A Trace of Hope

by Blake Pierce

  Alice nodded and Keri led her back to an interrogation room. She left the door open to subtly let the girl know she was free to move about as she wished.

  “You hungry?” Keri asked, looking at the clock. It was almost 12:30.

  Evelyn will be finishing up lunchtime right about now. Where did that come from? Get that out of your head! Stay focused on the case.

  “No thanks. I’m not hungry,” Alice said, oblivious to Keri’s internal back-and-forth.

  “Okay,” Keri said, settling into a chair at the table and motioning for Alice to do the same. “So you know that Tara has been missing since last night, right? What can you tell us?”

  “I actually didn’t know until I got a message from Jan Henley in her sorority this morning. I knew she was doing The Expedition last night and I just figured she crashed at the house when she got back this morning. It never occurred to me that anything was wrong until I got the call.”

  “First thing before we dive in—did Tara ever mention anyone named Herbie or Hurley to you, a buddy of hers?”

  “No,” Alice said. “I never heard her say either of those names.”

  “Do you know anyone with those names?”

  “No, I don’t think so.”

  “Okay. What can you tell me about her experience in her sorority? Has it been positive? Did she have any concerns?”

  “Not more than anyone else,” Alice said. “I mean, there was a lot of, I wouldn’t quite call it hazing, but emotional and physical manipulation. That’s why I quit.”

  “You were a pledge too?” Keri asked, surprised that no one had mentioned this until now.

  “Yeah, we joined together. But I just got sick of all the stuff where they broke us down.”

  “Like what?” Keri asked.

  “I’m not supposed to say.”

  “Unless it was illegal, that’s not my concern,” Keri assured her. “I’m not trying to get you or the sorority in trouble, Alice. I’m just trying to get a picture of the world Tara inhabited when she went missing, to get into her headspace.”

  Alice was quiet for a second. But when she finally spoke it was as if she’d been waiting to say her piece for a long time.

  “There was just a lot of body image stuff. All the clichés you’ve ever imagined. Stripping down and having forty girls circle your ‘problem areas’ with different colored markers. But they went the extra mile for us. They took photos and kept a poster board for each of us so we could constantly reference it and ‘improve’ ourselves.”

  “That sounds pretty awful,” Keri conceded.

  “Yeah, and we had a ‘service’ requirement that seemed to consist of everything from doing upperclassmen’s homework to the occasional waxing session. It just got old and I couldn’t see the benefits outweighing the hassles. So I quit.”

  “Did Tara feel the same way?” Keri asked.

  “It didn’t bother her as much. She said she’d been through similar stuff in high school. In fact, she was weirdly psyched for The Expedition because she knew it would be in Malibu somewhere. She said she used to love to go hiking with her family there when she was younger.”

  “Wait,” Keri pushed. “So she was cool with all of the stuff you described?”

  “No. She didn’t love some of the activities with the partner fraternity. She thought some of the guys were a little aggressive, like they acted entitled and grabby because of the official partner connection, you know? But as far as the hazing routine, she mostly let that stuff slide off her back. First off, her body is pretty much perfect so there wasn’t a lot to circle. But in general, she just had a casual attitude to the whole thing. Like I mentioned, she told me she went to some fancy high school where the popular clique had the same routine. So nothing here shocked her. Plus, she said if this was how these girls felt important, so be it. She once told me that she almost felt sorry for them because it all seemed so desperate.”

  “So if she had such pity for these girls, why did she even want to join the sorority? Why did she want them as friends at all?”

  Alice looked at her like she’d just asked the dumbest question in the world.

  “Because she earned them,” she said.

  “I don’t understand what that means, Alice.”

  “I mean, because for the first time in her life, she could trust that these girls wanted to be friends with her just because of her and not the rest of it.”

  “What ‘rest of it’?”

  “Are you serious, Detective? Don’t you know who Tara is?”

  Keri shook her head.

  “Enlighten me.”

