by MZ Kelly
After reviewing the scenes from Donovan’s film, we confirmed that the burial vault showing Carmichael’s date of birth and death was in the recently released director’s cut of the film. The scene had not been in the original movie. We could only speculate that Donovan had inserted the scene in a moment of crazed inspiration.
The forensics team was scheduled to meet with us at the cemetery the next day to look for John Carmichael’s body, even though we didn’t officially know who murdered him. Unofficially, I thought I had a pretty good idea.
Pearl was allowed to sit in with Charlie and me as we interviewed Gloria Stallings. Cassie Reynolds’ mother had been picked up by the Pima County Sheriff’s Office at a homeless shelter and held in custody until we transported her to Los Angeles on a decades old warrant we found in the system for embezzlement. She had worked for a dentist in San Diego for a few months before Cassie was born, and a creative accounting system had allowed her to keep half the monthly receipts.
The RHD detectives assigned to the Cassie Reynolds investigation were behind the one way mirror outside the interview room. Baker and Kennedy were none too happy about getting second crack at Stallings, but Jankowitz had called in some favors for us.
As we settled in, I resisted the urge to smile at the glass and give the Dragnet brothers the solo sausage salute, as Natalie called it. I went into the room, determined to close the case.
“Gloria, I’d like to begin,” I said, “by asking about the early years of Cassie’s life. You told us when we interviewed you before that Cassie went to live with your sister. How did that come about?”
Watery blue eyes darted in my direction before her gaze swept away. “I left John before Cassie was born. I was unemployed for several months, but got a job with Dr. Carson in San Diego.”
“The dentist?” Charlie asked.
Stallings nodded. “I worked as his receptionist and took payments.” She clutched her sides. A tremor ran through her body. “You know the rest.”
“I can understand how a single mother could give into temptation,” I said. “Is that why you embezzled the money?”
“Yes. But after I got fired, I started drinking too much. I decided Cassie was better off living with my sister. That’s when I moved to Arizona.”
“But you kept in touch with Cassie over the years?”
“I tried.” She looked at me, her eyes filling. “She was my only child.”
“What about Mr. Donovan?” Pearl asked. “According to the woman Cassie was staying with before she died, Cassie spent a lot of time at his estate.”
Stallings’ eyes drifted to the mirror, unfocused, like she was looking through a window.
“My sister did some catering work. She took Cassie with her when she did parties up on the hill. I think over the years Donovan took an interest in her. He allowed Cassie to stay at his estate from time to time. After my sister died, she needed a place to live, and Donovan helped her out.”
“Why didn’t you tell us about Cassie’s relationship with Donovan when we talked to you in Arizona?” I asked, my anger surfacing.
“He’s a very powerful man. I didn’t want to stir up any trouble.”
I leaned closer to Stallings and lowered my voice. My patience evaporated. “I’ve had it with the lies, Gloria. I want the truth. That includes everything you know about what happened to your daughter.”
Stallings’ head slumped forward. She sobbed. I gave her a moment, bringing her some tissues, then water. She blew her nose and swept her thin red-orange hair away from her eyes, finally regaining some composure.
“Cassie called me a few days before she sent me the envelope I gave you. She said she found out who murdered her father from Conrad Harper when he was on drugs and drunk. He showed Cassie and Roger Diamond the movie.”
“Valentino?”
“They saw it in Harper’s screening room. Cassie said that Roger had also gotten the information about the past corporations that Harper and Kane formed. He was planning to blackmail Harper. Cassie wanted me to have a copy of the information, thinking it might offer her some protection. Her watery gaze drifted away. “She was wrong. I think that’s why they were both killed.”
Pearl asked, “What sort of relationship did Cassie have with Mr. Diamond?”
“He was sort of a boyfriend, but Cassie knew he was involved in drugs with the others. He was no good. When she found out about the kind of movies he wanted her to make, she left him.”
More tears flowed. I gave Stallings a moment. She had finally told us some of what she knew, but I was sure there was more—much more.
