Chapter 2
COLLATERAL: CHAPTER TWO
Their suspect turned out to be a lot smarter than Jane gave him credit for, considering his partners had turned on each other the moment they’d been questioned.
Eric Garcia and George Mancini were done.
But Doug Lewis, according to his now ex-girlfriend, had left her behind to visit a relative in California.
That he’d left the city so soon after the robbery and had thus far evaded the police told Jane they were dealing with a smarter than average criminal. His friends identified Doug as a twenty-seven-year-old wannabe law school student.
The co-conspirators had told the police everything they knew, which turned out to be quite a lot. Doug had engineered all the planning. Eric provided the car and knowledge of the city streets, and George cozied up to the pretty, single bank tellers for inside information on their targets.
Both men in custody faced major jail time and couldn’t afford decent attorneys. Doug promised to be another story. His background interested her. She also suspected he wouldn’t be heading to California. Not after his careful evasive measures.
She drove into South Lake Union where she’d arranged to speak with his aunt. The woman met her in the vestibule of her unassuming apartment building, surrounded by other unassuming apartment buildings, then walked up the stairs to her equally unassuming flat.
“I don’t have a lot of time before my shift starts, but I’ve got a pot of coffee still going. Would you like some?” Linda Lewis waved Jane into a tidy, fresh smelling space. A bouquet of flowers sat in the middle of a two-person kitchen table.
Everything in the home had been scaled for a small space, so it didn’t feel overwhelming. And the bright colors gave the place an air of repressed energy. The décor seemed a mix of IKEA and thrift store, but the overall effect was charming.
A lot like Linda Lewis. The older woman had laugh lines around her eyes and mouth, bright blue eyes, and dark hair threaded with gray. Attractive, softening around the middle, and at first impression, kind.
“No coffee, thank you, Ms. Lewis. I have a cup in the car waiting on me.”
“Please, call me Linda.”
Jane followed Linda into the living room, sat on the couch the woman pointed to, and whipped out a small notepad and pen. “I’m here about your nephew.”
Linda sighed. “Timmy or Danny?”
“Doug.”
Linda blinked. “Dougie? He’s normally the one I don’t have to worry about.”
The woman was in for a rude awakening. “Unfortunately, Doug has been linked to some serious crimes.”
“My Dougie? Doug Lewis?” Linda left her seat and returned with a photo of their suspect.
Jane nodded.
Linda sat, flabbergasted. “But that boy’s been on the straight and narrow since elementary school.
He graduated high school then college at the top of his class and got a job as a paralegal for a law firm while he’s saving for law school.
He’s such a smart young man. You must have the wrong person. What’s he supposed to have done?”
Jane already had information on their suspect from his partners. Doug Lewis had a mother, father deceased, and two aunts. He had lived with his Aunt Linda until he graduated from Edmonds Community College.
“Bank robbery.”
“No. No way.” Linda shook her head, emphatically. “He’s on the right side of the law, Agent Cannon.”
“What can you tell me about Eric Garcia and George Mancini?”
What little outrage left in Linda deflated. “Oh, well. That explains it.”
“Explains what?”
“Those boys have been nothing but trouble for years. Always getting into one scrap or another, and my nephew would bail them out. I’ve been raising him since he turned thirteen and his mother disappeared.
Sad to say my younger sister has been addicted to one thing or another forever.
I was glad when she left because I was finally able to give Dougie some stability. ”
Jane nodded and made a few notes. “Your first thought was that your other nephews, Timmy or Danny, might have done something. Why’s that?”
“My older sister’s boys have been in trouble for one thing or another the past few years. But I thought they’d straightened out.”
“By trouble, you mean…?”
“Minor stuff like bar fights and being stupid in public.”
“Drunk and disorderly?” Jane offered.
Linda shrugged. “Just boys being boys, mostly. Nothing violent, though they did break a window at a convenience store that took them forever to pay off. But bank robbery? No. I don’t believe they’d get that bad or that Dougie could possibly be involved.
” Linda’s lips firmed. “But Eric and George? I’d believe it of them. ”
“Why’s that?”
“Those two are cousins who come from a family that does a lot of questionable things. Like stealing to feed their drug habit. I tried to get Dougie to stop hanging around with them, but he promised he was keeping them out of trouble. Even when Eric got busted for selling pot in high school, Dougie did his best to support him.” Linda wiped a stray tear from her cheek. “He’s such a good boy.”
A good boy who’d been robbing banks and getting away with it. Jane had a feeling Dougie only showed his aunt what she wanted to see.
“Where does Dougie live now?”
“He used to live in an apartment a few blocks from here. But he moved a month ago, and I don’t have his new address yet.
I think he and Eric and George were living together in some temporary place.
Rent being what it is, it only makes sense for him to have roommates.
Law school isn’t cheap, and he’s been doing his best to save. ”
Linda waxed on about all of Doug’s glowing traits. A nice young man. Good-looking, smart, a hard worker. He always brought her flowers and checked in to make sure she had everything she needed. From what Linda gathered, Doug was close to going to law school full-time.
“Thank you for your time, Linda. I’m sorry to be the bearer of bad news. But if you hear from Doug, please tell him to call me. If he is in this mess thanks to his friends, he can only help himself by talking to me to get him out of trouble.” She stood and handed Linda a card.
Linda nodded and stood with her. “I will. You’ll see. My boy had nothing to do with this. He’s probably helping them by trying to get them out of trouble. If I hear from him, I’ll tell him to call you.”
“Thank you. We want guilty people to go to jail, not innocents. And it seems like it’s time for Eric and George to stop dragging Doug down.”
“Yes, yes. Exactly. I’ll call him and tell him to call you right away.”
“Good. I don’t want the police to think he’s dangerous if he isn’t.”
Linda paused on the stairs outside her apartment. “Dangerous?”
Jane nodded, her expression grim as she met Linda’s eyes. “Eric shot and wounded several police officers in the course of their robberies. He and George are in big trouble.”
Linda paled. “Oh my God. I hadn’t realized. I’ll call him right away and let you know what he says.”
Jane didn’t hold out hope that Doug would comply, but she thanked Linda again and left.
After following up on a few places Eric and George thought Doug might go, she was just leaving a food truck area when a woman approached, staring at Jane in shock.
“Olivia?”
Jane frowned. “Excuse me?”
The older woman, likely in her fifties, scrutinized Jane from top to bottom. “Is it really you?”
Ah, a case of mistaken identity. “I’m sorry. I’m not Olivia.”
All hope faded from the woman’s eyes. To Jane’s shock, she dropped to her knees and sobbed. Then passed out.