Chapter 3

The apartment complex where Lisa Conrad lived wasn't far and the girls pulled up and parked within fifteen minutes of leaving the Contadino home. The complex was very nice, Lisa Conrad must have been doing quite well for herself for someone so young. Deciding that it would be unnecessary for one of them to stay behind, all three girls got out of the car. It would be impossible to park within sight of most of the apartments, anyway.

Kelly was relieved.

The three girls searched for apartment 1348 in frustration for several minutes, baffled by the apartment complex's method of numbering their doors.

"When the hell does 1600 come before 1200?!" Sabrina ranted in exasperation as they changed directions for the eighth time.

"The dictionary?" Jill quipped.

Sabrina paused and stared blankly at Jill a few moments before a smile spread across her face.

"That was terrible, Jill." she said, shaking her head.

"No, that was clever. You're terrible." Jill shot back without missing a beat.

Kelly grinned at them, amused by their banter. "Is this the kind of action I miss out on every time you two leave me in the car?"

Sabrina and Jill turned and gave her an amused look.

"We're actually toning it down for you." Sabrina laughed.

"Hey look, there's 1300!" Jill exclaimed happily, pointing up to the second floor. The girls sighed in relief and headed towards it.

Their relief was short lived.

"Wait, where are the stairs?" Kelly wondered aloud.

She had a valid point. No staircase could be found.

"You're kidding me!" Sabrina moaned. She was tempted to just start hollering Lisa Conrad's name. Maybe she would hear and come to them.

With the path in sight, they continued their search for stairs for several minutes.

Several frustrating minutes.

"Ugh, I didn't know M.C. Escher designed apartment complexes." Kelly said in disgust as the girls wandered in circles.

Jill giggled.

"I'm looking for a rabbit hole to fall down. This place is ridiculous."

The girls laughed bitterly at their predicament.

A young woman about their age walked between them holding a basket of laundry. She was short, with curly brown hair and dressed very casually. She nodded to them as she walked by. Seeing a ticket to freedom, Sabrina quickly jogged over to her to walk by her side.

"Excuse me, I'm looking for a friend's place. Can you show me how to get to 1348?" she asked pleasantly.

The young woman stopped walking and stared warily at her as Kelly and Jill approached them.

"1348 is my apartment. I don't know you." she said suspiciously, her blue eyes narrowing in distrust.

Sabrina turned to her friends with a disbelieving look, then looked back to the girl.

"Lisa Conrad?" she asked.

"Yeah, that's me. Who are you?"

"I'm Sabrina Duncan, and these are my associates Kelly Garrett and Jill Munroe. We're from Townsend Investigations. We want to ask you a few questions about your father and brother, if you don't mind."

Jill dug into her purse for a business card and thrust it into Sabrina's hand. Sabrina held it out to Lisa.

She took it and examined it closely.

"Townsend Investigations? Detectives?" she asked.

"Yes ma'am." Sabrina answered her.

"Who hired you?"

"Anthony Moretti."

Lisa made a face. "Tony Moretti? Tony hired you?" she asked, her voice dripping with contempt.

Sabrina nodded her head. Nobody seemed to like Mr. Moretti. She got an uneasy feeling in her stomach.

"Ok, if talking to me will help. Come on up." she said, hefting the basket to her other hip.

"Do you need any help with that?" Kelly offered, stepping forward.

Lisa smiled. "Uh, sure, if you don't mind."

Kelly smiled and took a handle of her laundry basket as Lisa led the way to her apartment, taking a path that it would have taken the girls hours to figure out.

"This place is confusing." Jill piped up as they walked, trying to make small talk. "I feel like we should have left bread crumbs."

Lisa smiled.

"Yeah, it took me awhile to figure out."

"This is a nice place, though. How long have you been living here?" Kelly asked.

"A little over a year now." Lisa answered.

"Much nicer than my first apartment." Jill added with a smile.

"Mine too." Kelly agreed.

"Thanks." Lisa said with a soft smile.

