Beyond a Doubt

by Nancy Cole Silverman

  “How did you know Tony’s back?”

  She walked away from the door. “I just do. Okay? Now go away.”

  “I need to talk to you...about Dr. Diamond. I believe you know him.”

  I opened the screen door and stepped inside the room. It was a large, narrow, open area, separated from the front of the house, where the office was, by a white paneled wall that looked like something out of the early sixties. The floors were old and wooden and badly stained, and like the steps outside, creaked. There was a small kitchenette to my left with an island counter that divided the kitchen area from the rest of the room. A big screen TV was on the center wall directly across the room in front of me, next to a door leading to the office. The door was padlocked shut. A staircase anchored the far end of the room, leading to what I assumed must be bedrooms upstairs.

  I glanced at the staircase and asked, “You alone?”

  “Why wouldn’t I be?” She sounded irritated and turned her back on me and walked towards the kitchen. “You’ll have to excuse me. I’m in the middle of something, and I’ve got work to do. You shouldn’t be here.”

  In front of me a Louis Vuitton bag lay on the floor. On the island counter, open cardboard boxes were stacked, and spilling out of them and onto the floor were sundry negligees. Bras, panties, corsets, boas, G-strings, all sizes and colors, were scattered everywhere. It looked as though she’d raided a Fredrick’s of Hollywood, bought one of everything, and was trying to pack it all away, quickly.

  “What are you doing?”

  She leaned down and picked up a small red-fringed whip off the floor. The type found in a sex shop. Hardly a defense, if that’s what she was thinking.

  “What does it look like I’m doing? I’m leaving.”

  “Why? Where are you going? Are you in trouble?” I stepped closer to her and reached for the whip. But she twisted away. I grabbed her arm. A dark leather wristband she’d been wearing, spiked with metal studs, fell to the floor. Quickly she pulled her hand back and held it against her. I grabbed it again and realizing she was trying to hide something from me, I pulled her closer to me.

  “What is it?”

  “Nothing,” she said, twisting in my grip.

  “Then let me see. What are you hiding?” I turned her hand over so that I could see her slim wrist. There, against her milky white skin, was a tattoo, a small triple diamond pattern, interlinking, with an initial in the middle of each; M.A.D. I wondered if this was same pattern the coroner had found on Monica’s wrist. M.A.D. Malcolm Andrew Diamond. Proof she was one of Diamond’s girls. “Is this his tattoo?”

  She didn’t answer. She looked at me. Frightened, like a trapped animal, shaking. I pulled her back to the table and sat down, my hands still firmly on her wrists. She was clearly terrified.

  “I want you to tell me what you know about Dr. Diamond. Everything. And I want to know how you know about Tony, too. And I’m not leaving until you tell me how you’re connected to all this, and what you’re doing.”

  She tried to pull back from me, but it was useless. I wasn’t letting go.

  “What do you think I’m doing? He owns me, Carol. If I don’t do what he says, he’ll kill me. Just like he killed Monica.”

  I gripped tighter. I didn’t know if she’d run or perhaps hit me and take off. “Tell me what you know or I’ll…”

  “Or you’ll what? Call the cops and tell them I’m turning tricks? I don’t do that anymore. I do this. It’s how I survive.”

  Cate was right. Holly had been part of the life. She explained how she’d met Diamond, exactly like he met most of his girls, online. She’d responded to an ad for aspiring actresses and he’d promised to help her. Told her he would set her up with the right people, pay for her headshots, acting classes and living expenses. And then when things slowed down, like they always did, Diamond explained she needed to help out with the expenses.

  “I did it all, okay? Everything. You understand what that means? I danced in seedy nightclubs. I flirted with men old enough to be my grandfather. I let them touch me. I stripped. I had sex with whoever he told me to and however they wanted it. I did it until I couldn’t take it anymore. I was going to run away, but there is no getting away. Nobody gets away from him. He’s got a GPS on my car, and I have a younger sister who I love. He told me if I ever left, he’d find her, and that it wouldn’t go so well when he did. She’s only ten. I wasn’t going to take that chance.”

