Tranquility Falls

by Davis Bunn

  Daniel pulled into the entrance to the Universal City Hotel. As the valet started over, Chloe said, “I thought you told us we had to go to where you used to work.”

  Daniel pointed up the hill. “KNBC is on City Plaza, in the middle of the Walk.”

  “Get out.”

  Amber said, “What’s that?”

  Chloe stared. “Girl, you’ve lived in California all your life and you don’t know CityWalk?”

  Nicole said, “It’s this huge outdoor shopping mall.”

  “Not to mention all the super-cool theme stuff. Potter World, House of Horrors, you name it.” Chloe stared up the sunlit hill. “I’ve begged them to take me there since forever.”

  “I’ve booked us three rooms. My treat.” Daniel opened his door and handed the valet his keys. “You ladies go get settled in. The shuttle leaves every twenty minutes to take you to Valhalla.”

  Amber said, “Where?”

  Nicole replied, “He’s kidding.”

  Stella touched his arm. “Daniel, wait.”

  He waved the valet away and settled back. “Yes?”

  “Do you want to go up there alone?”

  “Not really. But I thought . . .”

  “Let me come.” She could see he was ready to deny her request. “You’re doing all this for me. Let me be there for you.”

  Nicole said, “Count me in.”

  “Ladies, really, it’s nice, but . . .”

  “Daniel, please.”

  “I second that,” Chloe said.

  Stella tried for a smile. “Sounds like you’ve got yourself a posse.”

  CHAPTER 38

  Daniel had booked them three rooms on the fourteenth floor. He pretended to go deaf when Stella pleaded to let her pay. She and Amber could look out and watch the afternoon throngs collide with the first line of CityWalk attractions. She could hear Chloe and Nicole chatter excitedly in the room next door. Daniel was two doors farther along. It felt somehow comforting, this odd collection of friends, as if they could actually shelter her from the storm that tracked her every move.

  They rode the hotel’s tram up to the CityWalk entrance. Nicole play-acted the happy guide, while Amber and Chloe squealed over their first tour of LA’s packaged delights. Daniel sat in the row ahead of her and Amber, isolated in his own bubble of tension. Stella felt a sudden urge to reach out, stroke the point where his neck met his hairline. She could feel his need, sense how easy it would be to join that with her own. Because she did need him. More than she was able to express. Even to herself.

  Men don’t stay.

  The mantra that she’d carried ever since her husband had walked out on them, at the lowest and hardest point of her life, seemed so hollow now, seated in the row behind Daniel as he grimly watched his past rise up before him. He was there because of her.

  The marine layer had burned off completely by the time they arrived. They turned away from the crowds pushing toward the CityWalk entrance and stared out over Universal City. The freeway ribbons flowed to their left and directly below where they stood. Sunlight glistened off a million bright surfaces. Far in the distance rose a line of brown, jagged peaks.

  Amber whispered, “Isn’t it beautiful?”

  Stella nodded. Despite everything, this day held a remarkable quality of promise.

  Amber moved in closer. “Everything’s going to be okay, Mommy. I just know it.”

  Stella held Amber’s hand as they wandered along the main thoroughfare, just another mother and daughter enjoying a free day, without a care in the world. Chloe and Nicole walked ahead of them, laughing and chattering like the teens they were. Daniel held to his grim solitude, at least until Stella reached out with her free hand. “Hey.”

  He jerked, “What?”

  She said to Amber, “Tell him what you told me.”

  Amber almost sang the words. “Everything’s going to be fine. I just know it.”

  Daniel almost managed a smile. “Hard to argue with that.”

  The three of them moved in synch through the crowds, passing the biggest Johnny Rocket on the planet, until Amber cried, “Mommy, look.”

  Above the multiplex entrance stretched a building-sized poster from Titanic. Stella explained, “This is Amber’s all-time favorite movie.”

  She was almost dancing in place. “It’s the flying scene!”

