Authors: J. F. Gonzalez
Lisa and I are in danger no matter what we do, Brad
thought. They know where we live, they'll be able to find
us. We've got to get the hell out of here.
Brad rose to his feet and headed to the master bedroom to wake Lisa up.
The only thing Lisa could think of as Detective Orr sat in
front of her in the living room was that Brad had betrayed her. After pleading with him not to tell anybody
what she'd done, he had gone ahead and done it anyway.
Lisa clutched a tear-sodden handkerchief in her hands
and refused to meet Detective Orr's gaze as the detective
sat in the chair opposite her. Brad was sitting in another
chair, she had shot him a menacing look when he tried
to sit on the couch with her, so he'd retreated to give her space. And with Brad in the room, there was no way she
could deny the truth to Detective Orr. Brad would simply
say, "You didn't deny it to me last night, Lisa. Tell Detective Orr what you told me."
The bastard.
Detective On listened calmly as she told him the harrowing account of what really happened. She thought
he would be incredibly angry with her. Instead he listened to her calmly, taking notes as she told her story.
When she broke down briefly, he waited till she composed herself, then urged her gently to continue. He was
never condescending or accusatory, even when she exclaimed that she had been responsible for the deaths of
Mandy and her mother. Then she started crying again
because she couldn't remember the name of Mandy's
mother.
Brad's friend Billy Grecko was present during the questioning. He hovered near the doorway to the kitchen,
dressed in a pair of black slacks, a white shirt, and a
black tie that was loose around the collar. When she was
finished, she looked up at Detective Orr briefly, then
looked back down at-the floor again in shame. "I'm sorry
I lied to you the first time," she said, her voice barely audible. "1 was just so scared."
"
Detective On closed his notebook, then looked up at
Brad and William. Then he looked back at Lisa. "I'll be
frank with you, Lisa. I didn't believe your original story
one bit. I've heard too many stories like that, and they're
all the results of drug binges. That's why I kept hounding
your husband, asking him if you had a substance-abuse
problem. He kept denying it. I thought that either he was
blind to it or that you really didn't have a problem and
something else had happened that you were trying to
cover up. I knew I would get the truth eventually."
.1'm sorry," Lisa said. She wondered if the police had picked up anybody matching the descriptions she had
given in her original confession.
"Lot's of times, somebody will go on a drug binge and
be gone for days at a time," Detective Orr explained.
"They'll turn up eventually. Either the police find them or
they turn up somewhere disoriented. And to hide what
they've been up to, they'll claim they were kidnapped
and beaten up or that they were robbed and had been lying unconscious somewhere. It's hard to get them to admit otherwise, especially if drugs aren't found on their
person or their vehicle. We do some preliminary investigation, but if nothing pans out and no serious laws were
broken, we usually chalk it up to what I've just described
and it isn't pursued further."
"Do you believe me?" Lisa asked.
Detective Orr looked open and frank as he thought
about it. "1 guess I have to. It sounds horrible, but ... it's
certainly more plausible than your first story."
"Will you be charging Ms. Miller for making a false
criminal statement to the police?" Billy Grecko asked.
"No" Detective Orr replaced his notebook in his coat
pocket. "No need to do that. I should, I've got a perfectly
legal right to arrest her for providing false information,
but...
"You're going to try to catch these guys, right?" This
from Brad, who had been sitting in the chair opposite Detective Orr, fidgeting nervously.
Detective Orr looked up at William and Brad. 'I'd like
her to make another statement downtown," he said.
"Something more in depth. 'then, yes, I'd like to start an
investigation"
"What do we need to do?" William asked.
"Well, I guess we should go to the station," Detective
Orr said, rising to his feet.
And with that, they left the house and went to the sta tion. Lisa didn't even have time to shower or do her hair.
She simply washed her face, brushed her teeth, applied
deodorant, brushed her hair a little bit, changed into
fresh clothes, and they were off. She said nothing to Brad
on the drive to the Orange County Sheriff's Department,
still angry at him for betraying her secret, and scared
more than ever for what might happen to them should Al
and Tim and Animal find out she'd told the authorities.
