The Little Black Dress

by Linda Palund

  “That’s interesting about the coach, considering Jonny wasn’t on the football team. You told me he was in track.”

  “That’s right, but he was really tight with Skywalker, and since Luke’s tight with the coach, maybe they’re all good buddies.”

  “Hmmm. It is sounding more and more suspicious. Can you think of a good reason for you to pay a visit to Jonny at the hospital?”

  “That’s the hard part. Sadly, he doesn’t know me from Adam. We’ve got to come up with an angle. Maybe there’s a way I can use my connection to Carmen somehow. Or maybe I could just bring flowers and say they’re from the student body?”

  Seth chuckled. “No, the flowers would be pretty lame. It’s a little late for that, but the Carmen connection might work. After all, since he said he saw Carmen in his car before the crash, maybe you could just be looking out for Carmen’s ghost or something.”

  “Hey, maybe I could be writing a story for the school newspaper about sightings of Carmen’s ghost!”

  “But you don’t work for the newspaper!”

  “He doesn’t know that!”

  “You’re right.”

  I took a long sip of my coffee and pondered for a few seconds.

  “He doesn’t actually know anything about me. And if he is the key to this whole thing, maybe he actually wants to say something about it. Maybe he’s feeling remorse. Maybe I can get him to open up to me.”

  “Hey, slow down, you’re getting ahead of yourself again. But the newspaper story sounds like your angle, and visiting him seems like a logical next step.”

  “What about my going to see your father, anyway? Just to get him on the same page?”

  “You mean, to make sure he starts looking at the school?”

  “Exactly. How’s your hacking going? Have you seen anything in your dad’s reports indicating that he’s looking at the school yet?”

  “Not really. They’ve only just received the personal security CCTV tapes for the Laurel Canyon area around Stephanie’s house, and the video team is studying those now. And they’re still looking out for similar crimes in the state and going over all the forensics again. But yes, so far, they have nada. So, you’re probably right. It’s about time for you to make a visit to the downtown LAPD administration building to stir things up a little. We should plan our visit to Jonny after that.”

  “Whoa there, does that mean you’re planning to come with me to see Jonny?”

  “Well, I could work for the newspaper too….”

  “Wait a minute. Let’s think about this realistically.” And I put down my mug and looked at Seth, which made him put down his mug and look right back at me with his sincere ice blue eyes. “Remember what we’ve been discussing. We believe that these guys, Skywalker and maybe his friend Carl, pumped full of steroids and God knows what other drugs, kidnapped two girls and brutally beat, raped, and murdered them. Do you seriously think it’s a good idea for you to be seen snooping around Jonny Freeman, the only real witness, if he might be involved?”

  Seth sighed a deep sigh and nodded. “I see what you mean. You’re right. It could be dangerous to be seen near Jonny Freeman right now—especially if he really turns out to be the third guy. Now that I think about it, maybe that’s why the coach and Skywalker go visit him so often. Maybe they’re just watching over him to make sure he doesn’t talk.”

  “That’s what I’m thinking. And that’s why I think I should go to see your dad now—and not wait for any more evidence. Just to alert him to the possibilities. Okay?’

  “Yeah. Definitely. Make that appointment.”

  I called Captain Greenberg’s office from our booth at Pip’s and made an appointment to see him downtown at the Homicide Division after school the next day. I thought he would probably have come to our house again, but I felt I should make more of an official statement. I hung up and looked across at Seth, who was watching me closely and grinning.

  “What are you looking at?” I asked.

  “Just imagining you at the LAPD. It’s great. You’ll do fine.”

  “I hope so.” And I took out the notebook we used for our plans and jotted down some ideas for my meeting. I felt pretty good then. I felt like we were making the right moves. But even though I had warned Seth about the danger we could be getting ourselves into, fear went right out of my head. All I could concentrate on was being so close to finding Carmen’s killers.

