Hollywood Quest Page 25

  “I can only speculate that she found out about their research from Lee and independently followed up on it. It could even be that what she knew was a factor in her death.”

  “She also became the perfect subject to frame for the murder of Lee and his children.”

  She nodded. “Linville set her up to take the fall for the murders and at the same time made sure she didn’t sue Agrasom and expose their dangerous products.”

  “Did you know she had married your husband?”

  “I knew they were involved, but the marriage...” Her voice became choked with emotion. “I had no idea.”

  We debriefed Bratton for another hour and were ready to call it a day when we got word about her sister from Leo and Darby after leaving the interview room.

  “A sheriff’s unit in Barstow just pulled Susan Calloway over,” Leo said. “She was probably headed for Vegas. She pulled out a gun and shot at him, but missed. Calloway was killed when the officer returned fire.”

  Darby glanced over at the TV monitor showing Laura Bratton, who was still in the interview room. “The good sister lived and the evil one died,” he said. “All things considered, I guess there are worse endings.”

  SIXTY-TWO

  The voices outside the room where Valerie Weber and the other girls had been taken were muffled. She went over to the locked door, held her breath, and listened. Valerie recognized the voice of Don, the man who had taken them to the place where they’d been held underground and had then brought them here.

  “They leave on the Sheintun tonight,” an unfamiliar voice say.

  “And the money?” Don said.

  “The arrangements are in place. We just have to deliver the product.”

  Valerie heard footsteps coming her way and walked away. She slumped down into a corner, putting the pieces of what she thought she knew together. The air was salty and cool when they’d been brought here, wherever here was. Someone had paid money for them. They were leaving tonight, maybe on a boat. She knew they had been sold, probably for sex.

  “Let’s go,” Don said, after unlocking the door. “Everyone up.”

  Valerie and the other girls did as they were told. Don was with a man, but she’d never seen him before. He helped handcuff them and take them to the van. Before the door closed, Don stared at them and said, “Silence. Not a word out of any of you until we get where we’re going.”

  “Where are you taking us?” Valerie said, despite her fear.

  Don reached out like he was going to hit her, but the other man stepped forward and stopped him. “To a new life. Now do as you’re told, or else.”

  It only took them a few minutes to arrive at their next destination. They waited in the van for a long time before Don said it was okay to leave. Valerie saw they were at some kind of dock with a giant ship close by. There was a crane overhead and several shipping containers.

  Don went over and unlocked one of the containers. She and the other girls were then led inside, where he and the other man released their handcuffs.

  Before he left, Don turned back to them. “You have food and water until you get where you’re going. Make yourself comfortable. It will be several days until you arrive.”

  As the steel door slammed shut and was locked, Valerie and the other girls began crying and pounding on the container walls. It was useless. While this container wasn’t underground, Valerie knew it was another kind of prison. One that would take them to another life, a life where unimaginable horrors awaited.

  SIXTY-THREE

  The murders of Aaron Miller and Diane Ruskin were on all the news outlets that afternoon, but the press hadn’t yet tied their deaths to Agrasom, or the cover-up of their research. I stopped by the breakroom to watch the press coverage on TV for a few minutes when I got word from the front desk that Natalie and Mo had come by the station.

  After greeting my friends, Mo wasted no time getting right to the point. “I got a name for that guy they call The Keeper, the one who takes care of the girls before they’re sold.”

  We were in the lobby, and I lowered my voice. “Come on back. I want you to tell my lieutenant what you know.”

  As we walked down the corridor to Olivia’s office, Natalie said to Mo, “I’ll betcha we’re gonna end up heroes, maybe be on TV.”

  “All I care ‘bout is saving those girls,” Mo said.

  We found Olivia in her office, where I made introductions and told her Mo had information about the Weber case.

  “I’ve heard a lot about you two,” Olivia said, shaking my friends’ hands.

  “Likewise,” Natalie said. “You’re the first boss Kate’s had in a long time that she hasn’t wanted to kick to the curb.”

