Deck let out a blood-curdling scream, so strident Athen wondered if he needed to smack some sense into the guy. He made Deck remove his shoes then took off his own. He gripped them by the shoelaces as he led Deck outside. While Deck leaned against a stone column and hyperventilated, Athen called Paulie Hansen. It wasn’t easy juggling the shoes and the phone.
“You need an ambulance?” Paulie asked. “What’s all that noise?”
“Landlord of a missing woman freaked out when he saw blood. How fast can you get here?”
“On my way.”
“And bring a crime scene crew.” Athen’s thoughts raced.
“That might take a while. We just got a robbery in progress at the Morgan Price jewelry store on Rodeo Drive. It’s all over the news. Security guard shot. Our crew’s on scene dusting for prints. I can put in a request with the chief for immediate response. Gimme your address.”
“Is the guard okay?” Athen couldn’t believe the city had two major cases in one day. Beverly Hills was usually so sedate. They hadn’t had a single jewelry store robbery since he’d been here. The last one was two years ago. Thieves had broken into Jason of Beverly Hills in the middle of the night and taken off with 1.4 million dollars in diamonds.
“He’s okay. Man and a woman posing as customers,” Paulie said. “They held everyone up at gunpoint. He confronted them. Damn he’s got some balls on him. They shot him and took off, but Bonnie and Clyde were caught on tape. Crime scene analysts are there. Guard’s in the hospital.” Paulie took a breath. “I’m watching it all on TV. Our guys have the suspects in a highspeed chase on the 101. Why do they always run? They know they’re gonna get caught.”
“Just get here. And bring Sullivan with you.” Athen knew that very soon he’d need a female officer to help him interview the other residents in the building and Sullivan Tang was the best, next to Lucy, of course. “And Paulie, I’ll let the chief know you’re on the way.”
“Is this why she benched me? Kept me on hold for you? I was getting jealous that Lorne Brand caught this one.” He gave a slight chuckle.
Lorne Brand. A capable detective but Athen couldn’t stand the guy. He was thrilled to know Brand was out of the way at the jewelry store.
“I asked for you. Gotta go.” Athen ended the call just as Deck started yelling again.
“Where’d all that blood come from, man?” He doubled over. Oh, crap. He was having an anxiety attack.
Athen told him to sit on the stoop. “Put your head between your legs and breathe. I’ll be right back.” He put a call through to Lucy Lane. His only thoughts were, could somebody survive losing that much blood?
“What’s going on?” a woman asked, running over to him.
Athen held up a hand to ward off more questions and took note of Lucy’s instructions.
“Do not talk to the media. Did you find a passport, or any other kind of ID?”
“No, sir.”
“Damn. Get back inside and search. I’ll leave you to it. I’ll get you evidence analysts, but it’ll be at least fifteen minutes.” She paused. “Maybe it’s time to call in SID.”
“Yeah. That might be a good idea. Paulie told me about the jewelry heist.”
“The offenders look like teenagers. I can’t believe it.” She took a deep breath. “Talk to this Maggie Harman woman. Do you want to involve the Saudi consulate at this time?”
“Yes, sir.”
“You want to do it, or do you want me to handle it?”
“If you could call them, I’d really appreciate it.” Athen hated dealing with royal muckety-mucks. He preferred to let Lucy be the politically correct one. “I have no contact number there, though Scott told me that Maggie reported Natasha missing to the consulate this morning. He specifically told me not to contact them.”
“Screw him. I’ll take a hit for the team, Blackeye. I’ll get back to you. In the meantime, this cannot get out. It must be contained. I can’t stress that strongly enough. Is Paulie gonna be enough help?”
“Yes, sir,” he responded. “He’s bringing Sullivan Tang with him. I trust them both. I want to keep this contained as well. Until I know what we’re dealing with.”
“Roger that.” She ended their call.
Athen squinted at the woman bouncing on her toes beside him. He recognized her as the naked woman dancing in her bathroom. Now she was sporting tiny white dolphin shorts and a tight white T-shirt that read, Blink If You Want Me.
“Do you have any brandy at home?” Athen asked her, hoping like hell he didn’t blink.