  CHAPTER 22

  THE CHAUFFEUR

  I STOPPED by Angela’s house that evening before I went home, like I did most days, to make sure she was okay. She had become noticeably edgy ever since Stephanie’s murder, and James had wanted me to keep an eye on her. The police had reinterviewed her, just as they had me, along with everyone else in the neighborhood, which only served to rake up all the horror of the past year, but Angela remained amazingly strong and was still not drinking any alcohol, no matter how awful the circumstances became.

  As soon as she opened the door and saw it was me, she exclaimed, “Oh, Lucy!” and took hold of my hand and dragged me into the kitchen. “Come in, come in! I’ve just made a fresh batch of iced tea.” She seemed especially happy to see me. She looked lovely, her blonde hair in a shoulder-length bob, real pearls around her neck, and a robin’s egg-blue sheath dress that brought out the blue of her eyes. I remembered it was Thursday, so she’d be going out to play bridge with my mom later that evening. She certainly did not appear to be on edge today.

  “Now just sit down here at the table.” And I sat down while she bustled about cheerfully and brought out the ice tea and poured it into tall, glistening glasses. Ever since James left, I’d made a point of staying in their kitchen when I visited, which was close to the front door and as far away from the living room or Carmen’s bedroom as I could get. I didn’t know why, but I no longer wanted to be in the parts of the house Carmen and I had made our own. I wasn’t trying to forget her. I think I was just trying to let the wound scab over.

  Angela was grinning her toothpaste-ad grin again as she carried the tray of tea and cookies and sat down across from me. “James is coming home for term break!” she announced. Well, no wonder she was suddenly so happy. He’d been away for nearly two months, but I knew he was worried about the latest events and how they would affect his mother.

  “That’s great! I can’t wait to see him.”

  “And he wants to see you too. He told me you’ve still been keeping him up to date on the police investigation.” Then she took a little sip of her iced tea and looked at me with unusual intensity. “James says you’ve discovered something new about Carmen’s murder?”

  Oh dear, I’d been keeping James in the loop about my investigation with Seth, but I hadn’t told anyone else, not even Angela. I didn’t want anything to compromise Seth—and certainly didn’t want Seth’s dad finding out about what we were up to.

  “Uh, well, what exactly did James tell you?” I asked, looking down at the tray and pretending to be interested in her peanut butter cookies.

  “Just that you had some new ideas about possible suspects. James thought your ideas made sense and that you were going to tell that nice Captain Greenberg about them.” And she looked bright and hopeful, and I didn’t know exactly what to answer.

  “Well, yes… I have been thinking things through a bit, and I did make a connection with somebody that I think the police may have overlooked. It’s something I don’t think I ever mentioned to you.”

  “Oh? What was that?”

  “It happened last year. Do you remember how we had this hysteria kind of thing happening at the school after Carmen was murdered? You know, where boys kept saying they saw her ghost?”

  “Oh yes, but that was just a load of hogwash! You and I never believed any of that!”

  “Well, something else did happen last year that I never told you about.”

  “What was that, dear?”

  “There was this boy in our school, one of those rich-kid bad boys, you know the type: they think they ca
n get away with anything and usually do? Anyway, you might have read about it in the paper at the time. It happened about a month after Carmen was murdered. This rich kid named Jonny Freeman had this terrible car wreck. He drove his car off the road into one of those canyons along Bellagio Road. He was nearly killed, and his injuries were so bad he’s still in the hospital.”

  “I think I remember reading about it. And you think this boy had something to do with Carmen’s murder?”

  “Well, I know he did hang out with some of the other ‘bad boys’ on campus. I don’t mean like criminals, just those kind of rich kids who rule the school just because they’re good in sports and drive hot cars. It just seems to me now that some of them might have been involved, because when Stephanie was murdered, this Jonny Freeman was in the hospital, so he was out of the picture, which started me thinking. The police only found DNA from two killers in Stephanie’s case, but the DNA turned out to be the same as two of the killers involved in Carmen’s murder. Since there had been three guys in Carmen’s case and now there were only two, it just made me think that Jonny Freeman might have been the third guy in Carmen’s murder.”

