It was Detective Sergeant Matt Strickland’s night off. He’d had Stouffer’s lasagna for dinner, with an added sprinkle of romano, grilled to bubbling in a toaster oven. He’d watered the 57 succulents he kept on the screened-in little terrace of his ground-floor one-bedroom Hollywood apartment. He’d watched the nine o’clock news then taken four herbal sleep aids. He woke up fast when his cell phone buzzed. When he heard Rhea’s familiar cadence, “Hey Strickland–” he was fully awake.
“Detective– ” he automatically responded, “Are you ok? Where are you?”
“Fine. Cesar Chavez, a half block up from Pleasant. Place called Domingos.” She said no more. She didn’t need to.
He already had one leg in his pants. He hung up, stuck his other leg in, gave his balls a sprinkle with Gold Bond, swished a mouthful of Listerine, shrugged on a worn-out short-sleeved shirt, grabbed his gun and was out the door.
Nineteen minutes later he was inside Domingos, standing next to Rhea, looking down at the three small bodies. He took out his phone and called it in. Rhea hung close, trying to hear as he asked dispatch who was available to partner.
“Who’s coming in?” she asked him after he hung up. He ignored her and looked back at the dead.
“Think they died of smoke?” Rhea asked him for an early opinion.
He knelt down and looked closely at the girls’ sooty mouths. “Probably but…” He looked around “If there was enough smoke to kill them… why wasn’t a fire called in?”
“Grease fire…?” she suggested.
He agreed with the probability. He looked around the room. There were no other exits— “Just these two doors. Locked.” He looked at her. She agreed, pointing to the kitchen door. “I busted that one down.”
“Three girls. Locked in.” he continued his early questions, adding, “Mexican?”
Rhea looked back at them. “I’d say so. They have that beauty.”
He looked around the room again; he peered into empty cupboards and into the empty pantry. Rhea spotted a dense cobweb strung from a corner of a worn counter to the wall. She blew on it. Dusty smoke scattered.
“This place has been closed for awhile.” she realized.
He nodded. “Might be a stash joint.”
“For Illegals.” She said. He nodded again, still thinking. She watched them for a minute, sad. “Some sanctuary city we are…”
He went over to the stove, he studied the burned food that had exploded against the wall. “Probably just cooking some dinner and it caught fire.”
Rhea nodded, “Still… somebody locked them in. Once we find them–”
He turned and gave her a long look. “We?”
Rhea ignored him. She looked closer at the burnt food on the wall.
“Have you even gone to therapy?” Strickland asked.
“Yes.” Rhea answered then looked away, concentrating on some sticky white blob on the counter. Strickland watched as she smelled it. She searched the room for a trash can, finding one in a corner, she looked inside. There were some plastic utensils, two empty soda cans, an empty refied bean can dusted in soot.
She went back to the blob. She looked at Strickland.
“I wouldn’t.” He told her.
She tapped it then licked her finger. She tasted and concentrated. Finally a revelation: “Baseball Nut.”
“What?” Strickland asked.
“It’s Baseball Nut ice cream. Baskin Robbins.”
“You sure?” Strickland asked.
“Yeah.” she was sure. “They only have it in the summer. It’s pretty good. Vanilla with raspberry swirl and cashews.”
Strickland paused, taking a moment to acknowledge her deduction. “I’ll be sure to tell Dawson when he gets here–”
“Dawson.” Rhea shook her head.
“Dawson is a good cop–” he tried to cut her off.
She argued, “Dawson’s wants a headline. There’s no print in dead illegals. He’ll ditch it.”
“Maybe it’s just a fire, and that’s all.” Strickland ended it for now.
Rhea looked back at the bodies on the floor; studying them. Powerless.
Outside, across the river the photographer stood on the bank, searching the skyline. Her name was Daisy Valentine. She was twenty-seven years old. Her blonde hair hung down her back. Her t-shirt said “Endeavour”. Her stance was strong and patient as her eyes searched the skyline for any more puffs of light. Her Pentax was strung around her neck. She held it in her hand, supporting the old zoom lens; The moon was full and rising. She moved her lens until it reflected a beam of moonlight then bounced it over the river bed, pooling its way across the crack in Domingos’ bolted back door.
Inside Domingos’ kitchen, that reflected moonlight found its way through that crack and crossed over the dead girls like a laser. It hit something purple on one of their bodies. It shimmered, catching Rhea’s eye. She looked closer. Transfixed. A sound caught in her throat, a cry. Strickland turned to her and looked at what she was looking at. On one of the dead girl’s wrists – barely visible but now glinting in the sliver of moonlight – was a plastic bracelet with a purple tin charm on it that advertised “Boom Boom Carneceria. Ensenada. Mexico.”
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