Page 31 of A Lifetime in 30 Days
“No.” She forced herself to take a breath, then began again. “We were cordial whenever we saw each other. He called or texted me every few weeks, wanting to meet up and talk about our relationship. But I was over it, so I never accepted any of those invitations.”
“When was the last time you saw him?”
“A few months ago, I guess. It was after church one Sunday, at the Cheesecake Factory. He was on a date, and I was with my friends.” She wondered if Caleb had known then the trouble he was getting her into.
“And how did you know he was working at the casino again?” Jovani asked.
He’d slipped on a pair of gold-rimmed glasses after he sat across from her. They added a scholarly look to his otherwiseGQaura. Now he stared through them at her with a pointed glare.
She sighed. “I think he told me or one of our mutual friends.” She thought about it for a moment. “Yeah, a woman at my grandmother’s senior building used to live next door to Caleb’s mother, so she knew me from the times when I would be over there. I was visiting Granny one day, and Ms. Evelyn mentioned that Caleb was doing good and that he had a steady job at the casino now. That was right before Christmas, because she was sitting by the bulletin board in their community room, and I remember the garland somebody had tried to tape up there was falling down.”
“Good memory,” he said. “I have a hard time recalling what I had for dinner two nights ago, let alone remembering something almost nine months ago.”
She shrugged. “Conversations tend to stick with me once I think about it a little.”
He sat straight up then. “Ever have a conversation with Caleb about stealing money from the casino?”
Her eyes widened. “What? No! Is that what they think I did?”
“Charging documents state you conspired to plan and execute multiple robberies from the Lennox Casino. Didn’t they give you a copy when you left the station last week?”
“I stuffed them into my purse as soon as I got into my grandmother’s car,” she said. “I went home, showered, and went to bed after that. Then, the next morning, I talked to you, and you said to put it out of my mind until today. So I did. I focused on my friends, my birthday celebration, my ...” Her words trailed off then because she was certain he didn’t need to know that a portion of her attention this weekend had thankfully shifted to finding some much-needed physical pleasure.
“On what?” He nudged.
She cleared her throat. “I had plans with my friends Friday and Saturday nights; then it was the Women’s Ministry anniversary at church yesterday, so we had to sing.”
“What church do you attend?” he asked, and she blinked at what felt like a random question.
“Glory Sunrise Baptist,” she replied.
“Yeah,” he said with a deep nod. “I know that church well. My uncle is the pastor at Greater Hope, so I grew up there. We may have celebrated some usher anniversaries together back in the day.”
She smiled. “Okay, I know that church. We probably did.” Her next breath came a little steadier, her heartbeat just a tad slower, as she started to relax. Which she figured was Jovani’s intention in that quick diversion from the subject.
“Look, Caleb and I weren’t beefing, but we weren’t best friends either,” she said. “He went his way and I went mine. We were married for fifteen years, together two years before that. A lot of people know us as a couple, so even after the separation I still get unwanted updates on his life. But that was the extent of our connection.”
“Good to know,” Jovani said, and scribbled on the legal pad again. Then he set the pen down and sat back in his chair.
“Three months ago, there was an armored truck robbery that went wrong. Two guys pulled up on the truck; driver got spooked, started shooting. Killed one and wounded the other. Cops got a hit on the dead guy’s prints—prior robberies, some drug arrests. They link him to a previous codefendant, find that guy and question him. Codefendant rolls ’cause he’s not built for real jail time, even though he’s now looking at a felony robbery and handgun charges because of this last job. That codefendant named Caleb and a few of his coworkers at the casino as being part of the plan.”
“What?” Vanna whispered, although she didn’t need any of the words repeated. “Was all of that in the charging documents too?” If so, she definitely needed to dig those papers out of the bottom of her purse and read them.
Jovani kept watching her. “No. Right after our call last week, I had my staff start to investigate. The cops gave us minimal information, but we’ve got a lot of ears on the street. This was the fourth robbery of this kind.”
She felt herself shaking her head, but everything else was a blur. This office, Jovani, the words—everything just seemed to melt and mold into one big ball of disbelief. “I didn’t know,” she finally said. “I didn’t know about any of this.”
His elbows rested on the arms of the chair, fingers steepled and touching his bearded chin. “There’s a checking account at the Freedom Financial Credit Union in the names of Savannah L. Carlson and Caleb J. Carlson. That account has a balance of $173,000. In the last six months, there’s been a monthly deposit of $25,000.”
“No,” she said, her voice steadier. “No. I signed the paperwork to get my name off that account right after we separated, five years ago. I had it notarized by the paralegal in my office. My name shouldn’t be on any accounts with Caleb’s.”
“You didn’t go into the credit union and request to have your name removed from the account?”
She shook her head. “No. We had a huge case at work during that time—a bus and three vehicles were involved; we represented multiple plaintiffs. Settlement talks didn’t work, and there were depositions, endless discovery, pretrial motions, trial. I was lead paralegal on the case at the time, before I became office manager, so I was working late and leaving the house early. I didn’t have time.” She sighed. “So Caleb brought the forms to me at the office one day, and I signed them. He said he would take care of everything after that. Should’ve known not to believe his ass.”
Jovani didn’t speak for the next few moments, and neither did she. Her mind was reeling, her heart once again pumping wildly, but this time from rage.
“Their case against you revolves around that bank account,” Jovani said. He dropped his hands and leaned forward to look at the papers on his desk again. “That’s it. They’ve been investigating this case for months, trying to put together the full picture and possibly catch Caleb and his crew in the act of another robbery before they arrested him. But his body turned up first.”
