Moving Up, Part Two

Due to the overwhelming reader response (please stop with the emails - my inbox is complete stuffed), here is part two of "Moving Up."

Previously, in Part One, we were introduced to Avery Key, a bookmobile driver in Milwaukee. Avery's having a rough day - he's broke, he just got mugged, and he is, after all, a bookmobile driver. But it's not just any day - returning to the library, he finds that his boss has just been arrested ...

*****

"May I have a word with you, Mister ... um ....?"

"Key," Avery answered, now facing a plain-clothes detective. They were sitting inside one of the media rooms in the basement level of the library. Someone who had been watching The Maltese Falcon had been forced to vacate the room. The video was still running, but the sound was off. Jeez, Avery thought, if the police could figure out how to mute the video, why couldn't they find the damn off switch? Of course, maybe it was part of their plan to throw off his concentration and prep him for questioning. That was ridiculous, of course, but those were the sort of thoughts that were going though Avery's head. He had never been questioned by the police - even as a witness - much less been placed in a dark room with a detective who answered only to the name Horvath - his first name may as well have been Lieutenant.

"How long have you known Maxine Richardson?" Horvath asked, barely skipping a beat.

"Um, I don't know, maybe three years. Basically since I've been here."

"Have you ever seen her engage in suspicious or unusual activity?"

"Other than the fact that she's a library department heard without the ability to sort books?" Avery quipped. But Horvath was dead serious, glaring back at him. "No, no I haven't seen any suspicious activity."

"Have you seen any books go missing?"

"No, I really couldn't have, could I? I mean, they're missing, after all," Avery chuckled nervously. He didn't mean to be such a smart alec, but his nerves were getting to him.

"Have there been any more missing books than usual?"

"Um, I'm not really sure."

"How many books used to go missing before Ms. Richardson took over your department?"

"Um, I don't know ... maybe 30 a month?" Avery though about it. "One or two a day."

"How many books go missing now, with Ms. Richardson in charge?"

"A lot more, I guess."

"How many?"

"Probably upwards of one or two hundred a month, sometimes more."

"Are many of these ever found?"

"Very few."

"Mr. Key, did you ever lose books yourself?"

"Um, yeah, a couple times. I lost track of some books in my van - the bookmobile - a few times."

"And were you disciplined for that?"

"Yeah, they docked my paycheck."

"Who approved that?"

"Uh, Maxine, I guess."

"Not the payroll office?"

"Um, no, I don't think so."

"Okay, thank you Mr. Key. That's all I need." Lt. Horvath stood up and walked out of the room. Avery sat in a daze for a minute and then followed. In the hall, he ran into Tony.

"Tone, do you have any idea what's going down here?"

"Word is that Maxine and Leonard were selling books and skimming money from people's checks and shit - friggin' embezzlement."

"At the library?"

"At the effin' library, man."

Avery just stared around in shock, not sure exactly what was going on.

*****

The rest of the afternoon was surreal. Police officers and detectives were swarming through the entire restocking department, hauling off boxes of files as evidence, rifling through every workstation and office. One by one, all of the employees in the department were questioned in various offices. Most were only in there for a few minutes, but a couple people disappeared for hours, emerging ashen-faced and shaken. Most of those people were part of Maxine's crew - the employees that she had hired herself, rather than those like Avery who had been leftover from when George McGee ran the department.

One exception was Harriet Mills, a sweet middle-aged lady who Avery had always liked. She wasn't that fast at sorting books, but she always insisted on doing things correctly - she was a real stickler for details. In fact, the only time that Avery had ever seen her angry was once when Maxine once tried to transfer books to a different branch without filling out the proper paperwork. Harriet got real mad, even threatening to report Maxine to the library commissioner at City Hall. Had Harriet not been so popular with everyone, she probably would have been fired. But Maxine cared too much for preserving her reputation to make an enemy like Harriet - she knew that everyone would have taken Harriet's side rather than hers. In retrospect, Avery realized that Maxine wasn't actually being sloppy in skimping on paperwork - that must have been part of how she stole books, by arranging fictitious transfers to other branches.
Avery saw Harriet in the hall about ten minutes after the police had finished questioning her. She looked very worried and had obviously been crying.

