by Rusty Ellis
Evan kept his hands safely on his lap and leaned forward, wary to view the documents.
“What can you tell me about the military check boxes?”
Evan looked to the familiar boxes on the pages, “They must have all been in the military.”
Ransom looked at Leesa and she returned his glance.
Ransom pushed forward, “What if I told you that some of them weren’t in the military?”
Evan braved putting his hand forward and touching the paper where each military box was checked, “That doesn’t make sense.”
“Why’s that?” Leesa butted in.
Evan shook his head, “Because there’s no other reason to check that box if they’re not either active or inactive military.”
Evan looked back at Leesa with a furrowed brow, unsure where the discussion was going or why the box was checked.
“What about the checkmarks on the top of the applications,” Ransom motioned to the top corners of the pages.
Evan looked at the marks and shrugged, “Maybe that means the application was entered into the system?”
Ransom decided to move the interview along and asked, “What if the person was a police officer? Where would you mark that?”
“We wouldn’t mark it. We don’t give discounts for that, just for military veterans…and seniors,” he explained.
“What if someone was giving discounts to police, would that be a problem?” Leesa continued to jot notes down.
“I wouldn’t have a problem with it,” Evan started, “if corporate approved it.”
Ransom leaned back and stretched out his right leg under the table, trying to persuade the pulsing in his leg to calm. He waited while Leesa continued writing a few notes.
Leesa looked up at Ransom to let him know he was free to continue.
“So if someone wanted to give discounts to police officers, who would tell the staff to do that?”
“The sales manager, I guess,” Evan responded and shrugged, “it’s hard to keep track of everything at the gym. Finances. Memberships. Trainers. Facilities. Managers. Staff. Member complaints.” Evan shook his head considering the list of duties, “Occasionally I catch wind of something the ‘staff’ implemented on their own and I have to nip it in the bud and retrain them on protocol. You know how it is, the ship veers one degree off course and you don’t notice until you are nowhere near your original destination.”
Evan tried to smile at his explanation but could only muster a weak grin at Ransom.
“How long has Corey Talbot been your sales manager?”
Evan looked away from Ransom and squinted toward the sky, “About, four months. Yeah, four months. Why?”
Leesa took over the questioning, “Could he have instituted the discount and marking of applications?”
“Sure, but I’m not sure why he’d do that. There’s no extra bonus or anything for signing up military or police officers. He gets a bonus for signing up members and the military discount sure helps in doing that,” Evan thought about it and finished, “we get a lot of veterans and active duty military from Nellis Air Force Base. But I don’t see why they would identify police officers on the applications, they could just mark the military box and give the discount.”
“Could this be something that a previous sales manager put into place before Corey started?” Leesa asked.
“You could ask him.”
Ransom and Leesa looked at each other and turned back to Evan, asking at the same time, “Ask who?”
“Trevor. Trevor Lancaster. He was our last sales manager, until I demoted him back to sales,” Evan shared. Ransom and Leesa just stared and waited for Evan to continue, “I would have fired him, but he’s been with us for two years now.”
“What did he do?” Ransom leaned forward on his chair and shifted his leg again.
Evan got a sheepish look on his face and answered, “This could get me in trouble. I should have reported it, but he’s just a kid and I didn’t want to see his life get wrecked over a bad decision. Trevor was skimming from the cash register in our little food court. He would let the person working there go for a bathroom break and would take a few dollars here and there while they were gone.”
Seeing that Ransom and Leesa were content to let him explain, Evan continued, “It was finally brought to my attention that the person’s drawer was short several times a week and we figured out it was after Trevor watched it.”
“Why didn’t you turn him in?” Leesa asked plainly.
“It ended up being only a couple hundred bucks. I threatened to fire him over it, but after some begging and promises, I decided to let him pay the gym back and take a demotion. And he’s not allowed to be behind the counter in the food court ever. Seemed like a good decision at the time. He’s late once in a while, but I don’t regret my decision.”
“Anything else,” Leesa asked Evan.
Evan shook his head. Leesa looked toward Ransom and he shook his head as well.
“We’ll probably be talking with a couple of your employees further. We would appreciate it if you kept our conversation under wraps until our investigation is done,” Leesa commented and stood from her chair.
“Okay. Let me know if you need anything else from me. I still don’t think I’ve wrapped my head around this whole thing.” Evan stood as well.
Leesa walked around Ransom and led Evan back to the lobby. Ransom exited the room and waited for her in the hallway.
Leesa appeared in the hallway and held up a finger, “Gimme a second, I’m going to see if the DMV report on Trevor is printed.”
Leesa disappeared momentarily. Ransom leaned against the wall and put both hands on his cane. He leaned on his left foot to appease the low-throbbing in his lower right leg. Leesa came back through the door, eyes wide open as she looked at the paper and slowly handed it to Ransom. Ransom took the paper and scanned down the lines of licensing and to the registered vehicles section.
Looking back up at Leesa, Ransom muttered, “2008 White GMC Yukon, registered to Trevor Lancaster.”
27
“Trevor’s not answering his phone,” Leesa dropped her phone on the front seat of the sedan.
