by Philip Cox
There was no answer when they called the intercom at the second property. Leroy retrieved a pair of binoculars from the Taurus to get a closer look at the house: all the windows and doors at the front were closed, and there was no sign of life. Domingo checked the dirt track as it led up to the gate, and could see that the gravel had not been disturbed recently.
They returned to the Taurus and drove to the fourth set of gates, those at the entrance to the house and the end of the street. Leroy leaned out and pressed the Call button on the intercom. After a moment there was a crackle from the speaker, and a voice said, ‘Yes, who is it? What do you want?’
‘Police,’ Leroy said unnecessarily, noticing a small camera lens above the speaker. ‘We believe a fugitive from a store robbery may have gotten into your grounds.’
‘No, the gates are locked as you can see. Nobody has gained access to these premises. But thank you for your concern.’
Leroy glanced over to Domingo, then back to the intercom. ‘I appreciate that, sir; however we do need to check. So please unlock the gates. It will only take us a few minutes to carry out the search, assuming the fugitive is not on your property.’
‘As I said, officers, thank you for your -’
‘There is also the possibility that the man is armed, so it is in your interests to let us in. Unless you are the owner, please speak with your employer now. It would be far easier if you opened the gate now; those in the house could potentially be in danger.’
‘Please wait there.’ The intercom clicked silent.
‘“Please wait there”?’ muttered Domingo. ‘Where the hell does he think we’re going to go?’
Leroy said nothing; just rubbed his chin and stared at the intercom.
After a couple of minutes the intercom crackled again. ‘Thank you for your patience, officers. Please follow the road up to the house.’ There was a click from the gates, and they swung open. Leroy drove through the gateway and along a short road to a large house. As they pulled up outside, one of a set of large double doors opened, and a white haired man dressed in a black suit came out. He walked up to the Taurus and opened Leroy’s door. ‘Please come this way, sir. Madam,’ he added as Domingo got out of the passenger seat.
‘Thank you very much,’ Leroy said as they followed the man inside. Leroy turned back to look at Domingo, who was trying to suppress a grin.
‘Please wait in here,’ the man said, having led the two police officers into the first room off the large hallway, the centrepiece of which was a grand staircase.
He turned to face them in the doorway. ‘Mr Mason will see you shortly, officers,’ he announced, then turned and left.
As he and Domingo waited, Leroy looked around the room. It reminded him of photograph he had seen of rooms in the thirties or forties. The only concession to contemporary living was a large flat screen television set in one corner. Domingo looked around too, giving Leroy a this is weird look.
‘Do you have your identification, officers?’
They both spun round to see in the doorway, a man dressed smartly in a business suit. He was short, around five feet, with blond hair cut in a traditional way, with a heavy fringe which he had to brush back with his right hand as he spoke.
Leroy held out his. ‘Detective Leroy, LAPD. And this is Detective Domingo.’ She held out hers. Rather than just giving the credentials a perfunctory glance as most people tended to do, he took the identification and carefully studied each one. He did not wear any glasses, but held the items about six inches from his face as he checked them.
Eventually he returned them. ‘Thank you very much, officers,’ he said, giving an insincere smile. ‘They appear to be in order. My name is Mason, Dwight Mason. How can I help you?’
‘As I said on the intercom, sir,’ replied Leroy, ‘an LAPD helicopter in pursuit of a vehicle used in a store robbery saw the vehicle being left down on Mulholland. The suspect then fled on foot, climbing over the walls of the neighbouring properties.’
‘And where is your suspect now?’ Mason asked, stooping over slightly, inclining his head and grinning. By now, Leroy had taken a dislike to him.
‘Unfortunately, the copter crew lost sight of him. We are assuming he is hiding somewhere in the grounds of the houses around here.’
‘In the grounds? So you don’t need to search inside?’
‘With your permission, we need to firstly search the grounds, including any outbuildings. Then we’ll check the first floor doors and windows for any break-ins.’
Mason grinned again, and straightened up. ‘Well, I’m sure that will be satisfactory, officers, although I am sure you will find nothing.’
