Tuesday
1 AM
Keri's eyes were heavy as she drove from downtown back to Venice. At 1 AM on a Tuesday morning, the typically brutal Los Angeles traffic was a breeze, but she was in no mood to appreciate it. She realized she was drifting across the lane on Lincoln Boulevard and yanked herself back. She jacked up the radio on some awful-sounding EDM song and lowered all her windows, letting the hot nighttime air whip at her face and hair.
Someone was lying to her. The stories of boy toy rocker Walker Lee and security guard Artie North were completely at odds. But without evidence to go on, she had to depend on her instincts.
That's why she was pulling up next to Lee's apartment. She considered calling Ray but decided he could use the sleep. Besides, if things went south, this would be better as a solo project.
She banged on his door and he answered within seconds. Clearly he hadn't been sleeping. A suitcase sat open on the couch behind him. It was stuffed to the brim.
Keri looked at it, then at him, and said, "I talked to the security guard, Artie North. He denied having any footage of Ashley or using anything like that to try to extort her into sex."
Walker rolled his eyes.
"The little shit's lying."
"Even if that's true, the more I mull it over, the more I think you pointed me to him as a decoy. There's something going on you haven't told me about. I told you before, be straight with me and you won't have anything to worry about. But lie to me…" She let the sentence trail off.
Walker Lee stood in the doorway, clearly unsure how to proceed. Keri tried to help him out. She nodded at the suitcase.
"Are you leaving town?"
"Yes."
"When?"
"Any minute, actually."
She tried to bite her tongue but couldn't. "That's a pretty pathetic thing to do, don't you think? With Ashley needing everyone in her corner right now?"
His eyes got stony.
"You know what? Enough's enough. I'm sorry if something's happened to Ashley but I'm sick of you being here."
Keri was surprised by the defiance in his tone. He'd played it so cool up to now that she'd been taken in. But he was definitely hiding something. She just wasn't sure if it had something to do with Ashley's disappearance.
"Mind if I come in?" she asked after she brushed past him and was already well into the apartment.
Despite her rising blood pressure, she walked quickly but calmly back to his studio. He tried to keep up, futilely saying, "I do mind."
Ashley moved to the microphone stand in the middle of the room, slowly removed the mic, and stared at it introspectively, as if she'd never seen one before. Then she suddenly swung it by the cord, in a circle high above her head, allowing the frustration of the day to fuel her. Walker Lee stared for a moment, dumbfounded. Then he found his wits again and opened his mouth.
Hey, don't-" he started. But before he could finish the sentence, Keri changed the trajectory of the microphone and swung it at him. It struck him flush on the forehead above the left eye.
He slumped to the floor, dazed. After a moment, he reached up to the spot and then looked at his hand. It was covered in blood, which was flowing profusely down his cheek onto his bare chest.
It took a second for what had happened to register. While Keri waited for him to process it, she walked over to the counter and grabbed a rag she found lying there. She tossed it in his general direction.
"What did you do to my face?" he whined pathetically.
Keri knew she'd probably gone too far but she was committed at this point. She felt wide awake now.
"I'm sick of you screwing around with me. We're done with that. Get it?"
The man put the rag to the wound to stanch the bleeding and said, "I'm going to sue you."
"The only thing you're going to do is tell me what I need to know, Walker. Otherwise, the other side of your head's going to get a matching welt. Or maybe I'll go for your guitar-playing hand next. You lured me into this soundproof studio and came at me. I defended myself forcefully. That's the story everyone will believe unless you start talking right now."
Whatever he'd been hiding this whole time, Keri could tell he was about to finally give it up.
"Look, the only other thing I can think of is, there's this guy who hangs out near the Boardwalk that me and Ashley buy drugs from now and then; nothing serious, just pot and ecstasy. He goes by the name Auggie."
Keri had never heard of him before. Either he was small-time or it was an alias.
"Okay, go on."
"Well, the last time we did business with him-when was it? Wednesday night, yeah, that's it-he was looking at Ashley really weird the whole time, like a wolf looking at a bunny or something. I didn't say anything but I can tell you I didn't like it. He gave us the stuff, I gave him the money, but then he wanted more. He said the price had gone up. He told me to come back with the rest of the money within the next few days. Then he made a cryptic remark, which I took to be a vague threat against Ashley if I didn't return to pay him more. I never went back. Screw him, it wasn't fair. He jacked up the price without telling me. I don't play those kinds of games. Also, I heard his guys use a van for smashing and grabbing TVs and computers and stuff. Don't know the color though."
Keri tried to imagine it. If Walker was telling the truth, then Ashley knew Auggie and wouldn't hesitate to move closer to a van he was in.
"You should have told me this before."
"What I should have done before was never get Ashley involved in all this stupid stuff to begin with," he admitted. "I should have kept her safe. I don't know how all this got so screwed up."
Keri looked at him closely. The left side of his face was covered in blood-matted blond hair. But she sensed something approaching sincerity. Maybe there was hope for him yet. But that wasn't her concern.
"Do you know where Auggie lives?"
"No. But he hangs out in a dive club called the Blue Mist Lounge, at Windward and Pacific, right next to Townhouse. That's where everybody meets up with him."
That was only half a mile from Ashley's house. Keri pulled five twenties from her purse, tossed them on the floor, and said, "Go get that head stitched up. There's an urgent care clinic ten blocks east of here." She paused and added, "And don't trip into any more counters."
He nodded, understanding. And then he surprised her.
"Be careful with Auggie, Detective. He's a seriously bad guy."
"Thanks," she said as she walked out, not saying out loud what was going through her mind.
I'm feeling seriously bad myself right about now.
