Lynch readjusted his grip on the woman. “It feels like there’s a wallet of some kind on the left inside pocket of her coat. Pull it out.”
Kendra carefully reached inside the coat and pulled out a thin leather wallet. She opened it and studied the ID card behind a plastic window. “It’s a private investigator’s license.”
Lynch loosened his grip. “A private detective?”
Kendra showed him the license. “Her name is Jessie Mercado. She’s from L.A.”
The woman finally spoke through set teeth. “And I saved your ass yesterday. Don’t leave that part out.” She jerked her head back at Lynch. “Does this ape follow your commands? If so, please tell him to let me go.”
Kendra closed the wallet and shrugged. “Lynch, let go of her.”
Jessie Mercado stepped away from Lynch and rubbed her shoulder as she glared at him. “Just so that you know, I could have put you down. I was going easy on you.”
“Got it.” He placed his hand on his side. “I’ll be pissing blood for days, but you were going easy on me.”
Jessie was now rubbing her arm. She was a pretty woman of medium height, about thirty, slender, with tanned skin, huge dark eyes, and delicate features that belied the obvious toughness in her attitude and bearing. She said grudgingly, “Well, I think you dislocated my shoulder, so I guess we’re even.”
“Not really,” Kendra said. “Why are you following me?”
“How do you know I was?” Jessie shrugged. “You’re nothing to me.”
“Why don’t I believe you?”
“Believe me, don’t believe me, I don’t really care.” She hesitated. “I’m on a case for a client.”
“What client?” Lynch asked.
“Have you ever heard of a thing called professional confidentiality?”
“Heard of it. I don’t give a damn about it,” Kendra said. “I need answers. A friend of mine is missing. He’s my only priority.”
“Well, that’s something we have in common.” She met her eyes. “Because my client happens to be Dr. Charles Waldridge. He’s my priority, too.”
Kendra wondered if her face was showing the shock she felt. “Waldridge hired you?”
Jessie nodded.
“Where is he?”
Jessie grimaced. “I wish I knew.”
“How could he be your client if you don’t—”
“I met him the day he disappeared. A satisfied former client referred him to me. He hired me on the spot.”
“Hired you for what?”
She shook her head. “Confidential. He swore me to secrecy. That’s why I didn’t come forward as soon as he disappeared.”
“Something’s happened to him,” Lynch said, “May I say your priorities are a little screwed-up? You might hold information that can save his life.”
She stiffened defensively. “Don’t think I haven’t been weighing that.”
“Must have been torture for you,” Lynch said caustically. “How about if I put my thumb on the scale by taking you to the police?”
“Just try it,” she said softly.
“Hey,” Kendra said. “Let’s just table this for a minute. I’m tired of watching the two of you bristle at each other. Let’s talk about why you’re following me.”
Jessie thought for a moment. “I guess that we can talk about.” She glanced around. “But not here.”
“Where?” Kendra demanded.
She smiled faintly. “I’d invite you to my office, but it’s a bit far to L.A.”
“No problem. I happen to have an office nearby. It’s at—”
“I know where it is. I’ve been there.” Jessie reached out and snatched her license from Kendra’s hand. “I’ll meet you there in fifteen minutes.”
“How do we know you’ll show?” Kendra asked.
Jessie shrugged. “How do I know you won’t have a squad car there waiting to take me in for questioning? I guess we’ll just have to trust each other.” She gave a mock shiver. “What a truly bizarre thought.”
* * *
FIFTEEN MINUTES LATER, Kendra and Lynch drove into the office parking lot to find Jessie standing next to her motorcycle, checking her e-mail.
“Anything interesting?” Kendra asked.
“Like an e-mail from Dr. Waldridge? Afraid not. But three different companies want to sell me penis-enlargement tools.” Jessie put away her phone. “It comes with owning a motorcycle. I’ll read those later.”
Kendra smiled. Lynch seemed annoyed with her, but she was enjoying Jessie’s dry sense of humor.
