Killer Ambition

5

She pushed her sunglasses on top of her gray crew cut and planted her short, squat frame in front of us, hands on hips. “You two been in there already? ’Cause if you have…” The look in her eyes finished the sentence.

“Absolutely not,” I said.

“I wouldn’t let her,” said Bailey-the obnoxious, kiss-ass traitor.

I shot her a sidelong look. “I’d never-”

Dorian cut me off with a wave of her hand. “I’ve got no time for this, Tweedledum and Tweedledee. You want the house and backyard?”

“Yeah.” Bailey explained what we were looking for and where the investigation stood at this point.

“Okay,” Dorian said. “Now feel free to get going. I sure as hell don’t need you here.”

We saluted and left. As Bailey pulled away I asked, “What was that ‘I wouldn’t let her’ business all about?”

“Just earning a few credibility points for future use-”

“At my expense-”

“You’re not the one who has to pull favors to get her. Sometimes you got to take the hit for a higher cause. There’s no ‘I’ in ‘team,’ Knight.”

“Yeah, but there is one in ‘kiss-ass.’”

“You’ll thank me the next time we need her and I have the suck to pull her out of rotation.”

She was probably right about that, but it didn’t stop me from privately vowing to get even sometime soon. Bailey’s smirking glance told me she knew what I was thinking. It’s not always a great thing having someone know you that well.

We rode through the traffic in silence for a few moments, then suddenly Bailey gave a short laugh. “What a trip. Ian Powers was little Mattie-”

Russell Antonovich’s manager and business partner.

“And he still knows how to turn on that cutesy smile,” I said. “So you watched the show too?”

“Never,” Bailey said. I gave her a look. “Okay, once in a while.”

We turned left at Outpost Drive and I enjoyed the view of the charming, old, and very pricey neighborhood as we headed over the hill and into the Valley to Clarington Academy, where we planned to brace up Hayley’s bestie, Mackenzie Struthers. The uniform who’d questioned her late last night hadn’t gotten much of anything out of her. It was our turn to try.

“Want to call the principal and have Mackenzie ready for us?” Bailey asked.

“Nope. I got her cell number from Raynie. I’ll call her when we get there. The less lead time, the better.”

“Good point.”

I had no particular reason to think Mackenzie would lie to us. But my experience with teenagers has taught me that they invariably keep secrets from the adult world and they consider it an honor to guard those secrets closely. I don’t think it’s nefarious, I think it’s just tribal loyalty. With a little time, I could probably earn enough of Mackenzie’s trust to get her to open up. But with Hayley’s life hanging in the balance, time was the one thing I didn’t have. I needed to know it all and I needed to know it right now. The less time Mackenzie had to ruminate and sift through what she did or didn’t want to share, the better.

And I had the element of surprise on my side because Hayley’s kidnapping wasn’t public knowledge yet. We’d decided to keep it all under wraps for the moment in the hope that it would induce the kidnapper to release Hayley. But that strategy was a short-term option; we wouldn’t be able to keep it quiet for long. Someone was bound to leak, and soon. There were dozens of employees, assistants, all their friends, and then there were cops and all their friends, and…you get the picture. And even if no one leaked, we couldn’t afford to wait more than a couple of days without running the risk that we were exposing Hayley to greater peril by keeping it quiet. If she didn’t turn up in the next day or so, we’d have to change strategies and put the story out there to ratchet up pressure on the kidnapper to let her go.

Bailey badged our way into the principal’s office-which was casually yet tastefully decorated like no public school principal’s office I’d ever seen-and explained in as little detail as possible that we were there on official business that didn’t involve any student misconduct. The principal looked confused, but he was cowed enough not to ask questions. He gave us the run of the school grounds. Bailey and I moved outside the building, where we wouldn’t be overheard, and I called Mackenzie on her cell.

Raising my voice by at least an octave, I said, “Hey! Where’ve you been? I been lookin’ for ya!”

“At the track,” Mackenzie huffed, out of breath. “I gotta make up-uh, is that you, Jess?”

Bingo. I’d managed to sound like her buddy Jess. Whoever that was.

“What?” I asked. “You’re breaking up…” I pretended we got cut off and ended the call. “You see the track?” I asked Bailey.

“Dead ahead.”

Bailey led the way as we trotted quickly toward the track, which was just behind the principal’s office on a big, well-tended field. Luckily, there was only one girl running laps with a cell phone in her hand. She was average height, about five feet five, but her long, gangly frame made her seem taller. And it was clear that running was not her “thing.” Her legs flailed out at the knees and her hands flopped as she bounced down the track, and even from the distance of one hundred feet, I could see she was red-faced and winded. Of course, in this heat even a strong runner would be boiling. When she neared us, I flagged her down. “Mackenzie!”

