Treacherous Intent

by Camy Tang

  “My son would tell me not to get involved with Felix’s murder, but he was my friend for so many years. And anyway, I can’t do nothing while Joslyn is in danger.”

  “We’re doing everything we can to put Tomas in jail,” Elisabeth said fiercely. “Can you tell us anything more about him?”

  The woman shook her head. “He never came here except the day he killed Felix.”

  “Do you know where he lives?” Liam asked. They knew so little about Tomas and the night of the murder, and while his neighbors might be afraid, they might speak to Elisabeth and Liam because they weren’t cops. Yet that was only a possibility if they could find the building.

  “No, though it wasn’t far. Joslyn would mention it only took a few minutes to drive here from his apartment building.”

  But in this section of L.A., there were dozens of apartment buildings all within twenty minutes from this street. How could they know which direction? Would they have to visit all of them?

  “Did Joslyn ever give you any gifts?” Elisabeth asked.

  Liam looked at her. What an odd question.

  “Gifts? Like Christmas?” Mrs. Andrada asked.

  “Little things, like candy, or a trinket.”

  “Oh, yes.” Mrs. Andrada got up and went to a small card table in the corner of the living room, returning with a flat pastry box. “I like the mochi from Oishii Bakery, so she would bring me some whenever she called. My son brought me some yesterday. Did you want one?”

  Liam tentatively tried one of the small rice cake balls. The glutinous rice on the outside was soft and sticky, while the inside was filled with sweet red bean paste.

  “Mmm.” Elisabeth licked the sticky remnants from her fingers. “Did Joslyn give you anything else?”

  Mrs. Andrada thought a moment. “She did once give me roast pork from Elena’s Filipino Restaurant. And for Christmas she brought me this.” Mrs. Andrada rose and returned with a green pashmina shawl, which still had the tag on it. “It’s so fine, I don’t have anywhere to wear it.”

  Elisabeth glanced at the tag. “Theo’s Boutique.”

  The men’s voices from outside carried clearly into the living room. Liam didn’t have to understand Filipino to know they were now in a heated argument—and they were only a few feet away from Elisabeth’s car.

  “I don’t like the sound of that,” Mrs. Andrada said. “You should go before it gets worse. They’re such hotheads....”

  Elisabeth rose to her feet. “Thank you for speaking to us.”

  “Just do what you can to keep Joslyn safe.” Mrs. Andrada squeezed Elisabeth’s hands briefly.

  As Liam and Elisabeth stepped out onto the sidewalk, he pulled her in the opposite direction from their car and the arguing gang members. “Let’s circle around and come up to the car from the other direction.”

  “You don’t need to convince me.” She hurried alongside him, away from the rapid-fire Filipino that was steadily rising in volume.

  By the time they turned the corner, they saw that the argument had petered out, but the men had migrated closer to where they were parked.

  An old pickup truck headed down the street, its engine chugging and sputtering. And suddenly there was a loud, sharp bang!

  In an instant, the street dissolved into arid desert, grit in Liam’s mouth, sun and sweat in his eyes. Voices shouting, gunfire in loud bursts all around him. His heartbeat rapid and hard against his chest, squeezing his lungs so he couldn’t breathe. There were men all around him, jerking and falling, bleeding into the dirt and sand. He was going to die if he didn’t fire his weapon, but he couldn’t lift his arm. There was too much pain sizzling up his shoulder like acid. He realized he was on the ground, and the blood in the sand was his own. Men around him were shouting, saying—

  “Liam!”

  The low, feminine voice throbbed in his ear. His eyes came into focus abruptly, uncomfortably. Green eyes were in front of him, close to his face.

  “Liam, you’re all right.” Elisabeth’s voice soothed him, calmed his galloping heartbeat. He wasn’t in Afghanistan anymore. He was in Los Angeles.

  His legs trembled, and he noticed he was leaning back heavily against a car. Elisabeth’s hands were gentle on his shoulder, the side of his face. He gulped in air, cold with the California winter and not hot and dry from the desert.

  “Hey, what’s wrong with him?”