When Lisa Miller was questioned a second time, it was
with Detective Orr and his partner, Detective Hank
Sanchez. William Grecko was present. Brad waited outside, in the lobby.
It all seemed so monotonous to Lisa. The detectives took
her down the same path she had led them two weeks ago,
starting with her and Brad leaving home jor the drive to
Cambria. Only this time she told them about meeting up
with the homeless woman and her baby, Amanda. She finally remembered the woman's name, too. "Her name was
Alicia," she said. "She didn't tell me her last name." She gave
the detectives a description, willing herself not to cry. Then
she continued her narrative. When she got to the confrontation on the highway and Brad's arrest, the detectives
asked her to describe Caleb Smith. "He was about five
eight, big belly-pear-shaped, I guess you could say. His
hair was sandy-colored and thinning, and he was wearing
glasses and had a thick, bushy beard."
When she told them about the kidnapping she was expecting to break down again, but for some reason she didn't. She had relived the abduction a million times and
now it only made her mad. She told them about the conversation she had with Caleb, how he told her he was going to have her killed in a snuff film."l had never heard of
such things before," she said, feeling herself start to cry
but forcing herself to stay calm. "I couldn't believe what
was happening."
Then she told them about Debbie Martinez. Detective
Sanchez asked her several poignant questions. "Debbie
was beautiful," Lisa said, now starting to cry. "She was so
beautiful and ... what he ... what he did to her!" She
broke down sobbing, trying to erase the memories of
the sounds Debbie had made as Animal tortured and
raped her.
Detective Orr and Billy Grecko calmed her down as
Sanchez left the room. When he came back, Lisa's sobs
had trickled down. "I called the San Bernardino Sheriff's
Department," he said. "A missing-persons report was filed
on a Debbie Martinez almost two weeks ago by her husband. They're suspecting foul play."
"Is the husband a suspect?" Detective Orr asked.
"They wouldn't tell me," Detective Sanchez said, sitting
down in front of Lisa. He was an intense man, with black
hair and a large, bulbous nose set square in the middle of
his face. He looked at Lisa. "They may want to talk with
you, though."
Lisa nodded. She felt a sudden sense of relief that her
story was being verified. She still felt bad about everything that had happened, but she felt a sense of vindication that the authorities were taking her seriously. They
were already looking for Debbie, and she would do anything possible to speed up the investigation. "I'll talk to
them," she said. "Did you tell them that Debbie's probably
dead?"
"1 told her she might be the victim of a homicide and
that we were talking to a potential witness," Detective
Sanchez said. He traded a glance with On. "Why don't
you tell us the rest?"
Lisa tried to wrap it up without crying too much. She
only broke down twice--once when she told them what
she had done ("I ... I sold that baby and her mother for my
own life!" she sobbed), the second time when she broke
free and escaped. Both detectives nodded sympathetically
and took notes. They asked for physical descriptions of Al,
Animal, and Caleb. Lisa provided that and more. "When
Debbie came in, she referred to Caleb as Tim," she said,
looking at them with watery eyes. "Tim Murray. I didn't get
Al's last name. And Animal, she called him Jeff."
Detective On jotted this down. "hey took you to your
bank, right?"
Lisa nodded.
"Do you remember which teller you spoke to?"
. Lisa shook her head. "I don't remember her name. She
was little... black hair maybe."
'hat's okay," Detective On said. "I'm sure once you see
her you'll remember."
When Lisa was finished, they asked her to start over
and tell them the story again, right from the beginning.
Lisa protested. "I've already told you twice!" she exclaimed to Orr.
"We just want to hear it one more time," Detective On
urged. "You might remember something else."
Lisa didn't want to live through the nightmare again by
repeating it. She looked up at William Grecko, who nodded. "It's okay," he said. "One last time."
So she relived the nightmare again. Nothing new was
revealed in the narrative. Detective On nodded when she
finished, then glanced at his partner. "Would you be adverse to taking a ride with us up to Big Bear?"
*Big Bear?" Lisa asked, curious. "Why Big Bear?"