Kendra led her and Lynch to her office studio, where she and Lynch had teleconferenced with Rye only the day before.
Jessie looked around with interest at the musical instruments. “Nice job with the song at the bar, by the way. You pretty much nailed it.”
“You were there?” Lynch asked.
“She was standing near the dartboards,” Kendra said. “I couldn’t see her boots; otherwise, I would have ID’d her in a second.”
Jessie rolled her eyes. “The boots. Is that how you made me?”
“They leave a very distinctive footprint. In the snow up in Big Bear, in the fine dirt outside the bar.”
“Freaky. I guess the stories about you are true.”
“Depends on where the stories came from.”
“True-crime blogs, police discussion boards, places like that.”
“Any special reason why you’ve been reading up on me?”
“Homework.”
Kendra waited for her to say more, but Jessie was silent, perusing the music-themed laminated posters on the wall.
“Waldridge hired you to follow me?” Kendra finally asked.
“No. He didn’t even mention you to me.”
“Then why the hell have you been on my tail?”
“For the record, I’ve been doing more with my time than just following you. Remember, I found my way to Big Bear before you did.”
Lynch crossed his arms and leaned against the piano. “Yes, and you led us quite a chase.”
“Not much of a chase. I’m guessing that the San Bernardino County PD stopped you long before you even got off the mountain.”
Lynch nodded. “You guessed right. But what brought you up there in the first place?”
“The same thing that brought you. The corpse in the snow, Dr. Porter Shaw.”
Kendra and Lynch exchanged a glance.
“You knew who he was?” Kendra asked.
“Not immediately. When did you figure it out?”
“A few hours ago. You?”
“Last night. I ran the pictures I took of the body against photos of Waldridge’s known associates that I grabbed off the Web. A facial-recognition program did most of the work.”
“Smart,” Kendra said. “The FBI did something similar.”
“I just happened to do it faster. Not that I’m bragging or anything.”
“Oh, of course not,” Lynch said. “Are you going to help us out, or did you just come here to jerk our chains.”
Jessie smiled. “Chain-jerking does have its appeal, but no. You asked why I’m following you. You were one of the last people to see Waldridge, and I knew you were on the case.”
“How did you know?” Kendra asked.
“Santa Monica PD. I have friends on the inside over there. I heard you were getting FBI help, which is a hell of lot more than I’ve been getting. Every time I got stalled, I decided to see what you were doing.”
“Why did Waldridge hire you?”
Jessie didn’t answer.
“I have to know.”
“Confidential territory again,” she said quietly. “I have an obligation.”
“Bullshit. Your obligation is keeping your client alive.”
Jessie hesitated, thinking.
“Please,” Kendra said. “Tell us. I only want to keep him alive.”
Jessie stared ruefully at Kendra. “I hope I don’t regret this.”
“Regret what? Trusting me?”
Jessie nodded. “I’m not big on trust.”
“Neither am I. But there are times when you have to take the chance. You won’t regret it,” Kendra said. “If your friends at the Santa Monica PD are keeping you in the loop, then you know I’ve done more to try to find Waldridge than anyone.”
“I do know that.”
“Then what’s the problem? I guarantee you, Waldridge would want me to have every bit of information that might help me find him.”
Jessie dropped down on a chair. “Okay, I’ll tell you what I know, but I need you to reciprocate. Deal?”
“Sure,” Kendra said.
Jessie glanced at Lynch. “I know that he won’t be cooperative. From what I’ve been able to gather about him, I don’t know if I’d want to deal with him anyway.”
“Very wise,” Lynch said. “But do be aware that I don’t like Kendra’s being lied to. It tends to upset me.”
Jessie shrugged, and her gaze shifted back to Kendra. “I haven’t found out much. I’m not sure what good it will do you.”
“It has to be better than stumbling around in the dark,” Lynch said.