"Oh, Ave! They think I did something wrong. I think Maxine told them I was part of something. But you know me. I wouldn't ..." her voice trailed off as tears began to well. "Avery, I can't lose my job. I pay for little Etta's school," she said, referring to her granddaughter.
"My daughter can't afford those payments."

"Harriet, I know you wouldn't do anything wrong ..."

"I wouldn't, Ave! Never!"

"Look, the police didn't arrest you or anything. But you should probably talk to a lawyer."

"I can't afford that. I can't afford no fancy lawyer."

"Look, my wife knows some people at Marquette, in the law school. I know she's helped get some people out of some speeding tickets and stuff."

"Avery, that's real nice of you, but I think this is a little more serious than getting some tickets fixed." Harriet almost sounded angry, though Avery wasn't sure at whom.

"Look, let me just look into this for you, okay? Just let me help out, okay?"

Harriet smiled weakly. "Okay, Ave. Okay. I trust you."

Avery smiled back at her, trying to be comforting, but in the back of his mind he was worried that he may have promised more than he could deliver. Fact was that Kate didn't know any real lawyers, just some law students who she had known as undergrads at UWM - the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee. Still, he knew that Harriet would never have gotten mixed up in something like embezzlement, especially since the police clearly didn't have enough evidence to even arrest her. But without a lawyer, he was afraid that she might accidentally say things that would get them curious.

Heading back into the main restocking room, Avery grabbed the telephone off of a table and ducked into a little alcove, facing the wall. He started dialing home, but got a recorded message - "Your call cannot be completed as dialed. Please hang up and try again." Avery realized that he'd forgotten to dial 9 before the number. He was more shaken up by all the goings-on than he realized. He redialed and Kate picked up after two rings.

"Hey, are you still at work?"

"Yeah, I'm going to be leaving shortly. Do you have to work tonight?"

"No, it's Monday, remember? The restaurant is closed on Mondays," she said, reminding him of that fact for the hundredth time.

"Oh, yeah. Sorry, I forgot."

"You okay? You sound nervous."

"Um ... yeah. Look, there's a lot going on her at work. I'll tell you more later. But, um, the police are here and stuff."

"Oh shit. What happened?"

Avery lowered his voice to a whisper. "Maxine and Leonard have been arrested for embezzlement, I think. A lot of other people are being questioned."

"Man, I told you that chick was up to something!"

"Yeah, um ... anyway, look, I think the police suspect Harriet of doing something, but there's no way."

"Which one is Harriet?"

"You remember her - she had that little granddaughter who you babysat for a couple years ago."

"Oh, her. Yeah, she was nice. Why do they suspect her?"

"I don't know. But she needs a lawyer. Do you know anyone?"

"I only know law students."

"Yeah, but maybe one of them has a friend or professor who could help? Pro bono, of course."

"Yeah. Okay," she paused, thinking. "Yeah, okay. I'll make some calls, see if I can find someone."

"Thanks, sweetie. Look, I gotta go. I'll see you at home in an hour or so."

"Love you."

"Love you, too." Avery hung up the phone. It was 4:30.

*****

Avery milled around work for another thirty minutes, basically just killing time. When your boss has just been arrested, there's really little incentive to work hard, after all. Mostly, he just didn't know what to do. Clearly, things were in for a major shake-up in the department, and he was worried about the future, but also excited. After all, Maxine had been terrible for the library in many ways, and her replacement couldn't help but be an improvement. On the other hand, there's the old maxim about the devil you know. Avery tried not to be too cynical, but he knew that sometimes change wasn't for the better.

