Keri Locke 05-A Trace of Hope

by Pierce, Blake

  “This is the spot where you had sex or this is the spot where you dropped her off afterward?” she asked.

  “Dropped her off, I guess?” he said, sounding unsure.

  “So you had sex in the car then?”

  “Right.”

  “Because you said you talked in the car, had sex, and then dropped her off so she could finish the challenge. So the sex was in the car? She definitely got in the car with you?”

  “I think so,” Taylor said. “I mean…to be honest, I had a little to drink that night and some of the details are a little hazy. Does it really matter?”

  “It kind of does, Taylor. For us to pinpoint where best to search for Tara, we need to know the last place anyone saw her and it sounds like you were that last person.”

  “Wait, what are you saying?” he demanded. “Are you accusing me of something?”

  “Have I accused you of anything, Taylor? Other than being a good guy who’s trying to help find a missing girl? That’s what you are, right?”

  “I just feel like you’ve kind of started getting a bitchy attitude in the last few minutes and I don’t think that’s cool.”

  “I don’t mean to sound bitchy, Taylor. I’m just trying to nail down the particulars,” she said, leading him in the general direction where she’d found the phone. “Could you guys maybe have done it over here?”

  She watched as his eyes followed her movements before involuntarily flickering to another spot just beyond the drop-off of a steep hill over to the right. He forced himself to look back toward her but Keri could sense his eyes being drawn back toward the drop-off, like they were being pulled by an invisible magnet.

  “Maybe it was over here?” she volunteered, wandering in the direction he’d been trying not to look. She saw him stiffen as she approached the area. As she walked over, she made sure to keep an eye on both her destination and Taylor. She let her right arm drop casually, brushing against the clasp of her gun holster.

  Glancing over the edge of the hill, at first she saw nothing. But then, in an area where a pile of leaves seemed to have accumulated, she caught sight of what looked to be clothes—a pair of jeans, a woman’s top, and a pair of sneakers.

  “Down there, Taylor?” Keri asked. “Does that seem about right?”

  “I’m not sure. Like I said, I was pretty drunk. I don’t really remember much at all, other than that she was really coming on to me hard.”

  “Okay, so maybe she took you down there so no cars with bright headlights would catch sight of what she wanted to do to you? Is that possible?”

  “That sounds possible,” Taylor replied.

  “Well, let’s go take a look, shall we?”

  “It’s kind of steep.”

  “You managed it once, Taylor. It shouldn’t a problem for you. You’re a lot younger than me, after all. You don’t want to get shown up by some middle-aged lady, do you? What would your brothers say about that?”

  “You said this was going to stay between us,” he reminded her, a sharpness coming into his voice.

  “I’m just teasing you, Taylor. I would never tell anyone an old lady out-hiked you.”

  That was enough to send him down the hill ahead of her. He stumbled a couple of times but never fell. Taylor was so focused on staying upright that he didn’t notice Keri studying the clothes as they got closer. She didn’t like what she saw. When they got to the bottom she directed him closer to them.

  “Pick up the jeans by the cuffs at the bottom,” she instructed.

  “But then I’ll get my fingerprints on them,” he objected. “Won’t that contaminate the crime scene?”

  “Taylor, if you helped her take off those jeans to have sex, your fingerprints are already on them, so it’s no big deal.” She didn’t draw attention to the fact that he’d used the term “crime scene.” But she did undo the clasp on her holster. He picked up the jeans.

  “Hey, Taylor, can I ask you something?”

  “What?”

  “Why is there blood near the crotch of those jeans?”

  Taylor looked at the jeans and then dropped them back on the ground. When he looked back at her, his eyes were squinting in anger. Keri could tell that he was through playing her games.

  CHAPTER THIRTY EIGHT

  Keri breathed in the crisp, late afternoon mountain air, waiting to see how Taylor Hunt would react.

  She was ready for him if he came at her. But she was hoping his arrogance and entitlement would get the better of him and he’d try to verbally bully her. As long as he kept talking, she was getting information that might save Tara.

  “You’re so smart, bitch, why don’t you tell me? Maybe it’s just that time of the month for her?”

  “Wouldn’t that have come up as you were discussing your upcoming sexual encounter, Taylor?” she asked. “Wouldn’t Tara have mentioned it to you?”

  “You got something to say, say it,” he spat. “Because I don’t like all the sweet-talk accusations you’re making, lady. You act all into me but then you start throwing shade my way. You could hurt a guy’s feelings.”

  “I’m not accusing you of anything, Taylor. I’m certainly not accusing you of stalking Tara. I’m not accusing you of forcing her down into this gully, ripping her clothes off and sexually assaulting her. I’m not suggesting that she tried to escape by clawing her way up that part of the hill right there in nothing but her underwear and bare feet.”

  Taylor looked over at a spot on the hill where the grass had been torn loose, leaving long streaks of indented dirt in its place. Then he looked back at Keri, half guilty, half perplexed. She didn’t give him a chance to respond.

  “Don’t worry, Taylor. I would never suggest that you tried to chase her up the hill and she either kicked you back or you fell and landed in that spot of indented earth back there, where you probably got knocked out or passed out for a few hours before eventually waking up, crawling up the hill, getting in your car, and drunkenly returning to campus.”