“I have cognac.” She cast a surprised glance at Deck, whose head remained bent as he choked and cried.
Athen nodded. “Bring him some please. He’s had a shock.”
The woman’s ruby-red-painted lips parted, but she took off with the grace of a gazelle. Athen popped his state-issue Chrysler 300 open remotely and managed to get both pairs of shoes into evidence bags. He removed paper booties and disposable gloves from his trunk then paused for a moment. I need a blue felt-tip marker and transparent tape for my cellphone. He had some in the evidence kit he kept in there and pocketed them.
As he returned to the apartment building, the ruby-painted gazelle walked over to him with a brandy balloon. Its amber contents sloshed the bottom of the glass, coating it with tiny, liquid waves.
“Thank you.” Athen took the glass from her and nudged Deck who leaned his head against a creamy white and gold column, shaking. “Here. Drink this.”
Paulie and Sullivan arrived a minute later. It had taken them two minutes, one more than the Beverly Hills Police Department allowed, but they’d hustled to get here judging by his harried appearance. Deck’s freak-out forced Athen to tend to him before he could deal with Paulie. It was then Athen realized he was still wearing only his socks. He quickly donned booties and handed a pair to Paulie.
“Want me to call Grady and ask him to bring you another pair?” Paulie asked.
“Thanks, I’d appreciate it but first, I want you to look at something.” Athen turned to Sullivan. She was a lovely, warm woman. A natural blonde, according to Grady.
She wore a black pant suit paired with black lace-up shoes. She’s ready for anything. Sullivan was beautiful and calm and deceptively strong. Didn’t take crap from anybody. She was Athen’s kind of person.
“Can you keep an eye on things out here for me?” he asked, placing the bagged shoes beside her. “I’m leaving these with you. Please don’t let them out of your sight.”
“I won’t, sir.”
“Hit me up when the crime scene analysts show up.” He paused. “Special Investigations Division might show up since we now have two active crime scenes.”
She nodded and glanced down at Deck who was blinking up at her through tears. He smiled, but she looked appalled.
Is he really coming onto her? “Shoot him if he makes a pass at you,” Athen whispered to her. She grinned at him.
Athen and Paulie had so much to do Athen had to decide where to start. He nudged Paulie, handing him a pair of paper booties. Paulie was already slipping on gloves. “Follow me.” They headed over to Natasha’s apartment.
“The whole place feels off to me,” Athen muttered. “Staged. She’s had a recent break-in and I couldn’t find a purse with ID anywhere. Her cellphone and laptop are missing. Her friend and manager Maggie Harman came and took Natasha’s cat this morning.”
The faint scent of heavy perfume still lingered.
“Shalimar,” Paulie said, taking a sniff.
Athen welcomed Paulie’s attention to detail, and his keen sense of smell.
“Is that a common perfume?” Athen asked.
“No. Well, it was back in the day. I had an auntie who used to wear it. She always wore that, or Charlie perfume.” His expression became pained. “Isn’t Natasha King young?”
“Yes. But she’s a Saudi princess. Maybe they wear things like Shalimar over there,” Athen responded. “Okay, now here’s where things get real.”
He led Paulie to the patch of carpet in the walk-in closet that oozed blood. He knew that the crime scene techs would do their own blood analysis but Athen needed to know now how bad things were.
“Strong smell of cleaner,” Paulie said.
“Yep.” Athen pulled out the transparent tape and blue marker from his pocket. After covering his LED flash on his phone with the tape, he swiped the blue pen across it. He repeated this process.
“Man, I love this hack,” Paulie said. “Want me to record?”
“Yup.” Athen had just turned his phone into a black light. He pressed the video record function and the small room lit up like a bizarre Christmas tree.
“Holy crap!” Paulie recorded it all, neither man saying a word as they took in the wide arc of smears and evidence of crazy blood spatter.
“Oh, this is creepy,” Paulie said when Athen stopped his phone.
“Yeah.”
“I’ll send you what I got,” Paulie said.
“Thanks.” Athen went to the bathroom. “I don’t see anything in here we can use for trace.” He opened cabinet doors and drawers.