  Above them, Rose stood on the bow rail, supported by Jack, facing the vast unbroken seas. She raised her arms to the ocean and the golden light, and put her faith and trust in a man who had won his passage in a card game. Stella stared at the poster and felt as though she had never actually seen it before, the way Rose achieved a new understanding of hope by defying everything that had brought her to that point and trusting the right man.

  She looked at Daniel and said the only words that made sense to her at that moment. “Let’s go kill some ghosts.”

  * * *

  Daniel felt as though Stella’s words carried him through the tidal surge of people and noise. But as they approached the KNBC entrance, his strength faltered—just for a moment, but long enough for Nicole to notice. She took his hand and said, “We got your back, Jack.”

  Chloe snorted. “You did not just say that.”

  “Hey. I thought it was pretty cool.”

  “Cool is right,” Stella said.

  Daniel let the ladies move him forward. The crowd parted, and they passed through the electronic doors and entered the building, easy as you please.

  Four years was a lifetime for the young LA crowd that supplied an endless stream of front-office staffers and production assistants. Daniel did not recognize anyone. The foyer had been remodeled, which helped as well. He gave his name to the receptionist, and the young man responded with a professional smile and the news that Kirsten Wright was expecting him.

  Chloe led Nicole and Amber on a guided tour of the front room’s posters. She knew the shows, she knew the stars. Just loving this moment. Here. In LA.

  Daniel started to ask Nicole if she didn’t want to join the others when his phone rang. He checked the screen and said, “I have to take this.”

  “So who’s stopping you?”

  “No, I mean, we all need to hear.” He led them over to a sofa in the far corner, seated himself with a lady to either side, and hit the phone’s SPEAKER button. “Go ahead.”

  The Ukrainian from Alabama said, “I find nothing.” He ended the word with a soft clunk. Nothink. “I am suspecting, there is nothing to find.”

  Daniel watched Stella frown at the phone. He replied, “Walk me through what you’ve learned.”

  “This mayor, she drives the same lousy Nissan for three years and seven months. Her husband makes a peanut salary doing peanut work for the power company. They have two credit cards, they have debt, they pay when they get checks. End of story.”

  “Offshore accounts, maybe?”

  “For what they are saving? In September, they travel to Montana; they stay in same hotel three years in a row. This hotel, it is lucky to have three stars. Please, next time give me someone interesting to spy on. This mayor puts me to sleep.”

  “We’re missing something.”

  The man snorted. “Of course. We are missing a hunt for the real thief, chasing this lady mayor.”

  Stella leaned back. Shook her head. Said softly, “It’s her. I know it.”

  “Who is this speaking?”

  “The lady who’s been falsely charged.”

  The man was silent, then, “I am not liking to be heard by others.”

  The line went dead.

  Daniel pocketed the phone and sat there, giving Stella a chance to digest and respond. Nicole twisted around so she was almost facing him. The two other girls kept chattering away, Chloe saying some show was on the way out, only the cast didn’t know it yet. Stella stared out the foyer’s front door, frowning at the happy throngs streaming past. To his left, the security doors swung back, and Kirsten Wright entered the reception area. The head of West Coast news s
potted him and started over.

  Stella said again, “It’s Catherine. She’s the one. I don’t know why I’m sure. But I am.”

  Daniel held up his hand, halting Kirsten before she could speak. He said, “Let’s assume for the moment that you’re right.”

  She showed him emotions so strong they turned her eyes into rain-washed emeralds. “You believe me.”

  Daniel saw no need to reply that it would be truer to say he had no better culprit in mind. “We need to take a different course. Following the money hasn’t brought us the intel we need to move forward. You know the woman. What could possibly be driving her to steal? That question is the key to this entire mystery.” He gave that a beat, then rose to his feet. “Kirsten Wright, Stella Dalton. My niece, Nicole. Stella’s daughter, Amber. And Chloe Donovan.”

  “The model.”

  Chloe replied. “Someday. I hope.”

  “How old are you?”

