by Philip Cox
‘Asshole,’ he heard Patterson mutter, then, ‘Is that you, Sam?’
Damn.
‘Yes sir, it’s me.’ Leroy turned back slightly and looked round Patterson’s half-open door. The captain’s desk was cluttered with files and sheets of paper, and the captain was in shirtsleeves, looking very flustered. ‘Everything all right, sir?’ Leroy asked.
‘Yes, yes, yes,’ Patterson snapped. ‘It’s….oh, never mind. How are your enquiries going? What’s that?’ he pointed at Guy Robbins’ laptop.
‘I’ve just come back from seeing Guy Robbins’ wife,’ Leroy replied, holding up the laptop.
‘Guy Robbins?’
‘He’s the guy they found back of Hollywood Boulevard the other night.’
‘But that’s not even your case. Not even our Division.’
‘I know sir, but there are many similarities between this one and mine that we feel there has to be a connection -’
‘Connection? Who’s we?’
‘Bill Farmer and I, sir. We spoke earlier this morning. Farmer’s in court, at least for part of the day, and we figured it would help to progress both investigations if I went to see the widow now, rather than wait.’
‘What does that have to do with it?’ Patterson pointed again to the laptop.
‘If we can identify any websites Robbins or Riley - my guy - visited just before they died, it might give a clue as to their last movements. We drew a blank with Riley’s: it seemed he had deleted all his search history, and I’ve had to take it to the CCU.’
‘What makes you think this one will be any different?
At that point, Leroy’s phone rang. He checked the display. Not recognising the number, he let it go to voicemail. He looked up at Patterson. ‘I don’t, sir. I’ve just brought it back. Going to check it out now, if that’s all.’
‘That’s all, that’s all,’ said Patterson, waving Leroy away. ‘Just keep me up to date.’
‘I will, sir.’ Leroy pulled the captain’s door closed and walked over to his own desk. Poured some coffee into a paper cup, pulled a face when he tasted it, and sat down with the laptop. He sat back in his chair as the laptop booted up.
While he was waiting, he checked his phone for voicemail. There was one message. ‘Detective Leroy - Sam, isn’t it? This is Julia Moore. From last night, hope you remember. When you are free, could you call me back please?’ She gave her number.
He frowned as the Desktop appeared on the laptop screen. He keyed in the password Maria Robbins had given him. It worked. As the Home screen came on, he returned Julia Moore’s call. She answered after three rings.
‘Ms Moore? Detective Leroy here. Sam. Is everything okay?’
‘Yes, everything’s fine. Thank you so much for calling me back. I hope I’m not disturbing you. I just wanted to thank you for what you did for me last night.’
‘It’s what I’m paid to do, Ms Moore. Julia.’
‘I know that. But I’m still very grateful.’
‘No problem.’
‘I was just wondering - as you seem to live so close - if you would let me cook dinner for you tonight. Just my way of saying thank you.’
‘Julia, there’s no need.’
‘You wouldn’t be infringing some code of police ethics if you accepted, would you?’
‘No, nothing like that; it’s just -’
‘You know where I live. Please say yes. It’s just my way of saying thank you.’
Leroy paused a moment then said, ‘Okay then, you’ve talked me into it. My shift ends around six.’
‘Eight-thirty, then?’ she asked. ‘You know the address.’
‘Yes, I do. See you eight-thirty, then.’
‘Bye,’ she said and hung up.
Leroy pressed the end call button, put the phone down on the desk and looked up at Guy Robbins’ Home screen. First of all, he checked the email account, all boxes, but found nothing of any significance there. Then he went to the browser search history.
‘Hmm. Well, lookie here,’ he muttered, as he went through the last few sites Guy Robbins had visited.
*****
‘Stop yawning, Leroy!’
Leroy looked up. Liza Domingo stood in the doorway. He laughed and stretched. ‘How long have you been there?’
‘Just got back.’
‘How were things?’
She shrugged and sat on a chair by the next desk. ‘As much as I expected. She ID’d the body okay. We were only there fifteen minutes. Then drove them back.’
‘How was she?’
