Justin
Anna was glad that I was there with Jhondie. And we weren't doing a good cop bad cop routine on Becky either. Jhondie was in the mood to hurt someone and Becky seemed as likely as an accomplice as anyone. I could not believe Kayla's audacity. I had done some pretty stupid things when I was a kid. I'll be the first to admit that there were a few stunts that would have landed me in jail had they ever been found out about. But I never was so blatant about it. Christ. If you're going to be bad, then at least try to be sneaky. Blatant doesn't look defiant and bold. It looks dumb.
Anna had her daughter in the living room when we pulled up. Becky was so obviously terrified that at first I thought she had to have been helping Kayla and had gotten caught. We learned later that her mother had just told her that if she was turning into a trashy little hooligan like Kayla, she was going to a reform school. I was so glad Jhondie didn't hear her sister described as such. She might have agreed with it. She might have ripped Anna's head off. Literally.
Our conversation on the way over there had been rather limited. It was mostly Jhondie muttering that she couldn't believe Kayla did this or that she was going to kill the kid. I nodded a lot. It seemed like the best course of action to take. I already knew I was going to have to save most of my ability to calm Jhondie down for when we got our hands on Kayla. The girl had no idea how much mortal danger she was in. I almost hoped that something happened to her while she was gone. That seemed like the only thing that might keep Jhondie from throttling her sister when she saw her again.
Becky was sitting in a chair in the middle of the living room, looking around at all of us like we were going to start slapping her around in a second and demanding that she come clean. It was like a set-up in a bad cop movie. But it was just making her more scared and unable to talk. Time for some proper interrogation.
I sat down beside her so that we were on eye-level. "Becky," I said gently. "We all know that this isn't your fault."
"I didn't do anything!" she protested again, on the verge of hysterical tears. "I told you what happened! I left my room for like ten minutes to call Erica and when I got back, she was gone!"
"And that phone call Kayla got right before then?" her mother snapped. Obviously the woman was not skilled at getting information out of someone.
"It doesn't matter if she planned the whole thing," I said quickly to Anna. "It wouldn't matter if she found the party, got Kayla the ride and set up all of the plans. Kayla is the one that chose to sneak out. She's the responsible one for this whole mess. Becky is not responsible for Kayla's actions." Becky gave me such a look of gratitude it wasn't funny. Jhondie had to turn away for a second to hide the smirk. She knew what I was doing.
I looked back at Becky. "When Kayla received the phone call here, what was it about?"
She shrugged and looked down. "She wouldn't say. Just that it was a friend."
"Becky," I said, letting the slightest warning tone creep into my voice. She looked back up at me. "Kayla is the one in trouble, remember? It's not your fault you couldn't figure out what she was up to, okay? Now I know she's suddenly got all these older friends and this older hot boyfriend and she's got to seem so cool to you now. You can't sit there and tell me you didn't at least listen to what she was saying on the phone."
"She didn't say anything about where she was going," Becky muttered miserably. She sniffed. "She said twice that she couldn't because she promised and then listened for a while and got really upset. And then she said something about that it was okay but she needed a bag. And that was all. She mostly just listened."
"That makes sense. And how long after that did you go to call Erica?" I asked, my voice soothing once more now that she was talking.
"Maybe twenty minutes. I wasn't really keeping track. I didn't think I needed to." Her words began to speed up. "There was a problem that we couldn't figure out," she explained. "I can show it to you! It's really hard and Mr. Frick said that there would be one like it on the test next week." I nodded, showing that I believed her and she continued. "Anyways, I knew Erica had solved one like it. Kayla asked me to call her since me and Erica are still friends and them two aren't really anymore and ask her how she solved it."
"Kayla asked you to call?" Jhondie piped up. Becky looked at her fearfully, waiting for the assault, but Jhondie was keeping control of her expression. She looked more curious than angry. She had learned a few things about questioning people over the years too.
"Yeah," Becky replied. "And I was only on the phone for a little bit. I swear I didn't know. You can call Erica and ask her. We talked about the problem and then I went back in my room and the window was open and Kayla was gone."
"She must have set this up as soon as she knew Mom was leaving," Jhondie muttered angrily. She sighed and sat down heavily on the couch, looking at Becky. "This really isn't your fault," she said. Becky looked like she felt better knowing that two of the adults in the room believed her. "I know what happened. Her and Katrina set this up and used you as an alibi since they knew I wouldn't have a problem with her coming over here. Katrina called to say she was ready and then Kayla sent you out of the room and took off." Her hand slammed the armrest of the couch lightly.
