“No, but I can tell you that Kyle Vandenbosch was in that room along with at least three other people.”
“Excellent, and we’ll get to that in a second. But I want to cover some foundational material first. We know that you’re trying to recover a robotic teddy bear that was stolen from your facility by Kyle Vandenbosch. Correct?”
“Correct.”
“Who was your surveillance target on Saturday?”
“Vandenbosch’s girlfriend, Rhiannon Otero, who’s also a Lycaon employee. We’d been monitoring her outgoing cell calls and knew she’d been trying to contact Vandenbosch.”
“Where does she live?” Although I knew Rhiannon’s address, I decided to throw in a random bait question to ensure that Eldritch was telling the truth.
“Saratoga. Her place is off of Pierce Road.”
“And you were working with your boss. Who was driving that day?”
Eldritch pointed at Newton.
“What kind of car does he drive?”
“A black Dodge Avenger. It’s a company car.”
“When did you start the stakeout?”
“Fairly early. We got to Saratoga around six A.M. At around seven she left in her car.”
“The dark blue Acura?”
Eldritch nodded. “That girl drives like a maniac, but we managed to keep a visual on her all the way up to Sonoma.”
“That’s a long drive. You must have been hoping she was going to meet Vandenbosch.”
“We were, and Slick Vic was yammering about how he was so relieved that he’d be able to tell the board that
he’d
solved the case.”
The door opened and Aafedt came back into the conference room. He took a seat near the door.
I asked, “So, what happened in Sonoma?”
“Otero parked her car and went into this big freaking teddy bear show in the main square.”
“A teddy bear show?” I feigned mild surprise, not wanting him to know that I’d been at the event.
“I was surprised at how many people were there. Anyway, Vic stayed Code Five on the Acura, while I followed her into the Plaza.” Code Five was the California police radio code word for a stakeout. “Otero wandered around aimlessly and eventually ended up in front of the city hall. That’s when I saw why she’d come to the show. Vandenbosch’s mother was there.”
“She’s a teddy bear artist, right?”
“Yeah, she had a booth.”
“Did Rhiannon try to make contact with her?”
“No, she hung back. I could tell she didn’t want to be seen.”
“So, you figured she was Code Five, hoping that Vandenbosch would show up.”
“Exactly, but she didn’t stay there very long. There was some sort of ruckus at Mrs. Vandenbosch’s table and Otero took off shortly after that.”
“What kind of ruckus?” I asked, silently praying that Eldritch wasn’t about to spring a verbal bear-trap and accuse me of not being honest with him, because he’d seen me at Lauren’s table.
Eldritch shrugged. “I don’t know. I was trying to keep my distance and there were a lot of people there, so I couldn’t really see. I heard somebody say that a guy wearing a bear suit had knocked Mrs. Vandenbosch’s table over.”
Although my expression was relaxed, inside I heaved a huge sigh of relief. I shot a momentary glance at Gregg. There was a ghost of a smile on his lips and I could picture a cartoon strip thought bubble above his head that said:
You dodged a bullet there, cowboy.
I said, “I’m assuming you followed Rhiannon after she left the city hall?”
“Yeah. She began walking up and down the streets around the Plaza. At first, I thought maybe she was window shopping, but then she pegged on Mrs. Vandenbosch’s car,” Eldritch said.
“Which you recognized?”
“It’s a Subaru Outback. We saw it parked in her driveway on Wednesday night.”
“What did Rhiannon do then?” I asked.
“She went back to her car and drove it over to a position where she could keep an eye on the Outback. We figured she was going to follow the mom.”
“How long did you guys stay there?”
“Almost seven hours.”
“Rhiannon, too?”
“She left once to go to a fast-food place and use the rest-room, but came right back.”
“And at some point, you guys all began caravanning back to San Francisco.”
“It was shortly after five. Vandenbosch’s mother got the Outback and drove back over to the Plaza to pick up her stuff. Otero followed and we did, too.”
“Where did they go after that?”
“South out of town and then they cut over to the one-oh-one freeway.”
“What happened when you got to the city?”
“We assumed Otero was still following the Outback, but suddenly she whipped this U-turn and headed in the opposite direction.”
“Did you think you’d been burned?” I asked.
