“She gave me the exact times, hold on…O’Brien logged in a little over six hours before Marissa. Why?”
I said, “Trying to get a feel for how it came together. My bet is O’Brien got himself on the list then told Marissa it was exclusive—him being a producer and all that. Then he told her he’d pre-cleared her but she still needed to apply online.”
“She’s thinking it’s hoo-hah, makes it all the more attractive.”
“All part of the grooming.”
“Asshole. Well, he won’t be missed and no one seems to be building a monument to Mr. Parmenter, but poor Whitney Killeen’s tugging at my heart. I reached the Sheriff’s detective who first worked her case. He’s an assistant chief in Goleta now, and just like Flores said, he couldn’t care less.”
“Any reaction to the bullet match?”
“A grunt,” he said. “Then he took another call. Moving on, Petra and Raul got a few more sightings of Mr. Hoodie slouching around O’Brien’s neighborhood and one person claims he was carrying a long package. But no leads to his identity.”
I said, “Parmenter’s shot in Hollywood, Whitney in Ventura County, then back to Hollywood for O’Brien. Our bad guy travels but his home base could still be in that area.”
“Petra agrees, she’ll check parking tickets in and around that night and Raul will talk to attendants at pay lots. I spoke to Whitney’s boss at the accounting firm. Said she was a private person, all business, couldn’t imagine anyone wanting to hurt her. The only contact he had with Ventura was a brief phone call.”
“Was the boss aware of the conflict with Sterling?”
“Nope, all he knew was Whitney had a kid because she kept a photo on her desk. I also phoned the company Sterling works for inNew York and lucked out with a very helpful executive secretary who informed me Sterling had moved back to L.A. couple of months ago.”
I said, “Two years go by, case goes cold, no more need for the golden alibi.”
“Interesting, no? According to the secretary they moved Sterling to New York ’cause they wanted him closer to Europe. Now they’re back to concentrating on Asia so the West Coast makes more sense.”
“Did she sound credible?”
“You never know for sure but my gut says yes. Because when I mentioned Sterling, she said, ‘Oh,him.He doesn’t work here anymore,’ as if that was just fine. Clearly not Mr. Popular, so don’t think she’d cover for him.”
“What did she know about Sterling and Whitney?”
“There was some kind of custody dispute and Sterling bad-mouthed Whitney a coupla times—no details, just an unfit mother. She wasn’t even aware Whitney had died, assumed Sterling had won in court and got the kid. She also said Jarrod was cute but extremely quiet. Which would fit going through trauma, right?”
“Definitely,” I said. “Sterling brought a two-year-old to work?”
“Sometimes, along with a babysitter. I asked John Nguyen if there was any way to get into Sterling’s finances to look for interesting withdrawals. Wanna guess what he told me?”
“Get corollary evidence first.”
“That plus why am I messing with a Ventura case. I explained but he wasn’t impressed. Same deal with getting a money dig on Boykins. So I’m stuck with two potential conspirators I can’t do a damn thing about. As to who contracted the hit on O’Brien, I’m still leaning toward Boykins. Alternatively, if you’re right about O’Brien O.D.’ing another woman, someone else coulda hired a caped avenger. But Moe checked again and nothing like that’s showed up. Bottom line, I’m nowhere.”
My brain churned.
“Alex?”
I said, “There might be something.”
“What?”
“It’s complicated.”
“Uglyword.What?”
“I found another O’Brien victim.” I gave him the basics of Vicki Saucedo’s death, citing no names or places.
He said, “How long have you known this?”
“Just found out.”