Leroy said nothing.
After an uncomfortable pause, Mason spoke again. ‘In that case, officers, I will lead you outside.’ He did so, pausing and turning to them outside the large front doors. ‘The grounds, officers, are not as extensive as you might think.’ He gesticulated wildly, showing Leroy and Domingo where the gardens were, as if they were unable to see them.
‘And round the sides and back of the house?’ Leroy asked.
Mason gesticulated again, this time with his left arm. ‘As you can see, you can walk right round the house. It is all open.’
‘Are there any outbuildings?’ Domingo asked. ‘Garages, summer houses, and the like?’
‘Yes, there are. All out back.’ He stood back and smiled, as if to say anything else, or have you finished wasting my time?
‘Thank you very much, sir,’ said Leroy. ‘You can leave us to it. If we have any questions, we’ll call you. If we do find the suspect, as he may be armed, we may need to call in back-up.’
‘I’m sure that won’t be necessary,’ Mason smirked. ‘I don’t think your quarry is here.’ With that, he turned and went back inside the house.
‘Jerk,’ muttered Domingo, as the door closed behind him.
‘Come on,’ said Leroy. ‘Let’s get on with it. We’ll make a show of checking the undergrowth over there; then we’ll head out back. If she drove here, the car’s most likely there.’
‘Why are we being so ostentatious?’ Domingo asked as she and Leroy looked behind bushes.
‘Because I have a hunch we’re being watched. And I wouldn’t be surprised if that jerk as you so rightly called him calls in to validate why we’re here. So we’d better move swiftly. Let’s go out back.’
They walked round the side of the house and came across a large garage, a pool and a pool house. The only person they saw was the pool cleaner, using a cleaning device on a telescopic pole. He looked up at them inquisitively, only to go back to his pool after Leroy held up his badge. The two officers walked first to the garage building. The garage seemed wide enough to hold three vehicles side by side. The roller doors were shut, but at the side there was a small window and a small glass door. Leroy tried the door: it was locked, so he peered in the window. Even though it was only around two feet square, the window was very clean, and afforded a view of the entire garage. Inside the place looked whitewashed, both walls and floor. It was empty apart from a large black RV, and a motorcycle. Both looked either brand new, or highly polished.
‘Nothing in there,’ Leroy said, and he and Domingo made their way over to the pool house. The door to the pool house was open. Domingo stepped inside and looked around. Inside the house was a suite of furniture: sofa and two armchairs and a bar. Leroy stood outside and looked around, strolling casually around the lawn adjacent to the pool house. ‘Liza,’ he called out.
Domingo stepped out of the pool house to see what her partner wanted, then saw Dwight Mason coming out of the main house. ‘I take it you’ve found nothing, officers?’ he said, folding his arms and giving them another lopsided grin.
‘No, it appears to be all clear, sir.’ Leroy started to walk to the side of the house as he spoke. He stopped after a few feet and turned round. ‘Just one question, though, Mr Mason. You have garage space for – what, six vehicles? But I can only see an RV and a bike. Are these the
only vehicles you have here?’
Mason paused, frowning slightly. Then the obsequious grin. ‘My employer owns a sedan, but he is away on a business trip at this time, so in answer to your question, those are the only vehicles here.’
‘It’s quite a large house,’ Domingo said, looking up at the second floor windows. ‘What about domestic staff? Where do they park?’
Mason folded his arms again. ‘I’m sorry, officers – I understood from what you said earlier that your suspect - if he was on these grounds – would have come here on foot.’
‘You are quite right, Mr Mason. Things appear to be clear here. Sorry to have troubled you. We’ll try the next house.’
‘No trouble at all. Always happy to help.’ Mason leaned again and put a hand on Leroy’s shoulder, their difference in height making him lean even further. Leroy had the impression he was being ushered off the premises. Mason led them through the house: in through the back double doors, along a cream painted corridor to the hall they had seen earlier, and out the front door. He even opened Leroy’s car door for him.
