by Helga Zeiner
“That could mean Tiara is right after all. The Purple Shadow is a woman.”
“Could be. Could very well be.” Macintosh got excited by this theory. “Inez Alvares is the Purple Shadow, and Tiara was raped by a client of her pedophile ring. One of many. It’s her we got to go after.”
Harding nodded. “We have to let Texas know. Once they got her, Josh and his men will catch all the others as well!”
The two detectives opened their beers and saluted each other.
Chapter 55
The following day, their stalled investigative machinery begun to turn again.
First, they ordered Melissa to MCS again. Harding called her at seven to make sure he would reach her before she left the house and told her to show up or he would personally pick her up at her workplace.
“Let’s put the fear of God into her,” Macintosh outlined his strategy. “If we find the slightest proof of her being involved, we book her on the spot.”
Melissa arrived just after nine. She looked unkempt and uncaring. And very tired, like she hadn’t had a decent night’s sleep in ages.
Before the detectives could start their interrogation, she made a foregone conclusion.
“I understand now why Tiara didn’t want to see me. She thinks I knew what was going on with Tony, him taking those horrible pictures, and you think so too. So charge me if you want, I don’t care if you believe me or not. It really doesn’t matter anymore, I have lost everything that was ever dear to me.”
Macintosh took the lead. “As a matter of fact, we don’t think it was Tony who abused Tiara. We are pretty sure by now that he had no knowledge of your daughter’s exploitation.”
Melissa’s expression reflected her inability to understand. “He didn’t?”
“No.”
“But yesterday you said—”
“And we were wrong. I want you to look at part of an interview with him the Texas police taped yesterday.”
“I don’t want to see him.”
“Oh, but I’m sure you do.”
Macintosh clicked the pre-set start button and once more he placed himself so he could watch Melissa’s reaction. Regardless of what she had claimed a second ago, her eyes were drawn to the screen as soon as it lit up. When she recognized Tony, an involuntary deep, anguished sigh escaped her. And then an even louder one when she heard him speak. What he said shook her to the core. By the time he was confessing his feelings for her, tears were streaming down her cheeks. She didn’t wipe them away.
After the section the detectives had selected for her was over, Macintosh switched the computer off, convinced that she was innocent, at least of any active involvement. She couldn’t be such an actor.
“So Gracie lied to me,” Melissa said after several minutes of pent-up silence, with the detectives watching her closely while she was trying to process the information. “Why did she do that?”
“She needed to blame it on somebody in case Tiara would try and talk to you. She wanted to discredit Tony and give you a target for your motherly rage. Her strategy worked, didn’t it? You never questioned your daughter about what had happened on that day.”
Melissa slowly shook her head, too overwhelmed for words.
“But quite frankly, why you wouldn’t know about all those years of exploitation is incomprehensible to us,” Macintosh said.
Melissa shook her head again, more forcefully. “It only happened that one time. I never noticed anything before.”
“You got to be kidding me!”
She threw her hands in the air. “I didn’t even know about that particular incident until Gracie told me. You can’t blame me. I never thought anything like this was possible.”
“Not even when Tiara came home from those so-called photo sessions and seemed aloof and unapproachable? You never tried to get through to her and find out what troubled her so much?”
“Gracie told me some people react like that to the dream-juice.”
“You knew she drugged your daughter?”
“It wasn’t a drug.” Melissa sounded firmer now. “It was just to make her calm. Those sessions took a long time to set up and kids get fidgety. Gracie told me it was only to help the photographer do a good job. What should I have done? Those photo sessions brought in good money, and Gracie always said Tiara liked doing them. I didn’t know there was anything wrong with it. Tiara earned the money we needed to live on, that’s all I knew.”
“That’s all you cared about? The money?” Macintosh could feel the familiar anger poke inside his head with a red-hot lance. He would need a Tylenol tonight. The woman was guilty of so many things, yet there was nothing he could pin on her. Nothing official, that would make her do penance.
“Our Texan counterparts are very keen to find out who the photographer was. I’m sure you can give us his name—”
“I’ve got no idea.”
Macintosh just shook his head, “—as well as the name of Graciella’s friend who has been instrumental in your daughter’s molestation.”
“You mean Tiara’s sponsor?”
“You got a name there?”
“Inez?”
Macintosh just glared at her.
“Well, I guess that’s the one you’re thinking of. Inez was paying for all the pageants. She was working with the photographer, setting up the appointments, and later on she was in charge of selling the pictures to the ad agencies, that’s what Gracie told me anyway. So Inez is to blame for all this; who would have thought? But frankly, I never liked her. She’s always been a bad influence on Gracie.”
Macintosh felt awful. He should have put all the dots together much sooner. Inez was heavily involved in the studio business. She was the one calling the shots from start to finish. She was the sponsor and the Purple Shadow, all in one!
“As Graciella is deceased,” he said, “it leaves only Inez to face the consequences. A warrant for her arrest is out. As soon as the Texans capture her, we’ll find out who else was involved. Did you know that Inez is Tony’s sister?”
