Toby, however, not only got up from his seat, but also picked the photo up and whistled through his teeth. “Shit! This pic’s better than any I found. Please, oh please, tell me he bats on my team!”
“Sorry to disappoint you, but he most definitely plays a whole different sport,” SarahJune informed him as she snatched the photo out of his hands. “I’ll admit, he’s pretty good looking, and I even thought he was worthy to be the target of my not-so-school-girlish fantasy, but I’ve changed my mind. The more I found out, the ickier he got.”
“Really?”
“Really.” SarahJune gave a sigh that encapsulated a perfect blend of disgust and disillusionment and turned the photo face down. “Okay, here goes. Jake Dimitri Anthony was born just outside of Atlanta on September 10, 1979 at 10:16 in the morning. That makes him thirty-six and, just in case either of you care, that makes him a Virgo.”
“Thank goodness he’s not into men!” Toby interjected. “Our star signs aren’t compatible.”
SarahJune ignored him. “His family, consisting of father, Peter Anthony, and mother, Jocasta Anthony, moved here in the early 1990’s when Jake was about eleven years old. By that time, sister Jill was in the picture, but we’ll get to her later. Dad was employed in a series of mid-level management jobs while in Georgia, but was let go from the last of them right before the move. From what I can tell, it appeared to have been a pretty straightforward lay-off, although his job history does make me wonder if there was another reason. I tried to chase that down, but didn’t have any luck. Anyway, within six months of relocating, he died in a three-car pile-up on the interstate during afternoon rush hour. The police report was pretty inconclusive about what caused the accident, and only the basic details made the paper. Jake was an average student, although, he did pretty well in music, and later in—wait for it—speech and drama. Even then, he was a good looking guy.”
She paused and slipped another photo from the constraining paperclip and placed it in front of them. “Here we see a clipping featuring Jake and his date all dressed up for senior prom. The lovely couple was featured in the arts and entertainment section of the Sunday paper, and I was able to pull it from their online files. It’s pretty grainy, but it’s him.”
Melba picked up the clipping and gave it a once over. It was pretty poor quality, but it was clearly the young man in question. “He’s prettier than she is. Any idea who the girl is?”
“Nope, not a clue. The copy under the photo simply read ‘Local High School Drama Star and Date Attend Prom.’ There’s no mention of the girl’s name.”
“How’d he make it into the paper? I know things can be slow around here, but this hardly seems to be news.”
“I’m glad you asked, Toby. It was in the paper ‘cause his proud momma sent it to them.”
“How’d you find that out?”
“Not telling. Let’s just say, I have my sources. Moving right along. Jake graduated, and I lost his trail for a couple of years. But then, I stumbled onto copy of a program flyer from an off, off, off Broadway show. Our budding star was listed in the credits. Having found that nugget, I found a review that praised his performance in a ‘small but critical’ role. The reviewer was writing for a free, independent arts magazine which was located in Greenwich Village. There were a lot more reviews from mainstream publications about much bigger and better roles. He hit gold a year or two later in a revival of a pretty big musical, and then had a respectable run in a very artsy, dramatic piece by a well-respected playwright. A scout saw him sometime during this period and before long, he began appearing in film. His biggest and most famous role was as a dark and enigmatic hot dog vendor who wins the lotto in the smash hit Mustard and Miracles.”
“Catchy title,” Melba couldn’t help observing.
“Yeah, it sucks, but the movie was actually pretty good and did well at the box office. I remember seeing it when it first came out. There were a couple of big names in it, although Jake pretty much stole the show. He had a couple of more modest successes and then snagged a big deal in the form of a television show. Remember? He played a single dad with triplets. Sounded like it should have been a comedy, but it was actually billed as a family drama. Here’s a production photo.”
“I kind of remember it.” Toby looked over the picture which featured a somewhat older Jake Anthony seated on the floor surrounded by toddlers and a ton of toys. Three Times the Love. “Who comes up with these names? Like I said, I vaguely recall it, but I guess I wasn’t watching much TV those days. Did it last long?”
