A Deadly Blessing

by Kathy Bennett

one."

  Preston rose from his desk with a sigh and walked over to a small cabinet. After opening the two top doors, he reached inside and pulled out a bottle of scotch. "Okay fine. Has the all-knowing LAPD made any progress in the McCall case?" Preston watched Bain's gaze shift to the clock on the wall, then return to him and narrow as he poured two fingers of amber liquid into a highball glass.

  "They didn't say. I'm guessing they got sidetracked when Tiffany went missing."

  "Well, let's be sure we get all the paperwork we have on McCall to them." He took a large swallow of his drink. "If Tiffany's disappearance is related to Heather's, I want the police to have as much info as possible. This nightmare continues to get worse."

  Bain nodded, then hesitated. "Sir, with all this extra attention focused on you and your actions, you'll need to present an irreproachable image until Tiffany is found and this all blows over. You'll have to control—"

  "You don't tell me what I can and can't do, Bain. Your job is to make sure my proclivities don't come back and bite me in the ass." Preston guzzled the remainder of his scotch and wiped his mouth with a flourish. "Now, we've got three young women who've disappeared; my daughter amongst them. Why don't you start worrying about that and leave me the hell alone?"

  PILAR – 30

  When Pilar got back to City Hall, her assistant Crystal followed her into her inner office.

  "Mayor, there is some man named Zepeda Sorriano who keeps calling—a lot. He said he'd met you last night and you'd requested him to set up an appointment."

  Pilar felt herself frown and then quickly relaxed the muscles in her face. No need in helping the aging process. "Yes, yes," she said, nodding. "I promised to find some money to fund one of his EGA gang centers here in Los Angeles." She gave her assistant a smug smile. "I even got Preston to pledge some of the state's money as well."

  Crystal nodded her head in admiration.

  "Do I have any room on my schedule to meet with Mr. Sorriano in the next couple of days?"

  "I think tomorrow morning is fairly clear. How long do you think you'll need?"

  Pilar thought for a moment. "No more than a half-hour."

  "I'll check the schedule, but I think tomorrow morning will be fine. If Mr. Sorriano calls again, do you want to talk to him?"

  "Um, no. I'd rather do all our business in person. And Crystal, the situation regarding the governor isn't to be shared."

  "Of course. Thank you, mayor. Can I get you anything?"

  "No, not right now."

  After her assistant left the office, Pilar logged onto her city computer and typed the name Heather McCall into a search engine. When hundreds of responses displayed, she tried to narrow the search by inputting the word "nanny" after Heather's name. Still pages of possible hits. "Screw it, Pilar. You've got a city to run. Let the police do their job and find this woman."

  SECTION FOUR (Chapters 31 – 40)

  MADDIE – 31

  After Penny dropped her bombshell that another girl was with Tiffany when she went missing, we couldn't get out of the governor's mansion fast enough. This case was like a September brushfire, spreading faster than we could put resources on it.

  The knot in my gut was relentless. Tiffany and her friend were in danger. I felt it in my bones. I didn't want them to wind up like typical abduction victims – raped and dead.

  Once we were back at PAB, I grabbed some other detectives to help me stash the CHP cops and the teenaged girls in separate interview rooms. I hated to take the other investigators away from their work; we've all got so much more to do, what with hiring and promotional freezes due to the economy. Worse yet, I had a feeling we'd need some of these people until the case was solved.

  Darius and Larry-the-Wife-Beater had their heads together over my partner's desk. Darius looked up when he saw me approaching. "We figured it would be best if you talked to the girls and I talk to the cops," he said.

  "Makes sense to me. I'm sure the girls will be more comfortable talking to a female. Besides, I'm much closer to them in age than you are," I joked.

  "Divine, I'm glad you're finding this whole thing funny," my boss sneered. "Perhaps the seriousness of the situation hasn't sunk in. The governor's daughter is missing, along with two other women. When this hits the news, the media will go nuts. I want to get this case solved and solved fast."

  "Lieutenant, I am taking this seriously, and some of us need a little humor to cope in stressful times. Maybe you should try it once in a while."

  Darius quickly moved between the wife-beater and me. "Come on guys. Each and every one of us wants to get these girls home safely. Maddie, get started with Penny Ritter. The governor said Tiffany was supposed to spend the night at her house."

