by Kate Gable
"Thank you for coming here," he says. "I've missed you."
"I've missed you, too."
I rub my foot along the outside of his hip flexors. I remember that he had something to tell me, some bad news, but I can't force myself to bring it up.
Not right now.
I didn't want to hear it earlier and I certainly don't want to hear it now. I've had enough bad news to last a lifetime and right now I need something good to hold on to.
A few minutes later, just as I put my head back, close my eyes, and feel grateful for everything that I do have, my phone goes off.
I want to ignore it, but I wonder who would be calling me at this hour. My mom would only call if it were an emergency.
I climb out of the water, wrap a towel around myself to not drip so much water onto the carpet, and reach for my phone.
"Eve?" I answer almost immediately after seeing her name pop on the screen.
"Detective Carr. Kaitlyn." Her voice sounds faint.
There's a lot of sound in the background.
Luke turns on the water to fill up the hot tub with a little bit more warm water, but I motion for him to turn it off.
"Eve, what's going on?" I say loudly, pressing the phone to my ear. It occurs to me that it may be good for Luke to hear as well so I put her on speakerphone.
"You have to help me,” Eve whimpers.
36
The sound of the road is hard to deny. I can hear people beeping as the car moves swiftly down the freeway.
"Danny Usoro put me in my trunk. He's driving," she says in a loud whisper.
"What's your license plate number?" I ask, grabbing a notepad and a pen.
She rattles it off and I'm actually surprised that she knows it by memory.
"Honda Civic 2007!” she yells, her voice becoming more confident.
"What happened?"
"I don't know. He hit me with something. My head is bleeding and then I woke up here in the trunk. I didn't know where I was. He doesn't know that I have my phone."
"I'm going to put out an APB. Going to get you some help, Eve. We're going to find you. Do you have any idea where he's going?"
“No,” she whimpers. “He just came over. We were talking and he got all mad. He said that you're going to find out the truth and there's nothing he can do. I told him that he needs to get a lawyer and I kept asking him what he did. Then he hit me. Everything is blurry."
“Okay, stay calm, please stay calm,” I urge her when she starts to sound like she's hyperventilating.
I glance over at Luke, who's already making the calls. I hear him put out an all-points bulletin, APB for short, for her car, giving her description.
I keep her on the line as we get dressed.
I keep her talking.
I don't dare hang up. You never hang up.
She tells me how frustrated he looked, how scared, and how she wanted to ask him about what happened to Nick and Janine, but she was too afraid.
"That was the first time that I really thought that he had something to do with her murder and his disappearance," she whispers and begins to sob.
I pull on my pants and button my shirt.
I put on my coat and boots and grab my keys, all while talking to her. The LA Sheriff's Department and the LAPD are going to look for her, but I have to as well.
Luke puts her number into an app on his phone and it shows that they're traveling east on I-10. We get into the car.
I keep asking her about where he might be taking her and why is she in the trunk.
She says she doesn't know, and she cries when she tells me that her legs are bound with zip ties and so are her hands. The only reason why she was able to call me was because he bound them in the front.
"Oh my God! The car's slowing down," she whispers.
I hear the sound of the wheels in the background. It sounds like they are pulling off on an exit.
"Stay calm. Please stay calm."
"No, I have to go. I can't. He can't find out that I have this phone on me. I have to put it back. If I don't see you again-"
"Don't think like that, Eve. We're going to find you. I'm going to find you. Everything's going to be fine."
She hangs up before I can finish. I stare at the screen for a few moments, sitting in the front passenger seat as Luke takes us down the mountain.
He's driving so fast that the snow collides with the windshield and creates a warp effect in the headlights.
My head spins.
"Put on your seat belt.” I finally hear Luke saying somewhere in the distance.
I reach over and buckle myself in. “Here, take my phone. You can see where they're going."
"You have an app that tracks phone numbers?"
"Yeah, iPhones that have their locations on."
I call dispatch and confirm the APB. The woman on the other end tells me that it looks like the car's heading to the Ontario Airport long-term parking lot.
I see the same thing on Luke's app and my heart sinks. We're still half an hour away, at least.
"We're not going to make it," I say, rubbing my temples and folding myself in half because my stomach starts to hurt. "We're too far away. If we don't make it, somebody else will."
The road gets slicker and slicker while the snowfall gets more intense. They're not that many people out on the roads, but at one point when we making a turn, we slip and roll into oncoming traffic, swerving just in time.
"We have to get down this mountain safely," Luke says, grabbing the steering wheel tighter.
A little bit later, we finally arrive. I check the location of the phone again and it's still there.
"What do you think is happening?" I ask.
"I don't know. I haven't heard anything."
When we pull up, there are flashing lights and a couple of police cars near the entrance of the parking structure.
The Honda Civic is in the long-term lot, apart from the other cars.