I had to admit that if I wasn't so pissed at Kayla for doing it, I would have been impressed with the setup. They had planned this well. Beyond well, really. The only thing that didn't make sense was Kayla being upset on the phone. That could have been an act, but it didn't work with the setup. The proper thing to do would be to act like it was Jhondie or even better, just having the time prearranged and not bothering with a call at all. Maybe they hadn't carried their plans all the way out. Or maybe Kayla was upset because she thought that Katrina would go to the party without her. That was the most likely suspect.
"Do you want to call the police?" Anna asked. She probably didn't notice, but Jhondie tensed slightly. Jhondie had issues with bringing people like that into her life intentionally.
"No," Jhondie replied. "She'll come home when she's good and ready to show that she's not going to be bossed around by her sister." A bitter smile lifted the corners of her mouth. "Mom didn't tell her she couldn't go to a party. She doesn't have to listen to me."
"We'll drive around and look for her," I said to Anna. "That's more than the cops will do. I think that between the two of us we know of quite a few places for kids to party."
"I am so sorry about this," Anna said, her distress obvious. "I promised to keep an eye on her and..."
"It's nobody's fault but Kayla's," Jhondie interrupted gently. "I'm more to blame than you are since I was the one that believed her when she said she would be good while Mom was gone. I knew better. You guys didn't."
I stood up before she could fall back into that pattern she had so recently been in about blaming herself for what happened to a sister. "This can be fixed," I said pointedly. Jhondie looked up at me, understanding what I meant. Anna and Becky didn't get the depths of it, but, thank God, Jhondie did. She nodded and stood as well.
"I'm sorry that you guys got dragged into this," she said. " I should have stuck with the original plan off school, ballet and home for her, but I thought she might be trustworthy enough to do one little thing. I don't know what's gotten into Kayla lately, but it's not going to be staying around for much longer."
Anna smiled weakly. "Good luck. I hope you find her quickly."
"We all do," I said and Jhondie and I left. As soon as we got into the car, the control Jhondie had kept over her expression dropped and her fury was obvious. "Don't try to stop me from killing her," she said curtly.
"Stop you? I was planning on asking you if I could hold her down while you did it," I said, trying to muster some cheerfulness as we drove away.
She blew out a breath. "I just can't believe she did it. She totally set me up and slammed me."
"Well, luckily a silver Corvette is going to stick out something fierce around here," I said, trying to get her focused back on the here and now. "I was thinking that we would check out Scorch first and then go from there."
Jhondie nodded. "That's probably where they're having their party, unless it's at someone's home. And I have no idea where all of her friends live. If she's at one of their places, then I don't know where to even begin looking."
I looked over at her incredulously. "You really think that I can't find someone in this city? All I need is a street name and I'm willing to bet I could have a real name, address and social security number in less than an hour."
She gave me a little smile. "I can't ask you to give up favors meant for Eyes Only."
"You don't have to. You're more important."
Her hand covered mine on the gearshift. "Thank you," she said softly. "I wish I didn't have to drag you into every family mess, but I am so glad you are here."
I smiled back at her. "Just wait. In a couple of years, I'm going to have two of them to chase around and then you're going to be paying me back with interest." Her fingers tightened around mine and we didn't say much until we got to Scorch.
A couple of years after the Pulse, there was a major earthquake that hit part of LA. Its epicenter was a hundred miles away, but it was still big enough to do some serious damage to the city. There weren't nearly the resources available to combat the aftereffects of the quake and that included a large fire that broke out. It consumed almost fifteen square blocks of the city before finally getting under control. A large area around the fire site was abandoned as well because nobody could or would clean up the damaged area. It seemed more important at the time to help the survivors than pick up the old pieces. The area that was abandoned was known as Scorch.
I was a kid when the quake happened, but I could still remember it clearly. It was a monster and scared the hell out of me. Scared Mom too until she knew for certain that Dad was safe. Ironically, the quake was what got Jhondie's family out there. Six emergency medicine doctors had been killed either in the quake or trying to get victims out and looters attacked the ambulances. That's why there was an opening for Dr. Harris to move into. The quake would have been bad by pre-Pulse standards, but post-Pulse, it was a nightmare.
Most of the people that left the Scorch area had just boarded up the houses and taken off. The ones that moved in there were not the type that you wanted as neighbors. Cops didn't like going into burned houses that were on the verge of collapse, so it seemed a good place for gangs to go to. As time passed, the area got more and more abandoned, so it seemed there was an uneasy truce. As long as the riffraff stayed where they belonged, the cops would stay out of the area. It wasn't a place you wanted to go to in the day much less the night. But since there were fewer cops that would venture into it, lots more parties took place there.