  “Tara’s real name is Tara Jonas. Her dad is Roan Jonas.”

  “The actor?” Keri asked.

  “Yes, Detective, the biggest movie star in the world.”

  CHAPTER THIRTY ONE

  It seemed like the activity level in the station intensified tenfold the minute Alice revealed Tara’s true identity. Keri asked her to stay put and was just walking out to the bullpen when Patterson accosted her to tell her what she’d just learned herself.

  She pulled Hillman out of his interrogation of Nicky and filled him in. Within minutes, he’d organized a Unit meeting in the conference room. Keri sent Alice home with thanks and specific instructions not to share anything about Tara’s actual name with anyone.

  “I guess we should cut Nicky loose,” Ray said wryly as everyone quickly assembled around the conference table.

  “He’s still going down for taking the wallet,” Hillman insisted. “And frankly, I don’t want any loose lips out on the streets. I’m actually shocked that this hasn’t gotten out to the press yet.”

  “Whoever set up her new name did a solid job,” Patterson said. “It took some real digging to figure it out. And unless someone was really interested, there wouldn’t be reason to dig. I think it will stay quiet a while longer unless someone talks. I don’t know how her roommate managed to figure it out.”

  “She didn’t, Garrett,” Keri said. “Tara told her. Alice said that after living in the same room together for months, they got close and Tara confided in her. Alice thinks she’s the only one at school who knows the truth.”

  “Why use a fake name in the first place?” Suarez asked.

  “I asked Alice that as I was walking her out,” Keri said. “She said that Tara was just sick of being viewed as Roan Jonas’s daughter. She considered college a chance at a fresh start, an opportunity to create her own identity, independent of his. Apparently, she’d been planning the whole thing out since her junior year of high school—getting the paperwork in order, carefully curating her social media presence, that kind of thing.”

  “I wonder how her dad felt about his daughter disassociating herself from his name,” Castillo said. “Wasn’t he hurt?”

  “Alice says they were estranged. Tara wouldn’t tell her much about it other than that they used to be close and weren’t anymore. He supposedly signed off on the name change and paid for college but that was the extent of their interaction in recent years.”

  Hillman stood up and addressed them all.

  “Despite whatever measures this girl took to protect her identity, we have to consider the possibility that it didn’t work, that someone found out who she was and this might be a ransom situation.”

  “What about Nicky and Marla finding her wandering around in her underwear?” Ray asked.

  “Don’t know,” Hillman said. “Could be she was kidnapped, drugged, and escaped. Could be she got high, told the wrong person about her past, and got abducted. Could be she never ambled through that campground half naked at all. Edgerton’s checking the place’s security cameras on that as we speak, isn’t that right, Edgerton?”

  “Well, not right as we speak, Lieutenant,” Edgerton said.

  “Don’t get sassy, Kevin,” Hillman said. “Whatever the case, we need to proceed based on worst-case scenarios. So Edgerton, you get back to checking that footage. Patterson, you check her social media accounts. I want to know i
f anyone hacked them to find out who she really was. Brody and Castillo, you go back to LMU and check out the girl’s dorm room. See if you can turn up anything suspicious. Sands and Locke, I’m having someone call to see if Roan Jonas is in town. If he is, I want you to go talk to him. Maybe he’s already gotten a ransom demand. If not, we need to let him know his daughter is missing.”

  “Yes sir,” Keri said. “Maybe we should also have boat and helicopter teams search the area. If she really was drugged, it’s possible she stumbled into the ocean or the woods. We should at least check out the possibility.”

  “Good idea,” Hillman said. “Can you honcho that, Suarez?”

  “On it, Lieutenant,” Manny said, heading off to his desk.

  “All right, everyone,” Hillman said. “Let’s keep it close to the vest on this one. Once the media gets wind of this case, investigating is going to get a hell of a lot harder.”

  “I’m going to grab something to eat from the kitchen real quick,” Ray said to Keri as the rest of the team scattered in different directions. “Want to head out after that?”