"What do you do for a living, if you don't mind my asking?" Sabrina questioned casually.

"Oh no, not at all. Right now I'm going to school, but I'm a freelance writer for several local magazines. They pay well."

The girls murmured their approval, though none of them had ever heard of her work. They finally arrived at her door and she keyed it open for them. The four women entered the apartment. Kelly and Lisa set her laundry basket down by the front door.

"Have a seat. I was going to make some coffee, would you like any?" Lisa offered pleasantly.

The girls looked at each other.

"Sure, that would be great." Jill responded after a beat.

The girls looked around the apartment. It smelled like something was baking. There was an unfinished puzzle on the table that Lisa had hurriedly pushed aside on her way to the kitchen. A few open books and magazines lay scattered across the living room couches along with half finished drawings and sheet music. A flute lay on the coffee table. Lisa Conrad had understandably been keeping herself busy lately. Sabrina and Jill were both personally familiar with the common coping mechanism and recognized it right away.

Lisa busied herself in the kitchen for a few minutes while the girls waited at the table. She returned with a plate of homemade chocolate chip cookies. The girls looked at each other again. They had forgotten to eat dinner. They all grabbed a cookie.

The coffee brewing in the kitchen, Lisa sat down at the table.

"How can I help?" she asked, taking a cookie and looking at the angels.

"We just have a few questions about your father and your brother we were hoping you could answer that would help us with our investigation." Jill started. "These are very good by the way." she added, pointing to the half eaten cookie in her hand.

Lisa smiled. "Thanks. What can I answer for you?"

"Was your brother in anyway connected to the Italian mob?" Jill asked her.

"Not that I'm aware of, but I've been so busy with school, I hadn't talked to him much the past few months."

Jill nodded thoughtfully.

"Do you remember him mentioning that he was taking guitar lessons?"

Lisa tilted her head thoughtfully.

"He had always wanted to, but I don't remember him mentioning it."

"Do you know a Theo Contadino?"

Lisa took a bite of her cookie and shook her head.

"What about your father, any connections to the mob?" Jill went on, deciding to change the topic.

A dark look crossed Lisa's face. "The closest he got to the anything like that was Tony. Have you checked up on him? I bet he had something to do with this."

Jill turned to her friends and raised her eyebrows. There was that contempt for Mr. Moretti again. He apparently didn't have many fans.

"Did he ever mention Mr. Moretti doing anything illegal?" Kelly asked.

Lisa shook her head.

"No, he liked the guy. Tony was always over watching T.V. or drinking beer with him."

"Or playing poker." Kelly added with a smile. She was testing a suspicion she had.

Lisa shook her head again and laughed. "No, that's one thing Dad never did. He never gambled."

Kelly shot a look at her two friends. They nodded in understanding. Moretti's story had yet another hole in it.

"Let me go get the coffee." Lisa said suddenly. She stood and walked into the kitchen.

"This keeps getting more and more confusing. I think we need to check out the Conrad house where the shootings took place." Sabrina whispered. "The cops may have missed something."

"And after that I think we need to talk to Moretti again." Kelly whispered back.

Sabrina and Jill nodded their heads in agreement. They definitely needed another talk with Moretti.

Lisa returned with four mugs of coffee and a small pitcher of cream a few minutes later. Jill quickly stood and helped her hand them out.

"Sugar is on the table, help yourselves." she said. Her voice sounded strained and her eyes and nose were red as if she had been crying the entire time she was in the kitchen. The girls watched her carefully as they fixed their coffee.

"What kind of kid was your brother?" Sabrina asked finally.

Lisa sighed. "He was a bit of a trouble maker, he cut up in class a lot, nothing major. But, he really was a good kid. He had a lot going for him. He would have started his senior year this fall." She wiped at her eyes.

"How close were you to him?" Sabrina went on. She hated putting the poor girl through this, but they had to know if they could trust her judgment of him.

"We were very close when we were younger. I hadn't talked to him nearly as much since I moved out last year. We still had a good relationship, though." Lisa answered.

