by D C Young
“Well, it is delightful.”
“You crazy man,” she giggled.
“Ain't a girl within a hundred-mile radius of Seagull Point as purdy as you, darlin’.”
“You lie better than any man I know,” she laughed and took a seat. “And I love you for it.”
“Miss Bain…” Rennie began, drawing the beautiful, young lady with him forward.
“Jazzy… You know you’re never to call me Miss Bain, Rennie Telfair.”
“Jazzy,” Rennie corrected himself. “Meet my very dear friend, Samantha Moon.”
“Call me Sam,” Sam said stepping forward and nodding. “I’m pleased to meet you.”
“Likewise,” Jasmine responded.
“Sam and I were introduced in much the same way as you and I were, though in different capacities. She has often worked in the investigative field.”
“So, you are an investigator,” Jasmine answered. She giggled softly. “Am I a suspect?”
“Actually, no,” Sam responded. “But I was hoping to get your help with something that I am working on so I asked Rennie to set up a meeting with you.”
“It has to do with a kidnapping,” Rennie said. His face was suddenly animated and he spoke in a conspiratorial tone.
Jasmine’s heart sunk, but she covered it up quickly, hoping that neither of her guests caught her reaction. She could tell that Sam had, through her own response. She quickly changed the subject while considering how to divert things away from the subject of kidnapping.
“Rennie, I’ve got bourbon, right out of Kentucky, but no one around here seems to be inclined to drink regular Coke anymore. Will a Diet do?”
Sam started laughing before Rennie’s reply came.
“I’d sooner ruin it with water or ice,” Rennie replied.
“You’ll want it straight, then?”
“There is no sin in drinking bourbon straight, my love.”
“Would you like anything, Sam?” Jasmine offered.
“No thank you,” Sam responded politely.
“Are you sure?” Jasmine questioned, trying to be an amiable hostess. “I have all sorts of drinks to offer… Some red, perhaps?”
“No thank you,” Sam responded.
“Very well then.” Jasmine turned away to pour Rennie’s bourbon and to consider a vodka martini for herself. If they were going to talk about kidnapping, she was going to need to calm her nerves. “It’s certainly no Beverly Hills mansion, but make yourselves comfortable.”
“We could just as easily come by your house,” Rennie interjected.
“No, it’s fine. I wasn’t sure at the time we spoke if I’d be able to stay on or have to head back to the set right after this.”
After a few moments, Jasmine presented the bourbon to Rennie and then took a gulp from her own martini as she lowered herself into the single armchair across from the sofa where Sam sat next to Rennie. She knew that she had to open the conversation if she was going to direct the little drama before her. She focused directly on Sam.
“You’re working on a kidnapping, Sam?” She placed her hand over her heart. “What a horrible thing?”
Jasmine wasn’t prepared for what came at her next. Sam fixed her eyes on her and though the look she got terrified her instantly, Jasmine could not bring herself to look away.
“Cut the act, Jasmine,” Sam growled. “I need you to tell me the truth.”
Jasmine didn’t want to speak the truth, especially in front of Rennie. The truth was frightening. It weighed heavily on her shoulders and it was painful. In spite of her objections, she had lost control of herself the moment Sam’s eyes locked onto hers.
“How are you involved in the abduction ring?”
“It’s not what you think,” she replied in shock.
“Then tell me how it is.”
“I’m not involved,” Jasmine whispered, her eyes filling with genuine tears of terror. “I was one of the victims.”
Chapter Fourteen
I hated to treat someone I’d just met the way that I was treating Jazzy. I’d come to the studio to meet her with an entirely different plan in mind, but I’d caught the look of guilt as it crossed her face when Rennie mentioned the word kidnapping. I could have face-palmed myself right then and there. It was evident when she sat down across from us that she would go the evasive route, so I took control of the conversation, but the moment I learned that she was, in fact, a victim in the whole thing, I backed down. Way down. I knew she was telling the truth. Most who found themselves under my interrogation usually couldn’t do otherwise.
I had a notion that whatever she had to say from that moment on would be all the more helpful for the fact that she herself had been a victim of the people I was seeking to flush out. Through her, I might be able to retrace what Taylor had gone through and possibly be able to take a totally different approach than one I had expected to.
“I’m sorry I had to do that,” I apologized, glancing sideways at Rennie, whose eyes had widened significantly. “I didn’t plan on such behavior.”
“It’s my fault,” Jasmine added. “I was about to put on a face and just outright lie to you. I take it that since I’ve been made, none of that is going to do.”
From there on, she looked at me in a completely different way than before. There was an obvious pain in her eyes. Whatever she thought she was going to have to tell us, she clearly didn’t want to.
“Look, Jazzy,” I began. “I think that another girl we’re looking for might have gone through or is going through the same thing that you did. If we know what happened to you, then we might be able to track down whoever is doing this and save this girl from being a victim.”
I had to really push my personal feelings into the background when I considered Jasmine as a victim. She didn’t look the part much.
Touché, Sam. Touché!