  Before she could reply, Hillman interrupted.

  “She’ll meet you, Sands. I need to talk a minute with Locke,” he said, then turned his attention to her. “Let’s go in my office.”

  Keri followed him across the bullpen, looking back at Ray, who simply shrugged in confusion. She stepped inside Hillman’s office and he closed the door behind her, gesturing for her to sit in the metal chair across from his desk as he sat himself.

  “Bad news,” he said without easing into it. “Internal Affairs is back in your business.”

  “What? I’ve been on the job again for five hours!”

  “I know, Locke. But I got an email a few hours ago saying that your case, which was technically open but pretty much gathering dust, has been reactivated.”

  “What does that mean exactly?” Keri asked.

  “In your day-to-day life? Not much. You’ve already met with them. Nothing has changed. There’s no reason to re-interview you. I don’t really know what else there is for them to do at this point other than issue a formal recommendation.”

  “I thought Chief Beecher shut this thing down,” Keri said.

  “I did too. The man you killed abducted your daughter. The guy pushing for you to be ousted turned out to run a sexual slavery ring. It’s not like your enemies were pillars of the community. I thought it was pretty much open and shut. But apparently someone else with real juice wants to pry this thing back open. If I had to guess, someone wants you off the force permanently.”

  “Any guesses as to whom?” Keri asked, watching him closely. Part of her wanted to take Hillman into her confidence. Despite being such a hard-ass, he’d always had her back. It was hard to imagine that he was the mole who’d been working against her interests all these years.

  “Locke, if I was able to suss out that kind of thing, you would be calling me Chief right now instead of Lieutenant. But what I do know is that you should tread lightly for the next little while. Handle your cases. Do your job. Don’t rock the boat.”

  “When do I ever rock the boat?” Keri asked with a smirk, deciding to keep the mole particulars to herself for now.

  “You’re a human hurricane, Detective. And I’m about to send you off to talk to a movie star worth a couple billion dollars. Don’t make me regret it.”

  “Of course not, Lieutenant,” she said pleasantly as she got up and headed for the door, knowing that her ability to keep her word depended mostly on how that fancy movie star answered her questions.

  Ray was already waiting for her in the idling car when she got outside. She hopped in the passenger’s seat and he tore off before she’d even shut the door.

  “What was that about?” he asked.

  “IA reopened my case,” Keri said. “I don’t want think about it right now. Where are we headed?”

  “Brentwood,” Ray answered, letting the IA thing go without another word. “Turns out Jonas is between movies right now. He’s at his house prepping for some kind of fund-raiser he’s hosting this weekend. His people are expecting us but they think we’re investigating a possible threat against him. We can tell him the truth when we get there.”

  “Probably smart,” Keri said. “What’s the fund-raiser for?”

  “I think it’s for the governor, some kind of reelection thing. Remember Jonas has gotten pretty political in the last few years.”

  “Oh yeah,” Keri said. “He’s not making as many movies anymore, right? I don’t really keep up the way I should.”

  “For a detective working in Los Angeles, you are pretty dense when it comes to Hollywood. Shall I school you?”

  “Oh, please, Professor,” Keri said, batting her eyes sarcastically.

  “My pleasure. You might remember that Roan Jonas started his career as an action star with the Thermal Fury series.”

  “How many of those were there again?” Keri asked.

  “There have been six but he only did the first three. He got out before they started sucking. Then he segued into action comedy with that lawyer flick, Buck the Barrister. After that, he did the romantic comedy thing with My Stars. That’s when people started to take him seriously.”

  “People take him seriously?” Keri asked mockingly.

  “They do when your movie makes three hundred million dollars. That allowed him to do that big war movie, Last Man in Baghdad.”

  “That got him the Oscar?”

  “The first one,” Ray corrected. “The second one was for the Calvin Coolidge biopic.”

  “What was that called again?”