‘Once again, thanks for your time, Mr Mason,’ Leroy said after winding down his window.
‘And once again, always happy to help.’ Mason knocked on the Taurus roof as if giving the two police officers a signal to leave, then turned and walked back into the house. Leroy took the Taurus back down to the gated entrance, slowing down to allow the gates to swing open.
‘That was one oily fucker,’ said Domingo as they drove through the gates. ‘Next house, then?’
‘No need,’ said Leroy, as they headed down the hill, back to Mulholland Drive. ‘I’ve seen all I need to see.’
‘How so?’
‘While you were checking the inside of the pool house, I had a look round the outside.’
‘And?’
‘I noticed some tyre tracks on the grass, so I quickly followed them. Just in time as it happened, as Mason came out just then.’
‘Go on.’
‘Behind the pool house. The grey Ford she was driving.’
THIRTY
‘WHY DIDN’T YOU say something?’ Domingo asked.
Leroy turned the Taurus into Mulholland Avenue. ‘What could I say? “Oh, I am sorry, Mr Mason. I’ve just remembered we’re not looking for a fugitive from a robbery, but a battered old sedan driven by a hooker called Alexandra.” I don’t think so.’
‘What do you think’s going on there, then? Is the house a whorehouse, you think?’
‘Could be, if Alexandra was working out of there.’
‘She must be; why else would she head back there? Surely she hadn’t arranged to see you at eleven-thirty, and someone there at eleven fifty. She’s a hooker, not a dentist. And why park the car hidden behind some pool house?’
‘Why indeed? Another thing: that looked a pretty fine house, inside and out. Not quite the sort of place you’d expect a hooker doing tricks for three hundred bucks to work out of. Place like that, you’d expect to pay five, ten times that. And then there’s that Mason guy…’
‘Dwight Mason,’ Domingo said slowly and carefully.
‘Yeah. I can’t quite make him out. There was something about him that didn’t quite seem right.’
‘Tell me about it.’
‘No, I don’t mean that. Who is he? He talked about his employer, so he isn’t the owner of the place.’ Leroy shook his head. Turned the car left at a junction. ‘He seemed….seemed strangely familiar to me. His face, I mean.’
‘Really?’
‘Yeah, but I can’t put my finger on what. Once we get back to the Desk I’ll find out who owns that place. Might help place him.’
‘You could try Google,’ Domingo suggested.
Leroy looked over. ‘What? Google him?’
‘Why not? You never know: he could be someone famous whose face you can’t place.’
He nodded. ‘Okay, let’s do that.’
‘You never know -’ Domingo started to say, only to be interrupted by her cell phone. ‘It’s Connor,’ she said, picking up. She listened to what her partner had to say, replied, ‘Okay, we’re on our way,’ and then looked over at Leroy.
‘What did he have to say?’ Leroy asked.
‘He was relaying a message from Lieutenant Perez. We have to get our asses back to the station house. He wants to see you like yesterday.’
‘So he has started today,’ Leroy said. ‘Swell. We were going back anyway.’
*****
Once back at HQ Leroy and Domingo walked back to the Homicide Desk. They had to pass the office of Lieutenant Perez, a smaller version of the room Captain Patterson used. Perez’s door was shut.
‘Let’s get it over with.’ Leroy paused at the door. ‘You make a start on Mason and that house. See you in a bit.’
‘Sure thing, Sam,’ Domingo nodded and went to her desk.
Leroy knocked on the door. A voice from inside called out, ‘Come in.’ Inside, Lieutenant Perez was sitting behind a desk covered with case folders. Leroy reflected that it was a similar picture to the captain’s desk. Clearly the rumours were true: Perez was Patterson’s protégé.
‘Be right with you, Sam.’ Perez fished around the desk and picked up a folder. A thin folder. ‘Take a seat.’
Leroy grunted his thanks and sat down. ‘I guess congratulations are in order – Lieutenant.’