  Olivia smiled at me. “That’s good to know.” She saw Charlie in the hallway, waved him over, and then turned back to my friends. “Have a seat and tell us what’s going on.”

  After Charlie said hello, Mo got down to business. “I worked the streets at one time,” she told Olivia. “I was what some girls called the Angel of the Boulevard. I tried to get girls off the stroll and keep them safe from their pimps.”

  “Kate’s told me about that,” Olivia said.

  “Anyway, I still got me a lot of contacts in the business. This guy you’re lookin’ for, the one they call The Keeper, his real name is Donald Kiefer. From what I know, he works on the docks over in Long Beach.”

  “The docks,” Olivia said, looking at me. “The container where the girls were held in the mountains had been used for shipping.”

  “If they’re selling girls overseas, his knowledge about the port and ships could be a factor,” I said.

  “Anything else?” Olivia said, looking back at Mo.

  She nodded her head, which today was adorned with a short red wig. “Yeah, word has it they got a shipment of girls that have been sold. They’re supposed to be moving them tonight. Don’t know if the Weber girl is part of that.”

  Olivia excused herself and had Leo, Darby, Jenny, and Molly join us. She then told them what Mo had said. She said to our crime analysts, “I want an address, background information on Donald Kiefer, anything you can pull together in the next few minutes.”

  After Jenny and Molly went off to run checks, Olivia turned back to Natalie and Mo. “I want to thank you both for coming forward. Your assistance in this matter won’t go unnoticed.”

  “We wanna help out some more,” Natalie said.

  “What do you have in mind?”

  Mo answered. “Like I said, I worked the streets for a lotta years. Maybe when you find out where this Kiefer guy is, baby sis, I mean Natalie and me, can go undercover, help bring him down.”

  “You’ve got to be kidding,” Darby said, snickering. “These two...”

  He must have seen Olivia’s stare and stopped talking in mid-sentence.

  Olivia looked back at my friends. “Let’s see what we turn up in the next few minutes, then I’ll let you know.”

  I took Natalie and Mo to the breakroom, where the officers who had gathered earlier to watch the news about the murders of Miller and Ruskin had wandered off. The TV was still on and Natalie mentioned what happened. “Looks like the company that Laura Bratton woman was working for is going down in flames.”

  “Probably,” I said, trying to be noncommittal.

  “What’s going to happen to that Bratton woman now?” Mo asked.

  “She’ll probably try to go back to her everyday life and pick up the pieces. She and her daughter should no longer be in danger, since those who were after her are dead.”

  “We heard her crazy sister and her boyfriend were behind what happened,” Natalie said. “And they both got what they had comin’.”

  “That’s the way it looks,” I said, without going into details.

  What I didn’t mention is that we’d managed to look at the call and text histories on both Susan Callaway’s and Aaron Miller’s phones, and talk with Laura Bratton again. As it turned out, the entire blackmail scheme had been put in pla
ce by Susan after her sister told her about the Z-91 research. Laura had confided in Susan that she’d arranged for a third party to hold and release the research documents in the event she was ever harmed.

  Susan then purposefully hooked up with Aaron Miller, knowing that the head of information technology for Agrasom would be useful in her scheme to blackmail the company out of millions. The couple had started out making threats to kill Laura so the research information would be released if Agrasom didn’t meet their blackmail demands. When that failed, they began killing Laura’s family members to convince the company they meant business, with the threat that they would eventually kill Laura herself if they didn’t pay up. The scheme had worked until Miller’s whereabouts were eventually learned, and Monica Linville tied him to Susan Calloway.

  It was my belief that the media outlets receiving the Z-91 documents would find that the cover-up of Agrasom’s research had been orchestrated at the highest levels of the corporation and with the knowledge of several key government regulators. Those involved would likely be fired and end up in prison, along with the company being fined millions of dollars.