When the clock hit five, Avery started gathering his belongings - his coat, his messenger bag (or "man purse" as Kate so affectionately called it) - and dashed up the stairs towards the main level. Most of the other guys usually left out the back way, because their cars were parked near the loading dock. But Avery took the bus to work - somewhat ironic for someone who drove a vehicle for a living - and so he always left through the main exit on Wisconsin Avenue. Today, that turned out to be the quicker exit - so many squad cars were still parked out back that those who drove ended up having to very patiently negotiate their way out of the lot. Avery's main concern was checking his bag to make sure that he still had his bus pass. He usually kept it in his wallet, but he'd started keeping it in his messenger bag instead a few weeks before. Despite that, he still had that nagging suspicion that today of all days he had put it back in the wallet.
He was still digging through the bag when he got to the main exit, and so barely noticed the uniformed officer standing guard at the door.

"Sir, I'll need to check your bag before you leave."

"Huh?"

"This is a crime scene. I'll have to check your bag to make sure you didn't take anything."

"Sure, okay," Avery answered, opening his bag for the officer to check. All he had in there was an umbrella, a couple granola bars, and the various and sundry objects that accumulate in any bag over time - little slips of paper with phone numbers, a half-used jar of aspirin, an eyeglasses repair kit, a bus map. The cop did little more than a cursory check, but as he rifled through the papers, Avery caught sight of his bus pass. He let out a little sigh of relief, glad that he wasn't going to have to walk the two miles home.

The search completed, Avery stepped out onto the front steps of the library and suddenly realized that his little problem at work was shortly going to be all of Milwaukee's problem. All four of the local television stations had news vans parked outside, with their 30-foot tall antennas out, ready to broadcast. The lady from Channel 6 was interviewing someone who Avery didn't recognize, while the guy from Channel 12 was applying make-up in the van and the Channel 58 reporter appeared to be testing his mike. No sooner than he reached the foot of the steps, though, when Avery was suddenly assaulted by the Channel 4 reporter.

"Excuse me, sir. Lauren Leamanczyk, TMJ-4!" she blurted out. "Do you have a minute?"

"I've gotta go."

"Do you work in the library?"

"Me? I ... oh, no. I mean ..." Avery stuttered.

His denial wasn't quick enough, or forceful enough, and before he knew what had happened, Leamanczyk and her cameraman had surrounded him.

"Can I ask you a few questions?" she asked forcefully, but with a practiced tone.

"Oh, sure," Avery responded, resignedly.

"Do you know Maxine Richardson, the woman allegedly involved in the embezzlement ring?"

"Know? I don't, um ... yeah. She, she ... um, she was, is ... is, was, my boss."

"So you know her personally?"

"No. No. Um ..."

"Did you have personal knowledge of the alleged misdeeds?"

"What?"

"Did you have personal knowledge of the alleged misdeeds?"

"I ... no. No, definitely not. I didn't know Maxine."

"But did you ..."

"I mean, yes, I knew Maxine. But ... but, not what said was doing."

"So you ..."

"Or not doing! I mean, I don't know."

"Sir, how long have you worked in the library?"

"Oh, three years now. I, um ... oh shit! That's my bus!" Avery suddenly pushed past Leamanczyk, and broke into a sprint across the street.

"That was a really brilliant interview, genius," he muttered to himself as he ran. He kept going over his interview in his head, realizing that he had come across as a complete idiot. The only consolation was that he had been so incoherent that there was at least no way that they'd air his interview. He hadn't even given his name.

Once across the street, he actually had to wait briefly for his #10 bus, which had gotten stuck at the previous light. He didn't turn around to look, but he could feel Leamanczyk's eyes boring a hole in the back of his head. When the bus pulled up, he jumped onboard, somewhat rudely cutting in front of a young mother. He muttered an apology and very quickly was overcome by the sensation that he just wanted to be home. Luckily, it wasn't a very long bus ride - 20 minutes most days - down Wisconsin and then onto Cass and finally Humboldt.

