A Killing in the Valley

by JF Freedman

“Why doesn’t it?”

  “Because they found out who killed her,” he explained. “Some guy from out of town. He’s in jail now. He’s going on trial in a few months. So there was no point in my—our—getting involved.”

  She sat cross-legged on the bed, facing him. “What if the police find out you and your roommate knew Maria?” she asked. “What if they found out you were with her right before she died? That will look like you’re hiding something. What are you going to do then?”

  He went ashen. “How are they going to know? You’re not going to tell them, are you?” He looked like he was about to have a full-blown panic attack.

  “No, I’m not going to tell the police. But what if somebody saw Maria and your roommate together?” she threw out, to see how he would react.

  He started shaking. She had hit a nerve.

  “Peter isn’t connected with her being killed,” he said stubbornly.

  “Are you positive?” she challenged him.

  “Yes,” he insisted. “He had nothing to do with it. They have her killer, in jail.” He got up. “I don’t want to talk about this anymore. I’ve already said more than I should have.” His grip was firm on her arm. “You’re not going to tell anyone, are you? I can trust you, can’t I, Sophia? Please tell me I can trust you.”

  Sophia looked into his eyes. “Yes, Jeremy. You can trust me to try to do the right thing.”

  “Mom!” Urgent whispering, even though there was no one else in the house. “Wake up, Mom!”

  Kate came awake with a start. What time was it? She looked at the digital clock on the television cable box. 11:40.

  “Hi, honey.” She shook her head to clear the cobwebs. “I must have fallen asleep a few minutes ago.” She distinctly remembered the weather report, which came on halfway through the eleven o’clock local news. Had she seen the sports, too? She didn’t remember. “How was your evening?”

  Sophia sat down next to her. “Mom, we need to talk.”

  27

  LUKE, KATE, AND SOPHIA met in Luke’s conference room. Sophia had called in sick (Kate did it for her), so she could take the morning off from school. The bombshell she had dropped on her mother last night had to be dealt with immediately. She could return after lunch, so she wouldn’t miss play practice.

  She recited her story to Luke, leaving out the names.

  “Who’s the friend who told you she had been with Maria and these boys?” Luke asked her, after she had finished.

  “I can’t tell you.”

  “Why not?”

  “Because I promised her I wouldn’t,” Sophia said intransigently. She and Kate had danced around this last night for hours. She had given Tina her word that she wouldn’t betray her, and she was going to stick to that, no matter what.

  “You know, Sophia, I could subpoena you as a witness and take your testimony that way,” Luke said. “Then you’d have to tell us, and at the same time it wouldn’t be like you were giving up your friend.”

  Sophia shook her head doggedly. “I wouldn’t do it, even under oath.” She turned to Kate. “If you did that to me, I’d move out, Mom. I’d go back up north and live with Aunt Julie.”

  Her in-your-face statement—indictment—was so harsh, so unexpected, it took Kate’s breath away. All these months of bonding, and her daughter would think of something that hurtful? She could feel her heart pounding away, somewhere in the vicinity of her knees.

  “You can’t,” she threw back gamely. “You’re still in high school.”

  “I’m over eighteen,” Sophia countered. “I’m legally of age. I can do whatever I want. And live wherever I want.”

  Luke jumped in. “Ladies. Let’s not get crazy, all right? No one’s going to force you to do anything, Sophia. It was a suggestion, to help you get around what I know is a sincere moral dilemma for you.”

  Sophia took a deep breath. “Thank you.” She looked at Kate, who was almost white, the color drained from her face. “I’m sorry, Mom. I didn’t mean that, you know I didn’t. I was just—”

  “I know,” Kate answered. She was sucking wind. For a moment she had actually thought she was going to faint. She looked at Sophia. “It’s Tina, isn’t it? She’s the one who was with Maria and the boys.”

  Sophia stared at the floor.

  Kate answered her own question. “I knew it. Why won’t she talk to us?” she asks. “Was she…” She hesitated.

  “She wasn’t in on Maria getting killed, if that’s what you’re thinking,” Sophia told her sharply. “Not a chance.”