Two hours passed and we finally had to admit that if the party was taking place there, nobody knew about it. When you drive a new-looking car and don't seem afraid to be in the area, the local are immediately wary of you. Most people that make a wrong turn and end up at Scorch know where they are and are terrified. That's like showing fear in front of a dog. Instant attack. When you're not nervous, you either belong there or own the people that do. We questioned the right sort of people, but no luck. The ones looking for a party couldn't find one in Scorch that night. Most of them asked us to tell them where the party was when we found it. I probably would. I couldn't think of anything better to do to Katrina and her little punk high-school crowd than to have a gang of Scorchers show up.
More time passed as we started tracking the friends down. Someone had to know something. A couple of the houses we called and acted like it was a wrong number. There obviously wasn't a party going on in the background. And there wasn't the slightest sign of the silver Corvette anywhere. I was getting frustrated. Jhondie was beyond frustrated. She didn't want to have to call her mother and she was afraid to call the cops. We were on the verge of giving up and going back to her house to wait for Kayla when my phone rang.
I grabbed it and listened after saying hello. Oh hell. I was going to start carrying tranquilizers. Not for me. For Jhondie. Because that was all I could think of that was going to keep her from going through the roof. I thanked Officer Peterson and told him we would be there shortly. It was official now. Kayla had surpassed my stunts on the dumb teenager scale.
We were on surface streets so it was quick to hang up and pull over quickly into a strip mall's parking lot. Jhondie looked at me anxiously. As much as she had threatened to hurt Kayla that night, she didn't really want to have to go to the hospital to get her. I almost wished it was a hospital that had called, I really did.
"Who was it?" she asked a little fearfully.
I licked my lips, trying to figure the right words to say. Never mind. There wasn't a way to soften this one up. "That was Officer Peterson from the 18th precinct," I said flatly. "Kayla was arrested earlier for trespassing and public intoxication. Apparently she gave them that number for a contact and they want to know if we want to get her tonight or if they should process her in."
Jhondie's response was best left to the imagination.
Anna was glad that I was there with Jhondie. And we weren't doing a good cop bad cop routine on Becky either. Jhondie was in the mood to hurt someone and Becky seemed as likely as an accomplice as anyone. I could not believe Kayla's audacity. I had done some pretty stupid things when I was a kid. I'll be the first to admit that there were a few stunts that would have landed me in jail had they ever been found out about. But I never was so blatant about it. Christ. If you're going to be bad, then at least try to be sneaky. Blatant doesn't look defiant and bold. It looks dumb.
Anna had her daughter in the living room when we pulled up. Becky was so obviously terrified that at first I thought she had to have been helping Kayla and had gotten caught. We learned later that her mother had just told her that if she was turning into a trashy little hooligan like Kayla, she was going to a reform school. I was so glad Jhondie didn't hear her sister described as such. She might have agreed with it. She might have ripped Anna's head off. Literally.
Our conversation on the way over there had been rather limited. It was mostly Jhondie muttering that she couldn't believe Kayla did this or that she was going to kill the kid. I nodded a lot. It seemed like the best course of action to take. I already knew I was going to have to save most of my ability to calm Jhondie down for when we got our hands on Kayla. The girl had no idea how much mortal danger she was in. I almost hoped that something happened to her while she was gone. That seemed like the only thing that might keep Jhondie from throttling her sister when she saw her again.
Becky was sitting in a chair in the middle of the living room, looking around at all of us like we were going to start slapping her around in a second and demanding that she come clean. It was like a set-up in a bad cop movie. But it was just making her more scared and unable to talk. Time for some proper interrogation.
I sat down beside her so that we were on eye-level. "Becky," I said gently. "We all know that this isn't your fault."
"I didn't do anything!" she protested again, on the verge of hysterical tears. "I told you what happened! I left my room for like ten minutes to call Erica and when I got back, she was gone!"
"And that phone call Kayla got right before then?" her mother snapped. Obviously the woman was not skilled at getting information out of someone.
"It doesn't matter if she planned the whole thing," I said quickly to Anna. "It wouldn't matter if she found the party, got Kayla the ride and set up all of the plans. Kayla is the one that chose to sneak out. She's the responsible one for this whole mess. Becky is not responsible for Kayla's actions." Becky gave me such a look of gratitude it wasn't funny. Jhondie had to turn away for a second to hide the smirk. She knew what I was doing.
