“No regrets.” She whispered to herself as she got to the last few buttons but left them open so that the lace of her bra flashed just the right amount of black to balance with the slacks. Being incarcerated didn’t mean style was optional. She tapped on the door, signaling to the deputy and was promptly cuffed and lead back to her holding cell. “What is your name?” Vanessa asked as she slipped her hands through the opening in the bars so the deputy could remove her handcuffs a final time.
“Deputy Crenshaw.” The uniformed woman replied matter-of-factly.
Vanessa smiled. “Your first name is Deputy?”
The officer looked at her as she placed the handcuffs in her pocket. “Deidre.” The girl told her.
Vanessa grinned from ear to ear. “Well isn’t that just delicious?”
“If you say so.” The deputy rolled her eyes and left.
Vanessa took a seat on the hard metal bench and pondered the irony of the deputy’s first name. She smirked to herself as she smoothed the silk of her blouse then adjusted the buttons. She fidgeted with the top button while she went over her plans in her head to make sure she hadn’t forgotten anything. It bothered her immensely that things hadn’t happened as she predicted. She didn’t like things out of place and the more and more she thought about it, the angrier she became as she continue to fidget with the top button of her blouse. There was no sense in hind-sight now, she knew that as she rolled the mother of pearl disk in her fingertips. The expression on her face contorting from the beautiful calm facade to a scowling shrew as she lost herself in her rage.
“I will always be in control!” She growled then ripped a button from the collar of the blouse and stuffed it in her mouth.
No sooner than Dillon shut the engine off, Niko came screeching up on his motorcycle. He pulled along the passenger side where Lou was napping, revved the engine and scared her out of her sleep.
“Why did you have to do that?” Dillon yelled at him as he jumped out of the car.
“Do what?” Niko was oblivious.
“I was trying to let her get some sleep!” Dillon explained as he walked around the front of the car. Lou opened her door and managed to turn her body in the seat. She was so tired she wasn’t sure she could make it out.
“Jerk.” Was all she said.
“I am so sorry!” Niko felt horrible and had only meant to be silly.
“Yeah, yeah.” Lou managed half a grin and noted there was no real way to transport anything on his motorcycle. “You planning on carrying the boxes on that thing?”
“No.” He explained. “Max had me meet you guys to check out the ominous box for you real fast. Since I am completely impervious to any toxin on the planet.”
“Really?” Lou hadn’t known that.
“Well, turned Sanguinostri are for the most part, but there are things that can make some of us pretty sick. It usually passes quickly or there are other weird side effects. So far, though, nothing has ever affected me. Not for the lack of Abby trying.”
Lou laughed. “He’s got it locked up in the back. Should I open it up?” Lou asked Dillon.
“Yeah, hang on.” Dillon started the SUV through his key fob. “Go ahead.”
Lou swiveled and punched the code that Dillon had showed her earlier into the navigation system. The men stepped to the rear of the vehicle and waited. As soon as the sequence was entered, Dillon opened the back door and retrieved the box.
“Nice!” Niko said as soon as he saw it. “ You know what that is, right?”
“Yeah.” Lou said with a yawn as she got out of the truck. “A fancy box.”
Niko smirked. “It’s a tea caddy. A very expensive one.”
“Tea caddy?” Lou was unfamiliar.
“Yeah, from the early eighteen hundreds.” Niko turned the box so Lou could see the decoration on the lid from her vantage point in the passenger seat. “This is a representation of Bacchus and his priestess on the top here.”
“The Roman god of wine and merriment.” Dillon added.
“Yes.” Niko nodded. “Or Dionysus to the Greeks but basically the god of wine, harvest, fertility, pretty much a lusty party dude.”
“It’s Albert’s isn’t it?” Lou made the connection as Niko gave his further explanation.
“He used to have it in his country home in Tuscany.” Niko confirmed Lou’s suspicion. “Let me take this out of range and make sure it’s not booby trapped. I’ll be back in a minute.” Niko took off his jacket and wrapped the box in the leather before hopping on his bike and taking off.
“So Vanessa is Albert’s high priestess?” Dillon scoffed. “Why is that so absolutely perfect?”
“Birds of a feather.” Lou found herself saying the same thing quite a bit these days.
It only took Niko five minutes before he came back with the box. “No traps.” He told them as he got off the bike and set the box in the back of Dillon’s truck. “I didn’t really look inside. I just opened the compartments to see if there was a boom. It’s got something in there, though.”
“Let’s see what it is.” Lou said as she finally slid out of the passenger seat and made her way to the back of the truck. “You do the honors.” She gestured to Niko, and he grinned.
Once the lid was opened, they could see three compartments inside the box. Two on each side that had lids and then a small round cutout in the middle that held an empty glass.
“Traditionally, there would be tea leaves in each side compartment and the glass is where you would blend it.” Niko explained the workings of the caddy.
