Josie fixed her gaze on Mallory’s. “What do you mean that Eloy could get her to do anything he wants?”
Mallory squirmed in her chair. “Chloe told me he’d convinced her to pose for some naked pictures of her. There were photos where they were doing more than that. Later, she found out they were uploaded to some website he ran. She begged him to remove them, but he refused. He even threatened to send the pics to her parents.”
“Did you see any of the images?”
The girl shook her head.
“Do you know the name of the website?”
“She mentioned it once.” The teen stared off in the distance…apparently thinking. “Um…something with the words barely legal. Barely legal girls? Barely legal pieces?” She sighed. “I’m sorry. I don’t remember.”
“When did she tell you this?”
“Last night when I was driving her to the motel.”
“What’s the name of the motel, and where is it?”
“It’s on Topanga. I’ve heard you can get drugs there. I think it was called The Oaks.”
Josie scratched out notes in her pocket notebook.
Mallory’s face broke into a grin. “Barely Legal Lady Bits! That’s it! That’s what the website was called.”
Josie smiled too and made a note. “Good job.” Then she got serious again. “If she was afraid of him, why would she meet with him?”
“She didn’t say, but I don’t think she felt she could refuse.” Mallory bit her lip. “Look. I saw the video of that mob at the Promenade. That looked like Chloe’s car to me. I’m worried that somehow she’s involved in that whole thing. The day before the robbery at the mall, Chloe suggested that we go to Flair and shop.”
“Go on,” she said.
“Chloe was acting weird, looking at shoes and purses that her parents would never let her buy because they were so expensive.”
“So, what happened next?”
“We took a few photos of some of the things we looked at, and then left.” She made a face. “We wanted to get out of there because the guy in the shoe department was freaking us out.”
“Why was that?”
“He was acting all pervy—especially toward Chloe.”
“What happened once you left the mall?”
Mallory shrugged. “Nothing. Chloe drove me home, and I assume she went home.”
Josie rose from the sofa. “Let me talk to Detective Ferrari. You should wait here in case he has some follow up questions for you.”
“Okay.”
She went out the back door where the two men were sitting on a retaining wall in the shade.
Both men met her as she stepped outside.
She left the door open a crack behind her and kept her eyes on the girl.
“What did she have to say?” Ferrari asked.
“Sounds like Eloy was blackmailing Chloe with pornographic photos he took of her. He threatened to send the pictures to her parents.” She told him about the website and gave him the name.
Bender held up a finger. “He gets her to be a driver at the hit on the Flair department store, and she accidentally runs over Dolby.”
The detective turned his attention to her. “Did Mallory know anything regarding the mall heist?”
She nodded. “She’d seen the video and thought that looked like Chloe’s car.” She then related what Mallory had said about being at the Flair department store the day before the mob burglary.
Ferrari moved back toward the house. “Let’s talk with her a little more.”
Once inside, he settled next to Mallory on the couch. “What I’m really interested in right now is what Chloe told you last night. What was her frame of mind? Was she happy to see Eloy at the motel?”
“I’m not even sure that’s who she was meeting. I just assumed that’s who it was. I dropped her off and left.” She pulled at a thread on her fleece shorts. “She hasn’t been the same since she met this guy.”
“How did they meet?”
The girl sighed. “We had some fake IDs and went to a club in Hollywood. We hadn’t been there ten minutes before Eloy was all in her face and flirting with Chloe, luring us to his table with drinks.”
“Do you remember the club?”
She chuckled. “Hard to forget it. Sodom and Gomorrah.”
Josie wrote the name in her field officer’s notebook.
The detective nodded. “What happened that night?”
Mallory shrugged. “He really came on strong and wanted her to leave with him. But she likes to call the shots and have the guys falling all over themselves for her. She gave him her number. She was so excited when he called her the next day.”
“When did they start dating?”
“Right after that night. Of course, she used me as a decoy because her folks would have freaked if they knew she was going out with someone who was so much older.”
“Did they have any special places that they’d hang out?”
“Just Eloy’s house. She’d always tell her mother she was hanging out with me, but she was really with him.”
“One last question,” Ferrari said. “When you were driving Chloe to the motel, did she mention her car, or the officer being killed?”
She shook her head. “I didn’t ask, and she didn’t volunteer. It’s like I don’t know her anymore. I sure hope you find her soon.”
He gave the teen a business card and told her to contact him if she remembered anything else that would help them locate her friend.
The three LAPD people stood on the sidewalk by Ferrari’s sedan.
“We’re going to check out the Oaks Motel. I’ll get my partner Haynes and another team from RHD en route to help us with any follow up. I’ll also call Glendale PD to check Beglaryan’s residence to assure they aren’t there. I’ll get SID to confirm Chloe’s photos are on Eloy’s website, so I can get a want issued for him and his vehicle.”
Bender frowned. “What for? We’re not sure he even has the girl.”
“Once it’s confirmed he uploaded sexual pictures of a juvenile to the internet, he’s a suspect in the distribution of child pornography.”
Her partner appeared perturbed that he hadn’t been right but shifted gears. “Okay, let’s go find that dirtbag and get the girl home.”