She wasn’t at home, either. Jordan and Wen discovered a perplexed husband, a handsome male assistant, and an excited twelve-year-old son who right away made the connection that his mom might be aiding and abetting her most famous friend.
But none of them had any idea where she was.
“If you were neighbors and not cops, I’d be guessing she’s at Pilates, therapy, or book club,” Noel van der Lind told them privately on a patio that looked like an outdoor lounge at a four-star hotel. “Maybe even a showing. But I’ll be honest: we don’t have that kind of marriage where we check in with each other all that often.”
Jordan didn’t trust his gaydar much but thought the body language between Noel and his young assistant seemed less like boss and employee and more like boyfriends. Which could have meant he was telling the truth.
Crosby and Hart had shown up, and Wen told Crosby to watch the house and sent Hart back to the office. When Jordan asked what she wanted him to do, she said, “Get some rest,” and dropped him off at the motel.
Jordan adjusted the pillow under his aching lower back. A quick web search revealed that Evelyn Marsh was Karl’s 89-year-old aunt. A longer search told him she had more or less raised Karl after his mother died and that the two of them were very close. It made perfect sense he would have wanted to provide for her long-term care—and from all outwardappearances, he had been able to afford it at the time the arrangements were made.
The promissory note was more intriguing. Jordan had never taken so much as a payday loan, but he guessed most contracts for twelve million dollars weren’t usually handwritten.
He got up and opened another beer, then started looking at the Gionis, who right away looked shady as hell. He knew a similar family in Madera, American born, that used a hodgepodge of legitimate businesses to hide the fact they were trafficking prostitutes and fentanyl throughout the Central Valley. Even though the Gionis had apparently been in the country for a long time, he had to wonder if they had connections to the Albanian mafia.
If Karl Campbell had taken mob money and failed or refused to pay it back... Some rich people really thought consequences would never come to them. Or maybe there was another angle. They could have simply gotten their hooks into his business and drained it for all it was worth.
Jordan knew he was already on dangerous ground for withholding information from Wen. And she would probably be pissed when he told her. But if he was right, and Cara Campbell was headed where he thought she was, he had to bring Wen in. Only in a Hollywood movie would an out-of-jurisdiction sheriff tackle the mob in the big city alone.
A notification appeared at the top of his screen.
California Death Trip had just released a new episode.
CALIFORNIA DEATH TRIP PODCAST:
SPECIAL EPISODE
DYLAN DANVERS:Hi, crime fam, it’s Dylan, I’m back at my home studio in LA, and I’ll be releasing this about fifteen minutes after I stop recording this intro. I’ve been promising something big, and here it is. But today’s episode is only the first of two parts—you’ll find out why in a minute. Now let’s fucking GO.
[Theme music.]
DYLAN: We’re recording. Are you ready?
CARA: I’m ready.
DYLAN:Please tell my listeners who you are.
CARA:My name is Cara Campbell.
DYLAN:Can you tell us where you are?
CARA:Somewhere safe. For now.
DYLAN:Why did you agree to talk to me?
CARA:For a couple of reasons. Number one, because you’ve always believed I’m innocent. I can’t tell you how grateful I am for that.
DYLAN:In this case, truth is stranger than fiction.
CARA:So much stranger.[Sigh]The second reason is that before and during the trial, my lawyer told me to stop posting on social media and to refuse all interviews. I followed his advice, and because I did, I lost my voice. I lost control of my story.
DYLAN:What do you want to tell us, Cara?
CARA:The next time we talk, I’ll tell you everything that has happened in my journey. I’ll answer every question and talk for as long as you want. But first, I have to find Karl’s killer.
DYLAN: Youknow it wasn’t you.Iknow it wasn’t you. But who killed your husband?
CARA:Thanks to you, I found a suspect the authorities completely missed. Today, I found paperwork that confirmed that theory.