“Tea aficionado, I see.” Dillon jested.
“Once upon a time.” Niko smirked. “Back in the day the tea and opium trades were inextricably intertwined. It was big business, and anyone of any stature had one of these and a hand in the trade somehow.”
“I highly doubt she’s got tea in there.” Lou pointed out the obvious. “Open the compartments, please.”
Niko opened the left compartment so they could see several glass tubes with screw tops. Each tube looked to contain an off colored powder that Lou was willing to bet was their Scopolamine. There was also a small paper bag wrapped up and pushed to the back of the compartment which Niko carefully removed so they could see what was inside. He dumped the contents into the empty glass, and it looked to be some kind of shriveled plant.
“There’s your Bloody Devil’s Trumpet root.” Niko advised. “The source of the Scopolamine.” Dillon knew it too.
Niko picked up the glass and poured the roots back in the paper bag, folded it up and stuck it back in the compartment. After replacing that lid, he removed the one on the right. The entire compartment was filled with buttons of all shapes and sizes, and a dark amber glass vial laid on top of them.
“What is that all about?” Dillon wondered aloud.
“No clue. Probably a trophy collection of some sort.” Lou speculated.
“Lady V’s got a thing for buttons?” Niko asked.
“We’ll ask her soon enough.” Lou hoped at least. “This is safe to bag for the lab now.”
“I’ll take a bunch of pictures first since we’re pretty sure it’s Albert’s.” Dillon said as he went to retrieve his camera.
“What the hell is the Vanessa Albert connection?” Lou couldn’t wrap her head around it.
“Both are sadistic power hungry psychopaths.” Niko reminded. “Given the level of brutality, their paths must have crossed somewhere, and they discovered they had similar interests? Who knows, Lou. She may have been one of Albert’s intended victims but giggled instead of screamed, and he fell in love. Who the shit knows with these sick twists.”
“Yeah, who knows.” Lou thought Niko’s theory was as good as any. Without a full confession and explanation from Vanessa Sturn, they would likely never know. “We gotta get inside and check on the victims then get to Lost Hills. There is no way we are going to be able to keep a lid on this from t
he press. It’s gonna get out eventually, and our only hope is to try to control how and what get’s out.”
“Good luck with that.” Niko snorted. “I’ll leave you to it.” Niko hopped back on his bike then Dillon and Lou made their way inside the hospital.
There were deputies still in the emergency room dealing with paperwork since most of the girls were Jane Does. The unidentified male that had fallen out of the box in the basement was on life support along with the two girls that had been hanging in latex in the basement. The girl that Lou had pulled off the wall was declared brain dead fifteen minutes after she had arrived in the ER. The attending physician was able to tell them that the three women that had been in the playpen in the basement were heavily drugged, and they were running tox reports to find out with what before they could treat them any further. He explained that the wrong mix could be lethal, so they had to wait. Dillon suggested that they do an expanded tox to check for Scopolamine, and they saw the proverbial light bulb go off over his head to the suggestion. He didn’t even say goodbye before he ran back to the trauma bay.
After admonishing the ER supervisor about leaking any information to the press, they were able to catch one of the Crime Lab people that was collecting the victims clothing. They handed off the tea caddy to them then headed up to the Intensive Care Unit where Mary Sheehan and the rest of the girls from the stables, as well as the two that were rescued from the garage crates, had been taken. The elevator doors opened just in time for them to see Mary Sheehan’s father and Leona Porter clinging to each other in the hall. John Sheehan collapsed a split second later right there on the hospital floor and began to wail.
“Mrs. Porter?” Lou rushed over, but Leona Porter couldn’t speak. She covered her mouth and wept as John Sheehan slumped like a child on the cold floor and sobbed.
“Detective Donovan?” A voice called from down the corridor, near the Nurse’s station.
Lou hurried towards the stern looking doctor. “Mary Sheehan?” Lou asked. Niko had rescued Mary; she had seen her in the back of the ambulance when Pierce brought her to the rally point. She had completely freaked out, but she was conscious. Lou didn’t understand how Mary could be dead.
“There was nothing that we could do.” Doctor Moore said solemnly. “When she was brought in she was seizing. We were able to stop the seizure, but she was very badly malnourished and dehydrated. She had been drugged for who knows how long with who knows what. I don’t need to tell you that she had been beaten over a prolonged period of time and suffered injuries on top of injuries. We sedated her and got her going on fluids, everything we could do until a full workup could be done, but she seized again and had a massive stroke. I just think that her poor weakened heart couldn’t take any more. The medical examiner will be able to determine the exact cause, but that is what we know right now.”
“What about the others?” Lou tried to keep her focus.
Doctor Moore placed her hand on Lou’s shoulder before she responded. “It’s a miracle they’ve survived this long, so anything is possible, I suppose.”