“Didn’t you say there was a cat in here until this morning?” Paulie asked.
“Yeah.”
“No litter on the floor. I don’t care how neat and tidy you are, there’s always gonna be a few litter grains.”
Athen thought for a moment. “True. But according to the landlord, the cat’s been locked out the last two days.”
His phone pinged and Athen quickly removed the doctored tape from his phone. “Can you send it on to Lucy as well, Paulie?”
“Sure thing, boss.”
Athen’s phone rang. Sullivan let him know the crime scene crew had arrived. As he and Paulie stepped outside, the building’s residents came running out of their units to see what was going on.
Athen handed one of the techs the bagged shoes, letting him know which pair was which, and sighed. God knows when I’ll see mine again.
He nodded to Mike, one of the newest crime scene techs hired by the department.
“Sorry it took us so long,” Mike said. “Been a busy morning.”
“You were quick.” Athen smiled at him. “Glad you’re here.” He turned to Sullivan. “I’m gonna need your help.”
“You got it,” she said.
Athen turned to the four female residents huddled together. “I need to talk to all of you and I’m going to ask you respectfully not to discuss anything with each other until we’ve asked you a few questions. Do not take photos of anything. No posting a single thing to social media. Don’t call your friends to gossip. Nothing.”
They all exchanged looks.
“Do any of you have security cameras in your apartments?” Athen asked.
Another round of hooded, guarded looks. Then they all stared at him.
“No,” one of them said, casting a vicious look at her landlord. “Cameron won’t allow it.”
“You don’t need it. I’m always here,” he bleated.
“Yeah. Right. Tell that to Natasha King,” one of the women said.
Athen sucked in a breath. “I’ll be right back.” He gave Sullivan a meaningful look.
“I’ll be right here,” she said. The look she swept over the group before her would have frozen time.
“Thanks. Mike. Front door,” Athen said.
Mike and his team followed Athen and Paulie. Outside Natasha’s door, Athen nodded to Paulie.
“Show ‘em what we’ve got.”
Paulie played back the footage as the four-man team clustered around them.
“Christ,” somebody muttered.
“Obviously, I need to know if this is one person’s blood and if so, could the victim have survived this kind of blood loss?” Athen asked.
“If it’s one person, I’m gonna say no,” Mike said.
In the small dressing room, Mike held out an arm to block anyone from coming closer. “I smell a household cleaner.” He sniffed. “I believe it’s four-zero-nine. That’s a weird choice for carpeting.”
“Whoever did this cleanup job was desperate,” Paulie said. “I think they got rid of a ton of stuff in the process.”
“Probably grabbed whatever was handy,” Athen said.
Mike sighed. “Let me get to it. We’ll start here and examine for other possible blood spatter and fingerprints.” He stared down at the stained carpeting. “Particularly in the bathroom. Somebody went to great lengths to clean up here. But they panicked.” He gestured to Paulie’s phone. “The smeared, frenzied way they wiped at the wall. Probably thought the blood would dry up under the carpet before anyone came in here.”
“Or they thought they’d have more time to finish up.” Athen’s voice was quiet. He wanted to take a closer look at Cameron Deck.
“They must have washed their hands at some point.” Mike turned to Athen. “We got any cleaning products in the kitchen?”
“Not that I checked. Yet.”
“Any DNA on the possible victim?”
“Not yet. Her fingerprints must be all over the place. But for hair or trace evidence, we couldn’t find a hairbrush or toothbrush in the bedroom or bathroom.”
“There isn’t even any dirty laundry,” Paulie said. “Not even a hamper.”
“Cameron Deck mentioned he last saw her taking out laundry two days ago,” Athen said. “Maybe she takes everything out to be cleaned.”
Mike held up a hand. “We’ll take care of a more thorough search. If I find good, useable prints, I’ll run ‘em through AFIS immediately.”
“Okay.” Athen nodded. “She was supposed to have arrived here almost six months ago, but without an exact date, it’s gonna take some time for Homeland Security to check her prints from her arrival at LAX. She would have had to give thumbprints.”