Avery and Kate's house was in the Riverwest neighborhood, separated by the Milwaukee River from the fashionable East Side and Downtown. Riverwest was a semi-bohemian neighborhood, with lots of artsy types, aging hippies, and grad students, but also plenty of young families and immigrants from the Middle East and East Asia. In short, it was your typical urban neighborhood - a mixture of people from different walks of life and economic strata. And the neighborhood's housing make-up reflected this mixture. Along Humboldt were some massive old homes that had survived from Milwaukee's earliest days. On the side streets were a mix of housing from the early decades of the 20th Century, including a large number of duplexes, some of which had been converted into single family homes and some which had not. The shops in the neighborhood ran the gamut from trendy clubs with live music and hip coffee shops to small corner grocers and immigrant-run dry cleaners.

As the bus lumbered along through East Town and then north into Riverwest, Avery found himself lost in thought, so much so that he barely noticed when the bus blew right past his normal stop. The suddenly unfamiliar houses snapped him out of his reverie, though in the dark he squinted for a bit at the street signs before determining that he really had missed his stop. Again muttering curses at himself, he pulled the cord and hopped off at the next stop. His usual four-block walk home had now been doubled, but he didn't really care. He pulled a knit cap over his short hair and started trudging back south down Humboldt. The wind was bracing against his face, but this was still his favorite season of the year - not yet truly cold, and with the air filled with the smells of drying leaves and fireplaces.

Avery and Kate lived in a converted duplex that dated from the 1920s. The house was filled with lots of little quirks, which Kate especially loved. Some of these were due to the original design of the home, but most were due to the haphazard way in which the duplex had been converted. There were, for instance, no less than four doors into the home - two in the front (one onto the main level, and one with stairs leading to the top level), one on the side (leading to the kitchen), and a backdoor from the small yard into the basement. The house had two functioning kitchens, though the upstairs kitchen had an ancient stove that seemingly predated the house itself. The house originally had three bedrooms - two downstairs and one upstairs - but a fourth had been added rather clumsily above the back porch. Kate hated that extra room, because the floor always seemed horribly unsteady. The house had two bathrooms, one with an original claw-foot tub and lovely black and white tiling, and a second that the previous owners had started to update but stopped when they ran out of money (consequently, the shower and bath didn't work).

When they bought the house, Avery and Kate inherited the appliances as well as a tenant, Rob, who had previously lived there with three other students from UWM. Kate knew him peripherally from some of her Poli-Sci classes, and so they let him stay on. They told themselves that it was just as a favor until he found a new place to live, but the fact was that they needed the extra $300 a month they charged him for the upstairs bedroom. As it was, Rob was rarely home - he spend most of his time either holed up in the UWM library or hanging out at his girlfriend's apartment on the East Side. Avery still always felt a little uncomfortable living as newlyweds but having a roommate, especially given that there was no longer a door separating the upstairs from the main level, and since all three of them had to share a bathroom. On more than one occasion, Avery had been late to work when he had been tardy about jumping into the shower and Rob beat him to it.

After ten minutes of walking, Avery arrived home, walking in to find Rob slouched on the couch, eating cereal. "Hey, Rob."

"Hey."

Rob had his own couch upstairs, but whatever. Kate was sitting on a stool in the kitchen, bent over a book. A small black-and-white TV was on next to her, the volume turned real low. A pot of spaghetti was boiling on the stove, with marinara sauce simmering on the next burner.

"Hey sweetheart," Avery said, leaning in to kiss his wife. "Spaghetti again?"

"Yeah. No meatballs, though. We ran through the last of the meat yesterday and I didn't have time to get to the store."

"That's fine. When will dinner be ready?"

"Pretty soon."

"Okay, cool. Lemme change." Avery slipped into the master bedroom, which was right off the kitchen, closed the door, and tossed his bag on the bed alongside several of Kate's schoolbooks, some dirty clothes, and various unidentified items. Why there was a pile of stuff on the bed and a different but indistinguishable pile of stuff on the floor, Avery had no idea, but it hardly mattered. He pulled off his Milwaukee Public Library sweatshirt, sniffed it, and then threw it in the pile of clean-enough clothes. Emptying his pockets onto the end table, he suddenly remembered that his wallet had been stolen.

Avery threw on a different sweatshirt and emerged from the bedroom. "Hon?"