“I didn’t watch it, either. However, to answer your question, it was a big breakout hit the first season, and then for some unexplained reason, it just stopped right smack in the middle of season two. I have an idea or two about what might have happened, but I’m getting ahead of myself. Jake made a few commercials for some well-known brands—some outside the United States for some very curious products—and showed up at significantly fewer red carpet events, but other than that, things kind of dried up. As far as I’m able to tell, he hasn’t worked in the last three or four years, which is apparently the kiss of death in Tinsel Town, unless you’re a Hollywood legend. His current SAG and Equity profiles don’t even list an agent anymore.”
“That all you got?” Toby challenged.
SarahJune narrowed her eyes, but to outward appearances, remained unruffled by his question. “No. There’s one other thing I put together, or think I did, anyway. Here’s the deal: no matter how hard I looked, I couldn’t find anything outright scandalous about him.”
That caught Melba’s attention. “What do you mean?”
“Well, a celebrity of his caliber can’t avoid the tabloids, no matter how hard they try. It’s weird that there’s not a single report of drunken binges, wild partying in St. Tropez or wherever, or a child borne out of wedlock. And when I say nothing showed up, I mean nothing showed up.”
“You done?” Toby asked, a bit impatiently in Melba’s estimation. He looked like a cat with a mouth full of canary, and his smugness filled the room.
SarahJune shot him an impressively evil glare and collected her papers and clipped them back together. “Yeah, hot shot. It’s all yours.”
Toby opened his own folder and pulled out a much smaller stack than SarahJune had started with. “Okay, before I start, I’ll admit, you found some pretty good stuff. I had some of it, but in all fairness, I didn’t spend as much time as you did on his schooling and early professional years. You beat me fair and square in those areas. However, I found something that I bet neither of you did.” He let his statement hang in the air for a minute to build anticipation. “The reason you didn’t find out anything shocking about our boy Jake is because you didn’t look in the right place.” He placed three print-outs on the table face down, like precisely dealt cards. “You didn’t look outside the country.”
“I didn’t even know I could do that!”
Toby shrugged. “Sorry. I’ll show you how later,” he offered. “Right after I finish the lunch you’ll be buying.” When SarahJune failed to rise to his bait, he turned over the first sheet. “Exhibit one: American Movie Star Caught in Underage Sex Scandal.” With a flourish, he turned over the next. “Exhibit two: Parents Claim Teenaged Daughter Raped by Hollywood Leading Man. And finally, the best of the best..” He hesitated in turning over the final sheet, building their curiosity.
“Oh, just do it already!”
“Okay, but be prepared to concede defeat, SarahJune.” He slowly revealed his piece de résistance. “Is Jake Anthony Married to a Child Bride?”
“OMG!” SarahJune’s exclamation was an almost perfect blend of disgust and titillation.
Melba raised her mug in salute. “Good work. How’d you find these?”
“Well, to give her due credit, SarahJune was on the right track. I realized pretty quickly that there was something fishy about the lack of stories in the press, and I ah…well, I read the user manual to figure out how to expand the search. Did you know w
e had international access to some databases?”
“Nope. That’s news to me. Madame Zhou must have sprung for an upgrade.”
“I guess so. Anyway, once I figured that out, the rest just fell into place. There were a few other things like this out there, but these were the best. When little Jakey felt like being naughty, he went overseas. Mostly Southeast Asia and South America. If these reports are to be believed, Jake Anthony likes his women to be good looking and underage. He also gravitates to the lower end of the social spectrum.”
SarahJune was a little shaky when she spoke. “He’d be locked up if he tried that here.”
“Maybe.” Melba wasn’t so sure, having witnessed more of the seedier side of life than either of them. “Rich and famous men are able to get away with more than you’d imagine.” After a moment’s reflection on the harsh truth of her statement, she smiled at her partner. “Good job. I didn’t find anything like that, although truthfully, I focused my efforts elsewhere. Ready to see what I managed to dig up?”
