by Неизвестный
“She doesn’t have a car?”
“I’m not giving her this address.”
“I thought you trusted her.”
“I do.” Mostly. “This is a precaution.” He tossed her a burner phone. “My number is in there. Call me if you hear or see anything suspicious. I’ll call you if I need you to get out fast. If there’s any trouble and you can’t reach me, call Lucky. I’ll be back in thirty minutes.”
# #
Jake arrived early and watched the parking lot. Maddie arrived exactly twenty minutes after their call and parked her efficient Honda Accord at the edge of the parking lot.
Angel had called Maddie his girlfriend, but nothing could be further from the truth. It was clear from the minute he met Maddie that she wanted to fix people. She thought he was broken and her job was to make him whole. She’d done a good job fixing the situation of his attack on his partner, but he refused to be treated as damaged. He was who he was. He didn’t have a problem with it. At least he was fucking honest with himself and recognized his faults.
But Angel had picked up on something he hadn’t spoken about. He wanted a woman like Maddie — smart, independent, compassionate, beautiful. Hell, he wanted Maddie Burke so bad he’d risked his heart. He wasn’t surprised that she’d shot him down. After all, he’d been her client, he’d been on the verge of going to prison, and he had nearly beaten a man to death with his fists. All the jobs she’d sent his way since his release were charity, as far as he was concerned. They’d met a couple of times at her office, but she’d made it clear that their relationship was only professional.
It had bothered him before, but now that Angel was in his life, it bothered him less. He had more important things to worry about than his love life.
When Jake was certain no one had followed Maddie, nor had she brought in the police, he approached her car.
She immediately stepped out. She was still the same gorgeous brunette with porcelain skin and sexy red lips. “Jake. You’re okay.”
“Of course I am.”
“I heard about what happened at your apartment.”
“They were after Angel.” He gestured for her to follow. “Come with me.”
“I’ll follow you.”
He stared at her. “Maddie, if you don’t do this my way, leave now. If you ever trusted me, believe me when I tell you Angel is being set-up.”
She bit her bottom lip. “Okay,” she finally said.
She looked surprised when he handed her a helmet. “Put it on,” he said. “It’s the law.”
She did, then got on Lucky’s bike behind him. Her arms tentatively wrapped around his waist.
“You’d better hold on a whole lot tighter unless you want to fall off.” Jake started the bike and took off. Her arms immediately tightened and her chest flattened against his back. He grinned and rode faster than he needed through Los Feliz, taking a long way to get to Cutler’s house. He was confident she wasn’t watching the scenery and wouldn’t be able to give accurate information on their location.
He pulled straight up the driveway, all the way to the back of the house, before shutting off the bike. Maddie still clung to him. He took off his helmet and said, “Maddie, we’re here.”
She practically jumped off, tripped, and fell on her ass. He offered his hand to help her up, but she declined. “You did that on purpose,” she said after removing her helmet.
“Let’s go in.”
“Where are we?”
“Better you don’t know.”
She stopped on the small deck outside the back door. “Why don’t you trust me?”
“It’s for your own protection. You’re an officer of the court. I think it’s better that you do what you need to do for Angel, then I’ll take you back to your car.”
She glared at him, but he tried not to read anything into her expression.
Jake let himself in. Angel wasn’t in the kitchen or living room. A faint hum came from the house. “Angel?”
She emerged from the hall. “I set up the equipment in the back bedroom,” she said. “I found chairs in the garage.” She gave Maddie the once over. “I’m Angel.”
“Madeleine Burke,” Maddie said formally. She, too, was assessing Angel with just as much scrutiny. “I’m a criminal defense lawyer for McCarthy & Horowitz.”
When Angel didn’t say anything, Jake said, “You’re supposed to be impressed.”
Angel shrugged. “I’m impressed,” she said in a flat tone. “Can we get this over with?” She went back to the bedroom and Jake followed with Maddie.”
“I’ve been listening to the scanner Lu — ” she stopped with a narrowed glance at Maddie. Jake should expect that Angel wouldn’t trust anyone, though she’d seemed to accept Lucky readily enough. “And,” she continued, “there’s nothing of interest. At least as far as we’re concerned. So, how do we do this? I got a video camera here, a couple chairs, is this like an interview or what?”
“Maybe you should tell me everything first, then give a formal statement. I can’t edit the tape — ”
Angel cut her off. “Look, Ms. Important Lawyer, I haven’t slept in two days and I’ve told this story so many times, I’m only going to say it once more. I need this over with. Okay? You ask me anything, I’ll tell you the truth. Then I’m done.”
Jake made sure the camera was set up properly, then he muted the police scanner. He turned to Angel and said, “It’s going to be okay, kid. I won’t let anything happen to you.”
“If you’re alive,” she muttered and turned away.
“What?” He spun her around. “What does that mean?”
“It means that someone wants me dead, and they’ll kill you to get to me.”
“I survived Afghanistan, I can survive L.A.”
She shrugged and turned away, but not before Jake saw how scared she really was.
Maddie didn’t seem to know what to do anymore than Jake did. Angel sat down in one of the folding chairs and said, “Lights! Camera!”
