by Roy Johansen
“It could be. Maybe someone out there knows something and is just waiting for Noah to offer them five million. Or maybe one of the bad guys will be tempted to turn traitor and turn Dee over to us for that same five million.”
“But you don’t think so.”
“I wish I did.” She locked the front door behind them. “I really want Noah to just throw some money down and suddenly Dee will be safe and free. I really wish I did, Kendra.”
“I’d settle just for knowing where she is right now,” Kendra whispered. “Give me that one thing, and I’ll be willing to work to find out everything else.”
CHAPTER
6
She couldn’t swallow, Dee realized, panic-stricken!
She struggled desperately but only felt as if she was choking. She was panting, and that only made it worse.
“Open your mouth, you stupid girl. I’m trying to help you.” It was a woman’s impatient voice as a straw was pressed to Dee’s lips. “Do you think I like babying you as if you aren’t the spoiled brat we both know you are? But I won’t get the blame. It wasn’t supposed to be like this. Now suck on the damn straw and drink the water.”
Straw…
Liquid…
Dee was already frantically sucking down the ice water, and it was gradually easing her dry throat. But after only a few minutes the straw was taken away. “Enough,” the woman said sourly. “You don’t need any more. I won’t have you throwing up and making me clean you. That drug they gave you caused dehydration, but the saline solution was supposed to take care of that. I might have given you a little too much. I’ll probably get blamed for that, too.”
Drug…
What drug? Who was this woman?
“Okay, my orders are to make sure that no permanent damage was done to you yet. Open your eyes and say something, Delilah.” She laughed harshly. “Whatever possessed you to choose a stage name like that? You sound like a porn star or a stripper.”
“I never liked…it, either.” Her throat was still a little sore and the words came out huskily. “But my mother did…when she named me. It’s not a stage name…”
“Then she must have been as stupid as you are. She probably had an idea what you’d become.”
Ugly. So much bitterness. Why?
“Now open your eyes and look at me. I’m going to have to give a report, and you’ll be unconscious again in another few minutes.”
Unconscious. Drug. All this ugliness…She was fighting to understand through this haze and confusion. What was happening to her?
And then it was all whirling back to her! Backstage. The crowd roaring. But something wasn’t quite right. Two security men crumpled on the floor…
Her eyes flew open and she was staring up into the woman’s face. It was a long, thin face, and the dark eyes that were looking down at her were large and fierce beneath pale white arched brows. She was vaguely aware the woman must be at least in her sixties with sleekly coifed salt-and-pepper hair. “You took me prisoner,” she whispered. “Kidnapping? You kidnapped me?”
“Yes, but I really had nothing to do with it. I wouldn’t have you if you were delivered gift-wrapped. I’m just the caretaker until we get what we need from you.”
Dee didn’t speak for a moment as she tried frantically to gather her wits about her. Jessie had always told her that if she was ever in a bad spot, she should assess her surroundings, then do anything she could to escape them—but always to wait for the right time. Assess her surroundings. She looked down at what she was wearing and found that someone had changed her out of the scarlet sequined mini-dress she’d been wearing for the finale to jeans and a loose white tunic. She glanced around her and tried to get a clue to where she might be. But it was too dim, and she could only make out a stand next to her with a plastic IV bag, along with the impression that the room was long, the walls curved. As far as escape was concerned, she seemed to be bound with metal restraints, and she couldn’t move. Besides, there was only this one very rude woman here with her, and she had little hope that she’d be of any help. Still, Dee tried to talk to her. “Look, I’m not going to cause you any trouble. My security team always told me in a situation like this I was to cooperate and just let them handle the ransom. You don’t have to drug me again.”
“You don’t tell me what to do with you.” Her lips curled. “I have my orders. Do you think because you’re this big superstar, you can control everything and everyone around you?” She was spitting out the words now as she reached over and turned on the IV. “You’re nothing. You’ll learn that soon.”