“Sounds exactly like what I’ve been doing,” Jessie said. “Anyway, I met Waldridge when he came to my office in West L.A. He was on edge. There was a certain … desperation.”
Kendra sat down across from her. “About what?”
“He was concerned about a colleague of his.”
“Shaw?”
“No. Another man. His name is Hayden Biers. Waldridge told me that this guy had come to L.A. from England late last month. They’d been in touch, but Biers had suddenly dropped off the face of the Earth.”
“Sounds familiar,” Kendra said. “What did Waldridge tell you about him?”
“He’s a medical doctor. More into research than treating patients.”
“Also familiar,” Lynch said. “But why was he in L.A.?”
“Waldridge couldn’t say.”
“Couldn’t or wouldn’t?”
Jessie’s lips twisted. “Funny you should ask that. For someone who was so obviously concerned for his colleague, he was extremely cagey. I had to pry information out of him.”
“I feel your pain,” Kendra said. “I went through the exact same thing when I saw him that night. But he didn’t tell me about this at all.”
“He was extremely concerned about confidentiality at all costs. His words. That’s why I haven’t talked to anyone about it.”
“So what did he tell you?”
“He gave me an address down in Redondo Beach. Biers had been renting a furnished house there month to month. Waldridge went there as soon as he hit town, but there was no sign of Biers.”
“Did you go there?” Lynch asked.
She was clearly annoyed at his question. “Uh, yeah. I am a real private investigator. No sign of a struggle. There were some clothes and a few things in the fridge, but that was about it. So I slipped in a couple webcams and moved on.”
“Any local contacts?” Lynch asked.
“None that Waldridge knew of.”
“And he didn’t give you any clue why Biers might have come from England to L.A.?”
“Just some B.S. about him having a high-stress job and needing to get away from it all. I didn’t buy it, and I even called him on it. But Waldridge wouldn’t tell me any more.”
“What was Biers’s job? Did he tell you that?
“Only in the most general terms. I had to dig around myself to find out, and it wasn’t easy. But you’ll be interested in this, though.”
Kendra leaned forward. “Let me guess. He was involved in the Night Watch Project.”
Jessie looked at her in surprise. “You got it. Looks like someone else has been doing her homework.”
“It’s a common thread between these three men. And now one is dead, and the other two are missing.”
“Did Waldridge tell you anything else?” Lynch asked.
“Not much. I got Biers’s cell-phone number, but there’s been no activity on the line since he disappeared.”
“How do you know?” Kendra asked.
“The next morning, when Waldridge disappeared, I’d taken his money to find his associate, so it wasn’t a stretch to figure there was a connection between what happened to those two guys. Biers’s trail stalled pretty quickly, so I began to look into Waldridge’s case. That’s when I found out that you were on it. I tracked him back to Big Bear, and—”
“How?” Lynch asked.
She gave him another annoyed look. “Again, I’m a licensed private investigator. I know how to do my job. But if you must know, he paid me using a prepaid Visa credit card, so I had the number. I have credit-agency contacts, too. He’d used the card a few times in Big Bear. I went up there and asked around. It wasn’t too hard to find the house that Shaw rented.”
“Why a prepaid card?” Kendra asked. “Why not his own?”
Jessie shrugged. “He was visiting from England. Some people like to use those in lieu of traveler’s checks. Only later did I think that he was trying to avoid being tracked.”
“Like you tracked him?”
“Exactly. If that’s what he was trying to do, he should have hired me to help him stay invisible. I’m pretty good at that. Anyway, I found Shaw’s body, just a few minutes before you came along that night. I tried to hide, but my damned footprints in the snow made that impossible.”
“When did you start following me?” Kendra asked.
“The next day. I knew you were getting FBI help that I couldn’t tap, so I started following you to see where it led. Good thing because that’s why I was there when those thugs tried to bottle you up and cart you away.”
“You have no idea who those men were?”
“No idea. They came out of their van wearing those ski masks.” She mockingly inclined her head. “You’re welcome, by the way.”