Planet Vegas Gym wasn’t far from the Northwest Area Command, but to Ransom it seemed like they were moving in slow motion. Every light was their enemy, every car an obstruction. They needed to get to Trevor and clear up a few things. Questions bombarded Ransom’s mind.
Unable to hold back, and to calm his frustration with traffic, Ransom started throwing out facts, “A white GMC. Former sales manager. Knew two of the three victim families and had access to the third.”
Leesa continued to push the police model engine in the Ford Crown Victoria. Though it weighed a ton, the vehicle had the power of a bull and the handling of a rabbit. She kept her eyes on the road and let Ransom’s comments sink in as she drove.
Slowing into the parking lot, Leesa found a spot near the front entrance. She threw the gear lever into park and turned off the key.
Turning to Ransom, she asked, “How do you want to go about this?”
“Casually,” he responded.
“Casually?” she raised an eyebrow.
“Let’s just make it a routine follow-up. We can even talk with Corey and that Damien kid too.” Ransom looked around the parking lot and commented, “I didn’t see a white Yukon in the parking lot on the way in.”
“Neither did I.”
“Ready?” Ransom reached for his door.
“Ready.”
Ransom and Leesa walked to the entrance of the gym. There continued to be a steady flow of members coming and going, the results of living in a 24-hour town. Walking in the front door, Ransom spotted Damien at the front desk talking with another employee. Ransom caught his attention and nodded for him to meet them over by the waiting area. Damien smiled and sauntered over.
“Detectives,” he stuck out his hand.
A crackle in his voice gave away his nervous attempt at acting confident. Ransom
shook his hand, followed by Leesa.
“Is Trevor here?” Leesa asked.
Damien shifted his feet, “Nope. He left about an hour ago. Do you want me to call him for you?”
“No, that’s okay, we have his number,” she shook her head.
Damien turned to walk away and offered, “I’ll go get Corey then…”
Ransom lifted his hand in front of his chest, “Can we ask you a couple questions first?”
Damien stumbled as he tried to stop his forward motion to escape the situation, “Uh, sure, what about?”
Ransom motioned toward the interview room and he and Leesa followed Damien through the door. Damien stood, choosing not to sit down. Given his flightiness, Ransom decided to stand as well and Leesa followed suit.
“Just so we’re up front about things, we know about how you guys identify police officers on their applications,” Leesa started.
Damien gave her a confused look so she started again.
“When you sign people up and find out that they’re cops, you mark the military box and then put a check mark on the corner of the page, right?”
Damien started to speak but was cut-off by Ransom, “We don’t want to know if you do that, because you do. We just want to know who trained you to do that?”
Damien looked to the door, then back at Ransom, bowing his head he caved, “Trevor.”
“Can you grab Corey now?” Leesa chimed in.
Damien lowered his head and walked out of the room. The hinge on the door slowly clacked shut just before it whipped open and Corey walked in.
He walked over to the other side of the desk and smiled, “Hello Detective Gardner, Detective Walsh. I feel like I should sell you a membership as many times as I’ve seen you lately.”
Both Ransom and Leesa gave a grin, nothing more.
“We were looking for Trevor,” Leesa interrupted the awkward sales pitch.
“He went home a little bit ago, something about his ex-girlfriend and their kid,” Corey clasped his hands together and put his elbows on the desk. “Is there something I can answer?”
“We just had a few questions for him. Do you have a home address for him?” Ransom asked.
“Sure, he lives with his mom. Let me look it up,” Corey turned to the computer screen and logged on.
He wrote down the address on the back of a membership application and handed it to Ransom.
“He should be in first thing in the morning,” Corey offered as he stood.
“Thanks, I appreciate it. We’ll catch up with him tomorrow,” Ransom answered and stood as well.
Ransom followed Leesa out the front door and back to the car. Sitting in the hot sedan, Leesa started the car and did a lap around the building, making sure there weren’t any white Yukons in the back of the building as well.
“Let’s swing by his house and see what we find,” Ransom suggested.
He read the address to Leesa and she punched it into the map program on her phone.
* * *
Pulling up a couple houses down from Trevor’s address, Leesa and Ransom surveyed the street and the driveway. No white Yukon. No car in the driveway. Leesa left the windows cracked on the car and pushed open her door. Ransom gingerly rolled his right leg out the door and onto the ground. Grabbing the door frame, he pulled himself up and traded hands with his cane. The two made their way to the front door. On the porch, they each took a position on either side of the door and Ransom used his cane handle to knock on the door.
“That’s handy,” Leesa smiled.
Ransom shrugged and turned to watch the front window for movement. Ransom knocked again with his cane, with the same result.
“Must be at his girlfriends,” he said and stepped off the single-step porch.
Leesa followed and watched over her shoulder at the shades and the front door.
In the car, Leesa turned to Ransom, “He’ll be back here at some point, more than likely. We could have a patrol unit sit on it, but I don’t want to make him jumpy.”
Ransom shook his head, “You’re right, he may bolt if he sees a patrol unit.”
“You don’t have anywhere important to be, do you?”
