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And she came across a woman’s driver’s license in the name of Carol-A
And a murder victim.
Carol-A
The next day, during her attic search, she found more items of jewelry, and purses, empty, and photographs of women, sometimes alone, sometimes with their families. She also found four drivers’ licenses and two passports, each with her husband’s photograph upon it but each in a different name. The drivers’ licenses were tied together with an elastic band, while the passports were in a separate brown envelope. There was a telephone number written on the outside flap.
Maria
Maria
Two days later, she called it.
The woman’s name was Karen Meyer, and she met Maria
“Why did you call me?” asked Meyer.
“I need your help.”
“I can’t help you.”
“Please.”
Meyer looked around, checking faces. “I mean it. I can’t. Your husband will hurt me. He’ll hurt all of us. You, of all people, must know what he’s like.”
“I know. I mean, I don’t know. I don’t know what he is anymore.”
Karen shrugged.
“Well, I know what he is. That’s why I can’t help you.”
Maria
“I have money.”
“Not enough.”
Karen got up to leave.
“No, please.”
Maria
Maria
“Don’t call me again,” said Karen. “You do and I swear I’ll tell him.”
Maria
Karen came to the house three days later. Maria
“You said you had money.”
“Yes, I can pay you.”
“What do you need?”
“New identities for Da
“It’ll cost you fifty thousand dollars, and I’m nailing you to the wall at that price.”
Maria
“Yeah, well,” she said. “I’m being up front about it. You’re being charged above the going rate, but I need to cover myself. If he finds out, I’m going to have to run. You understand that?”
Maria
“I’ll want half now, half later.”
Maria
“What do you mean? You said you had money.”
“I do, but I can’t touch it until just before I leave.”
Karen stared at her.
“It’s his money, isn’t it?”
Maria
“Shit.”
“There’s more than enough to cover what you ask. I promise you, you’ll have it as soon as I’m ready to leave.”
“I need something now.”
“I don’t have half, or anything close to it.”
“What can you give me?”
“Two hundred.”
“Two hundred?”
Karen slumped against the wall and said nothing for at least a minute.
“Give it to me,” she said at last.
Maria
“Do you want to count it?”
Karen weighed the roll of bills in her hand.
“I figure this is everything that you’ve hidden away, right?”
Maria
“Then that’ll be enough, for now.”
She moved to go.
“How long will it take?”
“They’ll be ready in two weeks. You can pick them up when you’re leaving, and I’ll take the rest of my money then.”
“Okay.”
Maria
“You’d have done it too, wouldn’t you?” said Karen softly.
“Yes.”
Karen smiled.
“You need to work on your seduction technique,” she said.
“I’ve never had to use it before, under those circumstances.”
“I guess your heart just wasn’t in it.”
“I guess not.”
Karen shook her head sadly, walked to her car, and drove away.
Maria
Moloch had never told her what he did for a living, exactly. He was, when she asked in those first days, a “businessman,” an “independent consultant,” a “salesman,” a “facilitator.” Maria
In those last days, she became aware of an increase in the pitch of his activities. There were more calls to the home phone, the phone that she was not allowed to answer. There were more frequent, and longer, absences. The mileage on his car climbed steadily in increments of two hundred miles. He grew yet more distracted, now barely glancing at the receipts from the market and failing even to check the total spent against her allowance for the week.