  “So you helped him.”

  “What else was I going to do?” She paused, and I released my grip. “You ever hear of a Judas horse?”

  I shook my head.

  “He’s a traitor to his own. I know ’cause I grew up in the desert outside Reno. There’s a large herd of wild horses up that way. Every year the BLM does a roundup. Supposedly it’s for the horses’ own good. But most of them eventually end up going to slaughter. The Judas horse is the one the wranglers use to lead a feral herd into the corrals. It’s what I do. I’m the Judas horse, Carol. I collect the girls he spots in the streets and thinks would work. The rest he does online.”

  She diverted her eyes from my mine and stared at the floor. Like she couldn’t look me in the eye and there was something more...something even more terrible she needed to say.

  “What is it?”

  “That’s what I was doing the night your daughter disappeared.”

  I felt like she’d just punched me in the stomach.

  “Then it was you. You were trying to recruit Cate!”

  “I didn’t, okay?” Her eyes snapped back to mine. “Diamond just wanted to scare you.”

  “Scare me!” I wanted to strangle her. “How did Diamond even know I was there?”

  “He heard your report on the air the day Monica’s body was found, and—”

  “That doesn’t explain how he knew who I was.”

  “He knew you’d be at the Walk of Fame. The station announced you’d be there that morning. Kari Rhodes was talking about it. I was there with the Marilyns for the flash mob dance, and Diamond wanted me to make sure I met you and that I gave you my business card.”

  “But how did he know I’d call?”

  “He didn’t. But I’d made the connection. And if you didn’t call me, I was supposed to call you.”

  “But why me? Why did he come after me?”

  “All those reports you did about Hollywood’s Missing Girls, you made them personal. And he wasn’t happy about it. He said it was bad for business. People were starting to worry about the clubs and boulevard. The police had issued warnings to young girls about going out alone at night. And then the morning Monica’s body was discovered you kept harping on the dress she wearing. That red dress and her high heels. You said it looked like she’d been dressed to go clubbing. He wanted to see who you were. He wanted to make sure he could get to you.”

  “And then I called you and set up a tour.” I shook my head. I’d fallen into his trap. “Exactly like he wanted.”

  “He knew you’d do that. Don’t ask me how, but he’s pretty good at figuring out what people will do. As for me, I was just supposed to show you around. Honest. Get you into a few hot clubs. Give you a sense of the crowd, the vibe. I knew he’d be watching. I never thought anything was going to happen. But then you showed up with your daughter and—”

  “And suddenly he had a different idea about what he wanted to happen that night.” I was beginning to understand just how frighteningly erratic the Mad Dr. Diamond’s mind could be, and the depths to which he would go.

  “You never mentioned you were bringing your daughter. That’s why I was so upset. He was on the phone with me when you saw him on the cottage porch that night. He was giving me instructions, what he wanted to have happen.”

  “So he orchestrated the whole thing, step-by-step.”

  “I slipped a roofie, a sedative, in her drink when she was
at the bar. She was never in any real danger. He just wanted to establish that you were vulnerable and emotionally unstable. And when Cate disappeared, you’d go crazy and allow your personal feelings to color your report. That you couldn’t be trusted to cover a story like this.”

  I paused and considered what Diamond had done. How he had managed to stay a step ahead of me the entire time.

  “And Tony, how do you know him? How’s he fit into the picture?”

  “I introduced Tony to Dr. Diamond. He used to own this strip club in Vegas. That’s where we met. It wasn’t on the main drag or anything, more of a dive with a steady clientele of drunks and hookers who came in to clean up. I don’t think Tony much cared, long as it paid the bills. Back then, all he wanted to do was be a singer, but nothing was happening. And by then, I’d met Gabe, Dr. Diamond, online. That’s what he called himself. Later I learned it was short for Gable, that he fancied himself a Clark Gable ladies’ man. Believe me, I didn’t care what the man called himself, or who he thought he was. All I knew was that I hated dancing in some seedy club and was looking for a way out, and Diamond was it.”

