“My brother’s name is Herbert Clay.”
“Herbert Clay.” Steve’s eyes widened. “The bookkeeper for Castleton industries, went to jail for embezzlement?”
“That’s right.”
“Good lord. Do the cops know that?”
“I don’t know.”
“They’re sure as hell gonna find out.” Steve shook his head. “Jesus Christ.”
“What’s the matter?”
“What’s the matter? That’s the motive. Indignant sister of jailed brother wages one-woman war against industry that put him away.”
“That’s not true.”
“I didn’t say it was true. I just told you how it’s gonna sound. But we’re not talkin’ true here. Which from you would be a real innovation. So far, all I’ve had from you is a bunch of bullshit. Start at the beginning and tell me what the hell happened.”
“You know about my brother?”
“I know he worked for Castleton Industries, went to jail for embezzlement. That was about two years ago, right?”
“Right. I was in California. Married to a schmuck.” Kelly shook her head. “Alan Wilder. The great Alan Wilder. Teen heartthrob, rising screen star. What a fool. There I was, working, supporting both of us. And there he was, making the rounds, going to Hollywood parties alone to further his career. Snorting cocaine and screwing starlets. And I shouldn’t stand in his way, his chance to make the big time. I don’t know why it took me so long to wise up.”
Steve shifted restlessly.
Kelly held up her hands. “All right, all right. Anyway, the point is, I was in California when it happened. The thing with my brother, I mean. I knew about it, I knew he was in trouble and all that. But I was a million miles away, and I had my own problems.
“But I knew Herb. I knew he wouldn’t do anything like that. I figured it was all a big mistake, and everything would get straightened out. Next thing I know he’s in jail.
“Well, I wanted to do something to help, but like I say, I had my own problems.
“And that’s what did it. What woke me up, I mean. Because I wanted to come here, see Herb, see if there was anything I could do to help, and Alan wouldn’t hear of it. What was I thinking of, going to New York? We didn’t have the money. He didn’t have the time. He couldn’t come with me, he didn’t want me going alone. And he didn’t want me calling attention to myself. He had his career to think of, for god’s sake. He didn’t want people associating him as the guy married to the sister of an embezzler.
“Anyway, that was the beginning of the end. We separated, we eventually divorced, and I started saving money to come out here. Which wasn’t easy. New York is not cheap. I got a one-room apartment-lucky to get it-that costs me close to a thousand a month.
“I hit town about four months ago, went to see Herb.”
Her eyes misted over and her lips trembled. “Jesus. I couldn’t believe it. What jail had done to him. Oh, nothing physical. He wasn’t beat up. He wasn’t even thin. But his eyes. They were dead. Defeated. Yeah, he was glad to see me and he was animated, but it lasted about a minute. After that there was nothing but dull resignation. Hopelessness.”
“So what?”
Kelly’s eyes widened. “So what? What do you mean, so what? This is my brother we’re talking about. He’s in jail and he didn’t do it.” Kelly’s jaw tightened. “Yeah, go on, look at me like that. I’m telling you he didn’t do it. I don’t care what you think, I know.”
“How do you know?”
“I just know.” Kelly held up her hand. She took a breath. “I know, that’s no answer. But it is for me. I know my brother. If he’d done it, he’d have told me. Look, you want the truth? My brother’s no saint. He’s been in scrapes before. But he wouldn’t try to lie out of it. Not to me. He wouldn’t say, ‘I didn’t do it, you gotta help me.’ He’d say, ‘Kelly, I did this, I’m in a mess, now what can I do?’ You understand? If he’d done this, he’d tell me everything he’d done to see if there was anything we could do about it. If he tells me he didn’t do it, I gotta believe him.”
“He was found guilty in a court of law.”
“Yeah, sure,” Kelly said contemptuously. “Probably the first time the courts ever made a mistake.”
“What was the evidence against him?”
Kelly’s eyes shifted.
“Well?” Steve prompted.
“Well, he was in charge of the books. And …”
“And?”
Kelly took a breath. “Well, my brother is weak. He likes to gamble.”
“Oh?”
Her eyes blazed. “See? You made up your mind already. Just like the jury did. Which wasn’t fair. All right, I’ll tell you. Herb liked to play the ponies. It was a weakness with him. He tried to control it, but it was always there.
“Anyway, he was in charge of the books, so if he was a little short until payday, he’d sometimes dip into the petty cash to cover his losses. It wasn’t that much, and he always made good by Friday when he got paid.”
“That came out in court?”
“Yeah. He got arrested on Thursday. He was short, as usual. A couple of hundred bucks. Anyway, there’d have been no trouble the next day, but as it was he was screwed.”
“He didn’t go to jail for two hundred bucks.”
“No. That was the tip of the iceberg. It was over a hundred thousand.”
“How was that possible?”
“Stocks had been manipulated, transactions misreported, entries carried on the books that weren’t accurate. Over a hundred grand of investors’ money had been siphoned out of the company.”
“And the bookkeeper in charge had a history of playing the ponies and dipping into petty cash to cover his losses?”
She took a breath. “Yes. I know it sounds bad. Hell, the jury didn’t have to hear any more than that. They brought in a verdict without even thinking. But the fact is, he didn’t do it.”
Steve held up his hand. “Fine. Let’s not argue the merits of the case anymore. What has this got to do with you working for Castleton?”
She looked at him. “Isn’t it obvious? To get my brother out of jail. To find something to prove he didn’t do it.”
Steve looked at her skeptically. “Wasn’t that a hell of a long shot.”
“Not at all. I knew exactly what I was looking for.”
“What was that?”
“Well, you gotta understand. The way Herb tells it, he knew something was fishy with the books long before this happened. It was all somewhat complicated, he couldn’t be sure what was going on, but the way the entries were coming in, he had a suspicion everything wasn’t entirely kosher.”
“So?”
“So, about two weeks before his arrest he wrote a memo to Milton Castleton, telling him this.”
“Was that brought out in the trial?”
“Yes and no. Herb claimed he wrote the memo. His lawyer subpoenaed Castleton’s files. Of course, it wasn’t there.”
“I see.”
“No, you don’t. They were making a case against him. If the memo had been in the files, they’d have destroyed it.”
“Did his lawyer point that out?”
Kelly sighed. “In a halfhearted way. He was just going through the motions. Look, I have to be honest with you. The way Herb tells it, his lawyer thought he was guilty too.”
“Yeah, fine,” Steve said. “But what’s the point? Of you working there, I mean? If the memo was destroyed, what good was it gonna do?”
“That’s the thing,” Kelly said. “Herb remembered something. He hadn’t during the trial. Probably because his lawyer was a piece of shit and didn’t believe in him to begin with. But I talked to Herb. Drew him out. I know how to do it. And I got something.”
“What’s that?”
“He faxed it.”
“What?”
“The memo. He faxed the memo.”
“To whom.”
“Milton Castleton. Look, you gotta understand the setup. This was two years ago. Milton Castleton was still head of the company then. He hadn’t stepped down yet. He was still running things.
“But he was sick. His health was bad. I don’t know what he’s got, no one seems to know, he’s real quiet about it. But the last year before he stepped down, when his health got bad, he stopped going into the office. He ran things from his apartment on Fifth Avenue. Had his office set up there.