(Major Crimes)
Tao finally figured out why he couldn't find this lawyer. He retired and moved to Spain 7 years ago. Tao called him up. He remembered Holly. Most of his clients weren't juveniles. His mother paid the bill. He didn't get another call from her when Holly was arrested again. He was surprised to hear that she had gotten in trouble again, and even more surprised to hear she had been murdered. He gave the number to his secretary and said she could fax over her file. Privilege dies with the patient, and who would sue him?
"What happened to your practice when you retired?" Tao asked.
"I left it with Jeremy Dunlap, my then partner. He should be able to tell you if Holly came back."
Flynn was getting ready for work. He looked at his tie. It was like all of his other ties, but today, it didn't seem quite good enough. He sighed and continued to get ready. He grabbed a banana and a granola bar and ran out the door.
He and Provenza finally tracked down Holly's next door neighbor from last year. The guy moved across town and was not eager to be interviewed.
"I moved away when I heard that nasty bitch lived next door. I know nothing," Thomas claimed.
They hauled him to the station and put him in interview one. Raydor woke and drove Rusty to school. He was cranky, like he always was when it was early, but she had to get to work. She wanted this case closed ASAP. It was not fun having to explore the life and death of a child molester.
"Have a good day, Rusty."
"Yeah um bye," he muttered as he walked inside. He was sure to have a boring day, surrounded by boring people.
Raydor got to the squad room and found out that the neighbor was awaiting her.
She took Flynn into the interview room with her.
"Teacher's pet," Provenza whispered.
"The new Gabriel," Sanchez followed.
Flynn rolled his eyes. He was going to have to do something naughty. Teacher's pet, he was not
"I don't know crap," Thomas yelled.
"Well, we should be done rather soon then," Raydor smiled. She was not ready to let this fool get the best of her. "How long did you live next to Holly?"
"Only for 6 months before she skipped town."
"She was murdered."
'Not by me," Thomas threw his hands up. "I had a date that night."
"We didn't mention a night," Flynn thought this guy was a weird.
"I have a date every night. I'm quite the ladies man," Thomas grinned, eyeing the captain up and down.
She was disgusted. "Did you hear anything between May 18th-21st of last year?"
"I heard my bitch yelling my name," he laughed.
"Who would be the bitch if we put you in lockup for 48 hours?" Flynn had it with this fool.
"Whoa Whoa! I was just messing. I heard her arguing on the 19th I think."
"Did you see him?"
"Not really. I just heard. You ruined my life. I'll kill you before I let you ruin another child. I should have killed you years ago. Then I heard a door slam, and I guess he stormed out."
"You didn't mention this before."
"No one asked me about it, and I didn't hear a murder or nothing."
"Did you hear from her again?"
"No. That was the last day I saw her. When the cops came by on Monday, I assumed she fled."
"Do you think you would recognize the voice if you heard it again?"
"Maybe."
They cut him loose. He had no known reason to kill her.
The gang watched the interview. They didn't see much of a suspect in Thomas, and they were eager to find out with whom she had been arguing. It sounded like a victim confronted her. What happened to her brother?
Raydor told Sanchez to look for him. She wanted to have a second chat with him.
Gabriel found this Devin McAdams. He was at his beach front house with two bikini bimbos by his side. They fed him grapes and poured booze into his mouth. This guy hardly looked like he would kill anyone over a necklace, or anything for that matter. He looked like he never left his chair. Who could blame him. "Mr. McAdams?" he began.
"That's my name. Don't wear it out."
"I am Detective Sgt. Gabriel of the LAPD. Do you mind if I …."
"If you're here about the SEC crap, talk to my lawyer."
"I have nothing to do with that. I wanted to ask you about a necklace that you purchased two years ago." Gabriel showed him a photo and a copy of the receipt.
"Yeah, I bought that. So what?" He lit a cigar.
"We found it sewn into the pants of a homeless man."
"How'd he get that?"
"We were hoping you could help us figure that out. Could you tell me for whom you purchased it."
"I bought it for this chick. It was a while ago. I'm not sure which one. I buy jewelry for lots of girls."
"He bought me this ring." One girl piped in.
"Do you have a secretary or an assistant who would remember?"
"Yeah! Greg! Get your ass out HERE"
This tired looking young man ran outside. "Yes, Devin."
"Do you remember which chica got this necklace?"
Greg looked at the picture. "Yeah, that went to Holly."
"Holly?"
"Holly Preston, I think."
Gabriel called the Chief. "He thinks the necklace went to a Holly Preston."
"Could it have been a Holly Prescott?" Chief was hoping her case wouldn't collide with Major Crimes, but you never knew.