Melissa didn’t seem to listen.
“Oh my, Tony. All those things coming out now. I would never have guessed.”
Macintosh suddenly realized that she had totally ignored what he had said. If she had heard it at all, she had shrugged it off. She didn’t waste a single compassionate thought on her daughter. All she was interested in was Tony. Her face was glowing with anticipation and she actually clapped her hands.
“Oh dear Lord, he didn’t lie, did he? He’s telling the truth. He’s been in love with me all along. I need to see him and tell him that I love him too.”
Macintosh drove straight back to the BYSC, without asking for an appointment. They would make Tiara available to him, even on short notice. He felt the desperate need to talk to her and explain things to her.
Driving down Kingsway, he was still fuming. The case was as good as solved. They had the ringleader identified, yet he felt like a failure. It didn’t sit right. The usual shoulder-slapping, silly-grinning satisfaction after a case was untangled hadn’t emerged, neither with him, nor with Harding.
He was twiddling with his phone, when they brought her into the meeting room.
“Hi there,” she greeted him and quickly sat down about five feet away from him. Hands on her thighs, chin down. “What’s up? You found out whom I’ve stabbed?”
“Sorry, no,” he said with a heavy voice. “And we still don’t know who the guys …, the persons who—”
“You mean the ones who raped me?”
Oh God, she didn’t make it any easier for him. Then it crossed his mind that it was a bit selfish to feel sorry for himself, considering the courage it must take her to be so bland.
“Yes. We don’t have their identity yet, not of the motel-man or of the one in the video but they will be caught eventually. Texas police will take care of that and it’ll be only a matter of time before they catch them, and all the others involved.”
She stared at him with dark eyes.
<
br /> “But I got something else for you. We finally have a name to the Purple Shadow.”
Her eyes darkened even more.
“You were right all along, it was a woman. It was Tony’s sister. Her name is Inez Alvares. Does that ring a bell?”
Tiara didn’t answer right away. She seemed different today, more guarded, more reserved. Her eyes dropped, her hands formed fists, like she had to hold back some inner turmoil. Then she looked back at him and her fingers opened up again.
“Can you imagine, in all those years, I didn’t even know Tony’s last name. But I know Inez of course. She was the one who paid for everything.” She halted, looked puzzled, while her mind tried to fit this new information into an existing pattern. “Are you saying you think my sponsor Inez was the Purple Shadow?”
“Yes, we’re pretty sure about that. She either ran the operation herself, as the boss, or worked for some powerful people behind the scene. Your aunt Gracie was her friend and most likely her business partner. Would that make sense?”
Tiara thought about it.
“Sure, it’s possible, why not. I don’t remember much about Inez. And even if I would, I’ve never seen the Purple Shadow without a cover, so I can’t confirm that it was Inez. Does it matter?”
“Not any more, not to you. We’re convinced now Gracie and Inez ran the business together. One of those two must have been pretty savvy with computers.”
“Not Gracie.”
“I wouldn’t think so. It’s up to Texan law enforcement now to deal with this case. It’s out of our hands but whatever they uncover will greatly influence what happens to you. It will prove that you had more than your fair share of … I mean … look, you got a shit hand dealt, kid. Your mother is a piece of work and your own aunt is a sexual predator.”
Tiara burst out laughing.
“And my grandmother is a thief.”
He was taken aback.
“What?”
“She told my mom there were five thousand dollars in Gracie’s room. Did I mention last time that I found the money in the garbage bag? No? Well, I did. On our drive back to Canada, we stopped at a gas station close to the Canadian border. It was pretty cold by then. I was shivering in the thin clothes my mom had dressed me in back in Galveston. While my grandmother went inside to pay for the gas, Mom told me to go to the trunk of our car and look for a sweater in the bags there. That’s when I came across the manila envelope with a big wad of cash in it. I didn’t count it, but it was a lot more than five thousand, believe me. It was all in hundred dollar bills, about two inches of it.”
Macintosh didn’t really know how much that would add up to, but he planned to find out.
“Christ, I bet that must be at least a hundred thousand.”
“Yes, and she never gave it to Mom.” Tiara shrugged. “But then again, Mom didn’t deserve it, right?”
Macintosh felt a bit more cheerful. Melissa being cheated by her own mother, now, that was something he could appreciate.
“Your mom is already making plans to go back to Texas. Hooking up with Tony again.”
All the blood drained from Tiara’s face. Her hands flew to her mouth and her eyelids fluttered. For a second Macintosh thought she would faint, but he knew better than to touch her. Then she lowered her hands again, was visibly fighting for composure.
“Will I have to go back with her if they let me out?”
“Not if I can help it.”
That was another promise he had just given her. One he would fight tooth and nail to keep.
Chapter 56
It was one of those days. Whatever you do, fate, or chance, or destiny, is always a step ahead of you. The harder you try to keep in control of the day’s schedule, Macintosh thought, the progression of events gives you the middle finger.