I looked back at Becky. "When Kayla received the phone call here, what was it about?"
She shrugged and looked down. "She wouldn't say. Just that it was a friend."
"Becky," I said, letting the slightest warning tone creep into my voice. She looked back up at me. "Kayla is the one in trouble, remember? It's not your fault you couldn't figure out what she was up to, okay? Now I know she's suddenly got all these older friends and this older hot boyfriend and she's got to seem so cool to you now. You can't sit there and tell me you didn't at least listen to what she was saying on the phone."
"She didn't say anything about where she was going," Becky muttered miserably. She sniffed. "She said twice that she couldn't because she promised and then listened for a while and got really upset. And then she said something about that it was okay but she needed a bag. And that was all. She mostly just listened."
"That makes sense. And how long after that did you go to call Erica?" I asked, my voice soothing once more now that she was talking.
"Maybe twenty minutes. I wasn't really keeping track. I didn't think I needed to." Her words began to speed up. "There was a problem that we couldn't figure out," she explained. "I can show it to you! It's really hard and Mr. Frick said that there would be one like it on the test next week." I nodded, showing that I believed her and she continued. "Anyways, I knew Erica had solved one like it. Kayla asked me to call her since me and Erica are still friends and them two aren't really anymore and ask her how she solved it."
"Kayla asked you to call?" Jhondie piped up. Becky looked at her fearfully, waiting for the assault, but Jhondie was keeping control of her expression. She looked more curious than angry. She had learned a few things about questioning people over the years too.
"Yeah," Becky replied. "And I was only on the phone for a little bit. I swear I didn't know. You can call Erica and ask her. We talked about the problem and then I went back in my room and the window was open and Kayla was gone."
"She must have set this up as soon as she knew Mom was leaving," Jhondie muttered angrily. She sighed and sat down heavily on the couch, looking at Becky. "This really isn't your fault," she said. Becky looked like she felt better knowing that two of the adults in the room believed her. "I know what happened. Her and Katrina set this up and used you as an alibi since they knew I wouldn't have a problem with her coming over here. Katrina called to say she was ready and then Kayla sent you out of the room and took off." Her hand slammed the armrest of the couch lightly.
I had to admit that if I wasn't so pissed at Kayla for doing it, I would have been impressed with the setup. They had planned this well. Beyond well, really. The only thing that didn't make sense was Kayla being upset on the phone. That could have been an act, but it didn't work with the setup. The proper thing to do would be to act like it was Jhondie or even better, just having the time prearranged and not bothering with a call at all. Maybe they hadn't carried their plans all the way out. Or maybe Kayla was upset because she thought that Katrina would go to the party without her. That was the most likely suspect.
"Do you want to call the police?" Anna asked. She probably didn't notice, but Jhondie tensed slightly. Jhondie had issues with bringing people like that into her life intentionally.
"No," Jhondie replied. "She'll come home when she's good and ready to show that she's not going to be bossed around by her sister." A bitter smile lifted the corners of her mouth. "Mom didn't tell her she couldn't go to a party. She doesn't have to listen to me."
"We'll drive around and look for her," I said to Anna. "That's more than the cops will do. I think that between the two of us we know of quite a few places for kids to party."
"I am so sorry about this," Anna said, her distress obvious. "I promised to keep an eye on her and..."
"It's nobody's fault but Kayla's," Jhondie interrupted gently. "I'm more to blame than you are since I was the one that believed her when she said she would be good while Mom was gone. I knew better. You guys didn't."
I stood up before she could fall back into that pattern she had so recently been in about blaming herself for what happened to a sister. "This can be fixed," I said pointedly. Jhondie looked up at me, understanding what I meant. Anna and Becky didn't get the depths of it, but, thank God, Jhondie did. She nodded and stood as well.
"I'm sorry that you guys got dragged into this," she said. " I should have stuck with the original plan off school, ballet and home for her, but I thought she might be trustworthy enough to do one little thing. I don't know what's gotten into Kayla lately, but it's not going to be staying around for much longer."
Anna smiled weakly. "Good luck. I hope you find her quickly."
"We all do," I said and Jhondie and I left. As soon as we got into the car, the control Jhondie had kept over her expression dropped and her fury was obvious. "Don't try to stop me from killing her," she said curtly.
"Stop you? I was planning on asking you if I could hold her down while you did it," I said, trying to muster some cheerfulness as we drove away.
