by H K Christie
Kennedy seemed to hesitate before replying. A sure sign that Kennedy was not doing well. I should probably make a call over to Hirsch to have him check on her. I know they had surveillance on her apartment, but she probably could use a friend, or maybe even a counselor at this point. I made a mental note to give Hirsch a call as soon as I finished my lunch.
Kennedy finally responded with a shaky voice, “I’m hanging in there. I just got back from the funeral home to make arrangements for my father’s memorial.”
My heart ached for her. “How did it go?”
“Well, fortunately and unfortunately, I am now very familiar with the process and how it all works. I knew exactly what my father wanted, since during the preparation for my mom’s memorial, he made sure to tell me what he would like when his time came. I doubt he realized how soon that would be. It was so like Dad to make things easier for everybody else.”
“He seemed like he was a great guy.”
Sniffles came through the phone before she responded. “Thanks. I won’t keep you. You’ll let me know as soon as you hear anything?”
“Absolutely.”
I set the phone down and glanced around the restaurant. There was a good number, maybe twenty or thirty, patrons eating and chatting away. This was a popular spot. The decor was modern and tasteful; gray tones mixed with natural wood. I wondered if it were a new business. If it was, it appeared as if word spread fast that it was the spot to go to.
I returned my focus to the soup and spoon. It was warm and tangy, just right for the weather. I wasn’t sure I’d ever get accustomed to the frigid Pennsylvania weather. I was a California girl all the way. I finished my soup and took a big gulp of water from my glass before I looked up and lifted my hand to get the attention of someone to retrieve my bill so I could be on my way.
An attractive woman with strawberry blonde hair and freckles approached. She wore a cream blouse and a navy pantsuit. I assumed she must be the manager or owner. She wasn’t the same person who had taken my order or brought me my lunch. There was something familiar about her. She gave a wide smile. “How did you enjoy your lunch?”
I nodded. “It was perfect. Exactly what I needed. “
“Great to hear.” She sifted through the receipts in her hand. “This must be yours.” She handed me the white printout. “Typically, you pay at the counter. But if you’d like, I can take your payment here.”
“No, I hadn’t realized that. I can go up to the counter.”
“Are you new in town?”
“No, I’m actually just visiting from California.”
“Really, whereabouts?”
“The Bay Area.”
“I’ve never been, but I’ve heard it’s beautiful. I bet you don’t get this hale or snow?”
“No, not usually.”
“All right, well, enjoy your time here in Pennsylvania.”
“Thank you.”
I slipped my parka back on, grabbed my bag and headed over to the counter to pay my bill. After the transaction, I zipped up my coat and strolled through the dining room, dialing on my phone as I walked. He picked up after the first ring. “Hey, Hirsch.”
“I was just about to call. You find anything yet?”
“No luck so far. But hey, I just talked to Kennedy, she doesn’t sound like she’s doing so great.”
“Does she seem spooked?”
“No, more like unnerved. I’ll check on her when I get back, but I was wondering if maybe you could swing by to check on her and ease her fears a bit. She seems on edge.”
“Will do. I was calling to let you know that I re-interviewed her and now I think we have a lead on Donna’s case.”
“What did you find out?” I listened as Hirsch gave me the physical description of the person who’d been seen with Donna that night. I knew exactly who it might be. “Were you able to locate him?”
“Yep. And guess what?”
“He has a record?”
“Yep. He’s currently serving time for sexual assault and attempted murder.”
My stomach soured, and I stopped in my tracks before I pushed opened the door of the bistro. One of Donna’s previous boyfriends was in jail for sexual assault and attempted murder. I shook my head. It shouldn’t have surprised me. I always knew Diego was no good. What if he had done the same thing to Donna - except his attempt to kill had been successful? I shoved open the door and the ice cold air smacked me straight in the face, returning me to the present.
“Are you going to interview him?”
“I have an appointment for tomorrow at the prison. Anything you can tell me about the guy?”
“Well, I remember he was a total creep back then. He wasn’t someone who liked to be told no, and he wasn’t respectful to Donna. He was controlling and possessive, but I’m not sure if he ever physically hurt her. But looking back, I wouldn’t be surprised if he had. Wait, if he’s in jail, he couldn’t have killed Theodore, right?”
“True, but if it’s not him, we can rule him out and move on. The original detective never even questioned him.”
I can’t believe they never questioned any of Donna’s ex-boyfriends. Although, since I’d seen the file, I knew it was true. A teenage girl had disappeared, and they never thought to question old boyfriends or romantic connections? Anybody who’s seen a single episode of Law & Order knew that’s who you looked at first. If I had to speculate, I’d say that the original detective did exactly nothing to find Donna.
“All right, sounds like you’ve got it covered. I gotta head over to the second high school.”
“Good luck.”
“Thanks. I have a feeling I’ll need it.” I climbed back in my car, not bothering to remove my coat, and drove down the street rather slowly because of the icy road. I wasn’t used to these road conditions, and I didn’t like it. Thankfully, Jill was not exaggerating, and the school was only about a mile down the street. I parked in the lot and checked my watch. I had two minutes until my appointment. I hoped Central West was as organized as Jill had been at Central East High School.