What I really meant was she didn’t seem to be living the life of a victim; scared of her own shadow, meek, depressed… none of it. But if she said admitted it under my serious interrogative tone, then she truly was or had been one.
“I’m not sure where to start or what I can tell you. I don’t know who else might have been involved or what exactly might be of some actual help to you…”
“Why don’t you start with when you were kidnapped? How it happened? What you went through? How you escaped? Just tell your story,” I prompted.
“Some of the stuff at the first is a little bit fuzzy, but I’ll do my best.”
I watched Jasmine take a deep breath, narrow her eyes and try to decide where to begin.
“I don’t remember being kidnapped, really. I was watching television and things got blurry. When things became clear again, I was in an old, smelly barn somewhere. I was told that as long as I behaved myself that I would get plenty to eat and a comfortable place to sleep.
“I remember asking about my parents and being told that they had brought me there to learn how to become a movie star. I didn’t believe it at first, but they kept insisting that it was the truth. That was the reason they had taken me to the audition, so that I could become a movie star. They started training me for it. They taught me how to sing and dance and I got plenty of time on the stage. They took a lot of pictures of me and talked about how pretty I was. I liked it, so I kept doing what they told me to do.
“When I was older, maybe seventeen or eighteen, they got me my first performing job. I worked as a performer in an amusement park in Florida. I had two jobs there, really. Whenever I wasn’t on stage, I was supposed to be out in the park as a guide for groups of children. When I saw particularly handsome children or pretty little girls, I was supposed to bring them in for a special film, which my boss showed to them. The film was about becoming a movie or television star and the ones in the room were given an audition for a special school.”
“What about your parents?” I asked. “Didn’t you ever wonder about them or wonder if they worried about you?”
“I had parents who came and visited
me often. It wasn’t until much later, like within the last year, that I discovered that the people who I had been told were my parents weren’t actually my real parents, but people who were assigned to act the part. They were, and still are, movie stars… well, my dad is, anyway, not my mom.”
She looked directly at Rennie.
“I’ve never let it be known that my parents aren’t my real parents. Please, don’t tell anyone. I don’t know what would happen, if that ever got out…”
She looked back at me.
“I want to find my real parents. I want to know them. I want to… I don’t know, I just…”
Jasmine’s story faltered for a few minutes while she fought to regain control of herself. She made the best recovery she could and then smiled at me.
“I’ve spent a ton of money on therapy trying to get a hold of what truly happened to me. Maybe if you can solve this thing you can help me find them?”
“Maybe,” I shrugged. “Is that everything that you remember?”
“That’s all of the part of my kidnapping and brainwashing. After I had worked in the amusement park for a year, they told me that I was ready for auditions to become a movie star. I was thoroughly trained in auditions…” She paused, bit her lower lip and frowned. “By auditions, I mean, the casting couch. I was entirely unaware that all of my auditions were filmed until later on, after I was finally signed to a contract with an agency and got my first role. That’s when they brought me into a room, sat me down and showed me the videos that they had of me. I was told that as long as I played by the rules, I would be allowed to continue my acting career unhampered. I would be able to have my own place, make my own money and do pretty much anything that I wanted to do.”
She let out a heavy sigh.
“They said basically that I was to go along to get along, but that if I ever stopped following the rules my videos would be released for public view. I’d be branded as a porn star and never considered for legitimate work again. Essentially, my career would be over. Up until this very moment, I’ve gone done exactly as they told me to.
“Sam, I don’t know who is in control of this. The people who have directed me are pawns, just like I am. Some of them came through the ‘acting school’ with me, but took on various jobs when I started performing in the amusement parks. I’ve seen some of them in porn movies, so I assume they probably didn’t follow the rules.”
She paused and studied her hands intently.
“That’s really about all I can tell you. I can’t really give you any names; neither of the people who are doing this nor of other victims. I have to just keep following the rules. I can’t give this up, even though I got hallways press me for answers to your questions, but I beg you not to. I beg you to just let me go on with what I’m doing.”
I wasn’t completely cold-hearted. Destroying Jasmine’s career wasn’t going to help me find Taylor. In fact, I was pretty sure that I was better off keeping things on the quiet side; messing with her was going to ruin my case. Rennie and I took our leave after that while Jasmine stayed behind in her green room.
“Sam Moon,” Rennie said, after we were in the car and heading back to the suburbs. “I really did not approve of your method initially, but I understand why you had to do that. What are you going to do with this information?”
“I don’t know, Rennie,” I replied. “I’m not exactly sure what I’ve learned just yet, nor how it can be properly utilized.”
“Are you thinking this might be a matter for the Council to get involved in?” he asked.
“I don’t know, Rennie, but I ask that you keep this under your hat.”
“Sam, I will neither interfere nor break your confidence.”
“Thank you.”
Chapter Fifteen
“Did you ever take Taylor to an audition for an acting school?” Sledge asked in his quiet baritone voice as he looked across the table at his two friends.
