by Perry, Meg
Clinton said, "Why do you believe that your sister-in-law might have been untruthful?"
I sighed. "I don't know if I believe it yet, but she does have a history of hiding things. Jennifer cares a lot about what other people think of her. That's why she never told anyone about the hoarding problem. So if she told someone about the boxes of books, she might not have admitted it to us because she wouldn't want us to think that she was dumb for doing that."
Liz was aghast. "But that means she lied to the police."
"Yeah, I know. I'm not sure she's thought about the consequences there. But I'm going to tell Eckhoff about it when he gets here."
Shortly before 3:00, Eckhoff strolled into the library. He spotted me at the reference desk and came over. "Is this where I come for help?"
I laughed. "Depends on what kind of help you need."
He grinned. "This is the real-life version of the guru on the mountaintop, right? The answers to all the questions are right here."
Clinton said mildly, "Sometimes the answers are within yourself."
Eckhoff looked surprised. I made the introductions. "Uh, Detective Jonathan Eckhoff, Clinton Kenneally and Liz Nguyen."
Eckhoff shook their hands. He held on to Liz's hand a little longer than necessary and gave her a brilliant smile, which she returned. Hmm. Eckhoff said, "Call me Jon."
Liz said, "Hi, Jon." And smiled again. I looked at Clinton; he gave me a tiny nod, a knowing look on his face.
Eckhoff was apparently going to make the most of this opportunity. "So you all are librarians too?"
Liz said, "I am." Clinton said, "I am merely a patron."
Eckhoff nodded. He was still smiling at Liz. I could nearly see the sparks shooting between them. "Are you a history specialist too?"
"No, my specialty is political science."
"Ah. Interesting." Eckhoff gave Liz that brilliant smile again. He really was an attractive guy. "I'd like to hear more about that."
Liz tilted her head and kept smiling. "Well, after your appointment with Jamie, come next door to my office. I can tell you all about it."
"I will definitely do that." Eckhoff grinned at Liz one more time, then turned to me. Reluctantly, I thought. "Are you ready?"
It was five minutes before three. "Yeah. Let's go." I led him upstairs to my office. When we got there, I unlocked the door for him and gestured for him to go in before me. He stepped in and looked around. "This is nice. A lot better than what I have for an office."
"Yeah, if yours is anything like the detective's room at West LA, I sympathize."
He laughed. "Yeah, it's a lot like that." He turned to me. "So, your friend Liz, is she single?"
I grinned at him. "Yes, she is."
Eckhoff grinned back. "Well, maybe she won't stay single for long."
I laughed. "Go for it, dude."
"Oh, I'm gonna do that." He rubbed his hands together and got serious. “Okay. I’ve been getting to know your brother Kevin a lot better. Belardo and I talked to Jennifer again, and she denied knowing Brashier. Kevin and I also talked to Brashier again, and he denied knowing Jennifer. But the ballistics from the bullets that killed Michael Lindsey, the guy on Brashier’s property, matched the bullets that killed Wallace. We got a warrant to search Brashier’s property, but nothing turned up. We still think he’s our guy, but he might have hired someone to do the dirty work.”
“Holy shit. So the cases are definitely connected.”
“Yep. But we’re still not sure how. Okay, let's gather everyone, and we can talk about what's gonna happen with this phone call."
I called Conrad. Gillian was waiting in his office, and the two of them came right up. I ushered them into the office and closed the door. I asked Eckhoff, "If the caller wants names, do I give them?"
"You can give Dr. Huffstetler's name; they can look online to confirm that. Don't give mine...use the last name of Williams, like we did before."
Then the phone rang.
I clicked the speaker feature first, then answered. "Brodie."
"We need to meet." It was the same voice, the young-sounding woman.
"Yes, with our authentication expert."
"Who's that?"
"Our special collections librarian. His name is Conrad Huffstetler."
"How do I know that's the truth?"
"You can look on UCLA library's website. His name, picture and job title are there."
"They'd better be."
"They are." I crossed my fingers and said, "The donor's representative is insisting on coming to the meeting as well."
