The Case of the Sin City Sister

by Lynne Hinton

  “Look, James said they had no record on Dorisanne. She’s not wanted for anything. She’s not been targeted by her boss. Let’s not jump to conclusions about her involvement yet, okay? Let’s just focus on finding her.”

  Eve nodded. She knew Daniel was trying to make things easier for her.

  “Did you notice your dad’s cough?”

  “He said it was allergies,” Eve answered.

  “Right, yeah, that makes sense,” he responded.

  The conversation paused while they both watched the minutes tick away. When it was finally two thirty and they both agreed they had waited long enough, Daniel started the engine to move closer to Pauline’s apartment. He pulled into a spot just below the unit and parked. They were just about to exit the car when they heard the sirens blaring, coming in their direction. They watched as three police cars and two ambulances pulled into the parking lot complex and stopped right in front of them. Neither of them moved.

  THIRTY-TWO

  “What the . . . ?” Daniel appeared just as alarmed as Eve while the squad cars and emergency vehicles rushed into the lot.

  They both watched from the car as the officers jumped out of their cars and headed up the steps and gathered outside Pauline’s door.

  Someone from the apartments arrived at the landing and opened the door with a key. They all rushed in.

  “Something’s happened to Pauline,” Eve said, reaching over to open the door.

  Daniel grabbed her by the hand, pulling her back.

  She turned to him quickly, surprised at his response, feeling slightly annoyed.

  “Let’s just wait here,” he instructed her. “We can see what’s going on.”

  Eve sat back.

  Six police officers barreled through the front door while the paramedics stood out on the landing. All Eve could make out was the group of uniformed men and women standing at the door.

  “What do you think has happened?” she asked Daniel, who still had his hand on hers.

  He shook his head. “I don’t know, but it doesn’t look good.”

  “Can you call your friend?” she asked, wondering if the police officer he knew could tell him about the call to Pauline’s apartment.

  “Looks like I don’t have to call.” He raised his chin at another officer who had just pulled up and was hurrying up the stairs to join the others. “That’s James,” he added.

  Eve watched as the man, a large guy, African American, dressed in a dark suit, headed up to the landing where everyone else was waiting. He flashed a badge and entered the apartment. “I don’t think this is good news,” Eve said. She turned to Daniel. “Do you think Steve beat her up?”

  Daniel didn’t answer.

  “What if he found out she was helping us?” She pulled her hand away from Daniel’s. “I think we should go up and find out what’s happened. Maybe we can do something.”

  “Just wait, Eve,” Daniel instructed her. “Just give it a few more minutes. We’ll find out something soon enough. We would just be in the way up there.”

  As soon as Daniel’s words were uttered, the paramedics hurried into the apartment. Eve pulled down her rosary from the rearview mirror and began to pray.

  When she finished her prayer and looked up, Daniel was opening his car door. “There’s James, let me talk to him.” And he exited.

  Eve watched as Daniel hurried to the Las Vegas detective’s side. She could see him filling in details. They would both look at each other and then up to the apartment. James, Daniel’s friend, kept shaking his head, making Eve fear the worst.

  She fingered the rosary and said more prayers for Pauline and for the first responders at her side. In just a few minutes, Daniel returned.

  She waited until he had gotten in and closed the driver’s-side door.

  “Domestic violence,” he reported. “A neighbor called it in.”

  “Is she okay?” Eve asked.

  “She’s alive,” he answered. “Apparently she was beaten pretty bad. The guy used a baseball bat.”

  “Is he still in there?” she asked, referring to Steve, Pauline’s boyfriend.

  Daniel shook his head. “But it doesn’t look like he’s been gone long. The 911 call just came in about twenty minutes ago. The neighbor said she heard the fight start about an hour earlier and then the screaming came later. The officers think he beat her up and then left, and she started yelling for help when she knew he was gone.”

  “So we’ve been sitting down here while . . .” Eve didn’t finish the sentence.