Harding called him on his way back to MCS, informing him that law enforcement in Texas had tracked down the last known address of Inez Alvares. They were already on the way over there with a still ink-wet warrant for her arrest. How he would have loved to have had that information an hour earlier. He was briefly tempted to turn around and drive back to the Center. Tiara would surely sleep better, knowing the Purple Shadow would soon be in custody.
It might even have jolted her memory, opening up the last locked door to make the Starbucks incident more explainable. With Dr. Eaton’s report already on the judge’s desk and their own investigation wrapping up at lightning speed, it was more important than ever to find out quickly what had driven her to stab the victim.
His bet was she had attacked a total stranger because she looked Hispanic and reminded her of the sponsor. The dreaded trigger effect. Maybe the stranger had insulted her, aggravated her somehow.
Standing at yet another red light, he fished for the card with the number of St Paul’s and dialed just in time before the light turned green again. He put the call on speaker and drove on. After a few minutes and several transfers, he got hold of the doctor currently on duty, a Dr. Vanderhoof.
Macintosh listened with rising excitement to the doctor’s brief summary of the victim’s condition. The CT scan had confirmed normal brain activities and the endotracheal tube had already been removed some days ago. It was now possible to speak to her, if only under doctor’s supervision. She was still quite weak and should not be subjected to unnecessary excitement, but she made remarkable progress, short of a miracle.
Macintosh called Harding, who was also immediately excited when he heard the news.
“I’ll meet you there,” he said, “don’t you dare go in without me.”
Macintosh changed route and turned left onto Broadway. Ten minutes later he was driving over Burrard Bridge, and another five minutes after that he parked close to the Emergency entrance at a special permit spot reserved for police cars.
It took all of Macintosh’s discipline to wait for his partner. Ten, fifteen minutes went by. While several ambulances drove into the delivery area to unload their patients, Macintosh withdrew into a corner of the reception area to get away from the hectic sounds of saving lives. Way too many things rubbed him the wrong way nowadays. His dilemma was, he wanted to turn the clock back without having to go back. He didn’t want to live through his past again. Too many painful memories.
That’s what he admired about Tiara. Her memories must hurt like hell, yet she had been doing her best to bring them on.
All they needed now was to establish the identity of the victim. Fingers crossed that she had given Tiara motive. Surely the judge would take her past into consideration. Please, God, give me something the judge can use to make her treatable, as Dr. Eaton put it. Something that would at least get her a lighter sentence.
His prayers were interrupted by Harding’s arrival.
“Sorry I’m late. I was ready to leave when the Sergeant asked for a final brief on the South Vancouver case. Had to hang around and couldn’t call you.”
Macintosh waved it away. The victim wasn’t going anywhere soon, so half an hour more or less didn’t really matter.
“Let’s go and find this super-duper important doctor.”
They went up to the sixth floor where the intensive care unit was stationed and had to wait another twenty minutes before the doctor in charge finally came up to them.
“I’m Dr. Vanderhoof,” he said.
“I’m Detective Macintosh. This is my partner, Detective Harding. Good of you to see us.”
“Sure, sure,” Vanderhoof’s apparent hastiness seemed slightly disdainful. “You’re lucky you caught me. My shift ended over an hour ago.”
Macintosh squinted annoyed.
“We don’t want to hold you up longer than necessary. We are here to see the coma patient from the Starbucks stabbing who can now be questioned. It was me you were talking to on the phone earlier on.”
“Yes, I know that. By the way, we got her name now.”
“How come?” Macintosh asked. “She had no ID on her.”
Dr. Vanderhoof looked mildly forgiving at the
detectives.
“It is normal procedure to ask patients for their name when waking them up from a prolonged period of unconsciousness. That’s the first thing we ask.”
“And?” Macintosh asked. “What did she say?”
“I was actually on duty on that day when she came to. Her name is…, hold on, let me double check to make absolutely sure. I did write it down.”
He walked over to the reception desk, asked the nurse for a file and took the few steps back to where the detectives were waiting, leafing through it.
“Here it is. Her name is Graciella.”
Chapter 57
The doctor didn’t give the detectives much time to digest the news. He ushered them into the hospital room, pointing out that they had ten minutes max, as long as they didn’t upset his patient.
The woman was still connected with various tubes to several machines. The left side of her face was heavily bandaged, the right was distorted by swelling. Nobody would recognize her like this, but the detectives didn’t plan on letting her find out. A blitz attack was needed to make the most of this shocking new development, and Macintosh signaled to Harding that he would give it a try.
“Graciella Rodriguez,” he coaxed with his softest voice. “How nice to see you coming around.”
She cocked her head to move the three men in front of her bed into her one-eyed vision. “Who are you?”
“We are detectives from the Vancouver Police Department in charge of investigating the attack on you.”
Her right eye stared at him, watchful, warily.
“So?”
“So we’ve been waiting for you to get well enough to talk to us. We just need to confirm a few details to wrap up the case. I’m sorry we don’t have any good news for you regarding your attacker.”
The eye clouded over.
“The young person escaped. Obviously a drug addict. So sorry.”