Jake turned the recorder on and confirmed that it was working. Maddie sat down in the chair next to the video and said, “Please give us your name, address, and birth date for the record.”
After the formalities were out of the way, Maddie asked, “Angel, state for the record what happened on Saturday night.”
Angel said, “Shouldn’t I go back farther? To when Raul Garcia killed the two women?”
“If you’d like to start there.”
“It’s all connected. Two weeks ago, my best friend Marisa called me begging to pick her up. She said something bad was happening and she was scared. I went to get her, and she and George Garcia were arguing outside this warehouse. George wouldn’t let me take her, so I followed them inside and — ”
She hesitated. Jake knew hesitation wasn’t good because it would make a judge or jury think she was making up the story. Maddie prompted her. “And then what?”
“Two girls — about nineteen or so — were being raped by Raul’s gang. Six of them. They were, um, nearly done, and the girls were swearing and crying and one of them jumped on Raul. He hit her and took out a gun. He spoke only in Spanish, and I’m not fluent, but I think he said that they deserved everything they got because they sided with the wrong people. Then he just shot them. Two bullets each. He turned to me and Marisa standing behind George and started swearing at his brother. George talked to him, alone, and Raul came back and said if we told anyone what happened, he’d do the same thing to us.”
As she spoke, her face paled and she was shaking. Jake’s fists were clenched and he barely resisted the urge to hit the wall. This was the first time he’d heard the whole story.
Maddie, too, seemed to be affected. “And did you tell anyone?”
“Not for a week. But I couldn’t sleep, and I didn’t hear anything about the girls on the news, like they weren’t important enough for anyone to know that they’d been raped and murdered. Like because they were Mexican hookers they deserved it or something. I got s
o mad, at the Garcias, and at Marisa and me for not stopping them. I talked Marisa into going to the police. We took the bus downtown, talked to a cop.”
“Do you remember the officer’s name?”
“Jimenez. I don’t remember his first name. He took down everything we said and then said someone would call us.”
“Did someone?”
“Kristina Larson. The ADA. She asked us to come to her office on Tuesday, which we did. We each gave our statement, and Larson said to come back on Thursday for a follow-up, she needed to talk to the investigators or something. She threw around a bunch of terms I wasn’t paying attention to because Marisa was getting hysterical. On the bus home, Marisa just fell apart and said she couldn’t do it, she didn’t want to die.” Angel’s voice trailed off. Then she cleared her throat and said, “Marisa disappeared that night and I started looking for her. I came home Wednesday and there were two guys lurking outside who I knew were with G-5. I left. Found out my mom was arrested for drunk driving when her counselor called me, so I lied and said I was staying with Marisa. But I missed the meeting with Larson on Thursday — I didn’t want to go without Marisa. I called her and told her, she said I had to go down, that she needed more information before Monday when she needed to present everything to her boss. We kind of argued about it, and then she said I was a material witness to a homicide and needed to be in custody. I said hell no and hung up.”
Maddie asked. “Then how did you end up in juvenile detention?”
“I don’t know. The cop who picked me up said it was a bench warrant because I missed a court date. I didn’t think she’d do it.”
“I don’t understand.”
“She said she’d have me and Marisa arrested if we weren’t at her office by five on Thursday.”
Maddie walked Angel through what happened at the group home, and everything up until they arrived here, at Cutler’s. The whole interview took nearly an hour, and then Maddie shut off the tape and took it out. She stared at it as if not knowing what to do. Jake said, “You can get that to the DA, right?”
Maddie nodded. “There’s so much wrong with this I don’t even know where to start.”
“Wrong?” Angel said. She looked defeated and wholly unlike the fighter Jake had rescued from the warehouse less than twenty-four hours ago, but her voice was strong. “Everything I said was the truth!”
“I believe you,” Maddie said, surprised by Angel’s outburst. “It’s the process — this isn’t how the DA’s office should have handled this. I need to talk to my boss — ”
“No,” Jake and Angel said simultaneously.
Jake said, “Maddie, you can’t tell anyone. Not until I know she’s safe.”
“She needs to turn herself in,” Maddie said. “Once she gives her statement to the police about the shooting in Reseda, they can put her in protective custody. I’ll be there the whole time.”
“No,” Angel said. “You promised!”
“I promised I’d listen,” Maddie said. “Jake, you know I’m right.”
Jake grabbed Maddie by the arm. He pulled her into the living room. His voice low, he said, “You get that tape to the DA himself, you represent Angel in court, she doesn’t have to be there, not until we know who put out the hit on her. Larson or this cop Jimenez or someone else in the DA’s office. Right now the most important thing is that she’s safe.”
“I agree. Jake, I believe her. It’s just that — ”
“What? You don’t think I can keep her safe?”
“I know you can. But a cop is dead. This tape isn’t going to clear her name. She has to come in.”
“And can you guarantee she’ll be in my sight every minute? Or yours? Can you guarantee her safety?”
“The system isn’t as broken as you think.”
“Like hell it isn’t!” Jake stepped back. He needed to figure out what to do. “Stay here,” he ordered.
“I’m not going anywhere.”