“Thank you for telling us the truth, Gloria,” I said. “I have just a few more questions. When we talked to you a few days ago, we told you there was a police officer who was arguing with John Carmichael the night before he disappeared. Do you know if that man was Marvin Drake?”
Her voice took on more resolve. “I doubt it. Drake sometimes hung out with John and the others, but he wasn’t part of their group. There was someone else.”
“Someone who was in law enforcement?” Charlie asked.
Stallings nodded. “A man named Carl Brasher.”
I looked at Charlie and then back at Stallings. I remembered seeing Drake and the deputy chief together at the police administration building. “What was Brasher’s role in everything?” I asked.
“He helped Harper and Kane take care of anyone who was a problem.”
“Like John?”
“Yes.”
I took a deep breath and stood up. I glanced at the mirror, but my thoughts weren’t on the RHD detectives on the other side of the glass. I saw the reflection of a broken, empty woman next to me who was at least partially responsible for the death of her only daughter.
I turned back to Stallings. “But Carl Brasher didn’t kill John, did he, Gloria?”
She didn’t look at me. Her head shook.
“I need the truth now,” I said, my voice resolute. “All of it. Tell me about Cassie’s father.”
Her eyes slowly came up to me. I sensed in that moment she knew what I’d already pieced together. Her head fell back onto the table and she wept. When she finally recovered, Gloria Stallings whispered a secret that she had kept for thirty years.
“I was…raped.”
I was sure I knew the answer, but asked anyway. “By who?”
Her head came up slowly and she exhaled, maybe relieved that the dark secret was finally being spoken. She looked at me and said, “Wolf Donovan.”
I nodded, now giving up what I had already determined. “They had the same eyes—cobalt blue with a hint of green. Donovan was Cassie’s father, and he knew it.”
The truth whispered from her quivering lips. “Yes. When my sister began catering his parties...he began asking questions...figured it out.”
“And John Carmichael knew you were raped?”
She nodded, brushing away her heavy tears. “John and I had grown apart. We were no longer...intimate, but he let me stay at his house sometimes because I had nowhere else to live. I told him that Donovan attacked me one night when he came by the house and I was home alone. John was angry and planned to go to the police.”
“Did he talk to Carl Brasher?” Charlie asked.
Stallings nodded. “Brasher tried to convince John not to file a complaint. He said that if he went to the police they would close down the production of his film.”
“Days of Destiny?”
“Yes. He said they would see to it that John never worked again. When he couldn’t talk him out of it, Donovan and Kane came to see John before he could file a formal complaint.”
Stallings’ tears came again, harder now. She finally regained some composure and went on, “I was upstairs, hiding. I heard the gunshot...saw them drive away...John’s body was wrapped in a blanket.”
“And that’s why you left Hollywood?” I asked.
She nodded. “I knew if they ever found me, I would
also be killed.”
“Do you know where John is buried?” Pearl asked.
Stallings shook her head. “Maybe in the cemetery, like Cassie thought after seeing the movie. I don’t know for sure.”
I bent over the table and waited. Stallings finally looked up at me.
“Cassie’s relationship with Wolf Donovan,” I said. “It’s time you told us everything, Gloria.”
A torrent of tears flooded down her face again. When they finally stopped, Cassie Reynolds’ mother gave up the last of her dirty secrets.
“He molested Cassie.”
“From the time she was a little girl?”
She nodded. “Yes.”
I leaned in closer to her. “And you knew about it?”
Stallings pounded a clenched fist on the table, tears gushing. “I’m sorry…I’m so sorry.”
“And Donovan and Kane had Marvin Drake kill her,” I said.
Stallings broke down again, losing all control of her emotions.
I pushed away from the table, took a deep breath. While Drake had pulled the trigger, I knew who had really killed Cassie Reynolds. I was looking at her. I was disgusted and couldn’t hold back. I moved back to the prisoner and leaned forward, my gaze narrowing.