Dee wanted to strike back in any way she could, but she could already feel the drug taking hold and making her drowsy again. Now wasn’t the time to antagonize, not when she was soon going to be helpless. Just try to find out as much as possible before she slipped into unconsciousness. She could act on it later when she was able to fight off that damn narcotic. “Who…are you? You said you…don’t like my name. Is yours any better?”
“Oh, yes. It’s a fine, sensible name and I’m not afraid of your idiotic tricks to make me reveal who I am. It won’t make the slightest difference in the long run.” She bent closer. “You can call me Charlotte. It’s Charlotte who is doing this to you. It’s Charlotte who is in control of whether you live or die.”
Dee felt a chill go through her. Nothing she was saying was reaching the woman. She was brimming with venom and actually seemed to hate her. She might not be in charge, but there was no doubt she was a dangerous enemy. “For some reason you appear to be angry with me. I just wanted to assure you and your partners that whatever you want, I can give it to you.”
“Oh, can you?” She leaned forward and murmured, “But that’s not the way it’s going to work, Delilah. It’s not what you give, but what we take. You’re done with setting the rules.” She leaned even closer, her smile pure malevolence. “And though I hate to make you feel helpless, my dear, money is only a small part of the equation.”
* * *
Jessie’s House
Next Day
4:05 A.M.
“Come on, get up.” Jessie burst into the guest room and turned on the lights. “We have to get out of here and on the road, Kendra. We might have gotten the break you were talking about. I just got a call from an officer I know from LAPD who’s repaying a favor. He’s letting me know about it before all hell breaks loose and the media gets hold of it.”
“What break?” Kendra jumped out of bed and started throwing on clothes. “At four in the morning?”
“You take breaks when and where you can find them,” Jessie said. “And once Kelland gets hold of this info, he’ll be very careful about releasing it to anyone but top FBI officials. That’s protocol in kidnap cases. Everything is always top secret if connected to the money. But if we’re already on-site when he gets there, he won’t have any choice but to include us in the negotiations.” She grimaced. “Maybe. I hope.”
“Gets where?” She grabbed her handbag and ran after Jessie. “Where the hell are we going, Jessie?”
“The ransom note. It’s been delivered, the LAPD has it, and we have to be there before it’s turned over to Kelland.”
“At the FBI regional office? The LAPD?”
“The cemetery,” she said over her shoulder. “We’re going to the cemetery…”
* * *
Hollywood Forever Cemetery
It took them only forty minutes, but it was still almost too late by the time they arrived at the cemetery.
Kendra and Jessie walked through the tall iron gates facing Santa Monica Boulevard, where police had already set up a mini-barricade. Journalists had taken positions on the sidewalk outside, and two news copters circled overhead. They passed a series of elaborate headstones that, in the Russian tradition, featured detailed etchings of the departed.
Jessie pointed ahead. “We’re headed down there and to the left.”
Kendra was still bewildered. “You seem to know your way around.”
�
��I bring a lot of my out-of-town guests here.”
“Yeah, right.”
“I’m serious. This place is a big tourist attraction. A lot of the old-time Hollywood stars are buried here. Valentino, Cecil B. DeMille, Douglas Fairbanks, and lots more.” She pointed to the right. “And there’s an amazing statue of Johnny Ramone on his grave over there.”
Kendra glanced around. “Still…Strange place for a ransom note.”
“I won’t argue with that.”
They approached the south end of the cemetery, where a small group of uniformed officers were clustered.
“I guess it’s over there,” Kendra said. “But I don’t see how—”
She froze.
“Oh, my God,” Jessie whispered.
Dee’s face, twenty feet high, was projected on the flat white surface of a tall mausoleum. A brief message was superimposed over the image:
Delilah Winter is our guest in a place you will never find her, not even if you look AMONG THE STARS.
She will be released INTO THE WIND only when we receive twenty million dollars, in unmarked, nonsequential bills that can fit in a box 1 x 2 x 2 feet. COUNTDOWN for instructions 8:30 A.M. in Pershing Square day after tomorrow. Don’t be SO WRONG, SO SAD. One mistake and she will be gone in the BLINK OF AN EYE.
