A Trace of Crime

by Blake Pierce

  “What happened after that?”

  “Nothing much,” he said. “I let him go in the morning. We never had any more trouble from him. I’ve got so say, he never struck me as the type who might be capable of anything like this.”

  “So how long did he stay in town?” Keri asked, ignoring the last comment. In her experience, almost no one ever seemed like they were capable of the crimes they committed. That meant nothing.

  “I can’t recall exactly. I believe the caravan left the county a couple of weeks later and I assume he went with them. I don’t remember seeing him after that.”

  “I’m sorry to interrupt,” Jamie piped in. “But I’ve been checking into Johnny Peters’s history, Keri. And it looks like he doesn’t exist.”

  “What?” Keri asked as she looped from Culver onto Lincoln and headed north to Mar Vista.

  “He applied for the driver’s license three years ago but there’s no record of him prior to that. No electric bills, no bank account, no social media presence. Everything starts after that. But there’s still not much. He gets paid in cash. Other than the license and the rental agreement at his apartment, there’s no paper or digital record of the guy. He doesn’t use any city services or if he does, he pays for them in cash. No cell phone bill. And of course, nothing online.”

  Keri was quiet for a moment. Jamie and Sheriff Calvert both seemed at a loss as well.

  “Sheriff,” Keri said, hoping against hope. “Any chance you officially booked Peters when you arrested him? Get a mug shot? Take fingerprints?”

  “Sure,” he answered, sounding a little piqued. “We follow procedure here too, Detective, even for minor misdemeanors.”

  “I’m sorry,” she replied. “I didn’t mean to imply you didn’t. I was just hoping you might check your records to see if you still have the stuff on file?”

  “Of course. But it’s been a while. If I had the approximate date, I’m sure I could hunt it down.”

  “Check the two weeks before and after the date that Noreen Appleton went missing.”

  Calvert went silent for a moment and she knew the gears were turning in his head.

  “Give me a minute,” he said.

  While they waited, Castillo spoke up.

  “Keri?”

  “Yeah, Jamie?”

  “I didn’t want to say it earlier while the sheriff was talking but Ray’s standing over me right now. I came into the conference for some privacy and he followed me. Now he’s hovering over me, holding out his hand for the phone. He looks pretty pissed.”

  “Is there anyone else in there with you?” Keri asked.

  “No.”

  “Then put your phone on speaker.”

  “It’s on,” Jamie said a moment later.

  “How’s it going this fine morning, Raymond?” she asked sweetly, trying to short-circuit what she knew was coming.

  “I know you’re not investigating this case the day after you were suspended from the force,” he said angrily, not sounding sure at all, “because no sane person would do that.”

  “I’m just a regular gal exploring a hunch,” she said unconvincingly. “I was about to read you in as soon as I finished talking to Sheriff Calvert.”

  “Read me in now!”

  Before she could respond, Calvert spoke up.

  “Hey, folks. I’m just going to pretend I had you on hold and didn’t hear any of the conversation just now, if that’s all right with you. Having established that, I have some information for you.”

  “Go ahead, Sheriff,” Keri said, glad for the interruption.

  “The man’s real name is Jason Petrossian. He’d be thirty now. I’m looking at his mug shot and it’s definitely the same guy. He was arrested one week before Noreen disappeared. I took the liberty of putting his fingerprints in the federal database just now. It’s something I should have done back then, but the thought never even occurred to me at the time.”

  “What did you find, Sheriff?” Keri asked, certain from his tone that it wasn’t anything good.

  “Well, about four years before he came through here, he was arrested in Pennsylvania in connection with the disappearance of a twelve-year-old girl named Bethany Jeffers. But the investigators there couldn’t definitively tie him to it. They eventually had to release him. He dropped off the grid soon thereafter. The girl was never found.”

  No one spoke for a several seconds. Finally Keri cleared her throat.

  “Thank you, Sheriff.”

  “Yep,” he said softly. “Sorry I can’t be of more help.”

  “You’ve been a huge help,” Ray insisted.

  “Yeah,” Calvert replied bitterly, “I can’t help feeling that if I’d have done a little more due diligence at the time, Noreen Appleton might have been found and your girl wouldn’t be missing.”

  “You couldn’t have known,” Keri said.

  “We all know that’s not true,” Sheriff Calvert said, his voice thick with regret. “If y’all don’t mind I’m going to say goodbye for now. I want to follow up a few threads I should have looked into back in the day.”

  “Of course,” Keri said.

  “Please let me know how things shake out there?”

  “Will do,” Ray promised. He waited for the click indicating Calvert had hung up before saying anything else.

  “Keri, you still there?”

  “I am,” she said, clutching the steering wheel as she braced for more verbal finger-wagging. But his voice stayed level.

  “Okay,” he said. “Castillo and I are going to my car now to head to Petrossian’s apartment. Once we’re on the road, I’m calling Agent Crowley to give him the heads-up so he can meet us. Then I’m calling Hillman to update him.”

  “That all sounds good,” Keri said, fully aware that he wasn’t finished.

