Engall didn’t even cover those.
Jared had only recently come across this sobering information. Six months ago, Manny had fallen off a ladder after being dive-bombed by bird, breaking his collarbone and two little bones in his right hand. Roy had insisted on driving Manny to the hospital rather than calling an ambulance. Manny had never come back to work, but months later, Jared ran into him at a grocery store. Manny told him Roy didn’t cover his employees with accident insurance. Roy had offered to pay half the hospital bill, then laid Manny off. Not being a legal citizen, Manny had not filed a complaint or threatened to sue.
Jared filled in more details on the page with neat, printed letters. He wasn’t good with cursive, but his printing was better than most. He knew he should probably type the list on the computer and save it in a file, but he didn’t type worth a damn. Besides, he thought best with a pencil in his hand. He got up to look at the calendar, found the first Monday in October and wrote October 6 as the day of Manny’s accident.
It was illegal to run a painting crew without accident insurance, wasn’t it? Roy could lose his business license if the state found out. Shame filled Jared’s stomach. He didn’t want to put Roy out of business; he just wanted enough cash to get by while he found other work. He just wanted to keep his family together and happy. A lot of employers gave severance packages when they laid someone off. Wasn’t he entitled to one?
Jared tapped his pencil. He knew there was more to Roy’s dealings. If you worked for someone long enough, you learned all kinds of things about their character and business practices. He remembered something else. Roy sometimes cheated his customers too. If he thought the homeowner wasn’t well informed, he bought cheap paint and charged him for expensive paint. If someone notified all those cheated customers, they could sue Roy. The question was: What would Roy be willing to pay to keep Jared quiet about all of it?
Chapter 5
Jackson glanced at the list of Roy Engall’s alleged infractions, then climbed out of his unmarked blue Impala. A half block away, the river scurried by with a soft summer song. The Engalls lived in the Centennial area, with an address in Eugene, but closer to sister-city Springfield’s downtown. In this neighborhood, nobody cared about zip codes. They were in their own little world where the streets were wide, the homes were spacious, and the sound of the river lulled them to sleep on summer evenings.
Jackson strode past a blue Toyota FJ Cruiser in the driveway on his way to the front door. A tall woman with shoulder-length red hair opened it before he could knock. “What can I do for you?” Her eyes were wary with a hint of anger.
“I’m Detective Jackson with the Eugene Police. I’m here to see Roy Engall.”
“Why?”
“I need to ask him a few questions. Is he here?” Jackson wanted to see if she would cover for her husband’s absence the night before.
“I haven’t seen him since yesterday.”
“What is your name and your relationship to Roy Engall?”
“I’m Noni Engall and Roy is my lousy husband.”
While Jackson wondered how to use the information to win this woman’s confidence, fear transformed her face. “Is Roy okay? Was he in a car accident?”
“I’m not here about an accident. Can I come in, please?”
She hesitated, then stepped back to let him in. Jackson followed her into a spacious living room with overhead skylights. A rosemary potpourri lingered in the air. Noni gestured for him to sit on pale green couch in a patch of indoor sunlight. It made him feel strangely exposed.
“You say you haven’t seen Roy since yesterday. Is it typical for him to be gone overnight?”
“It happens. He gets drunk and crashes on a friend’s couch sometimes.”
“Did you think he’d crashed at Jared Walker’s house?”
“It seems unlikely. Why?”
“Are he and Jared