"No. Only the two of you."
"That won't work. Sorry. It's the donor's money. She won't agree to anything unless her rep sees the item."
There was a pause. It sounded like the caller had clamped her hand over the phone and was talking to someone; I could hear a vague murmur in the background. Then she was back. "Okay. Three of you. But that's it."
"Right. That's it."
"What's this representative's name?"
"Jonathan Williams. He was with me the day I visited the antique book shops. If you have a contact in one of them, your contact can describe him. Then you'll know it's the same person."
Another pause. Then, "Okay. We meet tomorrow night, 11 pm, behind the West Hollywood Park tennis courts. You know where that is?"
"On San Vicente." I'd played tennis there with a previous boyfriend a few times.
"Right. Don't be late. And no cops."
"Of course. No cops." I rolled my eyes at Eckhoff and he grinned.
"Fine." The woman hung up.
I clicked off. Gillian was wide-eyed. "Just like the movies."
"Probably not." Eckhoff stood up and opened the door. It was getting warm in the office. "These people sound like amateurs. That 'no cops' line is something they've heard on TV." He sat back down, thoughtful. "That woman sounds young. I wonder if this is a group of young people? The dead guy, Wally, was pretty young."
"Yeah." I remembered my self-description of him as resembling Shaggy. "Kind of a hipster wannabe."
Conrad said, "Well, that's a refreshing change, from the usual criminal sort, right?"
Eckhoff laughed. "Right." He sobered up a little. "Okay. We'll meet here, at the library, and go from here. Dr. Huffstetler, I don’t want you to come to this first meeting. There’s a detective at Pacific Division that’s built like you; he’ll pass from a distance. If they do have something with them, and Jamie thinks it looks good, we’ll arrange another meet. Jamie, Todd, and I will meet here at 10:00, we can go over how we're going to handle the contingencies, then get there in plenty of time. Wear comfortable clothes. I'll alert the West Hollywood sheriff's station, have them discreetly patrol the area. They probably do anyway." He stood up again. "Any questions?"
Gillian asked, "Do you think they'll have the page with them?"
Eckhoff considered. "I don't know. If they were professionals in any sense of the word, they wouldn't. They'd want us to show ourselves first. But if this is a bunch of kids trying to make a quick buck, they may have it with them." He shrugged. "We'll just have to wait and see."
Gillian sighed. "I want to see what they have, but I certainly don't want to join you."
I told Gillian, "I'll call you afterward, let you know what happens. Unless it'll be too late."
"Oh, no, it won't be too late. I won't be able to sleep until I've heard."
Eckhoff rubbed his hands together. “Okay, cool. So, it’s a date for tomorrow. I'll meet you all at the front doors of this building at 10:00 pm." He grinned at me. "Now I have to go try to get another date."
I laughed. "First office to the left. Good luck."
"Thanks." He waved and disappeared in the direction of Liz's office.
Tuesday took forever to pass. Liz had made a date with Eckhoff for the coming weekend and spent our reference shift grilling me about what I knew about him. Which was almost nothing. At the end of the day I went home, ate, changed clothes, listened to Pete’s exhorta
tions to be careful, and assured him I would. I drove back to campus and got there around 9:50.
I met Eckhoff and the second cop, the decoy for Conrad, at the door of the library. The second cop’s name was Todd Smith. He didn’t look anything like Conrad up close, but from a distance, in the dark, he’d do fine. He was tall and thin like Conrad, and had a similar amount of hair. Eckhoff was dressed casually, but still as if he could be the representative of a wealthy philanthropist. I was wearing jeans and running shoes. I wanted to be able to run if I had to.
Eckhoff rubbed his hands together. "Okay, Jamie, you're going to have to start the conversation. How it goes depends on whether they bring the paper or not. Todd, you’ll stay by the car until we find out if they have something for you, as Dr. Huffstetler, to see. And," he gave me a sly grin, "I think you should call me Jon. It'll save confusion in names, and since I have a date on Friday night with one of your best friends, we might as well get on less formal terms."