  “So far, no one who would say anything knows about your involvement in this. You haven’t yet done anything today to completely compromise your career. We can simply say you discovered this lead and passed it on to us. You can turn your car around, go back to your apartment, and no one will be the wiser. Sound good?”

  “You know I can’t do that,” Keri said flatly.

  “Of course you can. You’re telling me you won’t.”

  “I’m less than ten minutes from his place. The extra time it would take you to get there could be the difference between Jessica Rainey living and dying. That’s not an option. So I’m telling you I can’t.”

  “Will you please at least wait until we get there?” he pleaded. She was impressed. He knew her well enough to change tactics when he realized he was fighting a losing battle.

  “If I don’t see any signs of imminent threat and you can get there in fifteen minutes, I’ll think about it.”

  “We’ll be there,” Ray said.

  Keri hung up, feeling a little guilty. After all, she had no intention of waiting.

  CHAPTER TWENTY NINE

  Keri reconsidered her decision when she arrived at the address. Something about the place just didn’t feel right.

  As she sat in her car down the street, she pulled out her binoculars and studied the apartment. It was in a small complex, the end unit of a building with six studio apartments. They were all on the second floor, directly above their garages.

  What troubled her was that the units were so bunched together. There was no way he could carry a girl from his garage up to that apartment without getting noticed. And they were all so small that, if she was alive, there was no way he could keep her quiet enough to avoid detection.

  Even if she was dead, the neighbors would smell something. Keri allowed herself half a second to wonder what had become of her that she could note that detail so matter-of-factly and without emotion.

  Worry about your fading sense of empathy later. Figure this out.

  So if he wasn’t keeping her in the apartment, where else could she be? If he had a rented storage unit somewhere, there should be a record of it. Even places that took cash payments usually requir
ed an application be filled out with some kind of security deposit held on a credit card.

  She glanced around to see if there were any storage places in the immediate area. The apartment was on a hill just off Rose Avenue near Centinela Avenue. It overlooked Santa Monica College. Tiny Santa Monica Airport was also visible in the distance. She could even see a Little League field and a nursery with multiple greenhouses. But there were no storage complexes in sight.

  Her phone rang. It was Ray.

  “How close are you?” she asked.

  “Three minutes out,” he said. “Crowley and Winchester are en route too. They may get there first, actually, since the FBI building on Wilshire is closer. They insisted we not enter. They’re being very proprietary.”

  “Yeah, well. I don’t think it’s the place anyway.”

  “Why not?” he asked.

  “Too small, too exposed. It just doesn’t feel right.”

  “We’ll be there to check it out soon,” he replied. “Stay out of sight. You don’t need the feds seeing you.”

  “Hurry,” Keri insisted. “If this isn’t the place, we need to start looking for the right one soon. Got to go—they’re here.”

  Keri hung up and ducked her head as the sedan carrying Crowley and Winchester drove by. They parked a half block from the apartment complex and walked confidently toward it. They gave no indication that they planned to wait for Ray and Castillo.

  When they reached the building, Winchester tugged on the bottom of the garage door but nothing happened. It must have been locked. They proceeded up the exterior stairwell and reached the top, in front of Unit 1. Petrossian lived in Unit 6 so they had to pass all the other apartments to get there.

  Keri quickly texted Ray to say: they’re here - approaching apt. door.

  When they got close, Crowley peeked through the window. Using her binoculars, it looked to Keri like the curtains were drawn. Both men got on their knees anyway and crawled on all fours until they were in front of the door to Unit 6.

  A text came through and Keri looked at it. It was from Ray saying: pulling up now.

  Keri looked up to see his car pass hers and park a few feet in front of her. He and Castillo got out and looked her way. She pointed at the apartment door and they both glanced up in time to see the FBI agents draw their guns.

  The men stood on either side of the door. Keri saw Crowley knock and heard his voice in the distance.

  “FBI—we have a warrant. Open up.”

  They waited about five seconds. Then Crowley spoke again, louder this time.

  “FBI—open the door now!”

  There was still no response. Crowley nodded at Winchester, who stepped back from the door and kicked it in. He rushed in, followed closely by his partner.

  “Let’s go,” Ray said to Castillo, and then pointed at Keri. “You stay here.”

  Keri nodded, fighting the urge to sprint to the apartment. She watched Ray and Jamie do exactly that before turning her attention back to the door. No shots had been fired. She could hear voices, although she couldn’t understand what they were saying.

  Ray had just reached the top of the stairs, with Jamie about midway up, when an explosion suddenly rocked the apartment. A ball of fire shot out the door followed closely by Agent Winchester, who stumbled out covered in flames. She could hear his screams clearly. He dropped onto the narrow hallway floor and tried to roll back and forth.

  Keri leapt out of her car and began running toward the complex, her eyes fixed on Winchester. Within seconds, Ray had reached him and was using his own jacket to pat the flames down. Crowley still hadn’t come out.

  When she got to the foot of the stairs, she found Jamie Castillo lying flat on her back on the ground. She rushed over and bent down close to the young officer. She was conscious and her eyes were open, but she seemed disoriented.

  Keri ran her hands along Jamie’s body and through her hair, feeling for open wounds or gushing blood. Her face and hands, both exposed, had several small cuts but nothing too bad. Keri felt Jamie’s head again, checking for bleeding that might have resulted from landing on it.