‘Seemed pretty calm. Quiet.’
Leroy looked over to her. ‘No telling what she’s like behind closed doors. Lucky her mother’s there. In my experience, telling any kids is always the worst.’
‘I can imagine. Is that his laptop?’ She took a mouthful of his coffee, and pulled a face.
‘Didn’t taste any better when it was hot,’ Leroy quipped. ‘Hey, Liza, take a look at all this.’ He tapped the screen.
‘Don’t tell me he’d deleted everything as well,’ Domingo said.
‘No, he hadn’t.’
‘Sweet. So, what did you find?’
‘There’s only about twenty addresses here. I can’t tell how far back chronologically it goes, but look at where he’s been.’
‘What kind of places?’ Domingo asked, wheeling her chair to get closer.
‘Well, to start with,’ Leroy said, as he moved the cursor, ‘he had visited two airlines’ sites: Spirit and American…’
‘Looking for what? Maybe he was booking a vacation for them all.’
‘Don’t think so. He was looking for prices for LAX to McCarran.’
She frowned. ‘McCarran?’
‘Vegas. Two adults. Tuesday to Thursday.’
‘So clearly not a family trip.’
‘Anything booked?’
‘Not so’s I could tell. We’ll have a look at the bank accounts in due course, although if he was up to something, he wouldn’t have used the family credit card.’
‘What else?’
‘Just stuff here. Amazon.com, Home Depot, Staples Center, Nickelodeon…’
‘For the kids, I guess.’
‘Yeah. But then we get to these. Look: Between9and5.com.’ He opened the page.
‘Dirty bastard,’ she said. ‘He wanted a hotel room daytime, yes?’
‘I think so. Then there’s this.’ He clicked again. It opened on www.arrangeadate.com. The Home page was filled with thumbnail portraits of young women.
‘Arrange a date dot com,’ Domingo read out loud. ‘Bastard. So that’s what he was up to. Son of a bitch.’
‘Seems like it was. I looked through all five hundred twenty four pages -’
‘Five hundred….? No way.’
‘Way. And that was just the women looking for men section. There were other categories, but I thought this was the best place to start.’
‘And?’
‘See each thumbnail has a link underneath? Well, two of the links are coloured purple.’
‘Meaning the link was used recently?’
‘Yeah. Not sure how recently; a week, I think,’ Leroy said. ‘So we know which ones he responded to, maybe arranged a meeting with.’
‘Hang on a minute, Sam,’ said Domingo. ‘He could quite easily have made the contacts on his cell phone, or Blackberry, or whatever.’
‘Oh yes, of course he could. But remember, he - and the other guys - were found bare assed naked. Or virtually. So this is all we have to go on at this time.’
Domingo nodded and scratched her ear. ‘Yeah, I forgot. So, what do we do now? Get the owners of arrange a date dot com to give us the details?’
Leroy shook his head. ‘They won’t know. All they will have is an email address, which could be remote. Our best bet is to answer the posting, and arrange to meet one of them.’
Domingo slowly nodded. ‘Any other places he visited?’
‘No. That was it.’ He stood up. ‘Tell you what, Liza. I need the
bathroom. Can you send replies to those two; try and set up a daytime meet. Either this afternoon or tomorrow.’
‘Sure thing.’ She moved over to his chair. ‘Get me a decent cup of coffee while you’re away, Sam? And a sandwich?’
‘Okay,’ he said, stretching. ‘Any preference?’
‘Whatever,’ she replied from behind the laptop screen. She started typing, then looked up when she noticed he was still standing in the Homicide room.
‘What?’ she asked.
‘Nothing,’ he said, grinning. ‘Nothing.’
‘Then why the smug grin on your face?’
‘Oh,’ he grinned, taking his phone off the desk and tossing it from one hand to the other. ‘Just a call I took earlier.’
‘And…?’
He swung round to leave and looked back over his shoulder.
‘I have a date tonight.’
TWENTY-FIVE
‘I’ll bet you my next year’s pay checks,’ said Leroy, as he and Domingo sat in the Taurus, having just pulled up outside an apartment block on Sepulveda Boulevard, ‘that she’s a hooker.’
