Wolf in the Shadows - Marcia Muller [117]
“What explanation did Fontes give you for having the L.C.?”
“He told me that a few years ago, before Stan and I were married, Stan got into big-time financial trouble and borrowed heavily from him to bail himself out. The note had come due, so Stan gave Fontes the L.C. as security against his being repaid out of our share of the proceeds. It surprised me, but I figured Stan knew what he was doing. I was the only one who could activate the process of drawing on it, through my contact at Colores.”
“Had Stan ever mentioned this financial problem to you?”
“No.”
“Or the outstanding loan?”
“No.”
“Had he ever even mentioned knowing Gilbert Fontes?”
She shook her head, eyes turned down.
“ And you—a smart businesswoman—bought the whole story, just like that?”
“Fontes had the L.C,” she said defensively. “He knew all about the kidnapping. He contacted Diane first, and she contacted me. We decided it was best to come down here and talk with him. Before we did, I spoke with Gilbert; I’d been getting panicky because I hadn’t heard from Stan. He gave me the name of the hotel where Stan was supposed to be staying in Mexico City. I called there; he was registered.”
“But you didn’t talk with him.”
“He wasn’t in his room.”
“You leave a message?”
“Yes.”
“But he never called back.”
“I left to come down here before he would have had a chance. Besides, I knew Stan would need a tourist card to register at a hotel on the mainland, and to get one, you have to show I.D.”
“There was no I.D. on Stan’s body. And you heard Ripinsky’s account of the night of the shooting: Salazar was outside the adobe listening to what he and Stan were saying. That’s how Fontes knew about the kidnapping—and what kind of story to tell you.”
“All right, I’ve been stupid! But you don’t know Fontes, how convincing he can be. Besides, I wanted to believe him. Otherwise, it would have meant that Stan …”
“Which is exactly what it did mean.”
“Stop it!” She pressed her hands to her ears.
I stopped. No matter what this woman had done, badgering her was a cheap indulgence. She’d get plenty of that soon enough from the authorities, the prosecuting attorneys, and her own conscience—providing she had one.
But there were other things I wanted to know. “Ann, why did Diane Mourning contact you and Stan about kidnapping her husband?”
She drew her hands together in her Lap, fighting to regain her composure. The question gave her focus; after a moment she replied calmly, “She contacted Stan. He’d known both Mournings well a few years before. They were heavy contributors to a fund-raising campaign Stan ran for the fishing industry. They needed a source of dolphin cartilage for that drug their company is developing, and they thought if they supported the fishing industry, they’d make contacts who would help them.”
“So Stan met them at a fund-raiser?”
She nodded. “This was back before I knew him. Stan got to be friends with them; they spent a lot of time together. The Mournings were living pretty high back then. Too high, I guess, because a couple of years later they had to sell their boat and vacation home in Laguna Beach, and then their condo in San Francisco. After that, Stan said, he didn’t hear much from them; it works that way when your friends slip into a lower financial bracket.”
“So when did Diane reestablish contact with Stan?”
Navarro’s mouth turned down. “A few months ago— March, maybe. She showed up at his office. She told him the labs were in trouble and Tim had lost interest in his work— in her, too. She’d found out he had somebody else that he was serious about, and she was afraid he was working up to leaving her. She played on Stan’s sympathies.”
Navarro looked down at her clenched hands. Separated them and rubbed them against her thighs, then brought them together lightly. “Stan and Diane started sleeping together. I found that out from his secretary. And next thing I knew, the kidnapping was all planned.”
“Why’d you go along with it?”
She shrugged.
“You must have some idea.”
“Well, the money, partly. Diane was