"If he was into something illegal, would he have told you?" Jill asked.

Lisa nodded her head. "Yes, definitely."

"Was he acting strange at all the last time you talked to him?" Sabrina pressed.

"No, he was relaxed, he had just finished the school year. Started a summer job. He seemed happy."

"Where was he working?"

Lisa shook her head. "I have no clue, I'm sorry."

Sabrina looked disappointed. She turned to Jill and Kelly. They seemed stumped as well. Lisa Conrad seemed to be too out of the loop to be of any real help to them. All their conversation had uncovered was more doubts about their client's honesty.

"Well, you've been a big help, thank you very much for your time, Lisa." Sabrina said finally, rising and extending her hand.

Lisa shook it. "Thank you for looking into this, the police aren't getting very far."

Jill smiled. "If you think of anything, please let us know."

"I will, thank you." Lisa said, as she walked with them to the door. "Do you think you can find your way out."

"Yes, we'll manage, thank you." Jill said with a smile. They exited the apartment and closed the door. As they walked down the breezeway, the airy tones of Lisa's flute floated out in the direction of her room. Their visit had not been easy for her, they could tell.

"That didn't get us much, did it?" Kelly said dejectedly to her friends.

"No, not really. But maybe the house will have something for us." Sabrina said thoughtfully. She looked around. "If we can ever get out of here."

Jill laughed. "And when we do can we please get something to eat first. It's almost 8:30 and I'm starving. One cannot live on cookies alone."

"Yeah I'm hungry too." Sabrina agreed.

Kelly opened her mouth to agree but her stomach growled it's agreement before she could. The girls shared a laugh as they navigated their way out of the apartment complex.

After stopping for some dinner, the girls headed towards the Conrad home. It was nearly ten at night, but the house was on a busy street and traffic was still heavy. They would have to figure out a way inside. Jill parked in the driveway and the girls got out of the car. Sabrina and Jill idly walked down the driveway, trying not to look suspicious and wondering how to break into the house without being detected.

Jill turned and in horror, noticed Kelly kneeling by the front door unabashedly picking the lock. She spun Sabrina around and the two hurried over to stand behind her and block her from the view of the street.

"What are you doing, Kell?!" Jill hissed at her. "Everybody can see you!"

"I know." Kelly replied absently, still working at the lock.

"Every single car driving by is seeing you! Someone's gonna call the cops on us!" Sabrina said. "Get away from there!"

"I know what I'm doing. I was a thief, remember?" Kelly said. Just a few more seconds and she'd have it.

"No wonder you got caught then." Sabrina shot back at her, nervously looking over her shoulders.

Kelly stopped her work and turned back at her friends.

"A simple psychology lesson for you. The more people that witness a crime, the less likely that anyone will report it. Everyone just assumes that the next person will do it, and so on and nobody ever does. It was always easier stealing in a crowd than it was anywhere else. People don't like to get involved. No one is going to call the cops."she explained. She tilted her head.

"Unless of course you two stand there looking nervous and make this take longer than it should."

Sabrina and Jill gazed at her in wonder. Kelly grinned and turned back to her lock. Seconds later, the lock clicked free and she opened the door.

"After you." she said, making a grand welcoming gesture. Sabrina and Jill rushed inside and Kelly followed, locking the door behind her. Once safely inside, Sabrina looked nervously through the peephole as if expecting someone to come in after them.

"Relax, we're in downtown L.A." Kelly said happily. "No one is going to care."

Sabrina looked back at her friend. "How did you figure that out? Did you just decide one day, what the heck, I don't care if anyone sees me?"

Kelly gave her a sad smile. "People always look the other way. I've known that since I was a little kid. Trust me."

Jill and Sabrina exchanged glances, deciding to trust whatever personal experiences had led Kelly to her cynical logic.

Kelly disappeared into the kitchen.

"Oh, man." Sabrina and Jill heard her call out. They quickly followed her and took in the ugly scene in the kitchen.

