Chapter 13
When Megan couldn't get an answer from Alan on either his cell phone or at the house, she decided to drive by.
"He's probably on the way here," Colby noted, but she grabbed her car keys anyway.
"I know, but I'm worried about him. He called me pretty late last night…I just feel like I should go and see him."
She drove the distance to Charlie's house with her cell headset on, just in case he called. When she got there, she had to pull up in front. She called Colby at the office. "I'm here. I don't see his car, but there's another car I don't know in the driveway. Run this plate." While she was talking Megan was approaching the front door. She knocked, rang the bell. "I'm not getting an answer."
"This might be something," she heard Colby say.
She stopped midway in her walk to the kitchen entry. "What?"
"Last night I called L.A.P.D. and L.A. County Sheriff, checked our files too, for reports of missing persons in the tri-county area in the last six months. It's a lot of files, I'm still going through them…but I saw one this morning for an independent carpenter. His ex-wife reported him missing when he was late with the alimony check. The Sheriff's office accessed his bank account and traced the last 20 business checks that went through. All these people were cleared as suspects, but one name here is Rosa Marimot, the name that came up on your plate."
Megan reached frantically for her notebook. "I've heard that name," she said, breathlessly. "Here, here…when I talked to Mr. Eppes the morning after Don and Charlie disappeared — she's the secretary of his book club, and didn't show up at the meeting Wednesday night!"
David had been listening to the conversation on Colby's speaker. "I checked on her first thing," he said. "Her brother really had a heart attack, was taken to County three days ago."
"Check again," Megan said, and headed back to her car. "I'm coming in." She was halfway there when David called her back. "County checked their records again. Marimot's brother was admitted through the ER with a cardiac arrest on Monday night — she's listed as his next-of-kin — but he died on Tuesday. There was no way Rosa Marimot was visiting him on Wednesday."
"Give me the address," demanded Megan, and Colby voice came on the line with the information.
"David and I are leaving now," he said, and Megan could hear him walking away from the desk. He shouted back toward the phone. "Don't do anything without back-up!"