  “I’m okay,” Jamie suddenly shouted. “I used my arms to break my fall. I didn’t hit my head.”

  “Can you hear me?” Keri asked.

  “I can’t really hear you,” Jamie shouted, even louder this time. “My ears are ringing pretty bad.”

  Keri nodded, took off her own jacket, and rested it under Jamie’s head.

  “Stay here,” she yelled. “Don’t try to move.”

  Jamie nodded her understanding and Keri sprinted up the stairs. Winchester was still on the floor of the hallway. He was no longer on fire but he was writhing around, moaning loudly. Ray was nowhere to be found.

  She pulled her gun and slowly approached the charred door of Unit 6. Only then did she realize that she hadn’t put on her bulletproof vest. She took a long, deep breath, then pivoted and spun into the room. It took her a second to gather her bearings. Everything was smoking and sections of the room were still burning.

  “Over here,” she heard a voice call out and followed it.

  Ray was in the breakfast nook, kneeling over Crowley, giving him CPR. The FBI agent was unidentifiable, the entire front of his body burned beyond recognition. Ray glanced up at her and shook his head.

  “Let’s get him out of here,” she said.

  Ray nodded and put his hands under Crowley’s armpits. Keri grabbed the underside of his knees and they carried him outside and laid him down next to Winchester.

  “How is he?” someone yelled from the stairwell. It was Jamie, trying to stand and clinging to the railing for support.

  “He’s dead,” Ray shouted back.

  “What?”

  “She can’t hear anything,” Keri said. “Her ears are ringing from the blast. How are you able to hear me?”

  “I barely can. It feels like church bells ringing in my ears. Maybe being close to a wall helped a little?”

  Keri remembered that Ray had reached the top of the stairs as the blast hit. It made sense that not being so exposed might have offered him some minimal protection.

  She looked him over and he seemed to be generally okay, although his jeans were bloody on his right upper leg. She bent down closer and saw that there was a chunk of glass embedded in it. Blood was seeping out on either side of it.

  “I’ve got to call this in,” Ray said. “Winchester needs an ambulance bad.”

  “Ray, you’ve got a big piece of glass in your leg. Look.”

  He glanced down as he dialed his phone.

  “I’ll survive,” he said, then added, “Is that my ears ringing or do I hear sirens in the distance?”

  “Sirens,” Keri said, noticing them too.

  “Then you should get out of here. There’s nothing you can do to help these guys and if you’re found here, it will only make it harder for you to get your job back.”

  Keri looked down at the two men on the ground, one dead and the other not much better. Then she looked over at Jamie, who had slumped down onto the top step of the stairwell.

  “I can’t just leave,” she insisted. “Petrossian set this up. He killed an FBI agent. I have to help.”

  “I understand, Keri,” Ray said, putting the ringing phone to his ear. “But there’s nothing you can do right here, right now. Go.”

  Then he pointed to his phone to indicate someone had picked up.

  “Yes,” he yelled into the receiver. “This is Detective Raymond Sands, badge number 22391. I need immediate emergency medical assistance at…”

  Keri turned her attention away from Ray and back to the two FBI agents on the floor at her feet. He was right, of course. There wasn’t anything she could do to help. And if she was found at a crime scene while suspended she could guarantee she’d never get back on the force. She had to go.

  The sirens were getting louder but she took a moment to grab Ray’s jacket, the one he’d used to douse the flames engulfing Winchester, and delicatel
y placed it over Crowley’s mangled face.

  He was a good guy. He didn’t deserve this.

  She looked out across the expanse of homes in the distance. Off to the west, she could faintly see where the land met the Pacific Ocean. Much closer, she could now better see the Little League field she’d noticed before. She could also see the nursery and its greenhouses. The sign appropriately read “Ocean View Nursery.”

  She also noticed something she hadn’t been able to see from her car down below, another greenhouse set apart from the others. It was blocked off by a wooden fence, as if it were on separate property. And it appeared to be in worse shape than all the others. Something in her brain clicked.

  “Keri, go!” Ray hissed, shaking her out of her reverie.

  She looked up. He was pointing at an ambulance and two police cars speeding down Centinela, just below them. They would be here in less than a minute.

  “Be careful with that leg,” she yelled as she ran past him and started down the stairs. As she passed Castillo, she patted her on the shoulder. The officer looked up at her with a pleasant but fuzzy expression.

  She sprinted back to her car and was just pulling out and heading down the street when she saw the ambulance arrive in her rearview mirror.

  She turned right, out of sight of the approaching police vehicles. But she didn’t make another right and go down the hill that would start her back on the path to Playa del Rey. Instead, she turned left and headed up the hill, toward that one isolated greenhouse.

  CHAPTER THIRTY

  Keri sat across the street from the nursery, lost in thought. She ignored the employees who had come out into the street to stare at the burning apartment building several hundred yards away.

  She was putting puzzle pieces together in her head, making sure they all fit. Petrossian lived nearby but his apartment wasn’t equipped to hide an abducted girl. He would want to keep her someplace close by for easy access, somewhere he felt comfortable.