Kendra smiled. “Thank you.”
“You must have seen the vehicle they were driving,” Lynch said. “You should have reported it to the police.”
“I put a tracker on their van on my way in, but they must have found it and given it a toss.”
“Plates?” Lynch asked.
“Stolen. They were pros, whoever they were. I’m sure they ditched the vehicle within minutes.”
“Probably,” he murmured.
“So what did you find out today?” Jessie asked.
“Your crackerjack sources didn’t tell you?” Lynch asked mockingly.
“There’s a bit of a time lag. The FBI has been pretty good about keeping Santa Monica PD posted on the status of the investigation, but they aren’t always timely. Find out anything interesting?”
Kendra turned to Lynch. “I want to tell her.”
“Your choice. This is your show.”
Kendra turned back to Jessie. Everything she’d told them lined up with the truth as they knew it. She found herself wanting to trust her.
“First things first,” Kendra said. “How long have you been following me today?”
“Since an hour or so ago, when you left the FBI field office.”
“Okay. We’ll start there.” Kendra told her about Waldridge’s appearance on the security video and their visit to the Baldwin Hills Walmart store.
Jessie was silent for a long moment. “Well, at least we know Waldridge is alive, or he was at that time.”
Kendra nodded. “We just need to find him.”
Jessie’s brow wrinkled in thought. “Maybe it’s just a matter of drawing him out.”
“That’s assuming he has his freedom. Someone was sure keeping close tabs on him at the store.”
“I’d like a frame grab of the person you saw watching him.”
“We can get you that.”
“Good.” Jessie hesitated, looking between Kendra and Lynch as if something had suddenly occurred to her. “Just out of curiosity, how much do you know about me?”
Kendra shrugged. “What could we know? Only what you’ve told us
.”
“That’s not really true, is it?”
“What do you mean?”
Jessie got to her feet. Her entire body language spoke of wariness and defensiveness. “I told you I’ve done my research on you. If what I’ve read is true, I bet you knew quite a bit about me even before today.”
“I may have picked up a few things.”
“Like?”
She might as well tell her. In spite of Jessie’s toughness and wariness, that defensive attitude reflected a certain vulnerability. If she thought Kendra was hiding anything, it might get in the way. “I did think you were ex-military from your attack stance the other day, and now I’m sure of it.”
Lynch painfully touched his side. “My kidneys are also sure of it.”
Kendra stood up and slowly walked around Jessie. “You were in Afghanistan. Your father was also in the military. Your family moved with him, including quite a bit of your childhood in Western Europe. You were probably born in Bakersfield, where you spent your early years.”
Jessie smiled. “Tehachapi. About forty miles southeast of Bakersfield.”
“And I was doing so well. At least I think I was.”
“You definitely were. And still are. Anything else?”
“You’re a marathoner. You’ve done the Bay to Breakers run in San Francisco and the Honolulu Marathon. But for exercise you usually just go to Gold’s Gym, I’m guessing the one in Venice.”
Jessie nodded. “Wow. If I knew you better, I’d high-five you right now. And I usually think high fives are idiotic.”
“Then I take that as a compliment. Oh, you vacationed in Fiji a few years ago.”
Jessie gave a low whistle.
“And you or someone you know has been in Bermuda fairly recently.”
“My then-boyfriend about eight months ago.”
“It was clearly an amicable breakup.”
Jessie nodded in amazement. “Holy shit.”
Lynch leaned back and crossed his arms. “I keep waiting for this to get old, but it never does.”
Jessie bit her lip. “I can’t see it getting old, but something about this is really pissing me off.”
“You asked for it,” Kendra said.
“You’re right, I did. I guess I’m just uncomfortable being such an open book.”
“You aren’t,” Lynch said. “At least not to anybody except her.”
She was staring directly into Kendra’s eyes. “I consider myself a fairly private person. I think I’d feel better if you told me how you know all this.”
Night Watch--A Novel Page 15
