Money to Burn

28

TEN MINUTES LATER, I WAS HEADED FOR LONG ISLAND. THE IVY factor was growing stronger, and I needed answers.

A phone call from Andrea had pushed me over the edge. It came just five minutes after my conversation with Papa. I still didn’t trust her, but the fact that my grandfather had also been approached by the FBI lent credence to her story.

“Heads up from a friend,” she’d told me. “The FBI just interviewed me. They seem to be questioning all the wives and significant others, anyone who might have known your first wife or anything about her disappearance.”

I didn’t drive often, but I loved my car. My first set of wheels in high school had been a nine-year-old Monte Carlo two-door coupe with a smashed-in fender, a broken heater, and a headlight that pointed at the moon. I bought it with my summer earnings and a five-hundred-dollar loan from Papa. When I finally unloaded it after B-school, the two-hundred-dollar CD player mounted under the dash was worth more than the entire car. The joke was that the dirt was holding it together, and it got to the point where I was actually afraid to wash it-what if it wasn’t a joke? Now I was head of the green team and drove a Mini Cooper Convertible, although it broke Papa’s heart when I took him to see The Italian Job and had to tell him that the “scoopers,” as he called them, weren’t actually Italian.

“Hello, Olivia,” I said when Mrs. Hernandez opened the door.

I didn’t know Ivy’s mother well. She was a widow who had never taken her husband’s surname, the proud Latina half of Ivy Layton’s heritage. I had spoken to her only once before Ivy’s death, and our only face-to-face meeting was at Ivy’s memorial service. I phoned her a couple of times after that, but it was clear that Olivia did not care to make me part of her life. At first I surmised that I was simply an unpleasant reminder of her daughter’s tragic death. As time wore on, however, I sensed that she actually blamed me, as if I should have been more careful with Ivy on the boat, should have noticed she was missing sooner and radioed for help, or could have done something to prevent it altogether.

“You should have called first,” she said from behind the screen door.

“I really need to speak to you,” I said.

“I’ve seen your name in the news,” she said. “Not too flattering.”

“That stuff’s not important. This is. It’s about Ivy.”

She stood there for a moment, saying nothing. Then she finally opened the door, and I was thankful to be inside. She led me to the parlor, and I glanced around the room as I settled into the armchair. I expected to see framed photographs of Ivy and of Olivia’s late husband on the bookshelves and end tables. There were none, at least not in this room.

“Is this about Ivy’s account?” she asked. Olivia bore a strong resemblance to her daughter-the perfect posture of a ballerina, the heart-shaped face of a classic beauty, a strong and healthy glow that must have truly shined in her youth. I couldn’t look at her without feeling my loss all over again.

“I have some bad news,” I said, and my voice suddenly felt weak. “It’s gone.”

“Gone?”

I nodded, and as concisely as possible, I explained the identity theft-the liquidation of my accounts, the transfer of my cash into Ivy’s account, and the disappearance of both into the world of bank secrecy. She’d heard all of that on FNN-except the part about Ivy’s account.

“Have you notified the police?”

“The FBI is working on it.”

“Are they going to get it back?”

“I hope so.”

“Well, they’d better.”

Her tone was harsher than I’d expected. “That’s why I wanted to talk this out with you,” I said. “After Ivy’s memorial service-when I offered you the money in her account-you said you didn’t want it.”

“I said to leave it right where it was.”

“And that’s what I did. Until it was stolen.”

She made a face, obviously skeptical. “Stolen, you say?”

“Yes. Along with my entire personal portfolio.”

“You should know how that makes me feel,” she said, her voice quaking.

“I do.”

“No, I really don’t think you do,” she said. “Nobody does.”

“I understand how you never gave up hope on Ivy,” I said. “Even if it was just a one-in-a-million shot that Ivy was still alive, you were the one who insisted that it would be bad luck to touch the money.”

“That is what I told you,” she said. “And it was a lie.”

“Excuse me?”

The ballerina’s posture was suddenly more like a pit bull’s. “Refusing the money had nothing to do with the hope that Ivy might someday return. I have long been convinced that my daughter is dead.”

“I don’t understand.”

“I left the money on the table, so to speak, because I knew the truth.”

“I’m sorry, I’m not following you at all.”

“Ivy’s money gave you motive to kill her. That was one of the reasons the Bahamian police focused on you from the beginning. I knew that was the reason you offered me the money. You wanted to eliminate your motive.”

“That’s not it at all,” I said. I was too tired to get angry. It was too ridiculous to get angry.

“Deep down, I have always known that if I left that money on the table long enough, someday you would take it. You would be content to let the money sit in the account and collect interest for years and then, when enough time had passed, you would grab it. And now you finally did.”

“That’s not what happened. Her money disappeared with mine. It’s all gone.”

“I’m not buying that identity-theft hogwash for a minute. I saw the way Chuck Bell picked you apart on his show. And the FBI told me about your marital problems. I don’t know what you’re trying to hide from your second wife, but I don’t want any part of it.”

“The FBI has come to see you?”

She rose and said, “You should leave now.”

I couldn’t believe how badly this was going, but if she was siding with Chuck Bell, talking with the FBI, and taking shots at my marriage, I didn’t stand a chance.

“We can’t leave it like this,” I said.

“Go. Please.”

“I loved Ivy, and I would never-”

“Stop!” she said, her voice sharp enough to silence a soccer riot.

She went quickly to the door and opened it angrily. I had no choice but to go, and the screen door slammed behind me as I stepped onto the porch.

“There’s one other thing you should know,” said Olivia.

I stopped at the foot of the stairs and glanced back.

“When the FBI came to see me, I told them exactly what I just told you-and I promised to help them in any way I can.”

The door closed with a thud. I followed the winding slate walkway to the street, careful not to step on the daffodils-Ivy’s favorite-as I climbed into my car. I pulled away from the curb slowly, still in shock, the engine little more than idling as I passed the house. The draperies were open, and through the big bay window, I could see into the parlor.

Ivy’s mother was alone on the couch, her face in her hands, crying.