"Hey, that's great." I gave him a grin back. "Liz is awesome. But be aware, Kevin knows Liz and thinks she's awesome too. So don't mess her over or you'll have both of us to deal with."
He laughed softly. "Believe me, I intend to treat Liz very well."
"Good to hear."
"Okay. Back to business. Jamie, I think we're just gonna have to play it by ear, in terms of how we start the conversation. What we'd like to do, of course, is to see the paper and see if it's worth discussion, then get out of there. I'll say that I have to confer with our anonymous donor before we start any kind of negotiations. So our main goal is to establish whether they have the paper, and if so we'll have to meet with them again. But we still won't have to expose Dr. Huffstetler to the situation when we meet with them the second time, because that's when we'll be arresting them. We'll have planned backup in place at that meet."
I was ready to get the show on the road. "Sounds good to me. Will LAPD or the sheriff's department do the arrest?"
Jon shrugged. "Depends on where the second meet is. If it's in the same place, we'll ask the sheriff to make the arrest, then turn over custody to us."
I couldn't see a telltale bulge under Jon's coat. "You do have a weapon stashed somewhere, right?"
"Yep." He winked at me. "Okay. You guys ready?"
"More than ready."
"All right. Let's go."
Todd went to his unmarked; he was going to follow us. I went with Jon to his Civic and we got in. We drove to the tennis courts and pulled around behind them. Jon turned off the engine and sat for a minute, looking. The area was not well lit. There was a streetlight at each end of the alley, but nothing in between. But it was the heart of the city; it wasn't completely dark. I didn't see anything threatening.
After we'd sat there for about thirty seconds, a couple of figures detached themselves from the wall of the building next to the courts and walked toward us. Jon said, "Okay, here we go. Jamie, as we're talking to them, get as much of a description of them in your mind as you can. Anything that might help in identification."
"Yes, sir." We got out of the car and closed the doors. Todd hung back as instructed. Jon and I walked toward the two people. As we got closer, it became clear that it was two women. Or, it might have been more correct to say two girls. They looked very young. One was tall and thin, one was short and plumper.
The two girls approached. They didn't seem to be carrying anything with them, although they were both wearing hoodies. The taller one spoke. "You're the UCLA guys?"
I said, "Yeah. I'm the one you talked to on the phone. This..." I pointed to Jon. "...is our donor's representative, and our expert is back at his car."
"Why's he back there?"
"Because we weren't sure you'd have anything to show us."
The girl sneered. "Oh, we've got something to show you." She waved her friend forward. The friend reached inside her jacket, and Jon's hand went to his jacket as well. I prepared to hit the deck, but the friend pulled a sheet of paper out of her jacket and handed it over.
I took it. It wasn't the section of the torn page we were looking for. It was torn from something, though. It looked like it had come from a very large, fancy Bible. Not an illuminated manuscript, but a Bible that had been printed to look like one.
I handed it to Jon. He turned it over a couple of times, then said, "Where did you get this?"
"Never mind where we got it. How much will you pay for it?"
"Nothing." He handed it back to her.
"What?"
The shorter girl whined, "I told you."
Tall Girl hissed, "Shut up." She waved the paper at us. "This is the paper you're looking for. The rest of the one you were showing around."
I said, "No, it's not. That's not even a genuine illuminated manuscript. You tore that out of the altar Bible of some church."
Short Girl huffed and rolled her eyes at her friend. "I told you. These guys are experts. I told you they wouldn't go for it."
"Shut. Up." Tall Girl turned back to us. "Fine. You don't want to buy it, we can find someone else."
"Sure. Good luck with that." I backed off, and Todd came forward. Jon, in one smooth move, whipped out his cuffs and grabbed the arm of Tall Girl. "You're under arrest."
"What?! You're cops?!"
Short Girl was stunned just long enough that Todd was able to grab her too. Tall Girl was squirming and tried to kick Jon. Todd said, "I think we can add resisting arrest to the charges."
Short Girl was livid. "You stupid bitch! I told you this was a stupid plan! But noooo, you thought you could fool the guys with Ph.D.s. You're a moron. And so is your friend Paulie."
