A Trace of Death

“Why is her phone in your possession?”

“She left it here yesterday.”

“Bullshit! She broke up with you four days ago. She wasn’t here yesterday.”

Denton’s face sagged visibly at the verbal gut punch.

“Okay, I took it from her.”

“When?”

“This afternoon at school.”

“You just snatched it out of her hand?”

“No, I bumped into her after the final bell and snuck it from her purse.”

“Who owns a black van?”

“I don’t know.”

“A friend of yours?”

“No.”

“Someone you hired?”

“No.”

“How’d you get those scratches on your arm?”

“I don’t know.”

““How did you get that bump on your head?”

“I don’t know.”

“Whose blood is that on the carpet?”

“I don’t know.”

Keri shifted her feet and tried to hold back the fury rising in her blood. She could feel herself losing the battle.

She stared through him and said, without emotion, “I’m going to ask you one more time: where is Ashley Penn?”

“Screw you.”

“That’s the wrong answer. You think about that on the way down to the station.”

She turned away, hesitated briefly, and then suddenly swung back around and punched him with a closed fist, hard, with every ounce of frustration in her body. She got him square in the temple, in the same spot as his previous wound. It split open and blood shot everywhere, some landing on Keri’s blouse.

Ray stared at her in disbelief, frozen. Then he jerked Denton Rivers to his feet with one powerful yank and said, “You heard the lady! Move! And don’t trip and hit your head on any more coffee tables.”

Keri gave him a wry smile for that one but Ray didn’t smile back at her. He looked horrified.

Something like this could cost her her job.

She didn’t care, though. All she cared about right now was getting this punk to talk.

CHAPTER FIVE

Monday

Evening

Keri drove the Prius with Ray in the passenger seat as they followed the black-and-white she’d called to transport Rivers down to the station. Keri listened quietly as Ray worked the phone.

The captain in charge of the West LA Division was Reena Beecher, but she would be notified of the situation by the head of Pacific Division’s Major Crimes Unit, Keri and Ray’s boss, Lieutenant Cole Hillman. That’s who Ray was filling in now. Hillman, or “Hammer,” as some of his underlings called him, had jurisdiction over missing persons, homicide, robbery, and sex crimes.

Keri wasn’t a huge fan. To her, Hillman seemed more interested in covering his own ass than putting it on the line to solve cases. Maybe seniority had made him soft. He had no qualms about tearing into detectives who didn’t clear their boards – their running tally of open cases. Thus the nickname “Hammer,” which he seemed to love. But to Keri’s mind he was a hypocrite who got pissed when they didn’t close cases and got pissed when they took risks to solve those very cases. Keri thought a more appropriate nickname was “asshole.” But since she couldn’t call him that, her little rebellion was to never call him by his preferred nickname either.

Keri sped through the city streets, trying keep up with the squad car in front of her. Next to her, Ray recapped for Hillman how a late afternoon call about a teen who had been missing for a couple of hours had suddenly morphed into a potentially real abduction situation involving the fifteen-year-old daughter of a US senator. He described the bail bond security video, the visit to Denton Rivers’ place (minus some details) and everything in between.

“Detective Locke and I are bringing Rivers down to the station for more questioning.”

“Hold on, hold on,” Hillman said. “What’s Keri Locke doing on this case? This is way above her pay grade, Sands.”

“She caught the call, Lieutenant. And she’s uncovered almost every lead we have so far. We’re almost to the station. We’ll fill you more then, sir.”

“Fine. I’ll be in soon myself. I have to call Captain Beecher anyway. She’s going to want a heads-up on this. I’ve ordered an all-hands in fifteen. “

He hung up without another word.

Ray turned to Keri and said, “We’ll get kicked to the curb as soon as they get a full debriefing out of us, but at least we made some progress.”

Keri frowned.

“They’re going to screw it up,” she said.

“You’re not the only good investigator in this town, Keri.”

“I know. There’s you too.”

“Thanks for the mildly condescending compliment, partner.”

“You bet,” she replied, then added, “Hillman doesn’t like me.”

“I don’t know about that. I think he just finds you a little…brash for someone with so little experience.”