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."
"That could be it. Or he could just be an asshole. That's okay. I don't like him either."
"Why do you say that?"
"Because he's a toady and a paper pusher and can't think outside the box. Also, when he passes me in the hall, his eyes don't go above my chest."
"Oh. Well, if you're going to hold that against every cop who does that, you'll be left with nothing but assholes."
Keri looked over at him knowingly.
"Exactly," she said.
"I'll try not to take that personally," he said.
"Don't be so sensitive, Iron Giant.'
He sat quietly for a moment in the passenger seat. Keri could tell he wanted to say something but wasn't sure how to bring it up. Finally he spoke.
"Are we going to talk about what happened back there?"
"What?"
"You know, you assaulting an underage boy."
"Oh, that. I'd rather not. Besides, I thought you said he hit his head on the coffee table."
"If it turns out he's not involved in this and he files a complaint, there could be consequences."
"I'm not worried."
"Well, I am. Maybe it's because we're getting close to the anniversary. Have you called Dr. Blanc lately?"
Keri's silence gave him his answer.
"Maybe you should," he said softly.
Keri pulled into the Division parking lot, effectively ending the conversation.
Denton Rivers was put in an interrogation room while Keri filled out the charging complaint against him for theft of property, specifically Ashley's cell phone. It would be enough to hold him for a few hours. By then, with any luck, they'd know more.
After that, they headed to Conference A, the big room where watch commanders doled out assignments at the start of shift. Hillman's all-hands meeting was about to start.
When they arrived, Hillman and six of the Division's most seasoned detectives were already waiting, including two from homicide. Ray fit right in. Keri wasn't as confident. Right now, with all their eyes trained on her, she felt like a bug under a magnifying glass.
Don't sabotage yourself. You belong here, too.
Lt. Cole Hillman stood up to speak. He had recently turned fifty but the deep creases in his face hinted at a man who'd been prematurely aged by the things he'd seen on the job. His salt and pepper hair had begun to recede only slightly. He had a barrel chest and a slight paunch that he tried to hide with loose-fitting shirts. It was after seven in the evening but he still wore a jacket and tie. Keri couldn't remember ever seeing him without them.
"First of all, thank you all for coming in on such short notice. As many of you already know, this case involves Ashley Penn, the daughter of US Senator Stafford Penn. Even if he wasn't close friends with the mayor and the governor, this would be a high priority. But he is, so the pressure is really on. We can expect assistance from our friends at the Bureau shortly. But for now, we need to proceed as if this will remain our case. My understanding is that the senator isn't confident that this was an abduction. He thinks his daughter may be off partying somewhere. That's possible. The video footage of her getting in that van is inconclusive. But until his suspicions are borne out, we will run every lead to ground, understand?"
Heads nodded and there was a general murmur of understanding from the assembled. Hillman continued.
"Apparently, word has spread among the students at the girl's school, West Venice High, and this thing is already starting to blow up on social media. We've already received the first call from a local reporter poking around. By morning, it'll likely be the lead story on every news outlet in the state. So let me be clear-when the media approaches you, and they will, you have no comment. No matter who's asking the question, you refer them to the public information officer. Is that understood?"
Everyone nodded.
"Okay, good," Hillman said. "Right now, we probably have just a few hours to work this before the Feds formally claim jurisdiction. Let's make them count."
With that, he tuned to Ray and said, "Detective Sands, would you please bring us all up to speed."
Ray, leaning against a wall in the back of the room, shifted uncomfortably and said, "If it's all the same, sir, Detective Locke broke this case and knows a lot more about it than I do. I think she's better prepared."
Everyone looked at Keri, who was standing next to her partner.
Hillman scowled but said, "Detective Locke, it looks like the floor is yours."
Her chest tightened. A vision of a white van tearing down a road as her bloody feet burned flashed before her eyes for the briefest of moments.
"Detective Locke? Are you okay?" Hillman asked.
Ray nudged her.
"Keri-" he whispered.
"Yes sir, just gathering my thoughts," she said, snapping to. She thought about moving to the front of the room but decided against it. She liked having the wall to lean on for support.