Perez looked up and smiled. ‘I appreciate that, Sam.’ He paused, as if in thought, then said, ‘You know, strange isn’t it? Two weeks ago you were calling me Roman: now it’s Lieutenant.’
Leroy smiled insincerely. ‘Yeah. Strange.’
‘They say a week is a long time in police work, but two…’ His voice tailed off. ‘Look, I want to get one thing out in the open first.’
Leroy’s eyes widened. ‘Oh, yes?’ he asked inquisitively.
Perez continued, ‘I mean it’s no secret you were up for this job. I would say sorry you didn’t get it, but…’
Leroy shrugged. ‘May the best man win, as they say.’
‘That’s not what I meant. I just wanted to say, I hope there’s no hard feelings…’
Leroy shook his head. ‘Not here, there aren’t.’
Perez went on, ‘And we can carry on working together.’
‘I hope so too. I can’t see any reason why not.’
‘Great. That’s really great.’
Leroy said nothing.
‘So, I’ve been looking through the files on these recent John Does.’
‘Not all John Does now. We have identified two of them: Guy Robbins and Lance Riley.’
Perez slowly nodded his head. ‘Really? I didn’t know that. That’s good, but it doesn’t change the fact that you have been spending - that you and Detective Domingo have been spending – one hell of a lot of time driving the streets of LA investigating two or three cases - similar cases, I’ll grant you - of deaths by misadventure.’
‘We’re not sure they were misadventure.’
‘What have you found then? I understand one of the victim’s laptops has been sent to the CCU: have they come back to you?’
‘No, not yet. We haven’t found a lot yet, I admit, but it’s still early days.’
‘I think you’re wasting your time.’
‘Excuse me?’
‘And Detective Domingo’s time.’
‘Oh?’ Leroy sat up. ‘How so?’
‘You’re wasting time on non suspicious deaths. There were no signs of foul play, were there?’
‘No, but -’
‘You know what I think? They were all of a similar socio-economic status, weren’t they? I think they all got involved in some sex and drugs orgy thing, which went too far. Not pleasant, I agree, especially for them.’
‘But the drugs came from somewhere, Lieutenant.’
‘I agree, but you want to know how many homicides took place in this jurisdiction in the last twenty-four hours? Eleven, eight of which were drug related. So, you tell me: which should get our priority? Eleven shootin
gs, a gang rape, five muggings, or three possible suspicious deaths.’
Leroy stood up. ‘It’s all a question of money, isn’t it?’
‘Of course it is. We both know that. But we have to prioritise. And your John Does, which I and the captain are certain were not suspicious are way, way down the food chain. Do you get me?’
Leroy nodded.
‘I agree it’s not been easy, running without a lieutenant, but now I’ve taken up my post, you and your fellow detectives can get the guidance and support you all need. Yes?’
Leroy said nothing.
‘So,’ Perez continued, ‘just clear up the paperwork on the John Does by,’ - he checked his watch - ‘two, then both you and Domingo have deaths worthy of investigation to look into. She has Detective Connor to look after; when’s Quinn back from vacation?’
‘Day after tomorrow,’ replied Leroy.
‘Well, do what you can on your own. But any situations when you feel you need backup, call me straightaway. Okay?’
‘Okay, Lieutenant.’
‘Well, don’t let me keep you. Update me at the end of the shift.’ Perez closed the thin file and picked up another, much fatter one. He leaned back in his chair, reading the file.
Meeting over, Leroy thought.
He left Perez to his file, and slowly walked back to his desk. Sure enough, there was a small pile of brown folders waiting for him. He looked over at Domingo’s workstation: she was standing talking to Connor. They were both about to go out. She looked over to Leroy, said something to Connor, who left the room, and stepped over to Leroy.
‘What did he tell you, Sam? She asked. ‘Drop the John Does?’
He nodded. ‘That’s right. Gave me until two o’clock to finish the paperwork. Says he and the captain believe they are a waste of resources.’
‘So what are you going to do?’
Leroy shrugged. ‘What I’m told I guess. Where are you two headed off to?’
‘The Rape Crisis Centre.’