‘Well, there’s a news flash,’ replied Domingo, looking over at him.
‘What do you mean?’ he asked.
‘You pulling my chain?’
‘It’s just residential here. Nobody on the streets. And we’re not in a red light district.’
‘Look around you, Sam. Apartment buildings. There’s a Best Western over there, a Comfort Inn across the street, and over the other side of Burbank there’s a Hampton Inn. And we are in a red light district.’
‘No, we aren’t.’
‘Yes we are. Mainly from Burbank down to Ventura. Up and coming, you might say, if you excuse the pun. When they began cleaning up Hollywood a few years back, some of the trade moved out here.’
‘Oh, I forgot: you spent some time in Vice, didn’t you?’
She nodded. ‘Only six months. Covering a maternity break, would you believe? But I got to know plenty of the hot spots.’
‘And this is one of them?’
‘When you’ve got a number of budget hotels and places like this,’ - she looked out at the apartment building they were stopped outside - ‘well, it’s ideal, isn’t it? You wait till it gets really dark. It’s only twilight now.’
Leroy agreed. ‘Guess so.’
‘Anyway, I told you back at the station house she was, didn’t I?’
‘You did.’
*****
Earlier in the day, Domingo had visited the pages of the two girls it appeared Guy Robbins had contacted. The first, a redhead named Alexandra, had not replied by the time she and Leroy had to leave to meet Tanya, who was blonde and looked around sixteen.
‘She’s probably around thirty,’ Domingo had said. ‘This is an old photo, or even one of somebody else.’
‘What has she said?’ Leroy asked, as he drained his coffee cup.
‘Just that she’d like to meet. Meet you, I should say.’
‘Where and when?’
‘She suggests in the lobby of the Denny’s on Sepulveda and Burbank.’
‘Classy. What time?’
‘Six. Should just be getting dark by then. What time’s your date?’
‘Eight thirty. So we should have plenty of time. What’s her name?’
‘Tanya. Though that’s probably not her real name.’
‘Don’t really care what her real name is. As long as she knows what happened to Robbins.’
*****
‘It’s ten of six. Let’s go.’ Leroy started the engine, manoeuvred into the northbound traffic and moved off. Once they had crossed Burbank, he made a left and drove into the parking lot. He reversed into a space, and switched off his lights. ‘Just a matter of waiting,’ he said, sitting back in his seat.
A few minutes later, a station wagon pulled in and parked. Leroy and Domingo sat up, only to relax when the occupants, a family of four, got out and walked into the restaurant. Two men left at the same time, walked to another car, and left the lot.
Five past six, and no further activity. Then, a figure got out of a Beetle parked in the corner of the lot. The car was already parked when Leroy and Domingo arrived: it was in darkness, so they assumed it was empty.
‘Sam…?’ Domingo nudged Leroy’s arm.
‘I see her,’ he replied. The figure, petite, hair tied up into a bun, miniskirt, and a jacket, was in silhouette so they could not see if the face matched the thumbnail on the arrangeadate website. She was headed for the restaurant doors. Leroy opened the car door and stepped out. He too headed for the restaurant.
She must have heard his footsteps behind her so stopped and turned round, one foot on the entrance steps. As she turned, her face was caught by the light from the restaurant lobby, and he could see this was the same person as that in the thumbnail.
‘Tanya?’ he asked. ‘I’m Sam.’
She held out her hand to shake his. ‘Nice to meet you, Sam.’ She looked around. ‘We could have a drink here first, if you’d like. Do you have a car? You could leave it here; I have a room at the Best Western.’
‘We won’t need that,’ Leroy said, holding up his shield and identification card.
‘Shit!’ Tanya spat, angrily looking around.
‘Don’t worry, I’m not here to bust you. I just want to ask you a few questions.’
‘Questions?’
‘About one of your johns. My car’s over there.’ He took Tanya’s arm and led her back to the Taurus. ‘Get in the back,’ he said.
She climbed in the back seat, giving a look of surprise as Domingo turned round to face her.