She blew out a breath. "I just can't believe she did it. She totally set me up and slammed me."
"Well, luckily a silver Corvette is going to stick out something fierce around here," I said, trying to get her focused back on the here and now. "I was thinking that we would check out Scorch first and then go from there."
Jhondie nodded. "That's probably where they're having their party, unless it's at someone's home. And I have no idea where all of her friends live. If she's at one of their places, then I don't know where to even begin looking."
I looked over at her incredulously. "You really think that I can't find someone in this city? All I need is a street name and I'm willing to bet I could have a real name, address and social security number in less than an hour."
She gave me a little smile. "I can't ask you to give up favors meant for Eyes Only."
"You don't have to. You're more important."
Her hand covered mine on the gearshift. "Thank you," she said softly. "I wish I didn't have to drag you into every family mess, but I am so glad you are here."
I smiled back at her. "Just wait. In a couple of years, I'm going to have two of them to chase around and then you're going to be paying me back with interest." Her fingers tightened around mine and we didn't say much until we got to Scorch.
A couple of years after the Pulse, there was a major earthquake that hit part of LA. Its epicenter was a hundred miles away, but it was still big enough to do some serious damage to the city. There weren't nearly the resources available to combat the aftereffects of the quake and that included a large fire that broke out. It consumed almost fifteen square blocks of the city before finally getting under control. A large area around the fire site was abandoned as well because nobody could or would clean up the damaged area. It seemed more important at the time to help the survivors than pick up the old pieces. The area that was abandoned was known as Scorch.
I was a kid when the quake happened, but I could still remember it clearly. It was a monster and scared the hell out of me. Scared Mom too until she knew for certain that Dad was safe. Ironically, the quake was what got Jhondie's family out there. Six emergency medicine doctors had been killed either in the quake or trying to get victims out and looters attacked the ambulances. That's why there was an opening for Dr. Harris to move into. The quake would have been bad by pre-Pulse standards, but post-Pulse, it was a nightmare.
Most of the people that left the Scorch area had just boarded up the houses and taken off. The ones that moved in there were not the type that you wanted as neighbors. Cops didn't like going into burned houses that were on the verge of collapse, so it seemed a good place for gangs to go to. As time passed, the area got more and more abandoned, so it seemed there was an uneasy truce. As long as the riffraff stayed where they belonged, the cops would stay out of the area. It wasn't a place you wanted to go to in the day much less the night. But since there were fewer cops that would venture into it, lots more parties took place there.
Two hours passed and we finally had to admit that if the party was taking place there, nobody knew about it. When you drive a new-looking car and don't seem afraid to be in the area, the local are immediately wary of you. Most people that make a wrong turn and end up at Scorch know where they are and are terrified. That's like showing fear in front of a dog. Instant attack. When you're not nervous, you either belong there or own the people that do. We questioned the right sort of people, but no luck. The ones looking for a party couldn't find one in Scorch that night. Most of them asked us to tell them where the party was when we found it. I probably would. I couldn't think of anything better to do to Katrina and her little punk high-school crowd than to have a gang of Scorchers show up.
More time passed as we started tracking the friends down. Someone had to know something. A couple of the houses we called and acted like it was a wrong number. There obviously wasn't a party going on in the background. And there wasn't the slightest sign of the silver Corvette anywhere. I was getting frustrated. Jhondie was beyond frustrated. She didn't want to have to call her mother and she was afraid to call the cops. We were on the verge of giving up and going back to her house to wait for Kayla when my phone rang.
I grabbed it and listened after saying hello. Oh hell. I was going to start carrying tranquilizers. Not for me. For Jhondie. Because that was all I could think of that was going to keep her from going through the roof. I thanked Officer Peterson and told him we would be there shortly. It was official now. Kayla had surpassed my stunts on the dumb teenager scale.
We were on surface streets so it was quick to hang up and pull over quickly into a strip mall's parking lot. Jhondie looked at me anxiously. As much as she had threatened to hurt Kayla that night, she didn't really want to have to go to the hospital to get her. I almost wished it was a hospital that had called, I really did.
"Who was it?" she asked a little fearfully.
I licked my lips, trying to figure the right words to say. Never mind. There wasn't a way to soften this one up. "That was Officer Peterson from the 18th precinct," I said flatly. "Kayla was arrested earlier for trespassing and public intoxication. Apparently she gave them that number for a contact and they want to know if we want to get her tonight or if they should process her in."
Jhondie's response was best left to the imagination.