Jake went back to the bedroom. Angel was still sitting in the metal chair, her head in her hands. “Hey.”
She looked up. Her eyes were red, but dry. “Tell me what to do.”
He knelt in front of her and looked her in the eye. “Why didn’t you tell me what you really saw?”
“I want to forget. But when I try to sleep, it’s all I see.”
Jake had memories from the war, from the L.A. streets. He was a grown man and there were times he couldn’t forget, he couldn’t purge the images of blood and death and violence that haunted him. “Honey, I wish I could turn back time.”
She stared at him and smiled, just a bit, but it relieved him.
“Lie down,” he said. “Sleep.”
She whispered, “Be careful.”
“I should be saying the same thing to you.”
Jake left her in the bedroom and found Maddie standing by the empty fireplace, in the dark living room, the only light coming from the kitchen, casting long shadows on the walls. “She’s my daughter,” he said.
“I know.”
“She’s not safe in the system.”
“Yes, she will be.”
“You can’t promise me that.”
Maddie turned around. “And you can’t protect her for the rest of her life. You haven’t even been in her life!”
“I’m going to change that.”
“How?”
“Her mother is an alcoholic. She’s in detox for the next thirty days. I’m not perfect, but I can do better. Do you realize all the child support I’ve paid went to Gina, not Angel?”
“When you told me about that arrangement, I said you should go to court.”
He regretted how he’d handled Gina and the news he was a dad, but he couldn’t change the past. He could, however, change the future.
He said, “I need you to get that tape to the right people and call me on my burner phone. Let me know when they’re not looking at her as an accessory to murder.”
“Do you know what you’re doing here?”
“Yes.” No. Jake was taking it moment by moment. It had served him well overseas, it had helped him survive prison, it would work now.
Maddie shook her head and glanced at her phone. “You haven’t been thinking since you found her. You’ve been reacting. This isn’t war. There’s a system in place to protect kids like Angel.”
“Don’t be a Pollyanna. You should know better.”
Jake grabbed Maddie’s wrist and took the phone from her hand.
“Hey! Give that back!”
She’d been attached to the phone from the minute she walked out of the bedroom. Jake should have taken it away when they got here, but he didn’t think she could be this sneaky.
He scrolled through her recent calls and text messages. She’d been texting Tommy Lind, told him to follow her GPS.
Jake took the battery out of her phone and threw it across the room. “I was wrong about you.”
“You knew that you were in over your head, that you can’t protect Angel. I believe her statement. I know she’s innocent, and I’ll make sure she gets a fair shake.”
“She shouldn’t have to be part of this at all! Why Tommy? Because he’s my friend?”
“He called me, before I talked to you. Said you’d told him you had information about Angel but didn’t tell him she was your daughter, or that you had her. Why’d you lie to him?”
“Don’t turn this around on me!”
“I can arrange her surrender, her arraignment, get her to a safe place.”
“Bullshit!”
“If she continues running, it’s going to make everything worse. You’re going to jeopardize yourself.”
“It’ll be worse if she’s dead,” he said and started down the hall.
She grabbed his arm. “I can’t let you leave.”
“How are you going to stop me?” He pushed her off him. His chest hurt, as if he’d run a marathon with a broken rib. He knew Maddie believed in the system; he hadn’t believed she could be so deceptive.
“Angel, we gotta go.”
He looked around the room. She wasn’t there. He checked the other bedroom, the bathroom, the den — she was gone.
“Dammit!”
Maddie stared at him. “She left?”
“She must have heard us talking. She’s freaked out and you just made everything worse!” He stared at her. “If anything happens to Angel, it’s your fault.”
But Jake didn’t believe that. If anything happened to Angel, it was on him. He’d promised he’d protect her. She was counting on him, but he was the one who brought in Maddie. Because he thought … hell, he didn’t know what he was thinking.
A car pulled up into the driveway. Jake intended to run out the back, but first looked to see what he was facing. There was one unmarked car. Two cops. The driver got out. Tommy Lind.
Jake opened the door. “She’s gone.” He glanced up and down the street and didn’t see any other sign of cops.
Tommy stared at him for a second before he comprehended what Jake meant. “Where?”
“She heard Maddie and me arguing, knew you were coming. She’s terrified and now she’s out there with the G-5 and LAPD searching for her. I have to find her.”
“Don’t worry about the LAPD,” Tommy said. “Jim Friday regained consciousness an hour ago. Gave a statement that Angel saved his life, she saw the shooters first and told him to duck. He overheard two of the gang saying they wouldn’t get paid without the girl dead. The gang unit called in favors and learned the G-5 put the hit on Angel because she saw Raul kill two Cedros Street women. And it’s clear that Cedros Street retaliated by killing Raul’s brother.”
And Angel’s friend, Marisa.
“Why didn’t you tell me she was your daughter?” Tommy asked.
“Because you thought she was involved.”
“I would have listened to you.”
Jake didn’t have time to argue. “I have to find her. She couldn’t have gone far.” He reached toward his back to check his gun, and saw the writing on his hand. Angel had been right there with him when he wrote Larson’s address on his hand.