She didn’t respond at first, and I noticed she had earbuds on, so I waved my arms and called to her again. She glanced at me but didn’t immediately stop her slow, ungainly jog until Bailey held up her badge. That got her attention. She came to a dead halt, eyes bulging, as she pulled out her earbuds. Though Mackenzie was sweating, she blanched and almost stumbled as she moved toward us.

“Come on, sit over here.” I gestured to a shady section of the bleachers. Mackenzie watched us warily, but she followed us without a word and sat down. “We need to talk to you about Hayley. We’re looking for her.”

An expression of alarm crossed Mackenzie’s face. “What happened?”

“That’s what we need you to tell us, Mackenzie,” Bailey said, in her stern “just the facts, ma’am” voice.

“I-I already told the officer last night. I don’t know anything-”

I positioned my body so the sun wouldn’t blind me and looked at her steadily. “But you two were together on Thursday. You went to Teddy’s with her. And we know you were staying with her at Russell’s house in the hills.”

At the mention of their night at Teddy’s, Mackenzie swallowed so hard I could practically hear the gulp. The fact that I already had that much information hinted that I knew a great deal more, and as I’d intended, it rocked Mackenzie’s bearings. Now was the time to offer reassurance and gain some trust. I shook my head. “We’re not here to bust you for clubbing. We just need to know when you last saw Hayley and whether anything…unusual happened.”

Mackenzie worked her jaw silently for a moment, absorbing this. “I…you’re right, we went to Teddy’s on Thursday. But I went home on Friday morning. I haven’t seen her since then.”

“Will anyone at home verify that? Your mom-”

“My mom’s dead.” She tried to make it sound flat, casual, but the strain in her voice undermined the effort.

Thus Maria’s observation that she was the “sad one.” “I’m so sorry, Mackenzie,” I said gently. She didn’t look up, so I moved past it quickly to give her an escape. “Your dad. If I call him, he’ll say you came home on Friday?”

“Yeah.” Her unstudied monotone told me it was true. “I had to go home. I had a job interview at a plant nursery called Pretty Maids on Melrose. You can check if you don’t believe me.”

“I believe you, Mackenzie. Did you two hang out with anyone new at Teddy’s?” I asked.

Mackenzie frowned, then shook her head as she tucked a hank of her long, straight brown hair behind her right ear.

“Did your boyfriends go to Teddy’s with you?” I knew better than to think that any boyfriends were along for that ride; bouncers are a lot more reluctant to let fake IDs pass for guys than for girls. But I was fishing for information about any guys who might’ve had access to Hayley.

“I don’t have a boyfriend…”

I took a shot in the dark. “But Hayley does. Was he there?”

“No.”

Though I didn’t want to scare her off by getting too pushy, I was starting to lose my patience with this choppy exchange. “Listen, Mackenzie, you must’ve figured out that something serious is up. A cop showed up at your house last night and now we’re talking to you. Obviously Hayley’s not in school and no one seems to know where she is. As far as we can figure, other than her dad, you’re the only one who’s seen her since Thursday. So it’s very important that you tell us whatever you know, whatever you saw, that might help us find her. Understand?”

Mackenzie stared over my shoulder. She looked frightened but, oddly, not shocked. She knew something she wasn’t telling, that much I was sure of.

“Was Hayley unhappy? Did she run away?”

Mackenzie bit her lip and blinked rapidly. “I-don’t think so. She never said so. I mean, she’s had her stuff with her mom and dad, but who doesn’t?”

No argument there. “And you have no idea where she might’ve gone? Maybe a friend’s house?”

“I don’t know, but I don’t think so.” Mackenzie clasped her hands together in her lap and stared down at them. “I-I wouldn’t make her mom suffer like that if I knew where she was. Raynie’s so nice…”

“But not Russell?” I asked, though I knew her answer might not have had anything to do with Russell. Having lost her own mother, it made sense that Mackenzie would focus on Hayley’s mother. But I was trying to find a way to pry her open.

Mackenzie shook her head. “No, no, Russell’s cool. Way cooler than my dad. I mean, he lets us use his house in the hills, his town car, stuff like that. But he’s not around as much as Raynie, you know?”

