Nita Morales studied me for a moment as if she was disappointed, then picked up her smart phone and touched the screen.
“Do you speak Spanish?”
“A few words, but, no, not really.”
“I’ll translate. This is the second call. I recorded it-”
Nita Morales’s voice came from the tiny speaker as she answered the incoming call.
“Krista, is this you? What is going on out there?”
A young woman fired off rapid-fire Spanish. Then Nita’s voice interrupted.
“Speak English. Why are you carrying on like this?”
The young woman shifted to English with a heavy accent.
“Mama, I know you want me to practice the English, but I cannot-”
She resumed a torrent of Spanish, whereupon Nita paused the playback.
“She’s pretending. This exaggerated accent, the poor English. My daughter has no accent. This isn’t the way she speaks.”
“What is she saying?”
“She began by saying they’re concerned because they didn’t get the money.”
“Who’s they?”
She held up a finger.
“Listen-”
She resumed the playback. A young male voice took Krista’s place, and also spoke Spanish. He sounded calm and reasonable, and spoke several seconds before Nita paused the recording.
“You get any of it?”
I shook my head, feeling slightly embarrassed.
“He’s saying he has expenses to cover. He wants me to wire five hundred dollars, and as soon as he gets the money he’ll see that Krista gets home.”
I sat forward.
“What just happened here? Was Krista abducted?”
Nita rolled her eyes, and waved me off.
“Of course not. The rest is just more Spanish. I’ll tell you what they said.”
“No. Play it back. I want to hear the emotional content.”
The playback resumed. Nita repeatedly interrupted. The man remained calm. He waited her out each time she interrupted, then resumed as if he was reading from a script.
The recording finally ended, and Nita arched her eyebrows.
“He apologized for asking for the money. He told me where to wire it, and promised to take good care of Krista while they waited. Then he thanked me for being so helpful.”
She dropped the phone to her desk. Plunk.
I said, “This was a ransom demand. It sounds like she’s been abducted.”
Nita Morales waved me off again.
“He put her up to this so they could get married.”
“You know this for a fact?”
“You don’t kidnap someone for five hundred dollars. Five hundred dollars is what your stupid boyfriend tells you to ask for when he wants money. And this business with the Spanish and the bad English? This is absurd.”
“Did you pay them?”
“Not the first time. I thought she was making a joke. I thought she would call back laughing.”
“But she didn’t call back laughing.”
“You heard. I wanted to see if she would come home, so I paid. She hasn’t called again, and that was four days ago. I think they used the money to get married.”
All in all, Krista Morales did not sound like a person who would shake down her mother for a few hundred bucks, but you never know.
“Why would she pretend she has poor English?”
“No idea.”
“But you believe she’s pretending she’s been abducted to swindle five hundred dollars from you?”
Her mouth dimpled as she frowned, and the dimples were hard knots. But after a moment they softened.
“Even smart girls do stupid things when they think a boy loves them. I was so upset I drove out there, but they weren’t home. I waited almost four hours, but no one came, so I left a note. For all I know they went to Las Vegas.”
“Did you call the police?”
She stiffened, and her face grew hard.
“Absolutely not. Krista has everything ahead of her-possibilities no one in my family would have even dreamed. I’m not going to ruin her future with nonsense like this. I’m not going to let her throw her life away by doing something stupid.”
“If what you believe is true, Berman might have her involved in something more serious.”
“This is why you’re going to find her. The man they wrote the article about, he would save this girl’s future.”
“If she’s married, there’s nothing I can do. I can’t force her back if she doesn’t want to come.”
“You don’t have to bring her back. Just find her, and tell me what’s going on. Will you help me, Mr. Cole?”
“It’s what I do.”
“I thought so. You aren’t the World’s Greatest Detective for nothing.”
She burst into a wide smile, went behind her desk, and held up a green checkbook.
“I’ll pay you five thousand dollars if you find her. Is that fair?”
“I’ll charge you a thousand a day, and we’ll start with a two-thousand-dollar retainer. Expenses are mine. You’ll save money.”
She smiled even wider, and opened a pen.
“I’ll pay you ten thousand if you kill him.”
I smiled at her, and she smiled back. Neither of us moved, and neither spoke. Outside on the floor, the big stitching machines whined like howling coyotes as they sewed patches to baseball caps.
She bent to write a check.
“I was kidding. That was a joke.”
“Like me being the World’s Greatest Detective.”
“Exactly. When can you leave for Palm Springs?”
“I’ll start at her apartment. It’s closer.”
“You’re the detective. You know best.”
She wrote the check, tore it from the checkbook, then gave me a large manila envelope.
“I put some things together you might want. Krista’s address, her phone number, a picture, the receipt when I wired the money. Things like that.”
“Okay. Thanks.”
“Anything else?”
“This will be fine. I’ll start with her roommate. Maybe you could call her, let her know I’m coming?”
“Oh, I can do better than that.”
She picked up a red leather purse, and went to the door.
“I have a key. I’ll let you into her apartment and introduce you.”
“Sorry, Ms. Morales. I’d rather go alone.”
Her eyes grew dark and hard.
“You might be the World’s Greatest Detective, but I’m the World’s Greatest Mother. Don’t forget your swag.”
She walked out without waiting.