Once they’d reluctantly agreed it was time for her to show her stuff, she reached down and pulled a few pieces of folded paper out of her purse. “I don’t have many tabloid shots, and certainly none as sensational as Toby’s nuggets. I found a few pretty standard press photos, but noticed one thing I thought was significant. There are a number of pictures of Jake Anthony with the starlet of the day and more than a few with his proud mama by his side — obviously enjoying all of the attention — but there’s not a single picture of him and his sister to be found.”
“Is that suspicious?” Toby asked.
“I don’t know if I’d call it suspicious per se, but it seems odd. Not only are there no pictures, she’s not even mentioned in his biographical info. I find that to be strange. However, that isn’t where I focused either. Like I mentioned, I dug around in a different patch of Jake Anthony’s records. Our famous local boy is stone cold broke.”
“Broke? He must have made a mint from those movies!”
“One would think that would be the case. He certainly lived like it for a while. But I have three pieces of info that paint a very different picture.” She unfolded the results of her own research and fanned the pages out and laid them on the table. “His Hollywood home was on the market for a very long time, and when it eventually sold, it was for less than he owed on it. That in and of itself isn’t all that shocking, especially with the up and down real estate market. You’d think someone with a significant career would be able to take the hit. However, a few months later, Mr. Anthony filed for bankruptcy, which was granted by a judge after some tough negotiations with his creditors. And finally, I dug up an eviction notice from his last California address. He was booted out after failing to pay four consecutive month’s rent. That occurred about a month and a half ago. He came back home to our little city for one reason. He didn’t have anywhere else to go.”
Toby looked over the financial reports Melba had placed on the table and handed them off to SarahJune. “Not a clue about any of this came up anywhere I looked. What made you look at his financial situation?”
“Something I learned as a rookie cop a long time ago. Always follow the money.”
“Guess we haven’t gotten to that in class yet. Although, now that I think about it, that was one of the things we did when we were trying to find out what happened to Geri. A lot of stuff he left for me had to do with money and where it came from. I feel kind of dumb now.”
“There’s no reason for that, though you better remember the lesson from now on. I think we all did pretty darn good in finding quite a lot about Jake Anthony.”
“Thanks, but what do we do with the information?”
“Nothing. No crime’s been committed, at least here in the good ol’ US of A. This was just a learning exercise to see how well we could handle something like this and find out if all of our new toys were helpful. I think we more than proved we can successfully access a lot of information from a wide range of sources in a relatively short amount of time.”
“Melba’s right, Toby. We did prove something.”
“But, what’s it all mean?”
“It doesn’t mean much in the real world, but it might have meant a lot on a real case we were hired to solve. With some clever web sleuthing, between the three of us we have enough to put together a pretty good picture of our subject. SarahJune discovered a ton of great information about his childhood, confirmed his age and date of birth, picked up his trail pretty soon after high school—great job on that, by the way— and had a hunch that something didn’t add up. You found the scandals, and I got the goods on his lack of money.”
“I see your point. We now know he’s a washed-up, unemployed, broke actor with an unsavory appetite for young girls, who came back home to his momma because he had nowhere else to go.”
“Exactly. And we have a lot of new jumping-off places that would be helpful to us if we had a good cause to dig any further—which, by the way, we don’t. In fact, I don’t think there’s any reason to take this further. Jill Anthony doesn’t seem to be all that interesting from what I’ve found. She mostly stayed in the area, except for a brief period of time she went to school overseas for several months as a part of some kind of high school exchange program. I would like to see each of your notes on Grokov, though. Madame Zhou has some kind of bee in her bonnet about him, and that makes me want to know more. I get a feeling there’s some bad blood there and want to know what it is.”
“What about the contest?” SarahJune asked as she pulled the information on Vassily Grokov from her stack and handed it over. “Who won?”