"I'll check." To Greg, "Could it have been a Holly Prescott?"
"Uh. Maybe"
Gabriel relayed this to the Chief who sent a photo to Gabriel's phone. He showed it to Devin and Greg.
"I remember her now. She was a pretty little thing, pretty easy. I showed her that necklace, and she got right down on her knees."
The Chief could hear him on the phone. What a pig!
"Do you remember the last time you saw Holly?" Gabriel asked Devin.
"Um! Probably a couple of months after she got the necklace. I was starting to get bored, and when the presents stopped, she wandered away. If you want more on her, try the Regal Country Club. She was a regular there."
Gabriel headed back to find the Chief. He got to the room and told her what he learned from Devin.
"Now how do I deal with this?" She asked herself aloud. She wasn't sure that this had anything to do with the Prescott murder, but it was odd that a man got ran over while possessing a necklace that had been given to her. Maybe the others found something useful.
"Holly pawned the necklace at A1 Pawn Shop in January of 2012," Mack told the Chief. "She got 5k for it."
"Does the owner remember her?"
"Even better," he still had the receipt." He showed it to the Chief. It had a photocopy of her driver's license and a signature.
"Where did the necklace go from there?"
"The owner tried to sell it for a couple of months. When it didn't go, he auctioned it and got 6k. The action house is faxing over its records on the purchaser."
"I guess I should call the Captain."
Raydor's phone rang. "Why would Brenda be calling me?"
"Hello, Chief."
"Sharon, you can call me Brenda."
"Hello, Brenda. To what do I owe this pleasure?"
"I have some information on Prescott that I thought you might like to hear."
"Like what."
"Gabriel had a chat with one of her old boyfriends."
"Why?" Sharon interrupted. Brenda was not taking over this case. The squad was working smoothly and she didn't need Miss. Atlanta to mess it up.
"Because he is a potential witness in our case. Anyway, we were tracking down this necklace, and our witness had purchased it for Miss. Prescott two years ago."
"What necklace?"
"Would you hush and let me go first for once?" Damn Darth Raydor can be rather pushy.
"Sorry, Chief. I mean sorry, Brenda. Go on."
"We found this expensive necklace on a dead hobo. We found the jeweler that sold it to this Devin McAdams. He told us he bought it for Holly Prescott and gave it to her two years ago. He hasn't heard from her since 2011. Anyway, according to him, she's a regular at the Regal Country Club."
"Did she meet other men at that club?"
"I didn't ask. It's not my case. I thought you would like to know that she got expensive jewelry and would pawn it for cash and hang out where the rich guys are."
"Well thank you Brenda. Isn't FID working on that hobo case too?"
"So."
"So, did you tell them about the necklace?"
"They're investigating the officer's conduct, not the hobo's bling."
"Play fair, Brenda. Bye." Maybe Brenda was on to something. "Sykes. Sanchez" Raydor called as she exited her office. "Can you fax Prescott's picture around to the local pawn shops and see if she ever pawned any jewelry or anything at them?"
"Yes Captain," Sanchez and Sykes got to work. What an odd request! Sanchez thought.
"Flynn and Provenza, could you head to the Regal Country Club and find out when Holly was there and with whom she fraternized."
"Where's Tao?"
"He's still trying to figure out what happened with Holly's legal representation and figure out who her doctors were."
Before Raydor could say what she wanted from Tao, her phone rang. "Yes, Chief Taylor, I'll be right up."
"What's going on with the Prescott case?"
"Well, she was strangled, so presumably her killer drove her car to Mexico. We're working with the Mexican authorities to have it shipped back."
"We haven't done that already?"
"They sent agents to the car to look at it there and look for signs of her in Mexico, not signs of who killed her,"
"We found out she got into an argument with someone around the time she was killed. She got rich men to buy her expensive jewelry and would pawn it for cash when she needed it. Her mother had cut her off, so we're trying to figure out who paid for her lawyer and all these doctors, likely her most recent Sugar Daddy. Her brother hated her guts, but we have no evidence on him yet."
"So you have a bunch of loose ends."
"Right now. As we get more information, hopefully, a picture will emerge."
Branson stormed into the office. "That Bitch is ruining my case."
Raydor was curious as to what Brenda did to set him off. She wasn't sure if she should stay or go, but she wanted to find out.
"That's all for now. Thank you, Captain."
Raydor made it out the door, and listened on the outside.
"She talks to Morales without me. Grabs evidence and doesn't even tell me about it. Her investigators have been all over town, not having any respect for FID at all."