"Yes, Ave?"

"I forgot to tell you early, but I got robbed this morning. Some punk kid took my wallet."

Kate looked up from her book, momentarily worried. She scanned Avery's face for signs that he'd been roughed up. This wasn't the first time he'd been mugged while at work. "You okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. But they took everything I had on me."

Kate frowned. "How much?"

"I don't know - seventeen dollars, I think."

She smiled weakly and gently rubbed his arm. Seventeen dollars was enough to buy several nights' worth of dinners. "S'okay. I'm just glad they didn't hurt you."

Rob came into the kitchen and dumped his dirty bowl into the sink, not bothering to rinse it. "I'm headed over to Heather's place," he said. On his way out the side door, almost as an afterthought, he added, "Bummer about getting mugged, Ave. See ya!"

Avery was glad that Rob had gone. He turned to Kate, trying to figure out where to start with the whole Maxine-and-Leonard-were-arrested-today story. Kate beat him to the punch. "So, what exactly happened at work today?"

"I, uh ... I don't know. I came back from my morning run with the bookmobile and all of a sudden there's Maxine screaming and yelling about something while being dragged out by the police."

"Huh. Can't say I didn't see that coming."

"Really, you thought Maxine was going to get arrested one day?"

"Well, no, not exactly. But, I don't know, you told me enough about what went on there. It always sounded to me like she was up to something."

"Yeah, I guess so."

"I mean, come on - she was appointed to her job by her cousin," Kate said, closing her book and sitting up straight on the stool. "And all those people she promoted over you."

"Yeah, yeah. True. Plus, pretty much nothing ever seemed to get done around there."

"Exactly. That's what I'm saying."

"I'm just all worried about where this is going, y'know? I don't want to see good people swept up in this - Harriet, Tony. Me."

Kate smiled weakly. "You'll be fine."

"I just never saw this coming, y'know? Who'd ever suspect a damned embezzlement scheme in the library?" Avery paused for a minute. "Funny thing is, the detective asked me about those payroll deductions for those books I lost. He seemed to be hinting that Maxine pocketed that money or something."

"She probably did, Ave. I told you at the time that didn't seem right, y'know?"

"I know, I know. I just didn't want to fight it, y'know? I couldn't afford to lose my job then."

"Like you can afford to lose it now?" Kate said with a smile, trying to lighten Avery's mood.

"Well, yeah!" he shot back, in feigned excitement. "Baby, we got more money than we know what to do with! Man, I had to give away a couple Benjamins to a homeless guy today, cause my wallet was getting too heavy!"

"Stop."

"What? Not funny?"

"No, it's just painful when you try to use slang. Benjamins? I mean, come on. That's like 10 years out of date."

"Really? Aren't all of the kids saying that now?" Avery said, sounding mock-hurt.

"No, no, no," Kate giggled.

Avery sighed and plopped himself down on the stool next to Kate. "I love you sweetheart. You know that, right?"

"Of course," she said, leaning over to kiss him.

"We'll get through all this - the money, this thing at work. Everything!"

"I know."

"I mean, things have been worse, right?" he asked, not terrible confident of the answer.

"Yeah, sure."

Avery racked his brain, trying to time of a worse time. The TV very shortly provided the answer. "Oh shit. Honey, turn that up."

"What? Oh, that's you!" Kate leaned in towards the television and turned up the volume. On the screen was Avery's face, with the caption UNNAMED LIBRARY EMPLOYEE.

"Do you know Maxine Richardson, the woman allegedly involved in the embezzlement ring?"
"Know? I don't, um ... yeah. She, she ... um, she was, is ... is, was, my boss."
"So you know her personally?"
"No. No. Um ..."
"Did you have personal knowledge of the alleged misdeeds?"
"What?"
"Did you have personal knowledge of the alleged misdeeds?"
"I ... no. No, definitely not. I didn't know Maxine."
"But did you ..."
"I mean, yes, I knew Maxine. But ... but, not what said was doing."
"So you ..."
"Or not doing! I mean, I don't know."