  The man’s voice cut through the dissolving remnants of his waking nightmare. The Bagsics. They had been directly in front of him when he’d...

  Elisabeth turned to look at him, and while her face was passive, Liam could feel her hands were tense. “He’s fine,” she said to them.

  “He don’t look fine.” And then the Bagsics started walking toward them.

  There were four of them. None looked over twenty-one years old, and their purple and gray clothes looked inexpensive.

  One of the others said something to her in Filipino. She pretended she didn’t understand, but her eyes, so close to Liam, froze.

  Liam’s muscles bunched up. What had the boy said? They were coming closer.

  “Troy Navarro!” a woman’s voice called sharply from the direction of the apartment building. “Does your mother know where you are?”

  Liam was surprised to see Mrs. Andrada at the front of the apartment building, hands on her hips, glaring at the young men. The youngest, the fifteen-year-old, immediately hunched his shoulders, while his friends gave him sly nudges and said what sounded like derisive remarks in Filipino. It also distracted them from Elisabeth and Liam.

  “Come on,” she hissed. She shoved him into the passenger seat of her car.

  Liam looked back as Elisabeth drove away. Mrs. Andrada headed back into the apartment building while the gang members drifted away, several of them still teasing the fifteen-year-old.

  Elisabeth’s sigh of relief was shaky. “They were just punks looking for trouble.”

  “Did they recognize you?”

  “No. I didn’t think they would. They’re not high up in the gang hierarchy, and a gang captain like Tomas wouldn’t publicize his private business.”

  “What did he say to you?” Liam clenched and unclenched his hands in his lap. He’d been so useless, so helpless.

  She shook her head. “Nothing nice.”

  She didn’t make a fuss over the way he’d fallen apart. She was so understanding and caring. He didn’t want her to be. He didn’t want to suck anyone else into the dark madness of his mind. And he couldn’t afford to be like this when Elisabeth was depending on him. “This is too dangerous,” he muttered.

  “We knew it was going to be dangerous,” she said. “But there’s no safe way to investigate the murder. And really, we’re just being antsy. The gang members didn’t treat us any differently from anyone else they see on the street.”

  He knew she was right, but he didn’t like it. And the worst part was, he could only expect things to get worse.

  SIX

  Elisabeth didn’t want to take any chances. She drove out of Bagsic territory until she found a coffee shop with free wireless internet and no sign of men in purple and gray. As she sipped her coffee, she carefully watched their surroundings while Liam looked up Mariella Gable and the three shops Mrs. Andrada had mentioned. She had to admit that Liam was a great deal faster at finding Mariella’s information on the internet than she would have been. They would make a good—

  No, she wasn’t going down that road again.

  The coffee shop was busy with students from nearby Twin Springs College. No gang members appeared. It could have been a normal day, without the threat to her life.

  Normal for her usually meant helping the women at the shelter, doing her job. Her job took up all her time—or rather, she spent all her time at her job, working on her own. She was...comfortable with her life. She was alone and comfortable. She didn’t need anyone else. She didn’t need anything else but herself.

  She looked at Liam, his head bent over his computer. He gla
nced up at her and flashed her a brief smile.

  That smile transformed him. His dark blue eyes crinkled, his mouth was relaxed and gentle rather than hard and serious. He looked...trustworthy.

  Elisabeth looked away.

  His cell phone rang, and he glanced at the caller ID. “Nathan.”

  Hopefully he had some information for them about Tomas and Joslyn’s father’s murder.

  Nathan talked to his friend, giving mmm-hmm’s and asking the occasional question. Finally he said, “Thanks, Nathan,” and disconnected the call. “Sorry I didn’t put it on speakerphone, but...”

  He wouldn’t want their conversation to be overheard. “I understand. What did he say?”

  “Tomas Bantoc is known to be a high-ranking captain in the Bagsic gang. He has some anger issues, but can usually control them, which makes him ruthless and effective.”

  “That means either something made him lose it when he killed Joslyn’s father, or he had a compelling reason.”