  As my friends and I chatted in the breakroom, Mo had seemed more upbeat than I’d seen her recently, something that Natalie commented on a couple minutes later. “Mo’s been gettin’ her plumbin’ fixed, if you know what I mean.”

  I looked at Mo. “You’re dating the plumber?”

  “Cleo and me just went out once,” Mo said, glancing at Natalie. “My plumbing is still in dry dock. So far.” She smiled. “But I got me a feeling that he’s a plumber with some major skills, if you know what I mean.”

  “Mo might bring him along to Nana’s dinner party,” Natalie said. “You bringin’ that Ross bloke?”

  “I’m not sure. It’s been too busy...”

  “Olivia’s ready for us,” Charlie said, poking his head in the breakroom and interrupting.

  As we walked back to Olivia’s office, Mo said to Charlie, “You might wanna know, I think your problems with that shrew you almost married are history.”

  Charlie was chewing on a toothpick, his expression, as usual, giving nothing away. “Really?”

  “She and Boris are going at it hot ‘n’ heavy,” Natalie said. “I heard Jessica might end up in a walker ‘cause of all the action she’s gettin’.”

  “That so?” Charlie said. “Maybe she’ll also end up with werewolf syndrome.”

  We stopped outside Olivia’s office for a moment, where Natalie said to him, “You’re jealous, aren’t you?”

  “Don’t be ridiculous,” Charlie huffed. “That woman...she deserves everything she’s getting.”

  Olivia motioned us inside, where we all took seats again, along with Jenny and Molly. Jenny began the discussion about Donald Kiefer.

  “Our subject has worked as a longshoreman for the past seven years. He’s got a misdemeanor conviction from three years ago for battery, along with a drug charge that was dismissed. He lives in Long Beach, not far from the port.”

  “His neighborhood is on a bluff overlooking the ocean,” Molly said. “It’s very upscale. I doubt that Kiefer could afford the area unless he’s supplementing his income.”

  Olivia checked the time on her phone. “It’s almost three, which means Kiefer should be getting off work in a couple of hours. I want to set up on the docks, follow him.” She looked at my friends. “You can come along. We’ll see how things play out.”

  SIXTY-FOUR

  Natalie, Mo, and Bernie rode with me to Long Beach, while Olivia and Charlie followed in another car. Before leaving, Olivia had directed Leo and Darby to go to the Port of Los Angeles to watch for Donald Kiefer leaving work. Along the way, we got a call from Jenny, telling us that Kiefer had been tied to another party who worked on the docks at the port.

  “He’s working with a guy named Randy James,” Jenny said, in a three-way call to Olivia and me. “He’s a 290 registrant whose address is on Baker Road, across the street from the port. It looks like he’s working for McCallum Industries. It’s a company that supplies shipping containers for the port. It could be where Kiefer got the container the girls were held in when they were in the Santa Monica mountains. I’m sending you a mug shot of James.”

  “Let’s roll an unmarked unit to stakeout that location,” Olivia told Jenny. “In the meantime, we’ll set up on Kiefer’s place.”

  After the call ended, Natalie said, “What does 290 mean?”

  “It’s the penal code section for a registered sex offender.”

  “James must be another player in their scheme,” Mo said.

  I pulled to the curb down the street from Kiefer’s house, where we waited, while Olivia watched the house from another location. Molly had been right, the neighborhood the man known as The Keeper lived in was upscale, with houses probably in the two to three million range.

  A few minutes later, we got a call from Leo, telling us that they’d managed to pick up Kiefer’s car leaving the port. They’d followed him to a bar on K Street and were watching the place from the street.

  Olivia and Charlie came up the street and stopped by my car. Their window came down and we all exchanged information before Natalie and Mo pitched an idea to my new boss.

  “Me and Mo wanna go undercover, see what that Kiefer bloke is up to in the bar,” Natalie said.

  Mo seconded the idea. “It could be he’s meetin’ with someone and making final arrangements to move the girls.”