  Daniel reached over and took Eve’s hand again, this time trying to console her. “We don’t know the timetable; James was just guessing.”

  Eve leaned her head against the window of her door. She closed her eyes and could see Pauline, smiling, inviting her over to the apartment, warning her not to come too early. She wondered if Steve had seen Daniel’s car and figured out that they had returned, that Pauline was going to let them into Dorisanne’s apartment, that she had somehow disobeyed his instructions, and had then paid the price.

  She knew from the women who came to the abbey that an abuser could choose anything as a reason for violence, that she and Daniel weren’t to blame for Steve’s apparent outburst, but she still felt somehow responsible and wished she had not made the trip the night before to track down her sister’s neighbor or that she had said something during their conversation at the casino, something that might have kept her from coming back to the apartment.

  “Did you tell him why we were here?” she asked Daniel, wondering if his friend knew why they were parked near the crime scene, knew that they were there to talk to Pauline.

  “He didn’t get that far with his questions, but I’m sure he’ll want to know the answer to that.” Daniel pulled his hand away from Eve’s.

  They looked up when they saw some more commotion at the top of the landing at Pauline’s door. A gurney was being wheeled out with someone, apparently Pauline, strapped in. There were two paramedics holding IV bags over the victim’s head, and two police officers moving the long, narrow stretcher. They headed toward the end of the building where Eve assumed there was an elevator. In a few minutes they were walking out from below, heading in the direction of the ambulance. Eve could see Pauline’s blond hair, loose and spilling over the end of the gurney. She had on an oxygen mask, and there was no movement that Eve could see from the patient. The paramedics and policemen loaded her into the back, and soon the ambulance was speeding away.

  “Do you know where they’ll take her?” Eve asked.

  Daniel shook his head. “No, but we’ll find out.”

  They waited and continued to watch as the police officers walked around the apartment complex. A couple of them stayed with the man who had opened the door. One went to the neighbor who had been standing in front of her door watching the entire event. Eve heard the knock on Daniel’s window before she saw his friend James standing beside the car.

  Daniel opened the door and got out. Eve could overhear the conversation and listened as Daniel explained about the prearranged meeting scheduled with the victim and that they planned to use the spare key that she had to get into Dorisanne’s apartment. She heard him tell James who she was—he peeked in the window at her at that point—and then how she had met Pauline the day before and spoken to her again later that night.

  “No,” she heard him say, “there was no evidence that Pauline seemed afraid to come home. No evidence that her boyfriend had known about their conversation or that Eve knew anything more about what could have happened.”

  “It looks textbook,” she heard James say, but she was not so sure. “We’ve been called out a few times before. But this time it’s a felony. She’s knocked unconscious, lost a lot of blood.”

  “You know where the perp is?” Daniel asked.

  “We’ve sent a unit to his place of employment. These guys usually go right on about their business as if beating up their girlfriends is just a part of their routines. It amazes me how s
tupid they are.”

  She heard a few more bits and pieces of their conversation, and then, while reaching up and hanging her rosary back on the rearview mirror, she glanced behind her to see a man sitting on a motorcycle outside a fence at the rear of the parking lot. She instantly recognized it as the same bike that had exited the area only a few minutes earlier, and then, with his helmet removed, his dark hair slicked back, and the mustache, she also knew the driver’s face was familiar.

  Thinking he might be Steve, she leaned forward to get Daniel’s attention.

  THIRTY-THREE

  “Does Steve drive a motorcycle?” she asked, stepping out of the car, directing her question to the Las Vegas police officer.

  “I don’t know,” James answered. He was writing down notes.

  When Eve glanced back, the man on the motorcycle was pulling away. “I’ve seen that guy before.”

  Daniel and James both looked behind them, hearing the engine as the driver circled around and exited the area.

  “Yeah, me too,” Daniel replied. “He pulled out of here about half an hour ago. I recognize the bike. I guess you would too,” he added, smiling at Eve, knowing her love for Harley-Davidsons. “What is it? Low Rider?”