  “Like Mrs. Andrada said, she called the police after Joslyn left. Joslyn’s father had been tied to a chair, beaten and then stabbed to death.”

  Elisabeth closed her eyes briefly at the brutal image. What would the sight of her bloody, lifeless father have made Joslyn feel? Elisabeth’s heart ached for her.

  “The police found out about Joslyn’s relationship with Tomas and went to question him, but Tomas claimed he’d been at Sayawan at the time of the murder.”

  Elisabeth shared a quick look with Liam. “The same club where we found the pictures of Joslyn.”

  “The police didn’t find any evidence that Joslyn was involved in the actual crime, but they still want to speak to her,” Liam said. “They alerted other agencies about her, and a policeman in central California filed a report the day after Joslyn’s father’s murder. He saw Joslyn exiting a bus at a small stop just outside of Paso Robles, but she must have realized she’d been recognized and disappeared. Her ticket had been for San Francisco, but she never got back on the bus.”

  “And no other sightings of her?”

  “Nope.”

  Elisabeth chewed her lip. “Would a gang captain really bother to find one woman who knows about a murder but doesn’t have proof?”

  “There’s some reason he’s after her—maybe the reason why he attacked her father in the first place. Gang captains are powerful. They wouldn’t exert themselves unless there’s a pressing reason.”

  “So we keep digging into Tomas.”

  “Murder is a capital offense in California. If we can uncover proof against him, Tomas might turn on the Bagsics in order to escape the death penalty. Nathan said he saw it happen several times with other gang members when he was down south.” Liam closed his laptop. “Let’s get out of here. I feel exposed.”

  Elisabeth got in the car, which was parked along the street in front of the coffee shop, and cranked the engine. “Was I right about the three shops?”

  “Yup, they’re all close to each other. I found three apartment buildings in that area, but the one to check first is Hamilton Towers. It’s the most expensive, and the only one with a gated underground garage, which a Bagsic captain would appreciate.”

  “Good thinking.” Elisabeth followed Liam’s directions and parked near Hamilton Towers, an imposing building with four floors, all chrome, glass and gray concrete.

  As they got out, Elisabeth caught sight of the security cameras outside the front door. “There are probably security guards inside. How are we going to get past them to question Tomas’s neighbors?” Elisabeth said.

  At that moment, the doors were opened by a doorman in a uniform. He must have been standing just inside the door. He nodded rather solemnly to two men who were walking out of the building.

  They were dressed in purple and gray.

  Elisabeth’s first reaction was to freeze, but she forced herself to relax, knowing the gang members would catch any sign of fear. She had known a predator before, and she knew if she didn’t put up a perfectly unconcerned facade, the gang members would start to circle around her.

  She glanced at them idly, and realized they were the same gang members that they’d seen on Jericho Street, leaning against the BMW coupe. Her breath hitched and she tried to even it out. This was not good.

  The man in the purple silk shirt was saying to the other in Tagalog, “No, I don’t want to take my car. I just got it washed and it might rain later today.”

  “They’re the same—” Liam murmured.

  “I know.” Her back was to the two men, but she could hear their footfalls on the sidewalk.

  “You look familiar.”

  Her jaw tightened at the sound of the man’s voice. She relaxed her face into an innocent mask and half turned, regarding him from over her shoulder.

  The gang member in the silk shirt had stopped and was appraising her exactly the same way he’d done before.

  Elisabeth answered lightly, “I saw you on Jericho Street. I was visiting a friend.”

  She was about to turn her head back around when he asked, “So what are you doing here?”

  She hesitated only a split second. “We’re looking at different apartment buildings.” As she turned to face him, she thrust her hips out and put her hand directly over her stomach. With her thick wool peacoat, she knew she looked like she could be a few months pregnant.

  His face cooled into an almost disdainful expression, and she knew she’d read him correctly. He relished his single lifestyle, and children were a complete turnoff.

  At that moment, a man and woman exited the apartment building. In contrast to how he had treated the two Bagsics, the doorman said jovially, “Have a good day, Mr. and Mrs. Alfred.”