"Chief Johnson can be a prickly pear, but she closes cases. If there's more to this than an accident, she'll figure it out." Taylor was no friend of Brenda's, but somehow Branson was even more hated than she was. The last thing he needed was Branson making her look like some kind of a hero. "What did she do exactly?"
"Morales called her to the morgue, and gave her a necklace the victim had when he was run over. That could be a motive for Officer Walters to hit him."
"I'll call the Chief." Taylor did not want her in his office, but he didn't see a way out at the moment.
"Chief Johnson"
"Chief Taylor, how are you?"
"I'm here with Officer Branson. Are you free for a meeting?"
"What about?"
"He wants to know about a necklace."
Brenda sighed. She didn't like having meetings, when she didn't already know the answers to all of the questions. She said she'd be there in 20.
On her way out of the building, Bobby arrived.
"Hey! What brings you here?"
"I was done dropping off resumes, and I thought I'd take my little sis to lunch."
"Want to ride with me first. I have to have a quick meeting."
"A meeting?"
"Just a chance for some men to bicker. It won't take too long."
"All right." Bobby hopped in the car and went with Brenda.
She parked the car and went inside. They both had to get visitor's badges. Brenda went up to Taylor's office. Bobby went off on his own.
"I'm going to explore." Bobby went looking for the Traffic Division. He wanted to hear about this case that was causing all the trouble.
"There's not much to tell," Brenda said when she got to Taylor's office. "The victim had it. We don't know how he got it. The original owner gave it to a girl who pawned it. The pawnshop sold it to an auction house, and we are still tracking down the chain of title."
"Why wasn't I informed about this?"
"You're investigating Officer Walters. Not this dead guys pants."
Taylor tried not to laugh. It was pretty funny.
"It could be a motive," Branson was not amused.
"How would he have seen a necklace that was sewn into his pants. Morales didn't even notice it immediately."
"He could have known about the necklace and hit him on purpose."
"Why didn't he take the necklace after he hit him?" Brenda thought he was dumb as a bucket of rocks.
"There's a dash cam."
"Why hit him on purpose if he was afraid of a dash cam?"
Branson opened his mouth to answer, but Chief Johnson cut him off.
"We can't know if Officer Walters knew about the necklace until we know how the victim got it. There's nothing of interest to report until we get to the end of the chain, and once I know, you'll know."
"Any luck on the footprints?"
"Just size 14 generic Nikes. A dime a dozen in this city."
"Anything else you didn't tell me?"
She could have told them that the necklace might link the case to Prescott, but she decided against it. "No," she lied. "If you don't mind, I am having lunch with my brother. Good day, Chief. Captain" She made a quick exit.
"Can you believe her?" Branson was seething.
"Just focus on your case. I have some friends in the Prosecutor's office. They will be more agreeable."
Branson left. He did not want to deal with this Bitch.
Bobby found traffic and wondered in.
"Can I help you?" a detective asked him.
"Maybe. My sister is working on this case about a guy hear who hit a hobo. I was wondering if it was resolved yet."
"She didn't tell you."
"She's more of a work first, chat second kind of girl."
"No. Officer Walters is still at home, on paid leave. Can you tell your sister to clear him already?"
"It's not her call. She can't figure out something about some footprints."
The uniform's brother poked his head out. "You the guy my brother saw yesterday."
"Yeah."
"Come in."
Bobby wondered into the guys office, small but quaint. He had a picture of him with a woman and a little girl, a wife and daughter. Bobby remembered those days.
"Sarah and Casey," he said.
"You have a lovely family."
"Thanks. So what does your sister want out of all of this."
"She said FID thinks some guy chased the victim into the street and that's why he got hit."
"That would clear Walters. Why is he still home."
"She can't find the person who was chasing him. She just got muddy footprints who could be anyones."
The Lieutenant sighed.
"My sister is the best. If anyone could find a guy with nothing to go on but some muddy footprints, she could." Bobby was confident that Brenda would figure it all out.
"I hope so. Walters is a good guy. He's bored at home."
Bobby's phone rang. "That's her now. Hey Bren, you learn anything new. No, what was the point of the meeting? All right, meet you downstairs."
Bobby walked down the hall, whistling as he went. He didn't see Captain Raydor in his path until he bumped right into her. "Sorry, Ma'am," he said with his twang. "Didn't see you there." Bobby kept walking.
Who was that guy? Sharon wondered. He was tall, chestnut brown hair, big brown eyes, and a big mouth. He looked new but familiar all at once. Whoever he was, he was a space cadet. He almost made her spill her tea on her Armani suit. He also smelled nice. Back to work Raydor. She went to her squad room and continued to work.