The trunk is empty, but her phone is laying right there in the center. He's onto us.
"What does this mean?" Luke asks, not really asking me in particular.
"He couldn't have gone that far,” I say.
“Not on foot anyway."
“He probably had a backup car here,” I say.
Now, we have no idea what vehicle he’s driving and Eve no longer has a phone.
I swallow hard and shift my weight from one foot to another nervously. Suddenly, I realize that I'm sweating.
The jacket is way too warm for this tepid valley air. Even though it's snowing up on the mountain, down here the temperature hovers in the mid-sixties.
I pull off my hat and gloves and unzip my coat, letting the scarf fall loosely around my neck.
"What do we do now?" Luke asks.
The sheriff's department stays behind to process the scene, pick up fingerprints, or find any other evidence that's available from the trunk.
Luke and I get back in the car and try to figure out what to do. He starts the engine and begins to drive.
Sometimes it's easier to think like this.
Where would you go?
What would you do?
The problem is that I don't know Danny very well.
There were certain things pointing to him as someone who had possible involvement, but what does that mean exactly?
I thought that maybe he was just covering for his friend, Nick, but why would he take Eve as hostage?
Why would he put her in the trunk?
Why would he overreact to such an extreme degree if he didn't have anything to do with this?
Luke drives slowly to the parking lot. Going down the various levels in the structure, we reach the second floor, turning right instead of left to get to the next level.
“Where are you going?” I ask.
“I just thought that I'd check out the parking lot.”
“You think that there might be a chance that he's here?” I ask.
“I have no idea.”
Luke makes his way around, seeing nothing and then drives up one more level just in case.
In the corner, right around the side of the elevators, we see a figure standing in the shadows, sitting on the floor, shaking.
“That's them." I gasp and reach for my weapon.
We have to be careful. We have no idea what he has on him.
“Please don't shoot him. We have to try to take him in.”
He nods.
I know that if there's anyone I can trust with that, it would be Luke. If Thomas were here, I wouldn't be so cavalier about it.
Thomas doesn't follow all of the police academy’s rules, but the one he does like is shoot first and ask questions later.
Luke pulls over.
We immediately swing our doors open and shield ourselves behind them. We're close enough for him to hear when I identify myself.
"Danny, this is the police!” I yell.
"And the FBI!” Luke yells. "Put your weapon down."
"No, I don't think so!” Danny yells back.
37
Eve whimpers loudly.
He presses the barrel into her head. She yelps.
There's a small light above Danny’s head that casts shadows and lets me see a little bit of what's going on as he moves.
"What do you want to do?" I whisper to Luke.
"There's a staircase right over there,” he mutters.
I nod.
"If you distract him, I can make my way up and around and surprise him on the other side,” I offer.
“That's a big risk.” He shakes his head.
“You know what's going to happen when backup arrives. He’ll end up dead and he might take her with him.”
“No, it's too dangerous. I don't want you to go.”
“That's not up to you,” I say, checking my weapon. "Just keep talking to him. Take control and make him think that you're the main negotiator.”
"If you surprise him, he might shoot her,” he hisses at me.
Luke’s eyes narrow.
I lick my lips to realize how chapped they are and how desperate I am for a gulp of water. Even a little sip would do.
My headache builds in momentum, but I force myself to stay focused.
I can't let myself get distracted in any way.
“What are you going to do when you get there?” Luke says.
"I don't know. I'm going to take my phone so you can hear me, okay?"
He nods.
I call him and Luke accepts. I put my cell in my front pocket so he can hear everything.
I glance across the parking lot.
If I walk straight across, Danny will see me. The floor is covered in big black shadows, so the only way that this will work is if I slither my way over to the staircase.
I get down on the ground.
The asphalt is dirty and smells of motor oil and sweat. I'm tempted to go on all fours, but I force myself to take my time and slide on my stomach.
Luke makes a racket to draw Danny’s attention to him. He talks loudly, drops stuff on the floor, makes jokes.
I finally make it all the way to the exit sign when my palm lands in a pile of old vomit.
My face contorts, my gag reflex sets in, and I’m about to throw up. Pushing it back down, I wipe my hand off on the asphalt and keep going.
I finally rise to my feet and disappear into the staircase, running across the top level.
I take off my shoes right before I get to their staircase, to avoid making a loud clinking sound with my boots.
My feet feel the coldness of the cement, but I’m light on my feet, trying to imagine the movements of a ninja.
I make my way down to the first landing and hear Luke’s voice. Peeking out just a little while pushing myself away from the wall, I see Eve sitting on the ground, her feet and hands bound up with her head in her knees.
She moves slightly, glancing back. Our eyes meet.
I bring my index finger to my lips to keep her quiet as her eyes become two big saucers with a glimmer of hope flickering in each.
Too bad, I don't really have a plan.
