Blood Defense

THIRTY

Alex pulled a notepad out of his pants pocket. “The desk sergeant who was on duty that night wasn’t around. But Dale told me where he’d busted the tweaker, so I went there and pretended I was looking to score. And you were right; he was in the same place Dale busted him-on Hollywood Boulevard in front of Grauman’s Chinese Theatre. He was dressed up like Luke Skywalker, posing for pictures with the tourists.”

A lot of speed freaks made their money that way. While they were putting an arm around Susie from Dayton, Ohio, and smiling for the camera, they were slipping a hand into her purse and stealing her wallet. “Did Dale tell you why he busted the guy?” Dale worked homicide, not petty street crimes.

“Dale got him-his name is Flip, by the way-on a failure to appear on a jaywalking ticket. But the real reason was because Flip was an eyewitness to a drive-by, and he’d been dodging the detectives.”

“So what’d Flip tell you?”

“Turns out he and Jenny bonded a little when they were in jail. Her pimp wouldn’t bail her out because he caught her skimming. So he dumped her and she had no place to stay. Flip said she could crash with him at”-Alex thumbed a page in his notepad-“Hotel Washington on Sunset Boulevard just off Coronado Terrace.”

“She was scamming her pimp? That sounds promising.” If she had the balls to do that, she might’ve had the balls to try and shake Dale down, too.

“Yeah, that’s what I thought. So I headed over there and pretended to be looking for my connection.”

“An inspired choice, Alex.”

He dipped his head. “Thank you. The book says sometimes you have to-”

“Just tell me what you got.”

“It’s a good book, Samantha; you should check it out.” I stared at him. He sighed and continued. “I found a guy who used to be friends with Jenny.” He looked down at his notepad again. “He calls himself Bozo-no last name-but I think I can find him again. He’s been there for a couple of years. He said she liked to talk about the scams she’d pulled down in Orange County. He wasn’t sure how much of it was true. But she also told him she’d figured out a way to make big bucks off the county.”

I sat up. “As in, by claiming she got raped by a cop?”

“Almost. Said she knew a girl down in Orange County who’d been roughed up by a cop and sued the department. They wound up settling for fifteen thousand. Jenny said she wanted to get in on a sweet deal like that.”

I sat up. This was sounding better and better. “Oh yeah, baby. So how come he ‘used to’ be friends with her? She move away?”

“More likely ran away. Jenny ripped him off. The last night he saw her, they were hanging out in his room. He was getting high; she was drinking-”

“What was he using?”

“Oxy.”

“Oxy? Pretty high rent for that bunch.”

Alex nodded. “Which is why he was so pissed. He’d scored the pills-well, actually, stolen them-from his sister. She had a prescription because of a car accident. Anyway, Bozo nodded off, and when he woke up, his stash was gone and so was Jenny. He hasn’t seen her since.”

“And that was when?”

“About a year ago.”

That would’ve been right around the time she blackmailed Dale. “Does he know where she went?”

“No. He says he’s been looking for her, but…”

I smiled. “He’s no Alex Medrano. Sounds like Jenny had to find a new place to be. As in, a whole new place.”

“Yeah, I was thinking she probably went back to Orange County.” Alex shook his head. “She’s a real puta-and I don’t mean the kind who has sex for money. That girl burns everybody she gets close to.”

I didn’t want to get too happy too soon, but it sure sounded like Dale had been telling the truth. I was relieved, and I knew it went way beyond my concern for the case. “Great job, Alex.”

“Do I keep looking for her?”

“No. This woman’s never going to admit she lied. If she crawls out from under her rock now, it’ll only be to claim the rape charge was righteous.” The farther away we stayed from her, the better.

“You want to give this to the press?”

“It’s risky. Trashing her might make Zack decide he’s got nothing to lose by digging her up.”

And if the cops found her and she cleaned up well, he’d put her out in front of the tent to say she was telling the truth about Dale. It’d make our already bad press even worse.

“But he might not find her. Zack’s no Alex Medrano, either.” He smiled. “And even if he does find her, this intel will cream her credibility.”

Now that I thought about it, Alex was right. Bozo couldn’t be Jenny’s only enemy. She probably had a whole passel of Bozos looking for her, which meant a whole passel of reasons not to want to be found. Which meant Zack had almost no chance of finding her. And the sooner we gave people reason to doubt this rape charge, the better. “Good point. I’ll give this one to Trevor.”

Print was better than the camera this time. I wanted the public to get all the details. And I wanted the story to circulate for a while. If I put it out now and let the public soak it up, they’d be less likely to buy her claim even if Zack did find her.