"Wow." Jill said, looking around the room uneasily.

Dark bloodstains were soaked into the linoleum floor in patches, a testament to the horrific events that had played out in the room a few weeks before. The crime scene tape was still up around the area where the bodies had been lying. Apparently no one had been by to take care of house just yet or else they'd have removed the tile.

"Looks like they took all the slugs out." Sabrina said slowly, noticing the empty bullet holes in the floor and wall.

Jill shuddered. "Probably. We know what happened in here, let's look around the rest of the house. See if we can find anything to help us out."

The girls split up and thoroughly searched every room in the house. They weren't exactly sure what they were looking for but they all were secure in the knowledge that they would recognize anything important. After an hour, they met up in the living room empty handed and feeling unaccomplished.

"I didn't find a thing that could help us." Jill said frowning. "I checked the master bedroom and both bathrooms. Not a thing."

"Same here." Kelly agreed.

Sabrina looked at her two friends. "Me neither. But here's something interesting. I checked the kid's room and you know what I didn't find?" she asked.

"A guitar." Kelly and Jill concluded at the same time.

Sabrina nodded her head.

"Exactly. No guitar, no music books, nothing. We need to find out what was going on here during these lessons because whatever it was, it didn't involve music."

"It's late, Bri. Let's call Bosley and have him meet us at the office tomorrow. Maybe he can tell us how to get ahold of Mr. Moretti." Kelly suggested.

Sabrina nodded. "Good idea."

The girls exited the house, relocking the front door behind them as they left. They got into Jill's car and prepared to leave. Jill was backing out of the driveway, when Kelly suddenly bolted forward and grabbed her and Sabrina's shoulders.

"Stop, Jill!" she whispered harshly.

"What's wrong?" Jill asked nervously looking around.

"Look at the houses next door."

Sabrina and Jill both looked. The lights were on in both houses. They hadn't been when the girls arrived. Sabrina put it together first.

"There's people home." she realized outloud.

Kelly nodded her head.

"Moretti lied about being out of town then." Jill observed.

"Park a few houses down, I want to make sure it's him in there." Kelly whispered.

Jill obeyed and drove down the street, stopping her car four houses away. Kelly opened the door and stepped out of the car. She came up to Jill's window and gestured for Jill to roll it down.

"Which one is Moretti's?" she asked as soon as Jill's window was lowered enough.

"The one on the left of the Conrad house." Sabrina answered. "Be careful, Kell. I don't like this."

Kelly nodded and jogged down the street towards the Moretti house. She cautiously walked across the lawn to a window and peered inside. There was a curtain partially blocking her view, but she could still see most of the living room. She guessed that there were four men inside. Two were watching television, the other talking heatedly with the fourth, who was out of her view. She sighed in frustration.

She needed a different angle.

After a quick look over her shoulder for any witnesses, she crept to the fence that led to the backyard. It was locked. But that wasn't a problem. Kelly looked at her obstacle carefully, taking in places that would serve as footholes for her to climb it as quickly and silently as possible. With a plan worked out she leapt up and expertly scaled the fence, dropping down into a crouch on the other side.

She spotted another window that led directly to the living room of the house. She'd have to be careful. There was enough light to make it easy to spot her outside. Kelly snuck around the side of the house to the window. Sabrina and Jill were probably yelling at her from the car for being reckless, she thought to herself. But she had to know for sure who was in here. She approached the window from the side and dropped down to her stomach underneath it. Slowly, she raised her head to peer inside from an angle to make herself less conspicuous.

The fourth man she'd been unable to see from her first window was indeed Anthony Moretti. Kelly felt anger bubble up inside of her when she recognized him. She didn't like to be used. What was he playing at?

She could see the men in much greater detail from her new hiding spot. They all looked Italian, with dark hair and eyes. They didn't look like they had gathered for a friendly game of Monopoly either. She watched and strained to hear what they were talking about. It was no use, however. She was about to give up and head back to the car when to her horror, the back door swung open.