“You said it before, Gloria,” I spat. “Cassie was your only child. She deserved her mother’s protection. You gave her nothing.”
Stallings’ body shuddered in waves of deep, racking sobs that seemed to come from the center of her being. I shook my head as I walked away. Before closing the door on her, I stopped and looked back at her for a final time. I felt nothing but revulsion.
I joined Charlie and Pearl in the hallway outside the interview room. My partner’s gaze came over to me.
Charlie said, “You mean the son of a bitch not only molested his only daughter, but he had her killed?”
I nodded, trying to find the words to respond to what he’d said. I realized that I had nothing left. I walked away and felt something on my cheeks.
Chapter Fifty-Four
The day after my interview with Cassie Reynolds’ mother, I decided to take Natalie with me to Hollywood Wonderland Cemetery. My friend had earned the right to see if John Carmichael’s body was interred there.
We decided that Bernie was well enough to go with us. I think my partner was getting antsy staying home.
Natalie put it less delicately as she brushed a hand under Bernie’s muzzle when we stopped at my mom’s house to reimburse her for Olive’s repairs. “The mutt’s nuts are gonna pop unless he gets the rust outta his thrust.”
As Natalie and Bernie followed me into the house, I said, “I think I’m going to put you in charge of Bernie’s love life. I’ve done my time playing love referee.”
We found my mother in what she calls her “Spirit Room”. There were hugs all around. I noticed that Mom, or Miss Daisy, as she calls herself when she’s in one of her psychic states, was finally losing the Catwoman look. The bandages were completely off, and there were only a couple fading scars.
Mom didn’t waste any time commenting on my new hairdo. “You don’t even look like my daughter. Where are your curls?”
“It’s called a Brazilian Blowout, Mom. And my frizzies are history.” I made a little primping motion. “Robin says it will last about three months before I have to do it again.” For the first time in my life. I had straight, thick hair, and I loved it.
“I think she looks like a vampire,” Natalie said.
I turned to my friend. “Is that supposed to be a compliment?”
“Don’t go off your trolley, now. I’m talkin’ ‘bout that actress, Kristen Stewart. She played in that movie with the hunky vampires. I think you look bloody ridiculous.” Natalie smiled, punched my shoulder. “That means really cool in American, ‘case ya didn’t know.”
The critique went on for five minutes before Mom said, “There’s something I need to ask you both. I’m doing a reading on Saturday night and need some energy in the room.”
“What kind of energy?” I asked.
“The female kind. I was thinking you and Natalie might help out.”
Natalie was on her feet, clapping her hands. “We’ll be here. I’ve always thought I had a connection to the spirit world. One time during the Big O, I had an outta body experience. Saw this bright light and me grandmum.”
“You saw your grandmother during an orgasm?”
“I think maybe she was jealous. Clyde had just gotten his Viagra, and…”
I held up a hand. “Enough.”
Mom said, “I’ll be doing the reading for…” She lowered her voice. “Karma.”
Natalie jumped in the air. I thought she might be having a mini-orgasm. “Yes, yes, yes! I love her green outfits.”
My brow furrowed. “I’m sorry, who?”
“Karma only wears the color green,” Natalie said. “Has somethin’ to do with the earth’s energy. She’s got that hit song called ‘Zipwalla’.”
It registered. Karma was a celebrity and well-known singer. Still, I had my reservations. “I don’t know. It sounds…”
“Karma thinks her fiancé is cheating on her,” Mom said. “She wants to find out before the wedding. She’s planning to marry Love Dawg.”
Natalie was saying something about dirty, cheating dogs and then apologizing to Bernie before Mom added, “Everyone is supposed to wear green at the reading.”
“Huh?” I said, still trying to catch up. “Love who?”
“Do you live under a rock?” Natalie asked. “Love Dawg is only the biggest rapper on the planet. This is our civic duty, Kate. We can’t let Karma marry a cheat freak.”
I surrendered. Maybe my decision had something to do with my own experience with a cheater.