I jogged to the front door of the school office. I hoped to wrap this case up quickly; I did not like the snow. It wasn’t the winter wonderland I’d pictured. The snow was dirty and gray, not white and fluffy, like when Jared and I had rented a cabin in Lake Tahoe - away from any major roads. I pulled on the door and entered the office. The only sound was of tapping keys on a keyboard. A woman was sitting at one of the five desks behind the counter. She peered over her black-framed glasses and stood up. She was a stocky woman with silver and brown hair that rested on her shoulders. She ambled up to the counter. “You must be Martina Monroe.”
“That’s me.”
“I’m JJ. We spoke on the phone. You’re right on time - perfect timing since all the kids are in the cafeteria for lunch, making it nice and quiet in here. I pulled the yearbooks from 1965 to 1967. Hopefully that’ll help you. If you need more, I can request them from the library and they’ll bring them right over.” I watched as she walked back to her desk, picked up the stack of three yearbooks and clutched them to her chest before returning to the counter. She set them down in front of me. “I’m sorry we don’t have any open offices for you to use, but you’re welcome to sit in the waiting area. There’s a small table at the end that you can set them on.”
“That’s fantastic. Thank you so much.” I lifted the books and carried them over to the waiting area that comprised of a row of plastic chairs on each side and a metal table with a wood veneer top at each end. I set the yearbooks down on the table before taking off my messenger bag and unzipping my jacket and placing it on the chair next to mine. I sat in the bucket seat, grabbed the yearbook from 1966, reached over, and pulled out the envelope with Charlotte’s photo from my bag.
I flipped the cover open and studied the pages, one by one. It was nearly a spitting image of the yearbooks at Central East. I reached the section with the senior portraits and started studying each and every photograph, sliding Charlott
e’s photo next to each one of the female pictures, hoping to find a match to the hairline, eyes, nose, and chin.
I leaned back and thought about my time at the bistro. Now staring at Charlotte’s photo again, the woman who brought the check bore a resemblance - and even more so to Kennedy. I contemplated a connection to Charlotte but shook it off. Many people had red hair and freckles, especially in these parts. I returned my attention to the yearbooks. With each comparison I began to lose hope that I would ever find Charlotte’s actual name or where she was from.
I wanted to give Kennedy answers about her mother and father, since she was now without parents and barely had any family remaining on her father’s side. It was sad, especially since she so desperately wanted a connection to a family member. I flipped the next page and pressed Charlotte’s photo against the next female graduate. And the next. And the next, and then my pulse quickened. My eyes darted from the yearbook to the photo. The hairline, eyebrows, eyes, cheekbones, nose, and chin. It was a match. I’d found her. I scrolled to the left of the yearbook to find the name of the woman whose picture matched Charlotte’s. Her last name wasn’t Jamison, though. It was Henley. Charlotte Eloise Henley, member of the graduating class of 1966 at Central West High School.
21
Detective Hirsch
After thanking the guard, I entered the musty room and eyed the man who may have killed Donna Bernard all those years ago. Diego Tarantino. He had dark hair, olive skin, and tattoos on his arms and neck. Mostly skulls and names written in Old English. A real tough guy, the type that ended up right where he was. I grabbed the seat and sat down. “I’m Detective Hirsch.” As a sign of respect, I extended my hand to shake his.
He remained seated, but extended his hand for a weak shake. I maintained eye contact with him. “Thank you for meeting with me, Diego. I’m hoping you’ll be able to help me out with a case I’m working.”
He cocked his head, and his eyes roamed from top to bottom. He was sizing me up. “I might be able to help you. What case are you working?”
“The disappearance of Donna Bernard. I’ve spoken to her family, friends, and neighbors. They say you knew Donna and that the two of you were an item.”
His eyes widened and narrowed again. I’d guess Diego didn’t want me to know he was surprised.
Diego shrugged. “Yeah, we went out for a while. It wasn’t a big deal.”
“How long were you together?”
“I don’t know if I’d say we were together. We fooled around for a month or two - you know what I mean.”
“I’m not sure I follow. What do you mean?”
“I mean, she was hot, but I had no intentions of marrying her. She was way more into me than I was into her. She was needy and clingy. I wasn’t havin’ it.”
“What things did she say or do that you considered to be needy or clingy? I’m just trying to figure out what she was like.”
“Like, one time she saw me talking to another girl. We were just talking, and she went crazy on me. She said I was a cheater and all that bull. She’s one of those girls who wants a man to worship her like she’s some kinda princess. I mean, she was hot, but not that hot. Diego doesn’t bow down to no one, especially not some bitch. I dropped her after that.”
“Do you remember when that was? The date?”
“I didn’t write it in my journal or nothing, but it was before she graduated, so I’d say it was early June.”
A month before Donna disappeared. Maybe he had been stalking her and then made his move. “Did you know she disappeared the next month?”
“Yeah, I heard that when I got back from Mexico, but I didn’t think much of it.”
“Did you have anything to do with her disappearance?”
He shook his head. “No, I had nothing to do with that girl after I dumped her.”