  Taylor glanced at the spot she referenced with a sense of familiarity that made her certain she was right. She continued.

  “Hell, you probably, never even noticed Tara’s shattered cell phone up at the top of the hill that I’m sure slipped from her hand as she tried to call for help before deciding to just walk back down the road mostly naked. I wouldn’t accuse you of any of that, Taylor.”

  “You are such a bitch,” he seethed.

  “And you are one of the dumbest criminals I have ever come across. Were you always this stupid? Or is it just all the brain cells you lost from the day drinking?”

  Apparently that was the last straw. He came at her with surprising speed for someone hung over and out of control. But Keri had been expecting it, baiting him into it, in fact. She waited until he was less than a foot away before sliding to the left and thrusting her pointed kneecap into the meat of his thigh.

  He grunted as he collapsed on his stomach into the leaves beside her. After a moment, he tried to roll over to pull her down. But she was already dropping to meet him, her right fist pinned to her chest so that her elbow formed a sharp point as her full body weight slammed it down against the right side of his rib cage. She felt a crack at the same time as she heard him cry out in pain.

  While he was still gasping for air, she rolled him back onto his stomach, pulled his hands behind his back, and cuffed him. Confident that he wasn’t going anywhere, she sat for a moment, catching her breath.

  Then she stood and snapped a few photos of the scene. She didn’t have any evidence bags and she didn’t want to disturb anything for the forensic team she would call when she got back down the mountain.

  “Time to go, Taylor,” she said, hauling him to his feet.

  “You are so screwed,” he gasped through painful inhalations. “My dad runs the biggest investment firm on the West Coast. He’s gonna run you out of town on a rail.”

  “Oh yeah, can investment bankers get their sons off on murder charges?” she asked, shoving him up
the hill.

  “I didn’t kill her, you old skank!” he screamed. “Maybe I was little rough but she was into it. I could tell. I didn’t do anything wrong.”

  “How do you know you didn’t accidentally kill her by being so rough?” Keri asked. She hadn’t actually arrested him yet and if he was willing to keep talking she was willing to listen.

  “The last time I saw her, she was scrambling up this hill. I couldn’t very well accidentally kill her from flat on my back, could I? You are such an idiot, I can’t even stand it.”

  They reached the top of the hill. Keri looked at the guy, debating whether there was anything else useful he could offer her. He’d essentially confessed to raping her. The physical evidence to support the charge was down the hill below. She was pretty sure he hadn’t killed her. Even if she didn’t believe his story, Marla and Nicky from the campground supported the theory that she got away physically, if not mentally.

  Nope, I’m pretty much done with Taylor Hunt.

  “I’m sorry to hear you can’t stand what an idiot I am, Taylor. Maybe you’d like to take a seat.”

  “Wha…?” he started to say. But before he got the word out she punched him square in his broken rib. He dropped to his knees involuntarily and began to whimper between gasps for breath.

  “That’s more like it,” she said. “Now on to official business. You have the right to remain silent…”

  CHAPTER THIRTY NINE

  “A body?” Keri repeated, not sure she’d heard Hillman correctly as she watched the Sheriff’s Department put Taylor Hunt in the back of their patrol car to be transported back to West LA Division.

  She’d been on the phone with him nonstop since she’d gotten back in cell range, coordinating Hunt’s return and the ongoing search for Tara, but this was the first she’d heard of a body.

  “Yes, Locke,” Hillman replied. “The report just came in a moment ago. The captain of a small sailboat coming back from Anacapa Island says he saw what looked like a female body on the rocks in the water near Point Dume.”

  “Has she been identified?”

  “No,” he said. “The Coast Guard says that with the weather changing, the waves are too choppy to get close to those rocks, especially with the light fading fast. They’re going to coordinate to have some divers check it out. But that may take a couple of hours.”

  “Could the guy on the sailboat tell anything more? Was she in something that looked like underwear or a bikini?”

  “All I know is that he thought it was a female.”

  “Then I say we proceed with the search in the mountains,” Keri insisted. “The Coast Guard is right. The weather is changing. The last few nights have been in the low sixties but it’s going to get into the mid-forties tonight. If she’s out in those woods, she won’t make it in that type of cold.”

  “Locke, we have to be realistic about this. It’s late afternoon—too late to start a search tonight. And even if we did, I’m not confident we’d find anything good. We’re approaching forty-eight hours missing. Even if that body in the water isn’t her, I’m not sure I believe the girl really got away from that Hunt kid, despite what he said. I wouldn’t be surprised if we found a shallow grave not too far from where you discovered those clothes. That’s why I want to call in the cadaver dogs first thing in the morning.”

  “Cadaver dogs?” Keri repeated, incredulous. “What about what those campers said about seeing her in underwear and having her wallet and headband?” Keri asked.

  “How do we know Hunt didn’t take that stuff and pay them to say those things to throw us off the scent? That way we waste all our time trying rescue a living girl instead of hunting for a dead one.”

  “Lieutenant,” Keri insisted, “with all due respect, I spent the whole afternoon with this kid. He’s not capable of that kind of planning.”