“Yeah. My boss, the surveillance expert, was right on her rear bumper and we almost hit her,” said Eldritch with a sneer. “Somehow, we managed to do a turnaround and keep her in sight.”
“Where’d she go?”
“The Paladin Motel on Lombard Street. Otero did a slow drive-through of the parking lot and that’s when we spotted Vandenbosch’s Toyota. Vic was so excited, I thought he was going to wet his pants.”
I glanced at Newton, who appeared to be pouting. I asked, “What happened then?”
Eldritch replied, “There wasn’t a parking space at the motel, so Otero pulled back out onto Lombard and then turned onto a side street. We figured she was looking for a place to park.”
“Meanwhile, you guys parked at the liquor store down the block. What was your plan?”
“That I’d recon the place, make contact, and recover the bear.”
“Alone? Mr. Newton wasn’t going to go with you?” I asked in mock astonishment.
“Of course, by myself.” Eldritch gave his boss a withering look of contempt. “The official story is that Slick Vic has a bad knee and can’t run. But back at our old PD his other nickname was the Banana Peel. He’s yellow and slippery.”
Twenty-one
“Considering it’s my last day here, do you mind if I violate Lycaon company policy and smoke?” Eldritch asked.
Although I hate the smell of cigarette smoke, I knew it was important to reward him for his candor thus far. I said, “Go ahead, but I don’t see anything you can use as an ashtray.”
Eldritch pulled a package of Camels from his jacket pocket and lit one with a chrome-plated lighter. He took a long drag from the cigarette, flicked some ash on the tabletop, and replied, “Don’t need one. You guys have no idea of how much I despise this place . . . and myself.”
“Why did you come to work here?” Gregg asked.
“Because I’m stupid. All I looked at was the big pay-check. I should have given some thought as to whether I wanted to spent forty-plus hours a week with a bunch of Dr. Moreaus.”
“Who?” Gregg looked puzzled.
“
The Island of Dr. Moreau
by H. G. Wells,” I said. “He turned people into animals.”
“Which is exactly what Lycaon’s computer games do.” Eldritch pointed at his boss with his cigarette. “Now Vic there, he fits right in with this crew. Look at him wrinkling his nose at my smoke. Well, let me tell you something. This smoke is freaking Chanel Number Five compared to the toxic crap they’re pumping out on those computer discs.”
I waited until he’d taken another pull from the smoke, before saying, “So, getting back to the Paladin. You’d just gotten out of Mr. Newton’s car and . . . ?”
“I walked down the street to the motel. I didn’t know what room Vandenbosch was in, but I was pretty certain Otero would be back, so I scouted around for an OP,” said Eldritch. The initials stood for Observation Post. “There was kind of a dark alcove behind the manager’s office, so I ducked in there.”
“And did Rhiannon show up?”
“Yeah. She came in on foot and went up to one of the doors and knocked on it.”
“Did you see the room number?”
“Not from the alcove. Later, I saw it was Room Four.”
“What happened after Rhiannon knocked on the door?”
“Nothing at first. The door didn’t open and Otero started yelling, but I was too far away to hear if she was actually talking to anybody.”
“Did the door ever open?”
“No, and then she began to go utterly Fifty-One-Fifty.” The numeric code was cop argot for behavior that was violently insane. “She was screaming and pushing on the door.”
“Then?”
“Then she took off in the same direction she’d come from.”
“Did she ever come back?”
“Not while I was there. I didn’t see her again.”
“So, you’ve now identified Kyle’s room. What did you do next?”
“I called Vic and told him that it would be best if he got the cops out here. Vandenbosch had a million-dollar warrant for his arrest, so they could kick the door down. I didn’t have any legal authority to do that.” Eldritch crushed the smoldering cigarette out on the tabletop.
“That’s true. But obviously your boss said no. Why?”
“Vic said that if we got the police involved, the bear would be logged into evidence and there was no telling how long it would be before the company got it back.”
“And Lycaon wanted Patrick returned immediately, because they had a production timetable to meet, right?” I asked.
“Yeah.”
“Did Mr. Newton have any suggestions as to what you should do?”
“It was classic Slick Vic. He told me to improvise, and that failure wasn’t an option. Then he hung up.”