I did know. Hayley had the cool dad. That he was also a world-famous director was not as important as the fact that he facilitated their lifestyle and partying. I wondered if it had occurred to her yet that Russell’s “coolness” might’ve been what put Hayley in harm’s way. Probably not. No teenager believes there’s such a thing as too much freedom.

The sun had moved since we’d sat down and now threatened to fry the left side of my face. I shifted to the right to get under the shade of a large jacaranda and pondered my next move. I wanted it to be a cold shower. I could feel the sweat beading up under my blouse and my hair sticking to the back of my neck. “What about Hayley’s boyfriend? Could she be with him? Or maybe he knows where she is?”

Her face darkened. “I don’t know if she’s with him, but if she isn’t, he’d probably know where she is. Hayley tells him everything.”

Was that a note of jealousy? “They’re pretty close, huh?”

“Yeah.”

“How long have they been together?”

“Not that long. About two, three months, something like that. At first they were just friends, but then it was like all of a sudden they were joined at the hip. I never got to see her without him.”

Definitely jealousy. “You know where he lives?”

Mackenzie shook her head.

“Do you have his cell?”

“Yeah.” Mackenzie had a guilty look as she pulled out her cell phone and began to scroll. I had a feeling I knew why.

“Do Hayley’s parents know about this guy?”

Mackenzie shook her head. “No one knows about him. Except me and a few of the girls we hang with.” She handed her phone to me.

I looked at the entry. “Brian Shandling.” I handed the phone to Bailey so she could get the information. “I’m guessing you knew him better than the others, am I right?”

“Probably.”

“Because you were closer to Hayley than anyone else.”

Mackenzie nodded. “Pretty much.”

“How old is Brian?”

“Eighteen? Maybe nineteen. Yeah, I think he’s nineteen.”

“You have a picture of him?” I gestured to her cell phone.

Mackenzie picked up her phone and accessed her photos. After a few seconds, she held the phone out. “That’s him.”

The photo showed a nice-looking guy, tallish and slender, with dark brown eyes, curly brown hair, and one of those charming crinkly smiles that says “I’m a nice guy who sends his mom flowers on her birthday.” He had an arm around Hayley, who was snuggling into his chest with a happy smile. It was a sweet picture. They looked like the kind of kids you rooted for, the ones who gave you hope for a nicer, kinder generation. My heart sank at the thought that one of them might be in grave danger.

“I’m going to forward this to Bailey’s phone,” I said. “Okay?” Not that I needed her permission, but it felt like the civilized thing to do.

“Yeah, sure.”

“Does this guy go to college? Have a job?”

Mackenzie shrugged. “Don’t know.” But her eyes darted away from mine as she answered. Another possibility entered the equation.

“Is it possible Hayley ran away with Brian? Would she do that without telling you?”

Mackenzie picked up the earbud wire and looped it around her fingers. “I don’t know…I wouldn’t have thought so before. But now…”

The unspoken end of the sentence: Since Brian the Interloper had come between her and Hayley, all bets were off. But that made me consider a less savory possibility.

“What do you think of Brian?”

“He’s okay, I guess.”

“Is he the kind of guy who might hurt Hayley?”

Mackenzie jerked up, her expression stunned, and shook her head vigorously. “Never! No!” She frowned. “I kind of felt like he got between me and Hayley, and she’s my best friend in the world, so, you know…” Mackenzie shrugged, then looked directly at me for the first time. “But there was nothing bad about him. He’s a really good guy. Even to me. I just didn’t like that after he showed up, there was hardly any time for just me and Hayley.”

Pretty forthright and fair-minded of her to admit all that. And the sentiment felt genuine. I’d been considering the possibility that Brian had kidnapped Hayley to make some fast money-and I wasn’t about to let go of that theory just yet. But if Mackenzie’s assessment was accurate, it was a less likely scenario than the alternative I’d been considering: that Hayley had run away with Brian and cooked up the kidnapping scheme to give them some starter money. It was an ugly possibility, and one that spoke to some serious problems between Hayley and her parents. But it did have the virtue of ensuring Hayley’s survival. At least until we brought her home and her father got hold of her.

“When did you last see Brian?”

“The last time I saw him was when he met us at Starbucks after school on Wednesday.”

“And there was nothing unusual about Hayley when you left her on Friday morning?”

“Yeah. I mean, no. She didn’t tell me…I mean, I didn’t know of anything wrong.”

Uh-uh. That last answer was a big clam. Something unusual had gone down, and whatever it was had her plenty worried. But short of holding her upside down and shaking her by her heels, we had no way of making her tell us. She wasn’t worried enough to spill the beans. Not yet, anyway.