  Holly explained Diamond ended up putting money into Tony’s club, turned it around, and it became one of the places he’d showcase his girls in Vegas. It was just far enough off the strip to not attract too much attention.

  “Tony and Dr. Diamond were in business together. Eventually he moved Tony to LA and got him focused on the finance business. Tony’s job is to launder money for Diamond. Most of it, I think, is through the clubs, and maybe some it is in the form of the loan packages he puts together. I don’t know for sure. But I do know Tony introduced Dr. Diamond to Gabi’s boyfriend.”

  “Dr. Ericson?”

  “Yeah, but I don’t know much more than that, only that Tony told me Gabi was upset about something and threatening to go to the police. Next thing I know, Gabi’s disappeared and so has Tony. I don’t ask questions. I know better.”

  “But you knew, the morning we met, that the body up on Mulholland was Monica’s and that Diamond had killed her.”

  Holly swallowed and nodded her head yes. “He didn’t know much about her at first. She was just like every other girl he had met online. Pretty. Fun. She probably believed everything he told her. But then he found out she was sick.”

  “Sick? What do you mean, sick?”

  “I don’t know what it was. All I know is she had a lot of health issues. She kept it a secret, but when Dr. Diamond found out, he was furious. She told him when she was a kid she’d been in an accident and was in the hospital.”

  My mind flashed back to a small picture I’d seen in the paper with Monica on a tricycle and the conversation I’d had with Cupid and Tyler in the studio. Cupid was right. Monica was ill. It explained a lot: her father’s overprotective custody, Monica’s conservative lifestyle.

  “The girl was naïve, or maybe she was just soft in the head. I don’t know—whatever. But she believed everything he said. She really thought Diamond loved her. To tell you the truth, I thought she was out of the picture. Once he knew she was sick, he dumped her. He told her not to come back around. The girl was home free. But then, two weeks ago, stupid girl, she comes back. Surprises him at the Roosevelt Hotel, and the next thing I know she’s—”

  I stopped her. “Did you know Diamond had a case before Judge Channing?”

  “No. Why?”

  “Because I think you were right, Monica was home free. Diamond didn’t want her, but he had a score to settle with Judge Channing.”

  “I knew when she came back, she was in trouble. I didn’t want to think it, but I knew.”

  “But he couldn’t use her, could he? Not like he has the others, when he’s finished with them.” I paused and waited to see if I saw a reaction. She pinched her eyes shut, like she was trying to block what I was about to say. “You know about the others, don’t you, Holly?”

  “I told you. I don’t know. I don’t want to know.” She shook her head.

  “Diamond doesn’t let his girls go, Holly. Ever. It’s why he befriended Dr. Ericson. He works on the transplant team at UCLA. Did you know that?

  Holly wasn’t looking at me. Her hands were clasped in front of her. She was biting her nails.

  “Diamond wanted Dr. Ericson there, to oversee his special projects, to make certain when an organ came in that it went to the right patient. Organs are difficult to come by. There’s a long waiting list, unless of course, you have money. And do you know where those organs came from, Holly?”

  “Oh my God!” Holly paled and sank back in the chair, hugging her shoulders. “You have to believe me. I didn’t know what he was doing. He said certain girls weren’t working out anymore, and they’d just disappear. I thought he just sent them away somewhere. Like I said, I didn’t ask. And far as Monica went, I didn’t know anything about Judge Channing, or that Diamond was going to kill her. All I know is I was with her that last night. We were at the apartment he keeps inside the W, and she was all dressed up ’cause they were going out. She seemed happy. The last I saw her, they were walking out the door and up to the helipad. I figured, the way she was dressed, maybe they were going to Vegas, or something. He does that a lot, flies girls back and forth in his chopper. I didn’t think he’d push her out. I couldn’t believe it. But when I heard the news, the report you did about the body up on Mulholland, I knew. I just knew. That’s why I asked you the morning of the Walk of Fame celebration if they had identified the body. I kept hoping I was wrong.”