  Olivia’s gaze found me. She smiled, then looked back at my friends. “Okay. Kate will drop you off down the block from the bar, but you’re there to do surveillance only. Don’t engage with Kiefer or anyone else. If you see or hear something you think we need to know about, leave the bar and call us.”

  “Roger that,” Natalie said, saluting Olivia. “Mo and me could be your secret dibbles from now on. You need undercover work, just call on us.”

  Olivia’s smile was still there as she brushed back her dark hair. “I’ll keep that in mind.”

  Ten minutes later, I dropped Natalie and Mo down the street from the Cornerstone Bar. I then met with Olivia and the others on the street, a block away.

  “I hope this doesn’t go sideways,” Darby said, the disapproval in his tone obvious.

  “They have strict orders to do surveillance only,” Olivia said. “Let’s give them the benefit of the doubt.”

  Ten minutes later, I got a frantic call from Mo, proving that Darby’s concerns were justified. “Baby sis just left through the back door with Kiefer and another dude who I think might be that Jessie Martin guy you’re after.”

  “Shit,” I said. “She was told not to talk to anybody.”

  “Kiefer hit on her and she played along. He said somethin’ ‘bout making a big score and bringing her along for the ride.”

  “Do you know where they’re going?”

  “Not sure, but I’m watching them leave now. They’re headed down the alleyway behind the bar, and it looks like they’re in a big hurry.”

  SIXTY-FIVE

  By the time we made it to the alleyway behind the bar, Kiefer’s car was gone. I picked up Mo, and we headed back to his neighborhood to do surveillance. We then got a call from the detectives in the unmarked car watching the trailer where Randy James lived in on the property of McCallum Industries.

  “Kiefer’s car just stopped at the front gate, and a guy who we think is James came out of the trailer and unlocked it. They’re moving inside now.”

  “Hold there and continue surveillance,” Olivia said. “We’re on our way.”

  We were a couple blocks from McCallum Industries when Mo got a call. She listened for a moment, then looked over at me, raising her voice. “That was baby sis. She musta turned her phone on in her purse and called me without the others knowin’. She said somethin’ ‘bout the girls being moved right now. We gotta do something.”

  I called Olivia and told her what was happening, adding, “Mo thinks we’re in danger of losing the girls.”
r />   “Follow me into the compound,” Olivia said. “I’m crashing the gate.”

  We came around a corner and picked up speed, Olivia ramming the gate hard and carrying it on her bumper into the compound. I followed her car, along with Leo and Darby, who were behind me. I heard the sound of gunfire as I was getting Bernie out of the back seat.

  “Get down,” Charlie said, coming over to me and Mo from Olivia’s car. “It sounds like they have automatic weapons.”

  We took cover behind a row of shipping containers, while Olivia called for backup. Most of the fire was coming from James’ trailer, and I was worried about Natalie’s safety. Then Mo got another call, waving me over to her phone when she saw the call was from Natalie.

  “I ran out the back door,” Natalie said, her breath coming in gasps. “The girls are bein’ held near the loadin’ docks. That Martin bloke is supposed to be with ‘em.”

  “How many people are in the trailer?” I asked her.

  “Just that Kiefer chap and the guy that lives here. They’ve both got guns.”

  Maybe it was desperation, or just bad timing on their part, but Kiefer and James came running out of the trailer moments after the call ended. They turned in our direction, opening fire as they attempted to move toward the loading docks. I held Bernie back as they were both cut down in a hail of gunfire from Olivia, Leo, and Darby.

  I went over as Leo and Darby checked the bodies, explaining to Olivia about Natalie’s call. “She thinks Martin is loading the girls on the ship now.”

  “Let’s move,” Olivia said. “And stay alert.”

  When we got to the loading docks, we met up with Natalie, who looked none the worse for her experience. There were several shipping containers lined up near the dock, and one of those giant cranes overhead that was used to load them.

  “Any sign of Jessie Martin?” I asked her.

  She shook her head. “I think he musta took off like a scared rabbit when the shootin’ started.”