"That was a really sharp interview there, Ace," Kate said with a smirk. Avery shot her a sideways glance but didn't protest.

"That was our own Lauren Leamanczyk just over at hour ago at Milwaukee's Main Library on Wisconsin Avenue," intoned Mike Jacobs, the Channel 4 anchor. "To recap, at this hour, police have announced the arrests of seven city and library employees, including Albert Richardson, branch manager of the Main Library - shown here in a file photo - and his cousin, Maxine Richardson, a manager at the Library. According to police sources, the embezzlement scheme involved hundreds of thousands of dollars in municipal funds ..."

Avery's jaw dropped. "Holy shit."

"... including money intended for children's literacy programs in the Milwaukee Public School District. The Mayor has called a press conference tomorrow at noon in Milwaukee City Hall. Charles Benson interviewed the Mayor in his office at City Hall earlier today, and he had this to say:"

"I have only spoken briefly with Police Chief Haggerty, but she has assured me that these arrests were made only after a lengthy investigation. I can't offer any specifics beyond that, since this is an ongoing investigation, but rest assured that we will not tolerate corruption in city government."

"A spokesman for the City Library Commissioner released a statement this evening, explaining, 'the Library Commission will be reviewing its hiring practices to ensure that this sort of corruption does not effect city services again.' With more on this developing story, let's go to Russ ..."

Avery flipped the TV off. "Wow. This is big."

"Yeah, Jeez. Who knew there was even that much money to steal?" Kate asked, half-jokingly.

"I know that this is a good thing. I mean, obviously, right?" he asked, rhetorically. "But I can't shake the feeling that when all is said and done, this isn't going to end up well."

"How do you mean?"

"Well, I don't know ..." his voice trailed off as he started pacing across the kitchen. Kate meanwhile got up to turn off the heat on the spaghetti. She grabbed a colander from the cabinet and started emptying the contents of the pot. Steam poured out of the pot, fogging up the window. Avery stopped pacing and stared at the steam. "It's just, I'm betting they bring in some hard-ass to clean house, and ..."

"Well, isn't that what they need?"

"Well, maybe. Well ..." he paused. "No, I think what they need is someone honest, but someone who knows the place already. They don't need someone to fire half the people there and grind down the other half. That'll just make things worse."

Kate was now stirring in the tomato sauce and some fresh basil from the produce market at the corner. Avery just stared, deep in thought but not saying anything. Kate served up to the spaghetti, in big heaping portions, and handed Avery his bowl and a fork. He immediately started eating, shoveling a massive amount of food into his mouth - he hadn't realized how hungry he was, but this was the first meal he'd eaten since the pastry from Esmerelda's. Kate watched him, and then finally broke the silence.

"You should apply for that job."

Avery stared at her silently, his mouth still half-full of spaghetti. "What?" he finally managed.

"You said they need someone who knows the place, someone honest. That's you."

"But ... but, I can't be a manager. I'm just the guy who drives the bookmobile."

"Listen to yourself. Ave, I love you, but if you've got a fault, it's that you don't apply yourself - you've got no drive," she said, very matter-of-factly. "Hon, you know it. You never push yourself to ..."

Avery cut her off, defensively. "What are you getting at? Are you saying that it's my fault that we're having money problems?"

"No. No, that's not it at all. Jeez, Ave!" she stopped for a second, trying not to get mad. "Dammit, it's just that you're a smart guy. You're organized. You've got seniority. You know those people. There's nothing about that job that you can't do!"

"But ... but ..." Avery was searching for a comeback. He didn't want to admit that he was wrong. "But they don't hire people like me."

"How do you know? Their previous hire didn't exactly work out well. I'm telling you, you should at least apply. I think this could be good for you. For us."

Avery hated arguing with Kate. She was much better at it.

"Avery, you know I'm right. Just apply."

Avery didn't say anything.

"Please, Ave?"

"Fine. Fine," he smiled. "Why do you always have to be right?"

"Just eat your dinner. It's getting cold."