  “Sixteen,” she replied. Then more softly, “Any day now.”

  Kirsten Wright was tall, slender, elegant, and utterly humorless. She was in her late fifties, preferred timeless fashion, and used far too much hairspray in her graying auburn locks. Normally, Kirsten kept her ruthlessness sheathed in a no-nonsense politeness, mostly because she could. Everyone who spent any time around the news director knew the dagger was there and would be unleashed the instant anyone on her staff gave less than one hundred and ten percent.

  “Come along, everyone.” She waved to the receptionist. As they passed through the security portal, Kirsten told Daniel, “We have a situation.”

  CHAPTER 39

  Kirsten led them to the executive offices, which were spread in a semicircle around a central reception area holding desks for four staffers. She stopped by one office, stuck her head inside the open door, and asked someone to join them. A dumpy guy in a rayon tie and glasses perched on his wispy comb-over stepped out. Kirsten introduced him as Ray, her new head of legal. She then asked two staffers to join them. They entered a conference room, and Kirsten directed them to the side facing the interior windows. The staffers took seats by the wall behind their boss. Kirsten watched Amber and Nicole and Chloe troop in but did not object. Once they were seated, she said simply, “Okay, Daniel. You’re on.”

  Stella thought he did a remarkably good job summarizing the situation. He kept his sentences short and punched one word every now and then, like he was already talking to the camera. His voice faltered twice in the process, and he stopped to sip from his water bottle, then continued. A total pro, even after being away from the gig for so long, even though the strain was clear on his features. She checked the wall clock when he went silent. Four minutes, start to finish.

  Kirsten made a couple of notes while he spoke. When he was done, she turned to the man seated beside her. “Ray?”

  “You’ve got a theft of city, county, and possibly state funds. Plus a conspiracy to defraud a federally run pension fund.”

  “Not to mention setting up an innocent woman to take the fall,” Daniel added.

  Ray shrugged. “This is LA. Some of the jokers in this place consider that part of their job description.”

  Kirsten said to her legal chief, “You’re telling me it’s marginal.”

  “If it lands in our lap, sure, I’d say run with it. But to invest dollars from our news budget?” He shrugged. “Your call.”

  Daniel said, “What if the conspiracy is not limited to one town?”

  Both people opposite them went on full alert. “Explain.”

  “Something has bothered me since the first time I looked at the city’s accounts. This is a very sophisticated theft.”

  “Six and a half million dollars make for a lot of reasons to get it right,” Kirsten said.

  Daniel turned to Stella and asked, “The mayor has no background in accounting, correct?”

  She shook her head. “Catherine was employed as a florist. She’s basically been in local politics since high school.”

  Daniel turned back. “Which means she’s working with co-conspirators. The accounts suggest this theft was spread over three years. Say it was just five people. One point one million apiece breaks down to two hundred and twenty thousand a year. And all that time, they run the very real risk of being discovered. Loss of everything. Jail time.”

  The pair facing them were silent now. Watchful.

  Daniel’s forehead had developed a sheen from the effort of selling his concept. “I think it is highly possible, even probable, that some outside group with the necessary expertise has developed a system. They find local willing partners and milk the city funds.”

  “They hold themselves to smaller communities,” Ray said. Into it now. “Stay under the radar. Work their way through half a dozen municipalities undetected.”

  Kirsten’s gaze switched from one to the other. “You think?”

  Ray responded by asking Daniel, “You have anything concrete?”

  “Give me half an hour,” he replied. “I’ll walk you through the books. You tell me.”

  Kirsten asked Daniel, “What do you need?”

  He was ready for that. “A camera team to cover Ms. Dalton’s trial. A researcher and producer to start the hunt immediately.”

  “You’re talking real money.”

  “Time is crucial.” Daniel did not back down. “We risk them learning that we’re sniffing around.”

  “There’s always that risk.”

  “Not with an innocent woman’s freedom hanging in the balance.”

  She glanced at Stella, then away. “I’ll give it serious consideration.”