Kendra immediately recognized the capitalized words as titles of Dee’s most popular songs. She turned toward Jessie. “This could be a hoax.”
“It’s no hoax,” a police detective called out. He was standing near a cluster of cops in the middle of a sprawling lawn with no graves.
“What makes you so sure, Weller?” Jessie replied as they walked toward the group. Kendra noticed she was speaking with an ease that suggested some measure of history between them.
There was an intent frown on Weller’s full, ruddy face. He pointed down, where a small white projector sat atop a cardboard box. “The message is coming from here, Jessie. Battery-powered. One of our techs says it can run for at least six hours without a recharge.”
“So?” Jessie knelt beside the projector. “Any idiot can walk into Best Buy and get one of these.”
Weller held up a clear plastic evidence bag. “Could the idiot get one of these, too?”
Jessie’s face fell. “Oh, shit.”
“Recognize this?”
Jessie took the bag and held it up so Kendra could also see. Inside was a platinum bracelet with the words FACE FORWARD engraved on a tiny ID bar.
“This is Dee’s,” Jessie said.
“Are you sure?” Kendra asked.
“Positive.” Jessie swallowed hard. “I gave it to her. It was my way of telling her to keep looking ahead and not get hung up on things in her past. Dee loved it. She always wore it when she performed.”
Weller took back the evidence bag. “The bracelet was on the list of things Delilah Winter was wearing when she was taken. It was resting on top of the projector.”
Jessie nodded. Seeing the bracelet had obviously knocked her for a loop, but Kendra could see she was managing to recover. Her gaze was still on the bag. “It belonged to her, and they couldn’t have picked anything better to show us they have her.”
Kendra stepped back and looked at the large projected image again. “Whatever happened to ransom notes made from cut-up newspapers?”
Kelland’s voice sounded from behind them: “This is getting a hell of a lot more attention, if that’s what the kidnappers want.”
They turned to face him. Kelland was accompanied by a pair of agents Kendra recognized from her meetings at the L.A. FBI office.
“True,” Kendra said. She motioned up to the hovering news helicopters. “This will be all over the world in the next few minutes, if it isn’t already.”
“Who was the first to see this?” Jessie asked.
Weller pointed to a man giving a statement to a pair of uniformed officers. “Landscaper. He didn’t see anybody else around.”
Jessie stepped behind the projector. “You know what gave them the idea, don’t you?”
Kelland nodded. “The Hollywood Forever Cemetery summer movie series.”
Kendra looked at Jessie as if he’d just made a sick joke. “What?”
“They show movies here during the summer,” Kelland said. “Thousands of people are on this lawn every weekend. This cemetery used to be terribly run-down, but you can see how beautiful it is now. They use the movies to get the funds to make sure it’s kept that way. The movies are projected against that mausoleum, and they sell booze and food. I once saw Die Hard here.”
“I came for When Harry Met Sally,” a female cop said.
“Moulin Rouge for me,” Jessie said. “With fireworks.”
“Fireworks in a cemetery,” Kendra said in disbelief.
Jessie nodded. “Welcome to L.A.”
Kendra shook her head and turned back to the cops. “I don’t suppose this place has security cameras that may have seen who set this up.”
“There are cameras,” Weller said. “But only a few, and it would be easy enough to avoid them, if you were so motivated. We’re already trying to get our hands on the recordings. And there are some businesses on the street that we’re reaching out to see—” His eyes flicked past them. “Ah, shit. Who let that guy in?”
The rest of them turned to see a police officer escorting a slight young man toward them. After a moment, Kendra realized she was looking at Noah Calderon. Even though she had just recently seen him on television, he appeared much smaller and younger in person. He was definitely good looking, but his sweatpants, tennis shoes, and T-shirt added to his high-schooler vibe, one that was a closer match for a member of the AV club than a captain of industry.