  “Who’s Tina?” Luke interjected.

  “A friend of Sophia’s from high school,” Kate explained.

  “Why can’t she talk to us?” Luke asked Sophia. He glanced at Kate, then added, “Whatever you tell us is in confidence. We won’t betray it. That’s a promise.”

  Sophia ground her fists against her temples. “Oh, shit! I’ll tell you why,” she blurted out. “Because she’s in this country illegally! Her whole family is. If she had to go to a trial and testify in public they could get busted and sent back.”

  “That’s the reason, for real?”

  Sophia nodded.

  “Well, it’s understandable,” Luke said. “Which is why she didn’t go to the police, I assume.”

  “Yes,” Sophia answered. She had betrayed her friend. She felt absolutely miserable.

  Kate took Sophia’s hand. “Honey. We can figure some way out to help Tina, but she has to talk to us. It’s vital.”

  “You can’t talk to Tina, Mom. You can’t!” Sophia said fiercely. “Didn’t you hear what I’ve been telling you? I promised her I wouldn’t tell anybody, not even you. Now I’ve broken my promise, but I’m not going to let you break it,” she added, her voice shaking with moral intensity.

  “Okay,” Luke said calmly. “We hear you. Let’s shelve this for now. What about this boy? What kind of promises did you make him?”

  “The same,” Sophia answered. She was disconsolate over this. There was nothing worse than betraying a confidence. Now she was betraying two. “That I wouldn’t tell anyone.” She looked at Luke. “He doesn’t know my mom is working on the case. He’s going to kill me when he finds out.”

  “You’re using a figure of speech, I hope,” he said. He leaned forward. “There’s a point where protecting a friend, or keeping your word, runs up against the law, Sophia. Which may have happened in this case. Tina’s situation is a gray area, but the boy’s…what’s his name?”

  “Jeremy. Musgrove.”

  “Is clearly beyond any moral protection. He doesn’t have Tina’s problem with anything illegal, does he?”

  Sophia shook her head. “No.”

  “He knew what had happened, but he didn’t go to the police. What reason could he have had?”

  “They were afraid of getting involved,” Sophia said wearily. The more she thought about Jeremy’s reason for not going to the police, the flimsier it sounded.

  “The roommate who’s gone missing. Do you know his name?” Luke asked.

  Sophia nodded. She had committed it to memory. “Peter Baumgartner,” she said in a hollow voice.

  “He lives in L.A.?”

  Another nod.

  “You’ve started this ball rolling, so you’re in this now, whether you want to be or not,” Luke told her without pulling his punches. “But I don’t want to see you get into any trouble because these friends of yours didn’t do the right thing. For now, I’ll hold off on the girl,” he promised her. “If she has to testify at the trial, there’s a way to grant her immunity so she won’t have to fear that her family will be exposed.” He tilted back in his chair, thinking. “Okay,” he said, rocking forward again. “We’ve talked about this enough for now,” he told Sophia. “Go back to school.”

  Sophia looked at Kate. “What about…?”

  “Everything you’ve told us stays in this room,” Luke promised her, “until we figure out how to do this without hurting anyone more than we have to. But I want you to re
member something, Sophia,” he said gravely. “Steven McCoy has been accused of a crime that will send him to jail for the rest of his life if he’s convicted. My duty is to defend him the best I can, which I am going to do. I understand your friends’ concerns, although I think they’re selfish and misguided, particularly this boy’s. But for now, we’ll keep this to ourselves.” He squeezed her shoulder. “This is incredibly helpful. This could turn the tide for us.”

  “Thank you,” she said wearily. “I have play practice after dinner again,” she reminded Kate. “Less than a week to go. So it’ll be a late night.”

  Kate stood up and hugged her. “You did the right thing, honey,” she assured her daughter.

  “I know, Mom,” Sophia answered glumly. “But that doesn’t make it feel any better.”

  After Sophia left, Luke and Kate stared at each other across his desk.

  “This could be a total snipe hunt,” Kate said hopefully. She so didn’t want Sophia dragged into this case. “Do you believe his story? The motivation?”