Kelly flattened herself against the wall and froze.

"Fine. I'll smoke it out here then!" the man said.

He stepped outside, walking backwards, still facing the other men in the living room. He muttered something in Italian, shut the door and stuck a cigarette in his mouth. The man was so focused on lighting his cigarette, he didn't notice Kelly as he walked right past her hiding spot. He stood a few feet in front of her, staring straight ahead and puffing on his cigarette.

Her heart pounding in her ears, Kelly slunk into the dark shadows where it would be the most difficult to be seen. She was stuck here until he left.

Sabrina and Jill were going to kill her.

A few minutes later, the back door opened again and another man walked outside with a cigarette. He was the one that had been arguing with Moretti. He nodded at the first man and stood at his side. Kelly tried to memorize their appearance. The two men were both dressed casually, in slacks and collared shirts. The first man appeared to be in his early thirties. He was average height and slim. The second man was a little shorter than the first and looked about ten years older and thirty pounds heavier. He bummed a light off of the younger man and the two puffed quietly on their cigarettes. Kelly watched them from her hiding place, hoping they would start talking.

They began speaking a few seconds later, much to Kelly's delight. A few moments later she frowned. She could hear every word they said, but it did her absolutely no good, because they chose to have their conversation in Italian.

She listened in frustration, desperately trying to pick out some words. Having spent the first half of her life in Texas, she knew several words and phrases in Spanish. Italian was similar, but wasn't close enough for her to be able to pick out more than a few useless words. She wished Sabrina was here. Sabrina spoke Spanish fluently and might have been more useful in this situation. Kelly crouched in her hiding place, feeling worthless, for fifteen more minutes until the men finished their cigarettes and went back inside. She waited a few moments more and then hurried past the window, climbed the fence again and headed back to where Sabrina and Jill were waiting impatiently.

Jill started the car as she saw Kelly approaching. Kelly pulled open the door and was immediately greeted by scolding from her two friends.

"Kelly! What is wrong with you!" Sabrina asked in irritation as Jill pulled into the street. "You said you were just going to check to see if it was Moretti in there!"

"And he was." Kelly said defensively.

"So why did you have to go into the backyard?" Sabrina continued.

"I wanted to make sure it was him."

"You were gone half an hour, Kell. We were about to go in after you." Jill spoke up, eyeing Kelly sternly from the rearview mirror.

"I'm sorry, I got stuck." Kelly said quickly. "Bri, does denaro mean anything in Spanish?" she asked.

Sabrina gave her a puzzled look. "Uh, dinero means money in Spanish. Why?"

"I had to hide because two guys came into the backyard to smoke. They were talking in Italian. I don't have a clue what they were saying, but they said that word a lot. The Latin languages share a lot of the same words, I thought you might know."

Jill suddenly laughed.

"I bet they answered all of our questions right in front of your face, only you don't speak Italian." she said, shaking her head at the irony.

Kelly gave her a sideways smile. "Yeah, that would sound about right."

"So, you sure that was Moretti in there?" Sabrina asked Kelly, too distracted by her discovery to be angry at her any longer.

Kelly nodded her head. "Positive. It could mean nothing, but then again, why would he lie to us about where he would be?" she reasoned, more to herself than her friends.

Sabrina and Jill looked thoughtful.

"I don't think we should confront him quite yet. Let's see if we can get him to tip his cards." Sabrina suggested.

Jill nodded. "We'll tell Bosley to meet us at the office tomorrow morning and explain to him what's going on. Maybe Charlie can do some fact digging for us."

Sabrina and Kelly murmured their approval of Jill's idea.

" I think it's time to call it a night. Why don't you two just stay over at my place so you don't have to drive home so late." Jill offered.

"Thanks, Jill." Sabrina and Kelly chorused.

The girls arrived at Jill's twenty minutes later, exhausted and more than ready for bed. Jill called Bosley and set up a meeting for the following morning. They had been in the dark long enough.

Tomorrow it would be time to get some answers.