Weller glared at the uniformed officer. “Is there a reason you let him in here?”
The officer stammered. “Well…We thought, since Mr. Calderon made his offer, he would have some part in, uh, well…”
Noah smiled. “Don’t blame your men. I probably gave them the impression that I was part of your operation. I felt as if I should be here with you.”
Weller still looked annoyed. “Oh, I’m definitely blaming my men. They’ve seen you on 60 Minutes and the cover of Time magazine, and they’re starstruck. Not a good quality for a law-enforcement officer to have in Los Angeles.”
The officer started to grab Noah’s arm, but he awkwardly stopped himself. “Uh, do you want me to escort Mr. Calderon back…?”
“We’ll take care of it,” Weller said. “Just get back to your post. And if Brad Pitt wanders up, try not to let him in, okay?”
The officer turned and headed swiftly back to the gate.
Noah Calderon smiled at Jessie and moved in to embrace her. “Good to see you, Jessie. It’s been a long time.”
Jessie held up her hand. “Still not much of a hugger, Noah. But I’m glad things are still going so well for you.” She gestured to Kendra. “My friend, Kendra Michaels.”
“Ha! Right.” Noah stepped back and extended his hand to Kendra. “Dr. Michaels, it’s a pleasure. I’ve been wanting to meet you for a while.”
Kendra shook his hand. “Me? Why?”
“You’ve trended on my platform several times in the past few years. Pretty much every time you’ve cracked a high-profile case. I make it my business to know who my customers are taking an interest in.”
“Your customers?” Kendra said. “All five hundred million of them?”
“Closer to six hundred fifty million now. But only a hundred million are in the U.S.”
“Congratulations…I guess.”
“I just give them what they want. And they give me what I want.” Noah suddenly sobered as he looked up at the projected ransom note. “Wow. So this is what it’s all about.”
“Twenty million in cash,” Jessie said.
“Does Dee even have that much?” Kendra asked.
“Of course. She’s probably made that in the past three months. Maybe double that if you count her last Netflix special.”
“I p
robably made that yesterday,” Noah said. “The money isn’t a problem.”
“Okay,” Kelland said. “If you’re all through making a bunch of government-salaried law-enforcement personnel feel absolutely worthless, we need to get real. No one’s paying this creep twenty million.”
“What if we don’t have any other choice?” Noah said. “What if Dee’s life depends on it?”
Kendra turned to Kelland. “It’s a discussion we need to have.” She waved to the larger-than-life ransom note. “We have our instructions. We have to show up day after tomorrow.”
“Of course we’ll show up. But we need to do it in a way that’s smart. In a way that will lead us to Delilah Winter. This isn’t the FBI’s first rodeo. Kidnapping cases have been our specialty since before Lindbergh’s baby was snatched.”
Kendra rolled her eyes. “Poor salesmanship to bring that case up, Kelland.”
A young uniformed officer wrinkled his brow. “Who’s Lindbergh? Is he a rapper?”
Kelland sighed. “No. Not a rapper.” He pointed to the projector. “We’re taking this. Break down the scene. This circus has gone on long enough.”
“I don’t want to be pushy,” Noah said. “But I want to make it clear that I’ll front the twenty million for Dee’s ransom and work with you in any way you choose to make certain it’s accepted.”
“I’ll think about it. Thank you.”
“I can’t see why you’re hesitating. It seems ridiculous for you to make it so difficult for me to give you the twenty million to save Dee.” He turned to Jessie. “Don’t you agree, Jessie?”
“It won’t be difficult,” Jessie said as she turned away. “Everyone wants Dee away from those scumbags, Noah. I’m sure Kelland will get back to you.”
“I’m sure, too,” Kelland muttered as he headed for his vehicle. “I might as well accept the offer if he gives me complete control, or he might be on the phone to one of his political cronies complaining of lack of cooperation.”
“What’s the next step?” Kendra called after him. “And how can we help?”