  “No. I don’t mean just now. And I don’t just mean the bike; I saw him last night,” Eve noted. “He was sitting at the slots when we left Pauline. He was at Caesar’s. And it’s a Dyna Super Glide, probably a ’97.”

  Daniel watched as the motorcycle sped away. He shook his head.

  “Do you think it’s Steve?” Eve asked. “Do you think he came back to see about her? That he was at the casino last night and saw us talking to her?”

  James pulled out his cell phone, apparently taking an incoming call. Daniel and Eve waited for him to finish.

  “It’s not the boyfriend on the bike,” he said. “They just picked him up at the construction site where he works. His boss said he arrived there less than an hour ago, but he claims he hasn’t been home since last night.” James shook his head. “Says he’s innocent.”

  “That’s original,” Daniel responded.

  Eve didn’t comment, but something didn’t quite fit for her. If that wasn’t Steve on the bike, she wondered, who was this guy watching Pauline’s apartment, and why did he leave and come back? Why was he at Caesar’s last night? Could he have been the one who beat her up? She decided to keep her questions to herself for the time being, but when she looked up at Daniel, he was watching her as if he was considering the same thing, both of them thinking like cops.

  “Look, if you want to get into your sister’s apartment, I can get the key from the super,” James said, slipping his phone back into his pocket. “I mean, since we’re all here and everything.”

  At first Eve didn’t respond.

  “That’s why you’re here, right?” He turned to Eve. “You were going to take a look around?” He waited for her answer, eyeing her as if he was suddenly suspicious.

  Eve nodded. “Right,” she said.

  “Then I’ll let you in. I don’t think the manager is going to care, and even though I can’t see how this domestic violence call is related at all to your missing sister, he’s not going to know the difference. I need to hang around a little longer anyway, so you can do your business while I’m still here.”

  Eve looked at Daniel.

  “I’ll find out where they took Pauline, what hospital,” he noted. “We can head over there after we look around.” Daniel closed the car door and waited for Eve to join him.

  The three of them headed up the stairs and waited outside Pauline’s apartment as James went in and found the manager, who was being interviewed by another police officer. The two of them came out in a few minutes.

  “I don’t see what you think you’re going to find in there,” the manager said as he pulled out his set of keys and stuck one into the lock on Dorisanne’s door.

  “Yeah, I’m sure you’re right; there’s probably nothing, but we just want to make sure there’s no one else been hurt up here,” James commented, standing behind the manager.

  “Well, I know that these guys have been gone a week, so they aren’t a part of this.” He pushed open the door and stood aside for James. Daniel and Eve waited.

  “Robert Miller and Dorisanne Divine,” he said, “that’s who lives here.”

  “It’s Divine,” Eve said, correcting the mispronunciation.

  The manager turned, noticing her and Daniel for the first time.

  “And you say they’ve been gone a week?” James asked.

  “Yeah,” he replied. He seemed to be studying Daniel. “I’ve seen you,” he finally noted. “You’ve been here checking up on them before. I remember.”

  Daniel smiled, held out his hand. “Detective Daniel Hively,” he said.

  “You aren’t with the Las Vegas PD,” the manager commented.

  “No,” Daniel responded.

  The manager seemed to be deciding whether or not he was going to let the three of them enter when James pushed past and walked in. “Thank you, Mr. . . .”

  “Stanley,” the manager gave his name. “Stanley Whitehorse.”

  “Thank you, Mr. Whitehorse, we’ll take it from here.”

  Daniel and Eve followed James inside, leaving the manager out on the landing with a confused look on his face.

  “I’d say we have about five minutes before he decides we shouldn’t be in here, so you might want to hurry,” James told Eve.

  Eve glanced around her sister’s apartment.

  “Anything look out of place?” James asked.