  Once again my partner played the diplomat to keep my ass out of a sling. Not the first time, and probably not the last, at least as long as I work for Larry-the-Wife-Beater. I'm lucky to have Darius for a partner, and smart enough to know it.

  Wordlessly, I moved over to my desk, unlocked the drawers and pulled out a tablet of white lined paper. I pulled out a second pad and offered it to Darius. "You'll probably need more paper than this. Those CHP guys have a mountain of shit to dig themselves out of." This bit of humor was for my partner as an apology for me being a pain in the ass.

  Darius fought a slight smile and took the paper.

  One good thing about the PAB being newer is that not much of the equipment has had a chance to break—yet. On the other hand, because we weren't as familiar with the video recording devices, we could only hope we had everything hooked up properly.

  I gave a quick tap to the door of the interview room before I entered. It seemed like a common courtesy to me.

  Penny looked tired and I imagined her parents had given her hell for the circumstances. I mean, who wants to be the parents who are supposed to be watching the governor's daughter and then she disappears on them?

  Penny's parents sat stony-faced next to her as I read their daughter her Miranda rights and confirmed she didn't want an attorney.

  Mr. Ritter's florid complexion led me to believe he knew how to pound back a cocktail or two, and did so fairly often. "I don't understand why you're readin' Penny her rights. She didn't do anything and has nothing to hide. That's why she doesn't need an attorney."

  Although I'd explained Mirandizing Penny was to protect both the department and their daughter's rights, I went through it again. I must have channeled Darius's calm demeanor, because I didn't even sound the slightest bit annoyed at having to make the explanation twice in five minutes.

  I began the interview and learned the girls found out about the party from someone at school on Thursday. They weren't told until the night of the party where it was going to be, and they learned the location when it was texted to a bunch of their friends.

  Penny said Tiffany was the ringleader, and came up with the plan to distract her security detail. Tiffany hated the fact she was sick so much of the time and her father treated her like an invalid.

  I let her tell me the story in her own words, but then she started drifting into minutiae, so I reeled her back in. "Okay, so you've ditched the security guys, you're at the party, and everyone but Tiffany is drinking."

  Penny nodded her head.

  "Diana and I were on the back patio dancing and, through the windows, we could see Tiffany sitting at the foot of the stairs with some black guy. We'd never seen him before. Somebody told me his name was Dre. He was really good-looking and Tiffany seemed to like him."

  "Why do you say that?"

  "Oh, just the way she'd smile at things he'd say and stuff." Penny tossed her straight blonde hair over her shoulder. "Then we saw Brenda come up and start talking to them. Bren was totally wasted and pushing her boobs in the guy's face."

  "What did Tiffany do?"

  "Nothing. When Brenda gets drunk—" Penny suddenly realized her parents were paying close attention. "Well, uh, Tiffany wasn't mad or anything. But Brenda left anyway. She went to
the back of the house. I'd heard they were showing dirty movies back there, but," she shot another look at her mom and dad, "I didn't go look."

  "So then what happened?"

  "I'm not too sure. I was watching Diana playing beer pong. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Tiffany and the guy holding Brenda up and taking her out the front door. I tried to tell Diana we should go see what was wrong, but it was her turn, and by the time her turn was over and we went to look for them, they were gone."

  "Did you ask around and see if anyone else had seen them leave?"

  Penny nodded. "We asked a few people, but everyone was drunk and really weren't paying any attention."

  I felt a headache coming on. I knew Darius and I would wind up interviewing dozens of kids from the party, and it would be a herculean effort. The case kept getting worse and worse.

  "Okay, I want you to describe the guy you saw Tiffany and Brenda leave with."

  Penny told us we were looking for a male Black or possibly a Black/Hispanic mix. Good looking and dressed trendy, but nice. He was older, probably in his mid-twenties. He had big stud diamonds in both ears, but he looked cool, not like he was trying too hard.

  I asked Penny if she thought she'd be able to work with a sketch artist on a composite.

  "I guess so, but I really didn't get a good look at him."

  That was enough for me.

  Before I sent for the sketch artist, I asked her to write out a list of the people she knew at the party. She rolled her eyes at me, but I didn't react