"Debbie Martinez and her husband Neal have a cabin
there," Detective Sanchez said. "That where this Tim
Murray guy took you-Big Bear, that is. We're hoping you
might be able to recognize the cabin they took you to."
Lisa felt her stomach revolve in her abdomen. "1 don't
want to go back there," she said, her throat drying up.
"We'll be there with you," Detective Orr said gentry. "It'll
be okay.'
"I ... I don't know if I can recognize it." Lisa's heart was
pounding. Her hands were shaking. As much as she
wanted to help the police catch these bastards, she did
not want to go back to that house. "I mean, Tim had me
blindfolded during the drive. And ... when they carried
me out to the van to ... to get Alicia and Mandy-" She
choked back a sob. "-they had me blindfolded. They
had me blindfolded all the way to Garden Grove."
%et's just try, okay?" Detective Orr asked.
Lisa took a deep breath and tried to compose herself.
She felt so nervous and scared. What if they re back there,
waiting for me? -They'll find out," she said, hearing her
voice crack. "They'll find out I told you and then ... then
they'll---:"
Detective Orr moved to her side of the table. He took
her hand. His voice was soft and soothing. "You'll be under our protection. Nobody will see you. We'll ride up in
an unmarked car with tinted windows. Nobody will see
you in the car. You won't even have to get-out."
Lisa was looking down at the scarred table. "1 don't
know," she said, her voice cracking.
"Lisa Miller is afraid that the people who did this to her
will come after her and her husband," William Grecko
said, clearing his throat." They stole her purse, her identification, her credit cards. She's afraid they'll track her
down."
"
"You'll be under our protection the whole way," Detective Orr said, his voice urging but gentle. "Just a quick
trip up, we'll whisk you in to the San Bernardino Sheriff's
Station to talk with some people there, then we'll drive
you by the Martinez cabin. We'll cruise around the surrounding area. If anything seems remotely familiar to
you, tell us."
"But I didn't see anything!" Lisa protested. Her eyes
were filling with tears again.
"It could be anything," Detective Sanchez said.
"Sounds you may have heard. The sound of the tires on
asphalt or a dirt road maybe.'Iurns you may have made.
All that can help in determining the location of the
cabin."
"Debbie said that the cabin we were in ... where Tim
had us ... prisoner ... was the closest one to them," Lisa
said, looking up at Detective On.
"Apparently, the San Bernardino Sheriff's Department
talked to the residents nearby," Detective Orr said, looking from Lisa to William. "They didn't get anywhere." He
leaned forward, the urgency clear on his face. "Please,
Mrs. Miller."
Lisa saw the look on Detective Orr's face. He was serious. She looked up at William Grecko, who nodded.
Trembling, Lisa turned to the detective and nodded.
"Okay." She sniffled. "Okay."
"I'd like to accompany my client," William Grecko said.
"You can come," Detective Orr said, rising from his seat.
He motioned to Detective Sanchez. "We're on! Let's go."
They made the drive up in two hours. Lisa sat in the backseat of a blue sedan with William Grecko. Detective Off
drove, while Sanchez rode in the front passenger seat.
Brad hadn't wanted her to go. He had protested as they
were led down corridors to the parking lot outside. She hadn't wanted to go either, but she didn't know what else
to do. Fortunately, William had calmed them both down,
saying he would take care of everything. Then he had
turned to Detective Orr and told him in no uncertain
terms that when they arrived back in Orange County he
was having Brad and Lisa whisked out of the state to a
safe house for their protection. "1 don't know if you can
do that; Detective Orr had said.
"Lisa is a victim," William Grecko had replied. "She is
not a suspect, nor is she officially a witness to a homicide. She saw some pretty horrible things and she herself
was the victim of a kidnapping, but that's all you have. In
fact, you have no physical proof that Debbie Martinez is
dead yet, and I hardly think that the Orange County Sheriff's Department is going to place my client in protective
custody until you find the men responsible for Lisa's abduction and attempted murder."
"Don't give me any of that-" Detective On looked
pissed.
But William had remained firm. He'd raised his hand,
his features stern. "Will you guarantee that my clients receive twenty-four-hour-a-day protective custody, starting
right now?"