  “A high school boy? How can that be?”

  “I know it sounds far-fetched, but there is still one other detail that makes it even more possible. It’s about this Jonny Freeman. When he woke up in the hospital after the wreck, he told the cops he saw Carmen sitting in the backseat of his car, and that’s what made him lose control and drive off the road.”

  “You know that’s just crazy talk.”

  “But maybe it was guilt that made him think he saw her ghost? And also, let me tell you, this guy was a real bastard, and a lot of the girls at school can testify to that. He treated girls really badly. I’ve overheard a lot of accusations against him in the girls’ room.”

  “What sort of accusations?”

  “Well, ‘date rape’ for one thing.”

  “But Carmen’s murder was so brutal. Do you really think a high school boy could do something so horrible?”

  “These aren’t just boys, Angela. They’re physically the size of men. They may be young in age, but they’re still strong—and with the right leadership, they could be capable of anything. Remember, a lot of the boys at my school are old enough to be fighting in Iraq.”

  “So, do you have an idea of who the other two boys might be?”

  “Well, I’m not totally sure, but I do have my suspicions, and I think I should tell Captain Greenberg. Just to see if he could maybe take a second look at the school.”

  Angela didn’t look so happy now, but I didn’t want to tell her everything I knew, like about the steroids and the cheerleaders and Coach Billy. I had purposely left out the whole football team connection, so I knew my story sounded pretty shaky. But I left it at that. She would be seeing my mom later, and I didn’t want them discussing any of this. In fact, now I was afraid that I had already said too much.

  “Please, Angela. Don’t say anything to anybody. Not even to my mother. Please don’t talk about this to anyone except James. Promise me?”

  She reached out across the table and clasped my hand gently, looked into my eyes, and smiled her warm, Southern-style smile.

  “Of course not, darling. You know I won’t. I promise. Only with James.”

  And then she let go of my hand and changed the subject. “Goodness, James will be here next Friday! You’ll come over for dinner on Saturday, won’t you?”

  “Of course. Thanks.”

  “I’ll make you those Southern-fried tofu burgers you love!”

  I went home for dinner and tried to study for a history exam, but all I could think about was what I would say to Captain Greenberg tomorrow. Explaining as much as I had to Angela made me feel less certain about my course of action, and even with my nightly Valium, it took me a long time to fall asleep. I couldn’t stop worrying and planning, and when I finally fell asleep, I dreamed this crazy dream about Carmen.

  Ever since the day I met Seth and we began our own investigation into Carmen’s murder, I had stopped dreaming about her. I would still take a precautionary Valium before I went to bed each night, but I had been sleeping remarkably well lately. I thought this was because I was actually doing something for Carmen now, which not only made my life worth living again, but she didn’t need to haunt my dreams anymore.

  But that night, I dreamed I was standing in front of Carmen’s house, looking toward her front door. It was already dark, and her porch light was on. As I watched, a gleaming black limousine came around the corner and pulled up across her driveway and waited. A few seconds later, the front door opened, and Carmen stepped out of the house, looking incredibly glamorous.

  She was wearing her little black dress, only in my dream it was not so little anymore, for the hem came all the way down to her knees like a dress from the fifties, and she was wearing a white ermine stole around her shoulders and had long white gloves that went up the length of her slender arms. Her long hair was styled in a sexy fifties coiffeur, with a thick lock of lush brunette hair falling over one eye, just like Veronica Lake, a famous movie star we’d seen in old black-and-white films.

  Suddenly, flashbulbs started going off, and I saw I was standing among a crowd of reporters and fifties-style paparazzi, politely hanging back and snapping Carmen’s picture.