After I related Jasmine’s story to Sledge, he’d suggested we go back and talk to Caroline and Taz again. He suggested that we see if there were any similar circumstances surrounding Taylor’s disappearance to those of Jasmine. I let him take the lead while I beat myself up for not trying to extract more out of the young starlet. Yes, it would have been cruel, but…
“She did have an audition,” Caroline said. “Nobody ever called her back.”
I sat up suddenly and became more engaged in the conversation. If Taylor was doing her performing duty at Golden Bear in the same way that Jasmine had, which by Caroline’s description of their encounter was exactly the case, then the audition was probably a result of a pattern.
“Do you remember when it was?”
“I don’t have to remember,” Caroline responded. “I still have the audition call tucked away in her scrapbook, I can go get it.”
Caroline disappeared from the room for a moment.
Taz sighed heavily. “It had to be a couple of months before Taylor disappeared. Do you think it’s connected?”
“Just hang in here with me a minute,” I said. “It may not mean anything, but if we can construct a time line.”
“Sam, I don’t mean any disrespect, but every investigator who looked at our case did exactly that,” Taz said.
“Trust me, Taz. I’ve got a completely different angle that I’m running here.”
“Here is the scrapbook,” Caroline said, announcing herself as she came back into the kitchen. “I’ll flip through here until I find it. The investigators looked into the agency that held the auditions and it had gone out of business. There were no leads. It was a dead end; don’t you remember that, Honey?”
“I was just telling them that.”
“Here it is. Saturday, August 4th 2007. Taylor went missing on September 27th, not quite two months later.”
“Did Taylor happen to visit an amusement park before the audition call?”
“That’s who sent out the audition call,” Caroline said. “Taylor had been on a trip to the old park up near Marina Del Rey with her girl scouts group. She came home so excited because she, two other boys and two other girls had been invited in to watch a special video presentation about becoming movie stars. She said that they told her she was going to get an audition call in the mail. I didn’t believe her until the card showed up. I took her to the audition call and…”
Caroline froze and her face turned pale. When she began speaking again, it was in a whisper.
“They had our address. They just drove right up and snatched her right out from the yard and we gave them the information to do it.”
“We don’t think that’s what happened, Caroline,” Sledge said.
I stared at him, wondering where he was headed with that statement. Up to that point, we hadn’t formed an opinion on what had happened; not to my knowledge.
“Well, she wasn’t snatched out of your yard, anyway,” he continued. “I think they did something else. I think they programmed her somehow through hypnosis, probably, and she walked out of here under her own power. She walked to some place that was familiar to her, went inside and was taken out the back door and into some sort of transport that would have gone totally unnoticed.”
Hearing where Sledge was going drew another question to me immediately. “Am I remembering right what you said about what Taylor was doing before she disappeared? Didn’t you say that she had been watching TV before she went out into the yard to play?”
“Yes, it hadn’t been long, but I heard her go out into the back yard. I went to check on her, I don’t know, maybe five minutes later, because I didn’t hear a sound. I checked her room, the garage, all through the house and front yard. It was probably another five minutes or so. When I didn’t find her, I checked with Missus Thompson across the alley, because Taylor likes to go over and have cookies and tea with her, but she hadn’t seen Taylor all day, so I checked with the other neighbors and…”
Caroline stopped and stared at me. “She just wandered off… Taylor would never do that. She
was always good about telling me where she was going. I…”
“We think there’s a possibility these people were using subliminal messaging to control the children they selected for these auditions. Some sort of signal in whatever TV show she may have been watching. They would have planted the suggestion to watch that particular show too. Pretty much like a hypnosis command that made her do what she did.”
“So, Taylor didn’t have control of herself.” Taz finished the thought.
“I don’t remember what she was watching.” Caroline started into a panic. “I don’t remember the show. It’s too long ago. I wasn’t paying attention. I didn’t know. I had no idea.”
Taz wrapped his wife in his arms and held her close. “You did nothing wrong, babe. You did nothing wrong.”
There was a long silence before anyone spoke again.
“So, where are we?” Taz asked.
I didn’t have an answer; not a good one anyway. We’d just barely made the determination that Taylor’s abduction probably happened the same way that Jasmine’s had. We knew how the children were lured in, targeted, hypnotized and signaled to come away from their homes. How they were hidden away in various places to attend these acting schools and how they would be later manipulated into performing, and then auditioning. I shuddered as I realized that if the Golden Bear incident was a true sighting of Taylor, auditioning was what was next for her.
“Just like I thought,” Taz said, breaking the silence again. “We’ve come full circle.”
Sledge and I nodded.
“I think we better just quit digging into this and let it go,” Taz suggested. “I thank both of you for the work you’ve put into this, but we lost our little girl ten years ago. I don’t think there is any value in continuing to dig this up.”
He rose from the chair and drew Caroline down the hall away from us. There was an apologetic look in his eyes. “Can you guys show yourselves out?”
Chapter Sixteen
“How’s the case going?” Tammy asked when her mom called to check up on her. She was spending the night with her friend Amber. They’d just gotten back from eating pizza at the mall and were settling in to watch TV in Amber’s room.