  “Thanks, Samuel,” the woman said.

  The couple headed toward them, but as soon as they saw the two Bagsics, their steps quickened and they hurried by, heads down and shoulders hunched. They apparently knew their gang-affiliated neighbors and wanted nothing to do with them.

  “Do you and your friend live here?” Elisabeth asked, playing her part.

  “I do, he doesn’t.” The man in the silk shirt seemed almost reluctant to answer, now that he had no interest in her. “They only give you one parking space in the garage. One of you will have to park on the street.”

  “Oh.” She gave a moue of distaste. “Thanks.”

  The two men walked away and soon drove off.

  Liam blew out his breath. “I can’t believe you talked to them.”

  “It would have looked odd if I hadn’t.”

  “Did you see those people who walked past? The gang has them running scared.”

  Elisabeth sighed. If that couple was any indication, the other residents were clearly afraid of their gang neighbors and would probably be reluctant to talk to Elisabeth and Liam.

  “I have an idea.” She marched up to the front door. The doorman had disappeared and the front door was locked, so she pushed a doorbell button. A small door to the side of the elevators marked Security opened and the doorman, Samuel, hurried toward them. “Yes?” he asked through the closed glass door.

  Elisabeth studied his face. She had noticed his different reactions to the Bagsics and to the couple, and she trusted her instincts about people. “My name is Elisabeth Aday, and this is Liam O’Neill. We’re not police, we’re investigators. We’re trying to protect Joslyn Dimalanta from her ex-boyfriend, Tomas Bantoc.”

  Samuel’s face tightened, and his eyes shifted to the street behind them, looking left and right.

  “Please, will you let us in? We only want to talk to you. We’re not here to get anyone in trouble with the gang.”

  The doorman hesitated, then pushed open the door to let them into the foyer.

  “Thanks.” Elisabeth and Liam slipped inside.

  “This way.” Samuel glanced out to the street once again, then headed to the security room.

  There was only one chair, but Samuel pulled out a folding chair for Elisabeth, and Liam stood and leaned against th
e closed door.

  Samuel sat, resting his hands on his thighs. “Tell me what you want with Joslyn.”

  “A few weeks ago, I helped her to disappear,” Elisabeth said. “All I knew at the time was that she was scared and running from her ex-boyfriend, who beat her. But then Tomas came looking for her, and now he’s after me to get me to tell him where she is.”

  Samuel leaned forward. “Is she all right?”

  “As far as I know.”

  “We think she ran because she saw Tomas murder her father,” Liam said. “If we can find proof Tomas killed him, we can send him to jail and he won’t be a threat to her anymore.”

  Samuel nodded slowly, his eyes downcast. “I read about the murder in the paper, and I’ve been worried about that girl ever since.”

  “Is there anything you can tell us about what happened?” Liam asked.

  “Or anything about Joslyn and Tomas?” Elisabeth added. There may be things he didn’t think were significant that might help them find the proof they needed.

  “Well, the day of the murder, one of Tomas’s neighbors called to complain that Tomas and Joslyn were having a huge fight and something hit the wall, causing a crack on their side of the wall.”

  “Did they fight a lot?” Liam asked.

  “All the time, but this was the first time they’d caused damage. I went up to Tomas’s apartment, but I must have missed Joslyn because she wasn’t there anymore. Tomas still looked angry.”

  “When was this?” Liam asked.

  “Let’s see...I have to record any disturbances in the log.” Samuel pulled out a three-ring binder. He flipped through the pages and found the entry, which listed the time as three hours before the murder.

  “The next day, the papers mentioned Joslyn’s father had been killed. As soon as I saw that, I went back to look at the security video feed. Joslyn came back to Tomas’s apartment five hours after she left, and when she left the apartment, it looked like she was stuffing cash into her purse.”

  “Cash?” But Joslyn had arrived in Sonoma only two days later with no money and no purse.

  Samuel sighed. “I know it makes her look bad, stealing money from her boyfriend, but I saw her bruises, day in and day out. I’m just glad she finally got away from him.”