“You’re right.” Mike sighed. “They’re backed way up. Without an exact date it could take days. But we can try.”
“Paulie and I will check for a passport or some other form of ID then we’ll get out of your way.”
“Do that.” Mike gave him a slight smile.
In the bedroom, Athen and Paulie methodically opened drawers and found underwear and bras. No socks or panty hose. Huh. Weird. Then he thought about the dresses he’d seen in the closet. Maybe this girl didn’t wear jeans or jog. Yet, she was a fitness fanatic judging by the multiple supplements in the kitchen. The whole thing felt off. He knew that in Saudi Arabia, Natasha would have to wear an abaya, and that even showing her ankle would be considered offensive. Yes, she was a royal, but at some point, she had to respect her family’s customs. He itched to speak to at least one family member to see when they’d last heard from her, but so far, he had nothing to go on.
Paulie checked the bathroom despite the fact the crime scene crew would take care of it themselves.
“I don’t see makeup or women’s stuff,” Paulie reported to Athen. “Only a bottle of generic anti-dandruff shampoo in the shower stall.”
He and Athen checked the two handbags dangling from the handle of the bedroom door. They were pricey designer bags that would have made Despina drool but contained nothing more than a couple of crumpled tissues. One of them had a parking pass to the Beverly Hills post office. Athen studied it. Beverly Hills was the only post office he knew of that not only issued passes but had valet parking as well. The ticket would have her prints on it, but so did other objects in the apartment. According to the timestamp, Natasha had been to the post office at 3:45 p.m. two days before.
Maybe they have security cameras. We’ll check if she was alone and what she was doing there. He put the ticket on her bed and took a photo of it then handed it to Mike in an evidence bag. He dropped to his knees and checked under the bed. Nothing. Not even a dust bunny. The place felt devoid of personality and any trace of real, human life.
“What’s bothering you?” Paulie asked.
Athen shrugged. “All of it. What vibe do you get?”
“I feel like it’s almost empty. Maybe she’s taken off and she’s missing of her own accord.”
“Maybe. But she’s been here nearly six months and got a cat. Would she just take off and leave it?”
“I wonder. And how did her friend Maggie know to come get the cat this morning?” Paulie asked.
“Yeah. Does she know something we don’t?”
“I tell you what else is weird. There’s no perfume anywhere in the place. No Shalimar. Either Maggie wears it herself or she sprayed some from a bottle that was here and took it with her.” Paulie pointed a gloved finger at the bedside tables. “I’m pretty certain there were bottles on them and someone swept them up. I still see ring marks. You’re right. Somebody staged all this.”
They looked at each other. Athen drew in a breath. He suspected that he and Paulie had just stepped into what was about to become a massive, international catastrophe. A Saudi princess being murdered. They moved on to the kitchen where Paulie examined the same surfaces Athen had before heading outside again.
Athen asked Paulie and Sullivan to interview each resident away from one another asking if any of them had information on Natasha. “Find out if any of them saw her leaving with her laundry two days ago.”
Cameron Deck sat on a stone step, tears flowing down his face. He sipped the cognac, but it just seemed to make him more hysterical. Sullivan stood over him, an odd look on her face.
“Do you have any idea where Natasha takes her laundry?” Athen asked him.
“Naw. Some place in West Hollywood. It’s a Chinese name. Sort of fake Chinese name. Heck. It might even be called The Chinese Laundry. I just forget what it is. They usually pick up, but she had an argument with their delivery guy last week. They shrunk her favorite dress and she went off the deep end.”
Athen jotted a note in his phone to check for Chinese laundries in West Hollywood. He then stepped away and called Lucy Lane. She listened with grave attention as he gave her a brief rundown on things.
“No ID at all?” She blew out a sigh. “I called the consulate. Waiting for a callback now. How much blood is there?”
“A lot. It doesn’t seem to me that whoever suffered, could have survived that kind of loss. I’ll defer to Mike on that. I took my shoes off and got out of there. I gave ‘em to the crime scene guys. I’ll let you know as soon as I have any further news.” Athen’s thoughts raced. “Listen, we’re gonna need to check Natasha’s phone records. We need to know who she called last, and when. Can you use your charm to track them down? I’ve jotted down her number and according to an old bill I spotted on her desk, she uses AT&T. I tried calling her and it went straight to voice mail.”