‘This is Detective Domingo,’ said Leroy as he sat back down in the driver’s seat. ‘Detective Domingo, this is Tanya. You might recognize her, Tanya: she used to be in Vice.’
Tanya stared at Domingo’s face, then shook her head.
‘’I don’t think we’ve met before, Sam,’ Domingo said.
‘It’s not important. Tanya,’ said Leroy as he took a photograph of Guy Robbins from the dashboard and held it up, ‘have you ever seen this guy?’ He turned on the interior light.
She looked at the photograph. ‘No. Never seen him before.’
‘You sure?’
‘Yeah. What’s his name?’
‘Robbins. Guy Robbins.’
‘Never heard of him.’
‘They why did you react when I told you his name?’
‘I didn’t.’
‘Look, Tanya – I don’t have time to jerk around all night. Answer the damn question. Who is this guy?’
‘I don’t know.’
Leroy said nothing.
‘But he did contact me.’
‘He did? Through your website?’
‘My web….?’
‘Arrange a date dot com,’ Domingo said.
‘Oh, that. Yes, it was through there.’
‘And? Did you arrange to meet him?’
‘We arranged to meet, yes.’
‘Where?’
‘Here.’
‘Here?’ Domingo repeated.
Leroy turned to her. ‘Not a million miles away from home. Two freeways a few blocks away.’ He turned back to Tanya. ‘When was this?’
‘End of last week. About this time. Maybe later.’
‘And?’ he asked.
She shrugged. ‘Just didn’t show.’
‘And that’s it? What did you do, then?’
‘I waited about thirty minutes, then went home.’
‘Home? No other clients?’ Domingo asked.
Tanya looked over at her. ‘I ain’t no hooker. Don’t ask for money. Just want some company, that’s all.’
Domingo nodded. ‘Company. Sure you do.’
‘Listen, when all you have to go back to is a ten by ten, one tiny window, you’ll want some company.’
Domingo was about to reply when Leroy cut in. ‘Okay, Tanya, if that’s all you can tell us, we’ll let you go. Here,’ - he reached into his pocket and passe
d her a thin wad - ‘take this. Have dinner on me.’
Tanya took the cash, bundled it in her bag, and stepped out of the car. Leroy and Domingo watched as she walked back to the Beetle, get in and drive off.
‘Told you she was a hooker,’ Domingo said. ‘How much did you give her?’
Leroy shook his head. ‘Fifty.’
She whistled. ‘You know what I think?’ she said. ‘He didn’t show here because he was seeing the other one. Alexandra, wasn’t it?’
Leroy nodded. ‘Could be. We’ll check in the morning if she’s gotten back to us.’
‘Sure.’ She checked her watch. ‘Six thirty. Plenty of time for you to get home, put on gallons of aftershave, get ready for your date.’
‘What plans do you have?’ Leroy asked as they left the parking lot.
‘Just takeout and a DVD, I guess.’
‘Sorry.’
‘No need to be sorry. I wouldn’t be. I’ll just expect a full report next morning, that’s all.’
‘Report?’
She looked over at him. ‘On whether your date makes a good breakfast.’
TWENTY-SIX
Leroy was on his phone when Domingo arrived at Police HQ the next morning. She mouthed ‘Coffee?’ to him: he nodded as he spoke on the phone so she went to the vending machine. He had finished when she returned.
‘Thanks,’ he said as he took a mouthful. ‘Just come off the phone with Bill Farmer,’ he said, swirling the black liquid around in the paper cup.
‘He wants his body back?’ she asked. ‘Or is he still in court?’
‘Neither. He’s back in the office, but asked if I’d mind if we saw this thread through to completion. Says he has other fish to fry.’
‘And you said…?’
‘I said fine. Suits me. As far as I’m concerned, this will help solve one of my cases. What about you?’
She scratched her head. ‘Well, I guess as Connor’s back today, we’d better get on with our own stuff.’
‘Okay,’ Leroy replied reluctantly. ‘Guess so. Thanks for your help anyway. In any case, the Guy Robbins thread might be a blind alley anyway, if Tanya last night was anything to go by.’
