The Prostitutes Ball

Chapter 16.

While I called Jeb and told him what we'd found, Sumner Hitchens was talking to the metal detector operator. They were rummaging around next to the trash area where the 7.65 bullet was found, looking for another hit. Jeb wanted us to bring in the slug right away. As I hung up, I saw Hitch walking toward me.

"Come over here," he said.

"Find something?"

"Yeah."

I followed him across the yard around to the side where the smaller bullet had been uncovered. There, built into the eaves of the trash shed, was a new-looking video surveillance camera in a waterproof box that was so well hidden that everybody had missed it the night before. If it had a wide-angle lens, it would cover the entire pool area.

"Hello, hello," I said, standing under the camera and sighting in the genera] direction it was pointed.

"I love it when we catch the killing on tape," Hitch said. "It really fucks with the defense attorneys head."

We followed the hidden ground cable to where it led into the mansion through a small hole drilled in the stucco at the base of the exterior wall.

"Video deck's inside the main house," I said. "Call Jeb and see if he can get us a warrant, or better still, to save all that trouble, maybe somebody from the Dorothy White Foundation will come out here and just open this up for us. Give us verbal permission to go inside."

While Hitch made the call, I walked around the side of the mansion and looked through every available window.

I hadn't done it the night before because I was positive that the house was deserted. I should have, because by the light of day, even though the windows were dirty, I could now see that the mansion still had some furniture inside, unusual for a deserted house.

Making this discovery even more intriguing was the fact that through one window I could just barely see a fully decorated Christmas tree standing on the far side of the solarium in the living room. The tree looked to be about seven feet tall and there were a lot of unopened Christmas gifts underneath.

Hitch came back after making his call and found me peering through the big round solarium window. "Jeb already called the lawyer at the foundation last night. They're gonna open this up for us without a warrant. What ya got?" he asked.

I pointed and he looked through the dirty glass at the sparsely furnished room and the fully decked-out tree and presents barely visible in the living room beyond.

"Thought nobody lived here," he said.

"Somebody's sure as hell all ready for Christmas," I said.

"Act One was on life support but its sure got a nice heartbeat now" Hitch replied.

"We've gotta go through this house," I said. "If somebody's in there then they could be a witness to the shooting." "Right."

"Why would everybody lie about this?"

Jeb Calloway arrived in about an hour, followed a few minutes later by Stender Sheedy Sr.

The legendary letterhead partner of Sheedy, Devine amp; Lipscomb turned out to be a seventy-year-old gray eminence in a charcoal suit with hair the color of roadside snow and such a pale complexion that it looked like he never got into the sun.

His manner indicated he was accustomed to being treated with deference. The only cops he'd ever dealt with had probably been holding traffic citations.

"I don't have much time," he announced abruptly. "I came personally because I conversed with Thayer Dunbar in Houston this morning and he's getting extremely annoyed. He doesn't want the house involved with all this."

What that had to do with a triple murder escaped me.

Stender Senior had a large ring of keys in his hand and walked past the pool where Chrissy and Paula had died without even bothering to glance at the blood-tinged water. Then he pulled up the ball of keys and, like a school janitor about to open a delinquent's locker, started trying keys in the heavy Yale padlock.

"We were told that nobody lived here," I said.

"Nobody does," he replied curtly.

"There's a Christmas tree in the living room with unopened presents under it."

He didn't bother answering as he continued to search for the right key.

"It's almost Christmas," I persisted. "That tells me somebody is living here."

He finally found one that worked, slipped it in, and twisted the padlock open. Then, once it was off, he turned and grimaced at me, exposing teeth almost the size and color of yellowing piano keys.

"Nobody lives in this house" he said, enunciating each word slowly and carefully, as if speaking to a three-year-old child or an idiot. "That tree has been there since we purchased this property in eighty-two."

"Really?" I said. "If it had been up almost thirty years wouldn't it be nothing but twigs by now?"

"It's synthetic. It was up and the presents were all there when the house was sold to us. The Dorothy White Foundation bought the property as a real estate investment for the Dunbar family. Then, when Brooks was born, I was asked to do some estate planning and the foundation was transferred into his portfolio along with this mansion. Since we were holding the property for long-term capital gain, we never bothered to clean out the house. Does that answer all your questions?" Without waiting for a reply, he turned the knob on the back door and pushed it open.

We entered into a kitchen pantry. There was easily an eighth of an inch of dust on the linoleum floor. Several sets of footsteps were tracked in the dust.

"Somebody's been inside recently," I said, pointing at the tracks.

"The security company comes in to service the video surveillance. I'm sure the tracks will only lead to the laundry room downstairs where the equipment is."

He led the way down to the laundry room. As it turned out, he was right. The tracks led to the basement, where we found a new surveillance DVR and monitor mounted on a bracket near a laundry table.

Jeb walked over and shut it off, then said. "How long is this set to record?"

"Almost a month. I think the company said it works on motion detection." Stender Sheedy Sr. frowned at his watch.

"I'd like to take a look around in here," I said.

Tm trying to cooperate," he said. "I realize three people died out by the pool. It s painfully apparent to me and to Thayer that young Brooks must have been secretly renting out this backyard to obtain extra money for his extravagant social habits. But even so, he was only making the backyard available and with that fact in view, I would suggest you confine your murder investigation to the pool area and keep the house out of it. I represent Thayer Dunbar, who intends to hold this property until Brooks is thirty-five. Then it will eventually be rehabbed and sold. He does not want the house included as part of your crime scene."

"Three people died here last night," I said.

"No. They died in the backyard." Then he heaved a theatrical sigh and began humoring us. "I'm sure it's not lost on you that many buyers are superstitious about houses, especially ones that have been involved in horrible murders. Once a house is rumored to be haunted the price drops precipitously. The backyard is one thing, but if the house becomes part of the investigation it could cost the Dorothy White Foundation a good deal of money."

"All of which means what?" I asked.

"I'm asking you not to create a problem where one need not exist."

"You mean, we'll have to get a warrant if we want to look around in here."

"I didn't say that. What I said was, please don't needlessly compromise this real estate investment."

We all stood locked in a stalemate. Then Jeb made a decision.

"Shane, let's start by looking at the surveillance video. If the shooter is on there, maybe this can just get wrapped up fast, like we all want."

"If that's your call, Captain," I said. Hitch shifted his weight and when I looked over at him I could see that, like me, he was uncomfortable with this.

"That's my call," Calloway replied stiffly.

I could tell by his voice that Jeb didn't like it either, but Thayer Dunbar and Stender Sheedy were part of L. A.'s power elite. They could pick up the phone and call people the three of us only read about in the paper.

We took the DVR into evidence and left without searching the house, although on the way upstairs from the basement I arranged to get myself lost for a minute so I could check out the Christmas tree. It was synthetic, just as Stender Sheedy Sr. had said. Everything, including the unopened presents, was covered in dust.

"You coming?" Jeb called out to me.

"Yeah, sorry, I thought this was the way out," I fibbed.

Stender locked the door and returned to his Century City law firm.

We returned to Jeb's office downtown and set up to watch the video.

You wouldn't believe what was on there.