“I think we’re all winners, so by the authority vested in me by my age and experience, I declare it a draw. But, I’ll buy lunch for us today if you’ll go get it. My only stipulation is, I’m not eating raw fish. Deal?”
“Deal.”
Thirty minutes later, they were chowing down on cheeseburgers and fries. “Good thing you’re getting more than enough exercise,” Melba told herself as she dipped a crispy sliver of deep-fried potato into the smear of ketchup she’s squeezed out on the wrapper. As she popped the fry into her mouth, she thought about the file full of information on Vassily Grokov that was now sitting on her desk. For a brief instant, she thought about looking through it while they ate, but decided there was no hurry. Things would probably be pretty slow around here for the first several weeks and she’d have plenty of time to find out more about him. “Hey, Toby, do you have another ketchup packet?”
“Nope.”
“Come on! I can see one right over there, by your burger.”
“Might need it myself.”
She shared an exasperated glance with SarahJune, who generously passed over one of her spares.
“Thanks. I’m glad someone was brought up right.”
“Hey! Grams did a fine job with me.”
“Um hmm. She just forgot to teach you to share with others. Speaking of which, is she coming to the party?”
“I don’t know. I sent her an invitation. Amazingly, Madame Zhou already had her on the list. I’ll talk to her over the weekend like I normally do. I suspect she’ll come. How about you? Is Abby coming? I saw her name on the list, too.”
“I’ll ask. It’d be nice, but it’s hard for her to get away from work, and she’d have to make it a quick trip so the girls are back home at a reasonable hour. Abby doesn’t like messing up the routine, especially during the school year. Melissa and Emily are both quite a handful otherwise. You bringing anyone, SarahJune?”
“Don’t know. The pool of candidates is looking pretty grim. If either of you run on to a nice-looking single man with nothing better to do, let me know.”
Melba snorted mid-bite. Once she was sure the French fry was going to stay put, she shook her head. “Sorry. If I’m lucky enough to find someone like that, I’ll keep him for myself.”
“Talk about not sharing!” SarahJune lobbed another ketchup packet across the table.
Thankfully, h
er aim was off. Cleaning ketchup out of silk blouses was a pain. Which reminded her— “Oh, Lord, I forgot again! I need to go to the dry cleaners.” Melba took one last bite of tasty goodness, and crumpled up the wrapper and stuffed it into a now-empty bag. “Anyone need anything while I’m out?” she asked as she picked up her purse and dug out her car keys.
“I could use another burger.”
“Tough, Toby. Since you wouldn’t share your condiments, you can forget it. Maybe that will teach you a lesson.”
“Doubt it.”
“Me too.” And with that, she was out the door.
***
Mitchell rolled up his shirt sleeves, hoping it would help overcome the stifling atmosphere in the conference room. His jacket was already hanging on the back of his chair—he’d taken it off almost as soon as he entered the room. Undoing an additional button on his shirt was also considered, but he refrained from taking action because he didn’t think it would do much for his image. Since he was the relative rookie in the room, he felt uncomfortable enough already.
Thorton had his real estate flyer in front of him, but had apparently given up on his hunt, at least for the time being. He now occupied himself by doodling a charming scene on the back cover, and it was now almost complete with a block house, a stick figure family, and what might be a dog. The dog looked more like a pig to Mitchell. Chuck was in the process of adding smiley-faced flowers to the scene when they were joined by Tom Anderson.
The head of the forensics team never bothered with a jacket, and Mitchell noted, with envy, that he’d already undone the top two buttons of his shirt. After a brief exchange of greetings, Chuck went back to improving his landscape, Anderson took a seat and proceeded to review his notes, and Mitchell leaned back in the uncomfortable orange chair and contemplated whether or not a professional image was overrated. A few minutes later, City Coroner Patricia Evans entered, trailed by Assistant Coroner Thelma-Louise Bridges. Evans simply nodded across the table as she took her seat. Bridges dropped a file folder on the table and pulled out a chair.
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