“Are you asking me on a surveillance date?” Ransom asked and put a hand over his heart.
“Dork,” Leesa said and smacked him on the arm. “Let’s give it a couple hours and see what happens.”
28
“Finally,” Ransom let out a sigh as a small tattered import pulled into the driveway he and Leesa were watching.
Checking at her watch, Leesa noticed it was about 4:40 pm. A woman in her 40s pushed the car door open with her foot and held it in place as she reached for a purse and small plastic grocery bag. Leesa pushed open her door and started for the woman, pulling her badge out in the process. Ransom worked to exit the vehicle and hurry into step with her.
“Excuse me, ma’am,” Leesa said loud enough for the woman to hear, presenting her badge in front of her.
The woman was a little startled by the two of them approaching her and clutched her purse against her side.
Seeing the badge, she loosened her grip, “Sorry, you scared me.”
“Sorry about that. I’m Detective Gardner with Metro and this is my partner Ransom Walsh. We’re trying to find Trevor. Does he still live here?”
The woman nodded without thinking and asked, “What has he done?”
“Are you his mother?” Leesa sidestepped the question.
“Yes, yes I am,” she responded. “What has he done?” she repeated.
Leesa continued, “We just have a few questions we need to ask him. We spoke with him the other day but he’s not answering his phone.”
The woman stammered and furrowed her brow, “He should be at work right now. Have you tried there?”
Ransom joined in, “We stopped by his work. They said he may have gone over to his ex-girlfriends?”
“That doesn’t make any sense. He doesn’t want anything to do with her,” she shook her head while speaking, “except their baby, of course. He wants to be a good father but she won’t let him see the baby.”
“Could we go inside and have you call him?” Leesa asked and motioned toward her bag of groceries.
The woman nodded and shut her car door. Pulling the keys from her purse, she opened the front door and invited Ransom and Leesa into the small living room. The single-story home was very conservatively decorated. There were pictures on the wall of Trevor at various ages, including pictures of Trevor and his mother.
Setting her groceries on the table, the woman noticed Ransom’s interest in the pictures, “It’s just been me and him all these years.”
Ransom bluntly asked, “Where’s his father.”
The woman gave a sheepish grin, “Gone.”
Ransom and Leesa patiently waited, encouraging her to explain further.
“He went to prison when Trevor was ten years old. We went to visit him up at Indian Springs a couple times,” she stated, reliving the experience and momentarily getting lost in thought. Realizing she was quiet, she looked back at Ransom, “It wasn’t a good place to bring Trevor. So we stopped going.”
The emotion in the woman’s voice was followed by two quick inhales to gain her composure.
“Sorry, I didn’t mean to do that,” she dabbed the corner of her eyes with her two index fingers.
“That’s okay,” Leesa assured her, “sorry to hear you went through that.” Leesa let a few seconds go by before asking, “Could you call Trevor for us and see if he answers?”
The woman nodded and picked up her purse from the table and pulled out her cellphone. Placing her purse back on the table, she tapped the phone’s screen and put it to her ear. She stood there, holding the phone to her ear. Ransom’s head turned in the direction of the kitchen. He then looked back at Leesa. She gave him a questioning look and then noticed the woman pulling the phone from her ear.
“He didn’t answer,” she looked confused, “he always answers my call
.”
Ransom pointed to her phone and asked, “Could you call him again?”
The woman complied and put the phone to her ear again. Ransom again turned toward the kitchen and the door leading to the garage. Leesa heard the muffled ringing noise this time and glanced at Ransom.
“Ma’am, what side of the garage door is the light switch on?” he said and pointed at the door in the kitchen.
The woman looked confused about the question, “On the left, on the side with the doorknob.”
Leesa started for the door and Ransom told the woman, “I need you to please sit down over there.”
Ransom pointed to the dining room table, the chair furthest from the door against the wall. The woman, still confused, complied and walked to the back of the table and took a seat.
Leesa stood to the side of the door with the doorknob and drew her 9mm Glock from her hip holster. Ransom followed suit and retrieved a 9mm Baby Glock from the mid of his back and set his cane on the counter. Leesa looked back and nodded at Ransom for the go ahead. Ransom glanced at the woman at the table and back to Leesa. Leesa turned the handle and pushed the door far enough ajar to slip her left hand in and feel for the light switch.
A small buzz sounded from the long tubed lights coming to life on the garage ceiling. With the door cracked, Leesa could make out the front end of a white vehicle on the far-side of the garage.
“Trevor, it’s Detective Gardner and Walsh,” she called through the small crack in the door.
Nothing.
“We know you’re in there,” she yelled again, “we just want to talk to you.”
Nothing.
Pushing the door open a little further, she tried to keep her body shielded as best she could by the door jamb. Leaning forward and pushing the door open further revealed the white Yukon. Ransom looked over her shoulder and could see Trevor sitting in the driver’s seat, his head leaning back against the headrest.
Pointing her Glock in the direction of Trevor, Leesa tried again, “Come on Trevor, we need to talk to you. Put your hands on the dashboard and don’t move.”