“I’ll do that. Just give me the number,” Lucy said.
“Will do. And I’ll text you a copy of the bill. I’m wondering if she has a second phone. Not a lot of calls and most of those are to her friends Maggie and Isla. They both came here this morning. No idea who the guys were that came here last night looking for her.”
“You need more help?” Lucy asked.
“Just you, Paulie, and Sullivan, right now. Oh, and I want to check Natasha’s appointments she had for yesterday, and today.”
“Let me do that. I can share the load with Sullivan. You got numbers?”
“Yeah. I took photos of her calendar. I’ll text that to you as well. She was supposed to be getting a V-steam and a slew of other things over the last couple of days. And what the hell is a V-steam?”
Lucy chuckled. “Vaginal steam. It’s the latest thing.”
Ugh. “If you say so. Today, she’s supposed to be at an important acting class and her Got Set shoot. If you can chase up the beauty treatments, I’ll work the business angle and let you know as soon as I have anything.”
“Likewise. By the way, Scott fell off a different horse. Broke his collarbone. He’s in Cedars-Sinai so no need to contact him. He’s under heavy sedation.” She paused. “Somebody recorded it on a cellphone and it’s all over the Internet. He was wearing chaps over his suit pants.”
Athen grinned. “Yippee Ki yay,” he whispered, making Lucy laugh.
Before he could do anything, he got another call. Unknown Number. He suspected it was Cricket. He had enough on his plate, starting with the need to track down Maggie Harman and Isla Sanchez.
“I gotta talk to you. Where you at?” Cricket asked. The line crackled just like it had last night. Athen realized now it was Cricket’s creepy habit of chomping on fried pork rinds. Huge bags of it.
“You still on surveillance?” Athen asked.
“Yeah. How’d you know?”
“The pork.” Athen scratched his head. He was itching to get back on the case.
“Oh, yeah. Well, look. It won’t take long but it’s urgent.”
“What’s so urgent?”
“I guess nobody’s told you.” Cricket coughed. It sounded like the guy was about to lose a lung. Nasty. “We found Allie Madden.”
Athen’s jaw literally dropped. “Where?”
“Buried in a field ten miles from her house. We need to talk. Now.”
“I got a big case.”
“This is big, too.”
“Where do I find you?”
“I’m across the street from your big case.”
“What?” Athen swiveled his gaze. He finally picked out a snazzy-looking black Camaro parked two blocks away facing him. The headlights blinked on and off.
“You’re following me?” Athen’s fury flared.
“Meet me at the corner of Linden and Lomitas. Don’t come near the car.”
“Okay.” Athen’s thoughts raced. Cricket was watching him. Why? He got his bearings and told Paulie he’d be right back.
“I don’t have any leads,” Paulie said. “Nobody saw anything. And the natives are getting restless.”
“I’ll be right back.” Athen realized Cricket was sending him away from the Camaro and the crime scene. He arrived at the appointed corner outside a clutch of swanky homes that must have had starting prices of around three million bucks.
Cricket was there, pork rinds in hand. He offered Athen the bag, then his gaze swiveled downward. “Nice footwear, Athen.”
Holy cow. I’m still wearing booties. He waved away the pork rinds. “Oh, no. Thanks.” Athen shook his head. Cricket’s fingers were stained orange from the snacks. He looked the same as Athen remembered him, with maybe a few more short grey hairs, checked shirt and jeans with a crease. He couldn’t look more like a US Marshal if he tried.
“We found Allie Madden six weeks ago. I know it hasn’t been big news out here but back east it’s been a huge deal.”
“I’d say so.”
Cricket was a big guy who looked like he should be fat but wasn’t. given the chance to loiter in front of his TV a week or two and he would be. Not that Cricket would allow that to happen. He was as committed to solving crimes as Athen was. The Allie Madden case had affected them both.