  “No,” he answered flatly. “It’s too glib, too rehearsed.” He fiddled with a pencil. “I can understand why they kept this hidden. They thought they would come under suspicion, although they probably have credible alibis, or the boy wouldn’t have spilled his guts to Sophia, no matter how besotted he is with her.” He baton-twirled the pencil between his fingers. “Legally, of course, they didn’t have to come forward, but as good citizens, they should have.” He pondered their options for a moment. “No one else knows about this?”

  “I can’t believe this boy would have told anyone else,” Kate assured him. “The boy only told Sophia because he’s hung up on her, as you recognized.”

  She was going to blow her daughter’s budding romance out of the water. Every time she thought they were making progress, up sprung another leak in the relationship. She didn’t know how many more it could take before it sank. Witness how Sophia had almost come unglued a few minutes ago.

  Luke grinned. “She was working her feminine wiles, huh? Did she learn that from you?”

  “I wish. I’ve had more bad experiences with men than good ones. For sure, I haven’t controlled the relationships most of the time.” She shook her head regretfully. “And I’ve usually fucked up the good ones.”

  Luke gave her a funky look, but he didn’t comment about how she’d just peeled off a scab. “Let’s put these two that we know about on ice. They’re not going anywhere. You need to check on the roommate. We have to find out what he was doing the afternoon of the killing.” He shook his head in wonder. “Wouldn’t it be unbelievable if your daughter wound up breaking this case for us.”

  28

  THE PLAY WAS A roaring success. All the kids were terrific, but Sophia stole the show. Kate was admittedly biased, but anyone could see it. Sophia was a natural on stage; you couldn’t take your eyes off her.

  There were half a dozen curtain calls. Sophia’s was the loudest and most raucous. While the adults were clapping loudly, the students, Sophia’s classmates and kids from other classes, were chanting: Sophia Rocks!, as if she had scored the winning touchdown in the championship game. Sophia, standing on the stage with the other cast members, their arms around each other, her face shining with sweat, was radiant. Kate had never seen her so happy.

  She waited outside the stage door with the rest of the parents, grandparents, brothers, sisters, and friends. Sophia was one of the last to come out. She was surrounded by friends—cast members, kids who had worked backstage, including Tina, other kids from school. Kate, suddenly the pushiest mother in the world, thrust her way through the throng to grab her daughter in a fierce embrace.

  “You were so incredible!” She was practically screaming. “You were unbelievable!” She was bouncing up and down on the balls of her feet, she was so excited.

  “Mom, calm down,” Sophia implored her, glancing at her friends to see if her mother’s out-of-control emotionality was rubbing off on her. Nobody seemed to be noticing, or if they did, they didn’t think Kate’s carrying on was a reason for her to be embarrassed. It’s how parents act, they knew; all kids have to suffer through it.

  A strange woman, apparently another mother, butted in on them. “You were wonderful,” the woman gushed to Sophia. “You stole the show completely.”

  “Thank you, but I didn’t,” Sophia demurred. She didn’t want to look like she was a prima donna, even if the raving wasn’t of her doing. “Everybody was really good,” she said, looking over and smiling at the girl who had played Dorothy, who was surrounded by her own entourage.

  The woman ignored her. “Are you the mother?” she asked Kate. Before Kate could even nod “yes,” let alone voice it, the woman continued, “She could have a career.” She reached into her purse for a card, which she thrust into Kate’s hand. “Call me,” she commanded Kate. “I have a jillion friends in the business. This is a talent that must not go to waste.” Turning to Sophia again: “This is the best high school performance I’ve ever seen. Thank you for such a special evening.” She turned and disappeared into the throng.

  “Who was that?” Kate asked, glancing at the card in her hand.

  “Gloria Manning,” Sophia answered. “Her daughter is Nicole. She’s in tenth grade. She was one of the munchkins.”

  “Well, she was certainly taken with you,” Kate said. “Like everyone else.”

  “Mom…”

  Kate read out loud the inscription on the card. “Ivan Reitman Productions.” The name jolted her. “The Ivan Reitman? Ghostbusters?”

  “She’s his line producer. Half the kids in the play have parents in the business. She says that to everyone, Mom.”