  “Kirsten, I need a yes.”

  “Would you be willing to serve as your own producer?”

  “At least until we know whether or not we have a story, sure.” He wiped his forehead. “Deal?”

  “I said, I’ll consider it.” She motioned toward the door. “Thank you, everyone. That will be all. Ray and Daniel, please stay. Everybody else, give us a minute.”

  * * *

  Stella started to rise with the others when Daniel shot her a look. She suspected it was an involuntary gesture, the glance a drowning man might make at a safety line that was just out of reach. She dropped instantly back into the chair. “I think I’ll stay.”

  “This is a confidential issue that does not pertain to your case, Ms. Dalton.”

  “I’m here because Daniel said it was important that I observe you at work,” she replied. “If Daniel asks me to leave, I’ll go.”

  “Stay,” Daniel said quietly. “Please.”

  Kirsten Wright did not like it. But she did not speak. Stella met the woman’s agate-hard gaze and waited her out.

  When the door clicked shut, she asked her legal adviser, “Any word on Grant?”

  “Arraignment’s set for tomorrow.”

  “I thought you said your people would move things forward.”

  “I said they’d try. They did.” Ray shrugged. “Tomorrow’s the best they can do.”

  “Be sure and thank them for me.” She looked across the table. “You remember Grant.”

  Daniel’s forehead creased. “From the New York operation by way of Philly, right?”

  “Correct. Grant is currently my one and only on-air business specialist. He’s gotten himself arrested in Las Vegas.”

  “How is that even possible?”

  Her lips decompressed enough to offer a tight smile. “How can we be down to one business anchor, or how can Grant get into trouble in Vegas?”

  He wiped his forehead. “Both, I guess.”

  “We have a young but fairly adequate anchor-in-training. Only she’s honeymooning in Tierra del Fuego. Intentionally out of phone and Internet reach. As for Grant, well, I assume he’s done something suitably awful. Again.”

  Ray added, “I seriously doubt the Vegas judicial system even bothers to give out parking tickets for misdemeanors.”

  Daniel’s hands made damp track marks on the table. “So use your regular new ancho
r.”

  “Come on, Daniel. You and I both know the business community smells a talking head a mile off. And that’s all either of them are.”

  Ray said, “Steal their hairspray and they’d shatter into a billion pieces.”

  “Kirsten . . .”

  “I want you to anchor Market Roundup. You want my help, that’s the deal.” She rose from the table and lifted her legal adviser with a jerk of her chin. “Up or down, Daniel. I need your answer now.”

  CHAPTER 40

  Stella saw how Daniel remained planted in his chair, the perspiration shining on his forehead, the tight way he studied the empty seat across from him. And she knew exactly what needed doing.

  She caught up with Kirsten just outside the conference room. “I need to speak with you.” When the news chief looked ready to fob her off, Stella added, “Ninety seconds.”

  “Ninety seconds I have.” She waved the attorney on. “Go.”

  Stella pointed back through the open door. “You see how hard this is on Daniel.”

  Kirsten started to glance at where Daniel remained seated at the empty table, then caught herself. “Daniel’s a pro. He’ll make it work.”

  Stella didn’t argue. “I think I can help him get through this. I know I can.”

  The news chief crossed her arms. “What do you need?”

  “When does he go on?”

  “In . . .” She glanced at the wall clock. “The East Coast markets close in twenty minutes. He’ll do his first wrap-up ten minutes later.”

  “Can you arrange for sandwiches for the girls? We missed a meal.”

  “Done.” She waved over the nearest intern, fired off instructions, then, “Next?”

  “We need someplace where we can help him refocus. Alone if possible.”

  “Who is this we?”

  “Me and the girls.”

  Kirsten cocked her head. “For real?”

  Stella nodded. “It needs to be all of us.”

  Another thoughtful glance at the clock, then, “He needs to go straight to makeup. The researcher responsible for prepping him will have pages of script ready for his approval.”