Danny has a 9mm in his right hand. He's holding onto it pretty firmly and I'm not sure what he will do if I startle him.
Some people react in fear, others in offense.
He may shoot out at Luke, who's not exactly in the position to shoot in this direction out of fear of hitting me or Eve. If he's particularly fast, he can quickly flip back and shoot me.
I consider what might happen if I press my weapon to the back of Danny’s neck.
I don't want to shoot him, but if I do, I have to hit him center mass, the way that all police officers in this country are taught to shoot any armed or possibly armed suspect, no matter what.
But I want him alive.
So, I need to do something else.
While I hesitate, I take a step away, squashing a dried up leaf, which makes a loud crunching sound.
Danny turns around to look at me and our eyes meet. Just as I'm about to lift up my weapon, Eve stands up and slams her body into him, knocking him down to the ground.
I rush over and kick his gun away from his hand and point mine in his face, keeping distance so that he can't grab onto my legs to knock me down.
Everything happens in a flash. A moment later Luke is by my side, pointing his weapon in Danny's face.
38
After Danny is arrested, we find Nick's body in a storage unit across from the apartment. Nick had rented it only a few days before his death for Danny.
The front desk manager confirmed that both Danny and Nick were there when the agreement was signed. Danny talked about needing a place to store some stuff before a move, but it was rented in Nick’s name because Danny didn’t have enough credit.
I talk to Eve in the police station. The paramedics sew her head up and they don’t find any internal bleeding or additional injuries at the hospital. Still, she remains a shell of the woman I had met earlier.
I find two additional blankets to wrap her up in, but she can’t get any warmer. Her hands shake as she brings a cup of tea to her lips and her face has a faraway distant expression.
”Why did Danny do this?" I ask. “Why did he take you?"
She turns to look away, her eyes unable to focus.
"When he pulled me out of that trunk and found my phone, he just lost it. He started to sob and he said that I betrayed him, but I didn't. I never thought that he would do anything like this. I didn't even think he would ever raise his hand to me, let alone kill…"
I swallow hard and I give her time to think, breathe, and collect her thoughts.
"Did he tell you anything? What did he do? Why?"
"Yeah." She nods and looks down into her cup, watching the swirls as she stirs it a little bit. "He told me that he did it all for me. I couldn't believe it."
"What are you talking about?"
"I never asked him to do anything. You have to believe me.” She leans closer.
I nod.
"Danny said that he got fired from his job two months ago and he didn't want to tell me because he didn't want to disappoint me,” she whispers. “We were planning this wedding and everything was costing so much money. We had to put down all of these deposits. The last one he was kind of late on it, but I didn't think anything of it. The cake place called and when I called them back, the woman said that they had been paid. So, I never gave it another thought."
"Okay." I nod, processing and trying to figure out where this is going.
"Well, the thing is that it was the money that Nick lent him."
I grab onto the arm of the chair with one hand so tightly that my knuckles turn white.
She glances down and I immediately stop.
"So, what happened next?" I push her.
"What happened was that he lied to me about having a job and he didn't have any money.”
“Really?"
"And Nick did. That's what Danny said when he tied me up with those zip ties by the elevator. He
was sobbing.” Her voice lowers and blood drains away from her face. “It sounded like a confession. It was right before you two showed up and I thought that he was going to kill me and himself right there."
"Is that what he was saying? That’s what he was going to do?"
“Yeah.” Tears roll down her cheeks, but she doesn't go to wipe them away. "Danny told me that it was going to be better this way. That we were going to die like martyrs, like Romeo and Juliet, but he was running out of time and that was why he took me. He wanted to tell me everything before it happened."
The room goes quiet.
She meets my eyes and nods.
"He killed Janine in order to frame Nick,” Eve says. “Danny had already killed him and stashed his body in that storage unit. Then he used Nick's phone to text Janine and ask her to come over. Danny wrote that he was having an anxiety attack, which was something that happened often to Nick, and he couldn't sleep. They were friends and Danny knew that. He knew that Janine would come over. That's what he told me."
Eve shakes her head, holds onto her shoulders tighter, and wraps herself tighter in the blankets.
It's almost like she wants to disappear underneath them.
"Why? Why would he kill Nick?" I ask.
"Money. He had over fifty-thousand dollars saved from being overseas and that's exactly what we needed for the wedding. It's actually a lot more than what we needed, but he was going to take the other twenty grand and we were going to start a new life together. I was never supposed to know about it, but then you started snooping around.”
"So why didn't that plan work out?" I ask.
"You brought him in for questioning and he knew that you were getting close. He knew that you were going to come talk to me and he was freaking out. I think that's why he took me.”
39
A few days later we get confirmation from the forensics lab that Danny's DNA evidence was found in Nick's apartment. Nick has also been shot by the same weapon as Janine and we find it in a nearby storage cubby in the parking lot below Danny and Nick's apartment building.