  In the business. Meaning movies and television; the only business in southern California, even as far from L.A. as Santa Barbara, that didn’t have to be identified by what kind of business it was. As if it was the only business in the world that mattered. Which to those in it, it was.

  “I’m sure she doesn’t say that to everyone,” she disagreed. “You don’t have to be in the business to see how good you were.”

  Sophia rolled her eyes. “Mom, drop it.”

  “Okay,” Kate said. “Excuse me for being a proud parent.” She could feel tears welling in her eyes.

  “Oh, Mom.” Sophia hugged her. “You’re such a softie.”

  Only about you and your sister, Kate thought. Which I balance out by being too harsh toward the rest of the world.

  “Hello, Mrs. Blanchard,” came a soft voice from behind her.

  She turned. “Hello, Tina.”

  “Did you like the play?” Tina asked shyly. “Sophia was very good, don’t you think?”

  “Yes, to both questions,” Kate answered with a smile. She liked this girl. She hoped she wouldn’t have to hurt her.

  She could feel Sophia’s eyes drilling into her. She turned away from Tina for a moment and looked at her daughter. Their eyes locked—then she gave the most imperceptible of nods. Her secret is safe, she was communicating. At least for now.

  A horde of girls converged on Sophia, other kids from the show. They were all wound up. “Are you coming?” one of them cried out.

  “Of course,” Sophia answered. “We’re going to a party at one of the kids’ houses, in Montecito,” she told Kate. She grinned. “His father’s in the business, too.”

  “Okay.” Kate had hoped they could have their own victory party, but that could wait. “We’ll celebrate tomorrow night, or Sunday.”

  “Tomorrow?” Sophia asked. She seemed flustered. “Why are you coming tomorrow night?”

  “I’m coming every night,” Kate declared. “Tomorrow night and Sunday afternoon.”

  “But Mom…”

  “I’m going to bring Luke and Riva Garrison with me tomorrow night,” Kate went on, oblivious to her daughter’s discomfort. “They’ll love it, you know how much they care about you. And I’m going to call Wanda, see if she can drive down for the Sunday show. She’ll be so tickled to see you in this.�
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  Wanda had always been the more celebrated of her girls. She was a star athlete and a standout student, the valedictorian of her high school class, magna cum laude at Stanford. This was a way to balance the scales between them. Wanda would be as proud of Sophia as she was.

  “Mom…” She pulled Kate off to the side. “I don’t want them coming tomorrow night. Or you, either.”

  Kate was hurt. “Why not?”

  Sophia glanced around to see if anyone was eavesdropping on them, especially Tina. But nobody was paying them the least bit of attention, they were all in their own delirious worlds. “Jeremy’s coming tomorrow night,” she whispered.

  “Jeremy? The boy who…?”

  Sophia nodded. “He doesn’t know what you do. I don’t want him to find out like that. He’s going to freak out when he does. I need to pick the right time and place, so the whole world won’t get splattered when he explodes.”

  Kate thought about how she should deal with this problem. “We could hang back,” she suggested. “He wouldn’t have to know we were there.”

  Sophia shook her head firmly. “No, Mom. Somebody’s bound to point you out to him. Please.”

  Kate gave in. “Okay, I won’t come tomorrow night. We’ll all come on Sunday. Okay?”

  Sophia was relieved. “Okay.”

  She turned to go. Kate stopped her. “I need to explain something, Sophia.” She was deadly serious now. “Luke and I are going to talk to this boy. It’s vitally important to us. I’ll try my best to protect Tina, but there aren’t any guarantees about that, either. But we’ll do what we can to shield her, I promise you that.”

  Sophia stared at her with apprehension. “But Mom…”

  “Don’t forget, the reason you got together with Jeremy in the first place was to find out if he knew about Maria’s killing,” Kate said, overriding Sophia’s objection before she could voice it. “And now you know that he does, from his own mouth. You started this,” she again reminded Sophia. “We’re incredibly grateful and lucky that you did, but you did, and we can’t push the genie back into his bottle. So I’ll respect your wishes about tomorrow night, but we are going to talk to him.”