  Eve studied the furniture, the belongings in the open living area. There were a few things that looked familiar, wedding pictures on the wall, pieces of their mother’s pottery, an old blanket that Eve knew had come from their home in New Mexico. Most of the things, however, Eve didn’t recognize, including a basket of yarn. Does Dorisanne knit? she wondered. And copies of Conde Naste Traveler and Coastal Living, aspirational magazines that made Eve wonder if Dorisanne intended to move again or just longed to visit new places. And seeing such things caused her to realize once more how little she knew about her sister’s life, the things that brought her comfort, the furnishings of her home. She shook her head.

  “I’ve actually not ever visited her here,” she confessed. She turned to her friend. “Daniel, you’ve been in here before. What do you think?”

  He shrugged, glancing around from wall to wall, corner to corner. “I don’t see anything that seems suspicious or out of place.”

  Eve headed into the bedroom. The bed was unmade, which for some reason made Eve smile. Something finally felt familiar to her. At least this room felt like a place she was able to recognize as Dorisanne’s. A couple of the dresser drawers were open and articles of clothing were hanging out. A few clothes were piled in the corner. The closet doors were also open, but Eve could see that blouses and dresses were hanging there. Not too much looked to be missing. Shoes lined the floor underneath the clothes, and Eve studied the pairs of high heels, remembering how her sister loved to play dress-up when they were little, how she loved wearing their mother’s dressy shoes.

  She glanced around, noticing newspapers stacked in the corner, a couple of books by the bed, and beside her on the nightstand there were a couple of empty cups, a clock, a hairbrush, and a framed picture of the Divines. Eve picked it up. There were the Captain, their mother, and the two girls, both awkward teenagers, all posing for a family shot, a birthday, Eve recalled. Perhaps their mother’s. Eve studied the photo, remembering the celebration, how she had come home from college for the weekend, how she told them later on that occasion that she was contemplating entering the convent, how Dorisanne and the Captain remained in their never-ending power struggle. She hadn’t remembered the picture being taken, though, and couldn’t recall who had been the photographer. She knew it was her mother’s idea to have the four of them in a shot together; it was always her mother trying to get family pictures.

  Eve pu
t the picture back down and could see that the small drawer in the stand was slightly ajar. She reached over and pulled the handle. She turned on the lamp and discovered a few pieces of paper, letters in envelopes written in their mother’s hand, some ChapStick, lotion, a couple of photographs with Dorisanne in her waitress uniform, and a small address book. Without knowing why, Eve took the book out, along with the loose photographs, and slid them into her back pocket. She didn’t think those things could shed any light on where her sister had gone, but she just wanted something to make her feel closer to Dorisanne.

  When she could find nothing to give a clue as to where Dorisanne had gone and why, she turned off the lamp, and headed back into the living room where Daniel and James were waiting.

  “Anything?” Daniel asked.

  Eve simply shook her head.

  THIRTY-FOUR

  By the time Eve and Daniel made it to the hospital, Pauline had been taken to a room in the Intensive Care Unit. There had been no need for surgery, just blood transfusions, X-rays, IV fluids, fifty stitches on the top of her head, and close observation. No bones were broken; her skull had not been fractured, but there had been a large gash, bruising, and a substantial concussion. She was heavily sedated, and they were told by the attending doctor that she was not to be roused for conversation. She needed this time to rest and to make sure there had not been any brain damage. She was in and out of consciousness anyway and hardly able to answer questions, but the doctor made it clear she was not to be disturbed. Once he found out Eve was a nun and a friend, however, he allowed her to stay at Pauline’s bedside.

  Since he knew the man had been picked up by the police, Daniel planned to go to the jail and interview Steve, find out what he could as to whether or not he was in fact the perpetrator. He told Eve he would use his best interview skills and was confident that he would be able to tell if Steve had been the one who had done this to Pauline and even find out why. He also planned to find out if he had any knowledge about the guy they had seen earlier on the motorcycle.