Guilt

Milo said, “Sir?”

Jack Weathers said, “What exactly are you claiming happened? Because I absolutely refuse to believe it was anything serious. I pride myself on being an excellent judge of character and that young lady had obviously fine character. She was religious, had a letter from her pastor.”

Milo pulled out one of Qeesha’s mug shots. “What about this young lady?”

Daisy blurted, “Her?”

Jack tried to hiss her silent.

She said, “I’m really at sea over this. Will someone please tell me what’s going on?”

Jack folded his arms across his chest.

Milo said, “You’d placed Qeesha D’Embo where you sent Adriana.”

Silence.

I said, “Qeesha vouched for Adriana. That’s why you didn’t feel the need to screen her.”

Daisy said, “Normally, we’d still screen. But if it was urgent-”

“They get it,” said her husband.

She pouted. “Jackie?”

“We’re not saying anything more, gentlemen. Not without advice of counsel.”

Milo said, “You want a lawyer to answer routine questions?”

“You bet.”

Daisy put the figurine down. No visible tremor but the base rattled on the desktop.

Milo said, “You’re not being accused of any crime, Mr. Weathers.”

“Even so,” said Jack.

“You didn’t screen Adriana but you did screen Qeesha.”

Daisy said, “I’ve never heard of Qeesha, we knew her by another name-what was it again, Jackie?”

Weathers shook his head, drew his finger across his lip.

“She’s a beautiful girl,” said Daisy. “The way those black girls can be with their big dark eyes. What was her name … something with an ‘S,’ I believe, I’d have to check the-”

“Shut up, Daze!”

Daisy Weathers stared at her husband. One hand bounced on her desktop. The other rose to her face, pinched cheek-skin, twisted. Her eyes turned wet.

Jack Weathers said, “Oh, baby.”

Daisy sniffled.

He turned to us. “Now look what you’ve done-I need you to leave.”

Standing, he pointed to the door.

Milo said, “Suit yourself, Mr. Weathers,” and got up. “But here’s what puzzles me. You run a business based on the ability to judge character. You said before that whatever happened to Adriana wasn’t a big deal because she was a woman of good character. But from what I can tell, you’re only batting five hundred, sir. Good for baseball, not so good for job placement.”

“What are you talking about?”

“You were right about one thing, wrong about the other. Yes, Adriana seems to have been a woman of excellent character. But what happened was a really big deal.”

“What happened?” Weathers demanded.

“Your lawyer can tell you. After we return with your friends at BHPD armed with a search warrant for all of your records.”

“That’s impossible!” Weathers shouted.

“Jack?” said Daisy.

“It’s not only possible,” said Milo, “it’s probable.”

“You’re not making sense!” said Weathers. “Adriana had excellent character but she still committed some kind of … bad deed?”

“She didn’t do anything, Mr. Weathers. Something was done to her.”

“She’s hurt?” said Daisy.

“She’s dead, ma’am. Someone murdered her.”

“Oh, no!”

“I’m afraid yes, Mrs. Weathers.”

“I never even knew her, Jack hired her. Poor thing.” She cried. It seemed genuine, but who could be sure about anything on the Westside of L.A.

Her husband remained dry-eyed.

Milo said, “Care to fill us in, sir?”

“Not on your life,” said Jack Weathers. “Not on one blessed second of your blessed life.”

CHAPTER 32

We lingered outside the door Jack Weathers had just shut. Conversational noise began filtering through the wood: Daisy Weathers’s higher-pitched voice, plaintive, then demanding. No response from Jack. Daisy, again, louder. A bark from her husband that silenced her.

Several seconds later his voice resumed, softer, less staccato. A long string of sentences.

Milo whispered, “On the phone, now it’s a lawyer game.”

We left the building.

Milo drove a block, U-turned, found the farthest spot that afforded a view of the marble-clad building. Red zone but until a B.H. parking Nazi showed up, the perfect vantage point.

I said, “Waiting for Jack to leave?”

“Maybe I stirred up enough for him to meet with legal counsel. I tail him, find out who I’ll be dealing with. Without that I can’t approach him.”

“No warrant party with BHPD?”

“Yeah, right. On what grounds?”

“Jack’s demeanor.”

“He got agitated? To a psychologist, that’s grounds. To a judge, you know what it is.” He stretched, knuckled an eyelid. “Any way it shakes out, he’s toast. Runs a business based on image and trust and hires one woman with a police record, another who ends up getting killed. And who was referred by the bad girl. Screening my ass.”

I said, “Maybe it goes beyond that. Weathers bills himself as a Hollywood insider so maybe he also placed Wedd. At the same client who employed Qeesha and Adriana. Someone powerful enough to shelter income in the Caymans and to scare Weathers straight to legal counsel.”

“CAPD,” he said.

“Let’s try to find out who they are.”

“Easier said than done.”

“Maybe not.”

I pulled out my cell, punched my #1 preset.

Robin said, “Hi, hon, what’s up?”

“Got a spare minute for some research?”

“About what?”

“Ever hear of CAPD?”

“Nope.”

“Who would you call if you needed info on a big-time showbiztype?”

“What’s this about, Alex?”

I told her.

She said, “Interesting. I’ll see what I can do.”