded. The City of Chicote stood solidly behind Alberta Haywood. She may have stolen a hundred thousand dollars of their money but the Boy Scouts had new furniture for their club house and the Crippled Children’s Society a new station wagon. It’s irrational thinking, of course, like suffering a stab in the back and then being grateful for a lollipop to ease the pain.”

“Did you know Miss Haywood well?”

“As well as anyone outside her family, I suppose. She had a nodding acquaintance with nearly every person in town, but no close friends. At Tecolote she’s been a model prisoner, obedient, quiet, causing no trouble. Naturally this will be in her favor at her parole hearing, but there’s still the question of whether they’ll believe her story of how she spent the money, although to me it’s quite obvious she’s telling the truth.”

“Was an attempt ever made to connect the two crimes. Miss Haywood’s embezzlements and O’Gorman’s murder?”

“Oh yes. At one time the police toyed with the idea that Alberta actually murdered O’Gorman.”

“For what reason?”

“When Alberta was arrested, the police were still looking under rocks in an attempt to find a motive for O’Gorman’s murder. Someone turned over a big rock and came up with this: at one time O’Gorman, like Alberta, was a bookkeeper, so perhaps he had somehow found out in advance about Alberta’s embezzlements, threatened to expose her, and been murdered to ensure his silence. There were quite a number of things wrong with the theory. First, Alberta was at a movie on the night of O’Gorman’s death. Second, O’Gorman had no access to the bank’s books except through Alberta herself. And it’s a safe bet that when she had her fingers in the till she wouldn’t invite a stranger in to show him her nail polish.”

“He was a stranger to her?”

“For all practical purposes, yes. She may have seen him a couple of times while O’Gorman was working briefly for her brother, George, as a real estate salesman. I say briefly because he lasted no longer than a month. Poor O’Gorman couldn’t have sold sarongs in Tahiti. His personality was too low pressure, and more than that, he didn’t care much for money, not enough to go after it tooth and claw the way salesmen have to. O’Gorman was content just to get by and so was Martha, although she worried about being able to send the two children to college.”

“Did she ever get O’Gorman’s insurance?”

“Oh yes, the company eventually paid up. But it wasn’t much. Five thousand dollars, I think.”

“Five thousand dollars,” Quinn said, “makes a better motive than two dollars.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Your alleged hitchhiker got two dollars, Martha O’Gorman five thousand.”

Ronda’s face reddened as though in anger, but he spoke calmly. “There was some suspicion, naturally, directed against Martha. Nothing came of it. It’s odd, people were a lot kinder to Alberta Haywood, who committed a crime, than they were to Martha, who was the innocent victim of one. But there again we run into the business of the new furniture for the Boy Scouts and the crippled children’s station wagon. The good dumb people of Chicote didn’t seem able or willing to figure out that they’d been taken for a hundred thousand dollars and got about five percent of it back. The rest of it went to bookies and so on.”

“Did she give names and dates?”

“No. She refused, didn’t want to get anyone else in trouble. However, a cigar-store owner told the police she’d been buying the racing form every day for six or seven months previous to the time she was caught.”

“Just how was she caught?”

“The president of the bank became suspicious at the rate deposits had fallen off while other banks in the area were increasing their deposits. He called in the bank inspectors. For obvious reasons, the staff of the bank is never told in advance about the arrival of the inspectors. Anyway, one of them called Alberta Haywood in to explain a small error in a ledger he’d selected at random. She knew right away the jig was up. She confessed everything, and after a brief trial she was sent to Tecolote prison.”

“Does she have any close relatives besides her brother George?”

“A sister, Ruth, who’d left town a year previously, after a family fight concerning the man she married. And a mother who’s one of the town characters. Mrs. Haywood refused to attend Alberta’s trial or have anything further to do with her, and I think she used her influence on George. He’d always been fond of his sister but he only visited her once, in the county jail before she was transferred to Tecolote. As far as her family is concerned, Alberta Haywood died the day the bank inspectors arrived. At least this goes for Mrs. Haywood and George. I don’t know about the younger sister, Ruth. She’s just sort of dropped out of the family picture.”

“What’s Mrs. Haywood like?”

“A holy terror,” Ronda said with a grimace. “George deserves a medal for putting up with her. Or a kick in the pants.”

“Does he live with her?”

“Yes. He’s been a widower for seven or eight years. Real estate doesn’t exactly sell like hot cakes around here anymore but he does fairly well. After Alberta was sent up we all thought George should leave Chicote and settle in a larger city where the name Haywood wouldn’t be something to live down. But George is a fighter. He stayed... Well, there you have it, Quinn, the story of Alberta Haywood. And the moral is, if you embezzle a lot of money, don’t give it away, don’t gamble it away. Put it in some safe place to impress the parole board.”