  As she walked toward the car, the chauffeur stepped out of the limo, and I got a shock. It was Jonny Freeman! He looked very dapper in his uniform as he walked around the car and solicitously opened the passenger door for Carmen. She was facing the crowd now, and she beamed her wicked smile out to them as the flashbulbs went off once more. Then she slid gracefully into the backseat. I couldn’t see if there was anyone else in the car, for the windows were tinted. Jonny came around the car and turned to wave at the crowd before stepping back inside the limo, and then he drove slowly down the hill.

  Suddenly, I was watching the car from above as it made its way down Wilshire Boulevard. It was as if I were a camera in one of those traffic news helicopters. The limo was heading toward Santa Monica. A second later, I was transported somewhere else. I found myself in a familiar spot, leaning against a palm tree, looking out over neatly mowed lawns and gravestones scattered between the palm trees. Once again, I realized with a start, I was back at the Angelus Rosedale Cemetery. With my back to the tree, I had a good view of the limousine as it drove through the gates.

  I was surrounded by reporters now, and I had to move forward with the rest of the crowd, following the limo as it headed up the drive. I knew we were going to Carmen’s grave, and that was when I begin to feel fearful. I wanted to run away, but I was swept up in the crowd and could only move forward. In a few seconds, we were there. The limousine was parked alongside a freshly dug grave. There was a big pile of dark earth at the head of the grave. The whole scene was lit up by arc lamps, as if we were on a movie set.

  Once again, Jonny Freeman, in his chauffeur getup, emerged from the limo and waved at the crowd. Then he walked around and opened Carmen’s door. She stepped out, looking radiant, and the crowd of reporters cheered and took a thousand photos. Someone came up to her and put a huge bouquet of red roses into her arms, and she smiled again, that wicked smile I knew so well, and Jonny took her hand and led her right up to the edge of the grave.

  I was filled with terror, and I wanted to shout to her, to warn her of something terrible that was about to happen, but I couldn’t. I was paralyzed and could only watch. Then the two of them were standing at the edge of the grave, and Carmen threw the bouquet into the dark hole, and the crowd applauded. She gazed once more at the crowd, which was clapping and cheering, and she beamed her glorious smile at them and waved a gloved hand. And then Jonny pushed her over into the grave, and the lights went out.

  I woke up in a sweat, my heart pounding. I had no idea what it actually meant, but it made me feel more certain than ever that I was on the right track with Jonny Freeman. I had to take another half a Valium, though, before I could fa
ll back to sleep.

  CHAPTER 23

  DOWNTOWN

  I HAD picked out my clothes carefully the night before, choosing what I thought would make a good impression on the LAPD when I made my appearance there later in the day. I felt overdressed and conspicuous in my power-red top and black jeans when I arrived at school the next morning, but Seth didn’t seem to notice anything different about me, and after lunch we went over and over my statement until I began to relax. I thought I knew exactly what I was going to say to Seth’s dad, but when I hopped on the Santa Monica Freeway after school and headed for the downtown LAPD administration building, my stomach twisted, and my head began to buzz, and I knew I would forget everything.

  I made it to the police admin parking lot by three thirty and found my way to the LAPD building, which turned out to be an imposing multistory construction with a not-surprisingly large police presence outside the entrance. I hadn’t been downtown in a long while, and I was surprised at how clean and modern everything looked. Feeling much too young, I walked up the steps as gracefully as possible.

  As soon as I entered through the automatic doors, I was greeted by the building’s security team, had my handbag searched and scanned, and had to show them my ID.

  Once I had cleared that station and made my way to reception, a uniformed policewoman looked me over, and after studying my ID again, asked me what my business was at police headquarters that day. When I told her I had an appointment with Captain Greenberg, she looked me up and down again with an expression verging on respect and asked a nice-looking black officer to escort me to the captain’s office. This was fortunate, as the building turned out to be massive and had very poor signage. I would never have found my way there myself.