“We found her by accident,” Cricket said then. “Some poor schmoes doing routine grading work out in a field slated for development found what they thought were finger bones poking out of the ground. Turns out they were right. Local cops issued an excavation order and the forensic pathologist for the state of Virginia took over three weeks ago once she was ID’d as Allie.”
He let that sink in for a moment.
Athen closed his eyes. The old man, Kai, had been right. Athen and Cricket had argued over Kai’s insistence that she had not been dumped in the lake.
Cricket’s tone turned husky with a trace of emotion. “She’d been shot in the back of the head. There was some DNA on her clothing. Semen stains on her jeans and on her jacket. Her purse was underneath her body. We think she was raped. Evidence of stabbing as well as the gunshot. Amazing the DNA survived since her remains were skeletal.”
Athen was riveted. He and Cricket had worked hard on the case. “You’re going to tell me the DNA doesn’t match Phil Madden’s.”
Cricket’s face fell for a moment. “How do you do that? You’re right. And the DNA didn’t bring up a direct hit.”
“Really? So why am I here?”
Cricket’s expression turned sly. “My niece has gotten involved in some very sophisticated form of DNA testing.”
“And?”
Cricket’s eyes turned flinty with anger. “I’m gettin’ to it. If you’d let me finish speaking.”
Athen couldn’t believe she’d been buried in a field and not dumped at sea. He and Cricket had argued often over Athen’s late-night consultation with Kai. Actually, he and Cricket had argued a lot once Athen got involved with Grady. Cricket had always known Athen was gay, but as long as it was an abstract theory and there was no real boyfriend at hand, Cricket was okay with it. But Grady had been real. Athen had been so focused on his career and his budding romance it had taken a while for him to realize Cricket rarely invited him to family events. They’d grab dinner together, or breakfast, when they were working cases, but once Grady came into his life, Athen felt he’d been iced completely from Cricket’s family life.
“So, Phil Madden’s girlfriend lied about Allie being tossed in the lake.”
“Oh, yeah.” Cricket shoveled a few rinds in his jaw. “You always said so.”
Athen, like many cops, worked from intuition. Now he was feeling positively psychic. “Oh, man. You’ve gone rogue.”
Cricket’s shoulders sagged. “How do you do that? Look, I’m not completely workin’ off the radar, but I have no probable cause to arrest the guy I think is good for it.”
Athen squinted at him. He said nothing hoping Cricket would explain.
Cricket waved a hand around. “The DNA doesn’t match Phil Madden.”
“Yeah, you said.”
“Nothing on file anywhere.” Cricket flinched. “Which means the suspect hasn’t ever been put into the system.” He waited a beat. “My niece came up with an idea. The FBI has quietly been working with a couple of those genealogy websites where people submit their DNA to try and find long lost relatives. One of them is working with law enforcement.”
“Sounds like a good idea to me.” Athen was surprised that a genealogy website would do this since the work was supposed to be confidential.
“This website lets its users know that they share information with law enforcement and people don’t seem to mind. Guess they think they’ve got nothing to hide.”
“Or they think it may help them track hard-to-find family.”
Cricket nodded. “Right.” He let his chubby fingers root around the snack bag for a moment. “Anyway, my niece got in touch with the site, submitted the suspect’s DNA.”
“You got a hit.” Athen was riveted.
“Yes, and no. The type of testing these sites do is called Genetic Genealogy. It’s broader than DNA because they can get a general idea of a family DNA.”
“I see.”
“So, we got a hit. A family in Pennsylvania. This woman has been looking for relatives. I’ve been checking her out.”
“Pennsylvania’s nowhere near Virginia Beach, Allie Madden’s last known sighting.” Athen pondered. “Wait. Maybe a five, five-and-a-half-hour drive at most. Not that farfetched. Damn. Is there a name that came up that we missed during our investigation?”
“Don’t do this to yourself. I’ve beaten myself up plenty and it’s pointless. This suspect came up out of nowhere. That’s why I’m here. The woman I mentioned in Pennsylvania. She’s a widow. An empty nester. Husband died eight years ago.”
“So, he can’t be our suspect,” Athen blurted.