“What did you take that to mean?”
“That he expected me to force entry into the room, but was making damn sure he could cover his ass in case things went bad.” Eldritch shook another cigarette from the pack.
“Now while you were standing there, was anything happening at the motel?”
Eldritch looked toward the ceiling and thought for a moment. “There was a hooker out on the sidewalk trolling for johns and some tweaker-looking guy came out of a room at the other end of the motel. He drove off in an old Mazda RX-Seven.”
“But there was no sign of activity from Vandenbosch’s room?”
“Nothing.” He lit the cigarette. “I was getting myself psyched up to take the door when a car came rolling into the lot and parked.”
“What kind of car?”
“A light-colored Chevy Celebrity. This mope got out and stood there for a moment and then this other hinky-looking guy carrying a gym bag came into the motel lot from the west side.”
“The gym bag must have grabbed your attention.”
“Oh, yeah. We knew that Vandenbosch had smuggled the bear out in a canvas bag. But it was dark and I couldn’t be certain this was the same one.”
“Had you ever seen either of these men before?”
“No.”
“Could you identify them if you saw them again?”
“I think so.”
“What did they do?”
“They stood there for a second, eyeballing Room Four and talking. Then they went up to the door and knocked.” Eldritch flicked some more ash onto the table. “The door opened and someone let them in.”
“So, at that point you confirmed the room was occupied. What did you think was happening?” I asked, trying to ignore the cigarette smoke.
“Christ, I didn’t know. Maybe the guys had come to buy the bear. But, for all I knew, Vandenbosch was on a serious crystal meth jag and these were two of his tweaker compadres.”
I nodded. “So, what did you do?”
“I should have gone back to the car and told Vic it was a no-go, but that would have meant listening to him moaning about how I’d failed the team.”
“Meaning him.”
“Of course. So I decided I’d creep up to the door and try to hear what was going on inside.”
“That took some guts, especially since your backup was cowering in a car over a half-block away.” I glanced at Newton, who looked affronted.
“Thank you. Anyway, I managed to get up to the room and tried to gently press my ear against the door. But I accidentally pushed the door and it kind of bumped against the frame.”
“What happened then?”
“Nothing at first. I thought maybe they hadn’t noticed it inside. There was what sounded like a male voice and then the shooting started.”
“How many guns?”
“At least two. They were blazing away at each other like it was the North Hollywood bank robbery,” said Eldritch, referring to the famous televised gun battle between the LAPD and two heavily armed crooks that happened back in 1997. “I fell back fast and took cover behind an old Coke machine.”
“Did you pull your weapon?”
“I won’t lie to you. I cleared leather. Anyone would have in my position. But I never fired my gun.” Eldritch extinguished the second cigarette on the tabletop.
“Okay, what happened after that?”
“The bullets were still flying and then I heard the door slam open and someone ran from the room. I took a peek around the corner of the soda machine, but only caught a glimpse of some guy running for his life.”
“Was it one of the two men you saw enter the room?”
“I’m assuming it was, but I don’t know. Right after that, there was a second or two of quiet in the room and then there was another shot. I’m thinking the gunfight has started up again, so I ducked back behind the Coke machine.” Eldritch hooked a thumb at Newton. “Meanwhile, this moron is trying to call me on the phone to find out what’s happening, as if the freaking gunfire wasn’t a big enough clue.”
I chuckled and asked, “So, what happened then?”
“I was shutting my phone off when someone else came out of the room and ran right past the Coke machine. It happened so fast and I was so scared, all I could do was scrunch into the corner and hope he didn’t see me.”
“Fortunately for you, he didn’t. But you got a look at him, right?”
“Yeah, but all I can tell you was that he was completely dressed in black, including a ski mask. He ran eastbound toward Lombard.”
“Could you tell if he was armed?”
“He might have had something in his hand, but I can’t say for sure. It was dark and I was trying to keep an eye on the room. I figured Vandenbosch was coming out next.”
“Because his car was still there.”
“Yeah. He came blasting out the door carrying the canvas bag and a gun in his . . .” Eldritch paused to think. “Left hand. And he was fumbling with his car keys in his right.”
“What did you think was in the bag?”
“The robot.”