Custody interviews kept me busy until noon on Friday. I drank coffee, had a sandwich, returned to something I’d woken up thinking about, and phoned Milo at his desk.
He said, “Still dealing with the real world?”
“As opposed to?”
“The surreal, reeking underbelly of our city.”
“The chamber of commerce should put that on a brochure,” I said. “I’m calling because of what Marty Kehoe said about living with O’Brien in Culver City. That could explain why O’Brien chose to drive there to dump Marissa rather than leave her closer to his apartment in Hollywood.”
“Sticking with his old comfort zone?” he said. “Sure. So?”
“More than that,” I said. “What if he’d had other emergencies with drugged women who’d survived. A woman left impaired could also inspire revenge and a Culver City link could narrow down the search. I looked up hospitals and urgent-care centers and it’s a short list. One hospital and four smaller facilities.”
“Sean and Alicia already looked for priors, Alex. Zip.”
“How’d they go about it?”
“Checked our files for victims left outside hospitals. All they cameup with were a couple of male drunks who’d been beaten up and dumped.”
I said, “Would a woman found lying outside with no evidence she’d been dumped get into your files? Especially if it was classified as a medical emergency and there was no criminal investigation?”
“In the best of worlds it would,” he said. “Could it slide under the radar? Sure. Meaning good luck finding out.”
“A malpractice suit would leave a paper trail.”
“If it went to trial, it would. If it settled with a non-disclosure agreement, forget it.”
“Okay, just thought I’d pass it along.”
Silence. “Gimme that short list.”
—
When he’d finished copying, he said, “Long as I have you, might as well give you an update. Such as it is. Marissa’s car was found in South L.A., stripped. So someone stole it and had their way with it, which tells us nothing about where her last party was. Petra impounded it and it’s being printed. I got Marissa’s phone records and there’s no activity a couple of hours before she was likely dead. And nothing postmortem so O’Brien probably did toss it.”
I said, “Well before he got her to his place so the towers didn’t point there.”
“That’s what I’m figuring. There’s no prior phone contact between the two of them but I did find one number they both called. Another online outfit that runs pop-up PR events. You apply to attend, if they approve you, you get to party. Marissa called it three days before she died, O’Brien, ten days before.”
I said, “Another list for her. Maybe a job application for him. Working the door, like Kehoe said, while searching for prey.”
“Slimy bastard—it’s weird being seconded to Hollywood and focusing on him. That’s what Shubb called it. Seconded. Anyway, the number’s disconnected, I emailed, am waiting for them to get back to me. Still haven’t heard from Thailand so I’m not holding my breath.What else…Petra and Raul’s canvass of O’Brien’s neighborhood turned up three reports of a guy skulking around the building a few hours before the sniping. Medium size, dark hoodie, one person thought he was Caucasian, the other two said they couldn’t tell. All were impaired to some extent and skulking’s pretty much routine in that neighborhood. Bottom line: useless.”
“Was he carrying anything resembling a rifle case?”
“Wouldn’t that have been peachy. Nope, just a guy. The people in O’Brien’s building saw nothing weird that night though a few of them described O’Brien as obnoxious and having women come and go frequently. Petra and Raul will be heading back to the building next door to try a second round of door-knocks. Size of the place, they’ll probably need to rinse and repeat. I did some phoning around on Boykins and Parmenter. Turns out Crips World is a rapidly changing environment. No one in the gang squad or any of their informants has a clue about either of them.”
“Fleeting fame,” I said.
“Hey, it’s L.A. Any other suggestions?”
“You mind if I ask around at the Culver City facilities?”
“Why would I mind?”
“Don’t want to get in Alicia and Sean’s way.”
“They already did their thing. What do you figure you can accomplish that they couldn’t?”