  I felt like I’d been kicked in the chest. Knowing I’d been right about Monica’s death all along felt awful. The vision of Monica, all dressed up and walking out the door with Diamond, getting into that helicopter, trusting him and then realizing, at the last second, what he meant to do. It must have been horrifying. It was difficult to breathe.

  I forced myself to take a deep breath. “So where did he keep her until that last night?”

  “Same place he’s got all the others,” she said.

  “And where’s that?” I asked.

  “On his boat.”

  “His boat?”

  She stood up and started to close one of the boxes on the table. “That’s where I’m headed now. He wants me to bring all this extra stuff for the girls. He’s getting ready to sail, tonight. But I’m gonna get it there before he does, and after that, he’ll be too busy getting ready to leave to go after me, or my little sister, and I’ll disappear.”

  CHAPTER 32

  Just my luck. Diamond had hidden his girls on a boat. The one place I had no stomach for. Even the thought of it caused me to feel seasick. I stood up and picked up the small velvet whip off the floor, tapping the fringed laces against the palm of my hand. I couldn’t believe what I was thinking, or the words coming out of my mouth.

  “You’ve got to get me on board.”

  “You want to go with me?” Holly looked at me with disbelief, her eyes and mouth both wide open. “Are you crazy?”

  “Why not? Diamond’s not there, is he?”

  “Not yet. He told me he had some business to wrap up, but he’ll be there later.”

  “Good.” I slapped the palm of my hand with the whip. “’Cause with a little luck, we could get in and out, and he’d never know I was there. All I need is proof the girls are on the boat, and Diamond will no longer be a problem. I promise.”

  Holly looked at me, then back at the Louis Vuitton bag on the floor and stood up. “You’re insane. You know that, don’t you?” She grabbed a few loose garments off the floor and threw them into the bag. “He’ll kill us both if he thinks I took you there. There’s no way I’m taking you.”

  I grabbed her wrist again.

  “Then consider this. There’s no way you’re going without me. You leave here. I follow you. You try to lose me, I call the station. I describe your car with those personalized plates of yours to our on-air traf
fic reporter and tell him I just witnessed a hit-and-run. You won’t make it as far as The Beverly Center before some cop picks you up. Believe me, I’m not letting you out of my sight. Not until I have proof of where he’s hiding those girls.”

  Once a month, Holly explained, Diamond arranged for a nurse, an illegal from the Philippines he’d hired in exchange for her silence, to check on the girls. Her job was to look for any signs of communicable disease, plus colds, runny noses and that kind of thing.

  “Except when there’s a new girl,” Holly said. “And then the nurse does a complete physical.”

  “Including blood test?” I asked.

  She nodded, reluctantly. I didn’t want to think Holly really knew what Diamond’s cruel end-use plan was for his girls. But if Diamond had used a nurse to get blood samples, it was easy to think he could send them out to a lab—perhaps in the Philippines—and get the results he needed, and nobody would be the wiser.

  “So what do I need to do?”

  “Can you read a thermometer?”

  “Yeah.” My quick response surprised even me.

  “Then I doubt anyone will know the difference. I’ve got an old nurse’s cape and hat in the bag here. One of the girls uses it for dress-up. With your white jeans and heels, it just might work. I’ll tell the guards you’re filling in and believe me—old-fashioned cape or not—they won’t notice. They’re like me, they don’t ask questions. Nobody does. ”

  I tossed her the whip. “Then what are we waiting for? Let’s go.”

  My first big mistake was allowing Holly to drive and to take her Mini Cooper. Not because I was worried Diamond might have placed a GPS inside of Holly’s car. He had instructed her to clear out the cottage and was expecting her anyway. But because the Mini Cooper, with the front seat moved forward to make room for all the boxes and the Louis Vuitton suitcase stuffed in between us, was so tight that there wasn’t room for my long legs. My second mistake was leaving my red Jeep parked behind Holly’s cottage. It hadn’t occurred to me until we were halfway down the Harbor Freeway that Diamond had probably installed security cameras in the lot, and at that very moment may have been monitoring the area. I might as well have taken a photo and posted it on my Facebook page, telling the world I was in Hollywood visiting Holly.