  “You may be right. But we both know lots of stories of clever college kids deceiving overconfident cops. Let’s not fall into that trap. Come back to the station. You can lead point on the interrogation. And if you want, you can lead point again tomorrow morning, right next to those dogs. Now I’ve got someone else who wants to talk to you so I’m going to transfer you over, all right?”

  “Yes sir,” Keri said, despite feeling deeply uneasy with his intended course of action.

  “Keri,” came Ray’s voice over the line. “You okay? We couldn’t reach you for a while.”

  “I’m fine. We were up in the mountains for a while. I lost reception. Did I miss a lot?”

  “Kind of. Keep the line open. I’m going to call you right back on my cell.”

  He hung up before she could reply. Looking down at her phone for the first time since she’d called Hillman, Keri noticed a rash of missed calls—three from Evelyn followed by two from Mags, then two more from Ray and one from Castillo. All were within twenty minutes of each other earlier this afternoon. She saw there were several voicemails and was about to hit the button to listen when Ray called back.

  “I just saw my missed calls,” she began. “What’s going on with Evelyn?”

  “She’s okay. Before I fill you in, just know that she’s okay. She’s with Mags right now at your apartment.”

  “What happened, Raymond?”

  “It didn’t go well at Stephen’s. I was only there for the tail end of it—”

  “You went to his house?”

  “Yes. According to Ev, it started okay but then devolved into him badmouthing you and suggesting particular therapists, a new school. I guess it overwhelmed her. She locked herself in a bathroom. He was pounding on the door. She tried to call but you were out of range in Malibu. So she called Mags, who went straight over.”

  “Where was the court person during all this?” Keri demanded.

  “She was there but apparently pretty useless. Anyway, Stephen was still big-footing things, so Mags called me. I was just finishing up with Jonas, who, as you know, only lives a few miles away. So I came over. After that, things calmed down. Stephen backed off for the most part. We got Ev out of there, went for some ice cream, and then Mags took her back to your place. She said she’d spend the night tonight to help out.”

  “What about her kids?” Keri asked as she pulled onto PCH and headed back toward the city.

  “They’re at her ex’s for the week,” Ray said. “Speaking of, she wanted me to make it clear to you that you are getting a new attorney, specifically her divorce attorney, the one who handled her custody issues. She stepped away to call him while we were having ice cream. She said to expect a call from him tomorrow.”

  “That’s sweet, but I doubt I can afford any attorney Margaret Merrywether uses.”

  “She said you’d say that. And she wanted me to convey that she’d float the cost of his services until you write your memoirs. She said not to argue because it was already done. She also said this guy is a pit bull who will tear Stephen a new rectum, although her language may have been a bit more colorful.”

  “Oh, jeez,” Keri sighed. “I leave cell range for a couple of hours and all hell breaks loose. I can’t thank either of you enough. How’s Ev doing?”

  “Hard to tell,” Ray admitted. “She was pretty traumatized when we left the house but after a double scoop she seemed okay. She was having fun imitating Mags’s accent. I considered that a plus.”

  “I’ll take whatever I can get, I guess.”

  “Well, don’t relax just yet,” Ray warned. “I have a little more news for you.”

  “What else could there possibly be?”

  “Castillo got a hit from the personnel files,” Ray said quietly.

  “Are you serious?”

  “Yes,” he said, “and it didn’t take long either. Only one person in the unit has anything close to a connection to a powerful local politician. Once she found the link, she checked to reconfirm and to see if they’re still in touch. They are.”

  “Well, don’t keep me in suspense. Who is it?”

  “Keri,” Ray said softly, “Garrett P
atterson is the mole.”

  “Grunt Work?” Keri repeated, taken aback. “How does she know for sure?”

  “One of his first assignments when he first started the job was as part of the personal protective detail for Carl Weatherford, the County Supervisor for the Third District. He was on his detail for about three years before he got transferred but they stayed in touch. In fact, they speak regularly, with dozens of calls in the last few years.”

  “Maybe they’re just friends?” Keri said hopefully, not wanting to believe someone she had worked with so closely could have betrayed her so deeply.

  “Maybe,” Ray said skeptically. “It’s possible they’re just golfing buddies. But a lot of those calls are at odd hours, often in the middle of the night. And a bunch of them are clustered around times when you were pursuing leads about Evelyn.”

  “But why would he do this?” Keri asked.

  “Castillo wondered that too,” Ray said. “So after triple-checking to make sure no one else in the unit was connected to Weatherford, she came to me to ask if she could pull in Edgerton to check Garrett’s financials. She couldn’t reach you and she figured that if anyone could sneak a peek at them on the sly, it was him. So I okayed it. Hope you don’t mind.”

  “No. It was the right call. What did he find?” she asked as she approached Pepperdine University. The Tuesday night rush hour traffic was agonizingly slow.

  “The routing is a little complicated so I won’t bore you with the details, but Patterson has been getting cash ‘gifts’ from an uncle of his starting around the second year he joined Weatherford’s detail.”

  “How much?” Keri demanded.

  “About ten grand annually, every year up until now—always just under the limit required to declare it for tax purposes.”