“No. But I found her on Facebook. Been spilling her guts all over it. She has two daughters, and one son. It can’t be the daughters obviously who raped and stabbed our girl. Must be the son.”
“Okay. I’ll bite. Who’s the son?”
“Tyler James.”
Athen stared at him. “Tyler James?” As in the movie star Tyler James, who also happened to be Athen’s friend and current landlord?
“We’ve been watching your house. You are aware he bought the place two doors down from you and he’s been staying there?”
“No. He’s in New York working on a show as far as I know.”
“Nope. He’s back. He has no idea we’re onto him. But this is where you come in. He’s hanging out with your niece.”
“What? When?”
“She knows he’s here. She’s been sneaking out of your house late at night to see him. I’ve peeked in the windows. Boy, can she talk. It isn’t sexual, but he listens to every word she says.” Cricket paused. “I think he’s grooming her.”
Athen wanted to blurt out the truth about Despina, that she’d just come out as gay to Athen and Grady, but it wasn’t his place. Besides, whatever her own truth was, it didn’t stop a guy with an un ulterior motive from trying to groom a young woman.
Cricket blathered on, unaware that he’d just detonated an emotional neutron bomb. “Can’t figure out why else he’s spending so much time listening to a teenager who’s as boring as batshit. Oops, sorry. No offense meant.”
“None taken.”
“If he’s the guy who killed Allie Madden, then he’s a vicious, sick killer. I haven’t told you the half of what he did to that girl. And your niece is underage. I wish I could come up with a reason to bring him in for that, and cut him in his tracks, but I got nothing on him there. All they do is talk.”
Holy shit. Athen was speechless. I’m gonna ground her for life. Then I’m gonna kill Tyler James.
Cricket looked at him. “So far, this Genetic Genealogy has only been used for one criminal case. That was the arrest of the Golden State Killer. Who, as you know, is still awaiting trial.”
“What do you need me to do?” Athen asked. He knew the Golden State Killer case had been a huge one for investigators spanning more than three decades and several different California cities. Joseph James DeAngelo had been arrested but he’d eluded discovery and capture for years. Authorities believed him to be the most prolific serial rapist in US history. They still didn’t know how many victims there were, but he’d managed to kill eleven people and was escalating those violent crimes. Athen believed he would have continued his long-term spree had he not been caught.
“I need you to get Tyler James’ DNA. I don’t care how you do it, as long as he has no idea we’re onto him,” Cricket said. “I can’t do it legally, like I said. I’ve been watching him for days. He hasn’t dropped so much as a discarded paper cup in his trash. So damned frustrating. You in?”
“Hell, yeah.” Athen knew if they could get Tyler’s DNA off something he’d thrown away, they could legally obtain it and enter it into a case’s evidence. His phone rang. Lucy Lane. 911. “I gotta go.”
Cricket raised a hand in farewell. “And, Athen?”
“Yeah?”
“Sorry about your niece. Teenagers are a pain in the ass. I’m gonna forward you everything I have on the Allie Madden case.”
“Do that.” Athen turned and headed back to the crime scene. The thought occurred to him. He hadn’t talked to Cricket in months. How did he know about Despina? Damn. He’s really been watching us. Maybe that’s a good thing. An extra set of eyes on Desi. “I’ll be in touch,” he said over his shoulder. He took Lucy’s call. “Sir?”
“I just spoke to a representative at the Saudi consulate. You’re not gonna believe this, but Maggie Harman never called the consulate this morning, and the guy I talked to has no record of Natasha King, or Natasha Al-Khan. She is no Saudi princess. And they have no knowledge of her. He said she could be a regular citizen and they wouldn’t necessarily know of her, but if she were really from a royal family, she’d be on their radar.”
“Hot damn.” Athen swallowed. Hard.
“No such number. No such zone, as the song says.” Lucy lapsed into silence.
“Then who the hell is she?” Athen ground out.
“That’s what I’m hoping you’ll tell me. I don’t wanna find out she’s some kind of suicide bomber. I don’t want her to be a terrorist, Athen. Whoever the hell she is, tell me. And make it soon, Blackeye. Please.”