  “Coolidge.”

  “Very clever,” Keri said. “And after that?”

  “That’s the last thing he did,” Ray said. “It came out two years ago. He’s supposed to start directing his first movie later this year but that’s all hush-hush.”

  “Raymond Sands, I’ve never been exposed to this side of you. Do you secretly watch Access Hollywood when I’m not around?”

  “I’m just not totally immune to pop culture. I’m hoping now that you have your life back, you might make room for a bit of that silliness from time to time yourself.”

  “We’ll see,” Keri said. “For now, though, let’s stay focused on the less starry elements of this guy’s life. Any reason someone might want to abduct his daughter? Anyone he might have pissed off? Any skeletons in his closet?”

  “Not that I know of,” Ray admitted. “But there’s someone else you know who might have a better bead on that kind of impropriety.”

  “I think you may be right,” Keri agreed, dialing Mags’s number as they shot up the 405 freeway toward Brentwood.

  “How’s it going, darling?” Mags purred.

  “Hey, Mags,” Keri said, putting her on speaker. “I’m here with Ray and I need some information. What do you know about Roan Jonas? Any dirt that might make him vulnerable? Anybody he’s pissed off that might want retribution?”

  “And how are you?” Mags replied as if she hadn’t heard a word of it. “I hope Evelyn’s first day back at school is going well. Sounds like you’re keeping yourself busy at work. I’m fine, thank so much for asking.”

  “I’m sorry, Mags,” Keri said, forcing down the frustration she felt. “You’re right. I shouldn’t just jump in like that. Ev’s good. I’m good. I hope you’re well too.”

  “Oh my, I think I can actually hear you chewing at your lip, trying to control yourself and not yell at me. Points for effort, Keri. I will now consent to answer your question.”

  “Thank you,” Keri said, amazed at both her friend’s understanding and her patience.

  “Roan Jonas is looking to run for office at some point. The fund-raiser he’s hosting on Saturday for Governor Macklin isn’t really about his reelection, it’s about Jonas’s future. If Macklin gets reelected, he’ll almost certainly run for president two years after that. And Jonas has his eyes on swooping into the Governor’s Mansion if that should happen. It
’s why he’s switched to directing. That title has more of an adult sheen than ‘actor.’ It’s why he’s on the board of several nonprofits. It’s why he will be announcing the creation of his political action committee next month.”

  “So is it possible someone who might not want him to run would target him in some way?” Keri asked.

  “I suppose anything is possible,” Mags conceded. “But truthfully, his political ambitions aren’t that well known in most circles. And his politics are nothing that would surprise folks. He’s a conventional, run-of-the-mill, moderately left of center Democrat; kind of bland on that front, if you ask me.”

  “Is there any front on which he’s not so bland?” Keri asked, leaving the question hanging in the air.

  “Ah well, now we’re into the realm of rumor and innuendo, which I cannot definitively confirm.”

  “Come on, Mags. I’m working with a ticking clock here.”

  “Very well,” Mags sighed, pretending as if she was about to share what she knew reluctantly. “He’s a dog, Keri. Or at least he was. He had a reputation as a notorious womanizer. He’s married with a couple of kids, I think. But it was well known that he had multiple affairs on sets and elsewhere.”

  “You said was?” Keri noted.

  “My understanding is that he cleaned up his act a couple of years ago, likely in anticipation of his forthcoming political aspirations. Whatever the reason, I haven’t heard anything on that front in some time.”

  “Anything else?”

  “Yes, he’s positively dreamy in My Stars. You should really check it out if you haven’t already.”

  “Thank you, Margaret.”

  “You’re welcome, Keri. And you should know that, generally speaking, when you call up a reporter and ask these kinds of questions, it’s wise to go off the record first. Next time I won’t give you a pass.”

  “Noted.”

  “Goodbye, darling. Goodbye, Raymond.”

  “Later, Red,” Ray said.

  Keri hung up and looked at Ray.