“Seriously?” Lou felt her temper rise. “Can you give me some prognosis or at least some odds?” Dillon could hear the anger building in Lou’s voice, so he stepped away from Mr. Sheehan and Mrs. Porter to see what was going on.
“Detective, Mary was in the best shape of all the girls up here.” Doctor Moore tried to be delicate. “There is severe organ and brain damage to all of them. The girls that are conscious are in what we call a vegetative state. They have no awareness of themselves or what’s going on around them.”
“Maybe that’s a blessing.” Dillon offered.
“Perhaps, but that doesn’t mean they didn’t feel pain.” Doctor Moore said sadly. “There is still a lot we don’t know. The brain is a very complicated thing, and we are learning more and more every day. The bottom line is that we will have to wait and see. We don’t know if the rest of the girls will regain consciousness at this point. We’ll need to do more tests, and then we will know more. It’s going to be a long haul if they make it through the next forty-eight hours. That’s the best I can give you right now.”
Dillon handed the doctor his card. “Please make sure someone contacts us immediately if anything changes.”
“Of course.” Doctor Moore told him. “I am so sorry I couldn’t give you better news.” The woman was as consoling as she could be before she left them and got back to work.
Lou stood still for several minutes before walking slowly up and down the corridors of the ICU. The glass doors into each room allowed her to see the girls in a new light. Though they had been cleaned up a bit, their bloody nightgowns were gone and replaced with standard issue hospital gowns, the visible wounds remained. Black and blue faces, some with their eyes swollen shut. Cracked and scabbed lips pried open to accommodate the breathing tubes. The girls from the garage crates looked like they had been dragged face down across a city street for miles. It was beyond comprehension what these girls had endured. It made Lou’s stomach roil again.
“Let’s go.” She finally spoke after staring at one of the crate girls for several minutes.
“Vanessa?” Dillon knew where her head was.
Lou didn’t answer him, she just turned and headed for the elevator, almost running for the door. Vanessa Sturn was about to explain why she tortured and murdered these young women, whether she wanted to or not.
When they entered through the back of the Lost Hills Malibu station, they were met with chaos. Deputies were running up and down the hall, in and out of doors, orders were being barked, and general panic was ensuing. It was nearly three in the morning so Lou and Dillon could only guess something very bad was happening.
“Shit.” Lou grumbled and headed straight for holding with Dillon right on her heals.
When they got to the door of the holding area, the alcove was packed with deputies and civilian personnel. Lou and Dillon ordered them to make a hole so they could get through. When they finally got in, they saw several people inside huddled and kneeling on the ground. As they got to the bars of the cell, they could see two deputies administering C.p.R. to Vanessa Sturn, another holding her wrist, looking for a pulse.
“Where the hell are the medics?!” One of the deputies yelled at the top of his lungs, and Lou had to resist the instinct to rush in and help.
“Jesus, Mary and Joseph.” Dillon groaned.
Lou grabbed the collar of the nearest deputy and glared at him. “What happened?!”
“I don’t know!” He stammered, his face blank and clueless. Lou let go of his collar with a shove and looked around at the other faces. “Who’s custody?” She demanded.
“Me!” Deputy Deidre Crenshaw stepped towards her as she made herself known. Her face damp with nervous sweat but she stood at attention as soon as she reached Lou and Dillon.
“Explain!” Lou barked.
Deputy Crenshaw recounted every minute detail of events from the moment Vanessa Sturn had come into her custody in holding. She described every movement and every word that passed including Vanessa’s grin upon her learning of the officer’s first name. Crenshaw told them that she kept eyes on the woman through the window in the door after she stepped out because of the weird exchange. Crenshaw had observed the woman sitting there fidgeting with the collar of her blouse for several minutes but then Vanessa finally laid down on the bench. The woman appeared to be sleeping but after looking a few more times over the course of twenty minutes, Crenshaw noticed something seeping from the woman’s mouth and down the side of her face. She knew immediately something was wrong and ran inside to check.
“I knew right away when she didn’t flinch at my charging in here that she was unconscious.” Crenshaw told them.
A familiar voice yelling for people to move shifted Lou and Dillon’s attention from Deputy Crenshaw momentarily. Lou watched as Pierce and Hopper barreled through the crowd and got to work on Sturn. He took a brie
f second to glance up at Lou, and she could instantly see that he held out little hope of them reviving her.
“Commander.” Lou called out to parks who had moved away from Vanessa’s body. “Get your people out of here, please?”
“You heard the lady, everybody out!” parks ordered. “Get back to work! What the hell is wrong with you people? This isn’t a show! Crenshaw, you stay!” Deputy Crenshaw nodded and plastered her spine to the back wall of the holding area. Both Lou and Dillon could see she was utterly distraught. Commander parks took a stance beside Lou and blew out a breath. “Shit, Lou.”
Shadows May Fall Page 33