Jon gave me an "aha" look. "Paulie?"
"Yeah. The guy that works for that creep."
Tall Girl was furious. She was now trying to kick her friend. "Shut! Up!"
Short Girl was having none of it. "My dad's a lawyer. I'm gonna tell these guys everything, and then my dad'll get me out of this."
Tall Girl sneered. "Your dad's an entertainment lawyer. He doesn't know anything about criminal stuff."
"He went to law school, he knows enough. And he's not lifting a finger to help you, you stupid bitch."
"You slut! As soon as I get my one phone call, I'm gonna call Dakota Freeman and tell him how you've been cheating on him with half the basketball team, and he's gonna know what a fuckin' slut you are..."
Short Girl screeched and lunged at Tall Girl. Jon dragged Tall Girl out of range. "Ladies, enough. Let's go." He hauled Tall Girl to the back of Todd’s car and tossed her in. Todd was laughing and shaking his head. He wrangled Short Girl to the other side of his car and secured her. We reconvened at the front of Jon's car. Jon put his hands on his hips. "Well, so much for that lead."
"Are you gonna pick up Paulo?"
“Not yet. If all he did was suggest the idea to the girls, he hasn't done anything worth arresting him for. We'll see what Shorty has to tell us. I'm thinking the only one that'll end up with charges is the mastermind there.”
I laughed. "Some mastermind."
"Yeah. Her friend's right, she is a moron." Jon grinned at me. "Thanks for your assistance in this police matter, sir. We appreciate the efforts of our citizens to help us stop crime."
I laughed. "Yeah, yeah, give me a commendation. Todd, good to meet you."
Todd said, "Good to meet you, too." He got in his car; the girls were still bitching at each other in the back seat. Todd shook his head. Jon laughed. “Try not to shoot them before you get them back to the station.”
Todd waved and drove off in the direction of Pacific Division. Jon drove me back to campus and my car. "I'll call you soon, let you know how this unfolds."
"Okay, sounds good." I got in my car, waved and drove home.
The next evening, Pete picked Gillian and me up after work and we drove up into Brentwood to the office of Anderson & Hayes. Hayes was Melanie Hayes, one of my childhood friends. Anderson was Neil Anderson, my dad's buddy from the Marines. Neil and my dad had met at Camp Pendle
ton as 18-year-old recruits and had been fast friends since basic training. After their two tours in Vietnam, Neil took his discharge from the Marines and went to law school. After graduation, he set up a practice specializing in GLBT issues. When Mel graduated from law school with the same idea, Neil took her on as a partner. The two of them had a hugely successful practice, with two paralegals and a couple of legal secretaries. One of the paralegals was Neil’s partner, Mark. Their office was not far from Neil and Mark’s home, in an old Craftsman house that they'd converted into office space.
When we got to the office, I stuck my head in the door of Mel's office and waved to her, then guided Gillian down the hall to the conference room. Pete stayed behind to talk to Mel. Jennifer was already in the conference room, and she’d brought her boyfriend, the guy whom she’d started seeing back in the fall. He was a pretty good-looking guy, with brown hair and eyes, and rail-thin. He looked young. I knew Jennifer was Kevin’s age, 33, and I was betting this guy was in his mid-20s. Jennifer was getting started on cougaring at a young age.
Jennifer introduced us to the guy. His name was Kurt Luby. We all shook hands. I sat at the far end of the table; I was really just here to observe. Neil, Gillian, and Jennifer grouped together at the head of the table. Kurt hung back a little, sitting near me. I guessed he was just here to observe, too.
Jennifer seemed nervous, continuously wringing her hands in her lap. I wondered what was going on with her.
Neil started the proceedings, speaking to Gillian. “I’ve read the contract that Trinity College has proposed in regard to the handling of the manuscript page, and I’ve gone over the terms with Jennifer. I feel that the contract is very fair, and Jennifer agrees. We understand that Trinity won’t be able to offer a dollar amount for the contract until authentication is complete. We would like to know what kind of timeline you’re anticipating for the authentication process.”