Interesting choice of words. “Where were you the night of July fifteenth?”
He smirked. “Probably getting busy with a girl, like most nights.”
A real charmer. “So, you don’t have an alibi?”
“That summer I was nowhere near Stone Island. I was in Mexico visiting family.”
Damn it. If he really had been in Mexico, it was a solid alibi and that meant we had no leads. “Did you fly or drive?”
“I flew in an airplane.”
“Which airline?”
“Man, I don’t remember. One of the big ones. United or American, I think.”
They should have records, even from back then. Or at least, I hoped they did. “What were the dates you were in Mexico?”
“I’d have to check the calendar but, it was the end of June to the beginning of August. Like I said, I was nowhere near Donna when she disappeared.”
Assuming all this guy’s information could be verified, we were at square one. “Any idea who may have had anything to do with her disappearance? Or wanted to cause her harm? Anybody who maybe was bugging her, or maybe someone she was dating?”
“Man, she had a lot of guys, but there was this one.” He paused and eyed me again. “If I help you, what will you do to help me?”
This guy didn’t have an altruistic bone in his body. “What do you want?”
“I could use some funding in my commissary. Maybe a change to a better locale.”
Unless he had video of a crime, accompanied with physical evidence that could be used to convict, this creep wasn’t going anywhere. But sure, if he had something useful, the department could give him a few bucks to buy himself a cup o’ noodles. “Look, I’m authorized up to a certain amount for your commissary, but a transfer is trickier unless you have something really good like the case wrapped up with a pretty little bow.”
I remained stoic and stared into his dark brown eyes, trying to imagine what he looked like back when Donna disappeared. He would have been in his early twenties back then. He was probably fresh-faced with far fewer tattoos.
Diego leaned back in his chair, crossing his arms. “Okay, here’s what I’ll tell you in exchange for the commissary money, and if the information I give you leads to an arrest, I get a transfer.”
“If what you tell me leads to an arrest and conviction, I promise you we’ll get you transferred.”
Diego shifted in his seat, as if agitated. “You know they say I tried to kill that girl, I didn’t. I don’t belong here. I didn’t do what they said.”
According to his conviction, he had drugged a young woman, raped her, and then shared her with a couple of his friends before leaving her unresponsive at an abandoned house - where she would’ve died if a guy walking his dog hadn’t found her. Diego deserved to remain locked up. I didn’t care where. “Deal.”
“Okay, so here’s what I know. When Donna and I were hooking up, I saw her talking to an older guy. Standing real close, you know. At first I got mad, thinking she was banging him - I don’t like sloppy seconds - but when I approached them, he rushed off. She told me I had it all wrong and that he wasn’t a boyfriend. She said it was business.”
“Business? What kind of business?”
“Man, I don’t know. Shady, for sure. She said he gave her a grand a month to meet and talk.”
What on earth had Donna gotten herself into? It didn’t make any sense.
“Did she tell you what they talked about?”
“Nah. Which was really sketchy, if you asked me. She wouldn’t tell me, but she swore she wasn’t turning tricks or nothing.”
“Did you believe her?”
He shrugged. “At first, no. I mean, what dude pays that much just to talk?”
A lonely man. A man who desired a ‘girlfriend experience’ instead of just sex. I shifted in my chair. “What did you do? Is that when you broke up with her?”
“Nah. I got her to talk.”
“And?”
“And, you get me money in my commissary and I’ll tell you more.”
I was not a fan of this guy and had to restrain myself from telling this punk off. “Not so fast. You’ll get your money, but
I at least need to know what the man you saw her with looked like.”
“Dark hair, brown skin, and about my height. I didn’t get a good look at his face since he ran off.”
He could be the man on the levee that Kennedy saw with Donna. “I spoke with Donna’s best friend, Martina, and she didn’t know about any of this. Martina said she thought the money was coming from her parents.”
He shook his head. “Martina, talk about a piece of work, I forgot about that chick.”
I raised my eyebrows. “Not a fan of Martina’s?”
“Damn, she thought she was better than everyone. Said she was going to be some big Army person and all that. She said she didn’t want me around her best friend. Like she was so great - she wasn’t. What she up to? My guess, she’s still in that trailer park with a tin full of kids living off the government.”
“Not quite. She’s very accomplished, actually,” I said with a knowing smile. “Why would Donna tell you about her secret business and not her best friend?”
“I have to confess. In my younger years I wasn’t as gentle a soul as I am now. I may have been overly upset when I was asking her about this guy. She didn’t want to tell me, but eventually she did.”
So he had threatened her. Diego definitely belonged behind bars, and for good. “Is there anything else you can tell me that might help the case? Any other strange things happening around Donna?”
“That’s it.”
“Thank you, Diego. Like I said, you’ll get the money in your commissary if your alibi checks out, and then I’ll be back for the rest.”
“Stop by anytime, Detective.”
I shoved out of my seat and stepped outside the door, thanking the guard before hurrying out of the prison gates. I needed to verify the information Diego Tarantino had provided, and fast. If Donna had secret business dealings with an older man with dark hair and brown skin, that older man was likely the person who was last seen with Donna.
22
Martina