It only took a moment for her nervousness to subside as she got into the details of the case. She walked them through what had occurred so far, largely in chronological order. She showed the surveillance footage of the van, then connected Ashley's phone into a large flat-screen monitor and showed pictures from the Photos album.
She held nothing back, even though she knew that once she shared everything, her value to the case would be gone in Hillman's eyes and he could remove her. But if that meant Ashley was found, it was a small price to pay.
"What's the deal with this Rivers kid? Is he a legit suspect?" Detective Manny Suarez asked. He'd been the one Mia Penn had called earlier at Keri's instruction. A squat, sleepy-eyed man in his forties with permanent stubble, Suarez was much sharper than he let on, which was by design.
"Denton Rivers, the ex-boyfriend, is in Interrogation Two. He hasn't been especially cooperative so far. He still needs to be thoroughly questioned to see if he was the one driving the black van, if he hired someone to do it, or whether he knows anything useful. Ashley dumped him four days ago. It's possible he flipped out-thought that if he couldn't have Ashley, no one could. He has motive, but that's not going to be enough to hold him if we don't find more."
Keri took a breath and glanced around the room. Everyone was at rapt attention. It seemed that at least they were taking this seriously. She continued.
"CSU needs to process his house on Woodlawn. They need to test the blood on the carpet to see if it's a match for Ashley. There were also six pairs of apparently stolen license plates in the shed. The owners of those plates need to be questioned about when they went missing and if they saw who took them. Every surveillance camera in the area on Main, Westminster, and the surrounding streets needs to be reviewed as soon as possible. Ashley's new love interest, Walker, needs to be found and questioned. All of Ashley's friends and teachers at school need to be located and questioned."
Detective Suarez piped in at that point.
"I've compiled a list based on what Mia Penn told me on the phone. We can start to reach out as soon as the meeting's over."
"Thanks, Manny. We may need to pull in someone from the drug task force too. Ashley was clearly getting pot from someone. Her dealer should be found and questioned. I have a feeling he'll know more about the other side of Ashley's life, things her friends might be reluctant to reveal. Same thing for whomever it was that made the fake ID for her."
In the front of the room, Lt. Hillman took a short call from someone and then waved for Keri to stop talking.
He switched the monitor to TV mode and flicked to the news. Local anchor Amber Smith, an LA institution, had interrupted tonight's episode of Jeopardy! with a breaking news update.
"We are getting reports that Ashley Penn, the daughter of California Senator Stafford Penn, is missing. She reportedly vanished after leaving West Venice High School this afternoon."
A photo of Ashley appeared on the screen along with a phone number. Amber continued.
"This is a very preliminary report and has not been verified as of this time, but anyone knowing anything about the whereabouts of Ashley Penn should call the Los Angeles Police Department at the number on your screen. We will update this story as news develops and have a full report on Action News at eleven. Now back to your regularly scheduled programming."
Hillman turned off the monitor. He looked frustrated but not surprised.
"That's our cue, folks. We're going to divide everything up and get going. Also be clear; this is a team effort. I'm going to repeat that. This is a team effort. If you're thinking of jockeying for position or withholding information for your own advantage or doing anything that doesn't move this case along as fast as possible, I want you to stand up now and walk out of this room."
Everyone looked around. No one stood up.
"Okay, then, let's get moving. Brody, you supervise the search at Rivers' house on Woodlawn. Edgerton, work with tech to see if we can get any quality location tagging off that phone. Suarez, get Ashley's friends, Thelma Gray and Miranda Sanchez, in here for interviews. Make sure they each have a parent with them. We don't need any blowback. Patterson, coordinate with all the local businesses near the school to get any security footage they have. You're on the black van hunt. Sterling and Cantwell, you've got the Denton Rivers questioning. He's in Interrogation Two."
Everyone scrambled out of the conference room.
Keri and Ray were left alone in the room with Hillman, unsure what to do. They hadn't been given assignments. Hillman pointed at them.
"You two come with me."