“Okay, but I’m not wearing green. I look like a fat toad in green.”
As we turned to leave, I said to Mom, “See you Saturday night.” Something else occurred to me by the time I reached the door. “I hope you’re not having any more presidential dreams.”
Miss Daisy’s lips turned up. “No. But I do miss those nights at Camp David. There was one evening when we were nude in front of the fireplace, and Dick…”
I ran to my car, holding my ears.
As Olive chugged through the streets of Hollywood toward the cemetery, Natalie broke the news that she was moving out of my apartment.
“I need to get me own place. Clyde and me are still on the outs, and I can’t stay on your couch forever. I also got me eye on a little shop near La Brea.”
I wondered if she was planning to move Laundry ‘n Lace. “Are you thinking of opening some kind of store?”
“Sorta. I’ve given things a lotta thought and decided that I’ve got a lot more snoop in me than actin’ ability. I’m gonna try me hand as a private dick.”
“What? A private detective?”
“Gonna call it ‘Sistah Snoop’.” Natalie smiled. “Wanna know who my snoop sistah is?”
“I’m not sure that I do.”
“Mo.”
My mouth fell open. Natalie was planning to go into business with Cassie Reynolds’ former pimp. I didn’t know what to say.
Natalie went on. “Mo thinks it’s time she got her heels off the streets anyway.”
“You two should make quite the pair,” I said as we turned into the cemetery.
“We might even do a little business with you from time to time,” Natalie said. “Just when we need some official help, like gun permits, batterin’ rams, night goggles… that sorta thing.”
“Battering rams?”
I was still recovering from the news as we met up with Pearl and Charlie, who were assembled with the forensics team near the mausoleum.
Charlie and I were partners again. Jessica Barlow had been assigned back to her regular duties, but not before she lodged a litany of complaints about Charlie being overweight, overbearing, and over the hill.
Ch
arlie, in turn, had told Jankowitz, “It will be a cold day in hell before I work with that tight-assed bitch again.” He was almost as glad we were together again as he was to have his daughter, Irma, back home after promising she would stay away from B-Boy.
“Hear the news?” Charlie asked.
I saw the team was using a small drill on the wall of the tomb. “Don’t tell me you already found Carmichael’s body.”
He shook his head. “Not yet. Deputy Chief Carl Brasher resigned this morning. He’s facing a grand jury indictment. They found Kane’s cell phone. He was calling Brasher on a regular basis after he was released on parole.”
“Better late than never,” I said.
Somewhere in the distance I heard helicopters hovering. I realized that they were circling high above us in the hills overlooking the city.
“Wolf Donovan’s services are today,” Pearl said. “He apparently had been building a huge burial site on his estate for some time.”
“Why am I not surprised?” I said. I noticed Pearl was holding a painting in his hands. “You finally finished it?”
He nodded and handed over the canvas. The scene was of three children playing together on the seashore, with clouds floating above them. The faces that had once been only a faint outline were now clear. The children in the painting were Pearl, Natalie, and me, but Pearl’s version of what he thought we all might have looked like at about age five.
“You got me spot on,” Natalie said. “Used to smile like that when me dad chased me around and tried to spank me for one sorta rumpus or another.”
“It’s amazing,” I said, smiling up at Pearl.
He motioned to the painting. “It’s yours. I realized when I finished it there was something about our investigation that made me feel young again.” He hugged me and then Natalie.
I glanced at the painting again, my eyes brimming. I thought about Cassie Reynolds.
The one question I hadn’t asked Cassie’s mother is if Cassie ever suspected that Wolf Donovan was her father. I didn’t ask the question because I desperately hoped she hadn’t known. I said a silent prayer and made myself a promise to find out where Cassie was buried and bring her flowers.
My vision was still blurred as we heard the forensic team calling to us. We assembled at the wall of the mausoleum. The team had constructed a pattern of lines and used a saw to cut through the cement in the area that was consistent with the scene of the tomb in Donovan’s movie.
