Loves Me Not

FIFTY

AFTER
DETECTIVE BRETT PORTER

He sits across the table, staring at me, challenging me with this piece of information. As if he expects me to actually believe that what he just told me holds any truth. Catalaina? Selling drugs? Not very likely.

"I'm not sure we're talking about the same woman here," I say to him.
He smirks. "Oh, we most definitely are. That's the best part."
"I'm not sure why you find this amusing," I say. "She's dead."
He puts on a somber face. "That's why I'm here. To help."
"Then perhaps try taking this a bit more seriously. Catalaina Kittridge. That is who you claim to be talking about, yes?"
"I knew her as CJ, but yeah, that's her."
"CJ?"
"Don't ask me. She chose it. Never went by Catalaina."
"How and when did you first become acquainted with Catalaina?"
"Let's see," he thinks for a moment. "Must have been the beginning of April. She reached out to me, actually. Said she was Dom's girl. And that she wanted to do business."
"Dom as in Dominic Belmont?"
"I presume so, yes."
"So you know Belmont?"
"I'm not going to answer that. I'm here about CJ."
"What did she say when she reached out to you?"
"She asked if she could meet with me. I was skeptical at first. Someone who I don't know contacts me out of the blue and wants to meet? It's conspicuous as hell. Thought it might be an undercover fed. But I agreed to meet with her. She was persistent."
"What did she say?"
"She told me that she wanted to start dealing. I laughed in her face, didn't think she was serious. But she was. And that's when a little switch went off in my brain. I could use her. She could be beneficial to the business. First off, she's a girl. Less intimidating, but less conspicuous. No one ever suspects girls. And I would soon learn that she was smart and cunning. She could come across as sweet and innocent, but don't undermine her – she knew how to get what she wanted. And she didn't take bullshit from no one. I wasn't really worried about people taking advantage of her. She could handle herself.
"When I looked at this girl, I saw two things: potential, and dollar signs. She'd be perfect. And clients would love her."
I stare at him, trying to process this information. I'm perplexed and can't seem to wrap my head around his claims that Catalaina was allegedly dealing drugs.
"Why?" I ask. "Why did she come to you? Why did she suddenly want to give up her idyllic life to become a drug dealer?"
"I don't have the answer to that question because I'm not her. I would say to ask CJ, but she's dead."
"She never told you why? And you never asked?"
"Nah, it's none of my business. She did make some comment about the business being intriguing. She was enticed by it."
"What else can you tell me? How long was she doing this for? What kind of people did she deal with?"
"Started just shortly after she met with me. I got her into a good routine, introduced her to come clients. She specifically asked not to have anyone shifty or dangerous. She preferred females and passive males. I think she was trying to do this in the safest way possible."
"Well clearly that didn't work out too well for her now, did it?"
He remains silent.
"Is that why you came here?" I ask him. "Because you think someone she was dealing with did something to her? Do you know something?"
"I don't know shit," he says defensively. "But yeah, it got me wondering. I didn't hear from her at all that week, which was odd. And then I started seeing her face all over the news. I was panicking, knowing that she was drawing attention to herself. I didn't think anything bad happened to her. Not until I saw the news about the body. Then I knew that something must have went wrong. That's why I came to you."
"The body was found last Monday. It's been a week. What took so long for you to come in?"
"I've been busy, dealing with shit. And besides, you really think I wanted to walk into a police station in the midst of this investigation? Nah, that's heat. I was contemplating it for a while. To be completely honest with you, I didn't even want to come in here at all. But you still have no leads. And I have this information. I wanted to help, that's all."
"I'm sure," I say. "Well, thank you, Mr. Rodriguez. As much as I want to believe you, I'm going to have to look into this myself before I can verify your claims. You do understand that, right? I can't simply believe every civilian who wanders in here and tells me an elaborate story about a dead girl. And since she's no longer here to defend herself, it's my job to look into it and confirm facts."
He chuckles once again and I'm just about ready to grab this guy by his collar. "Good luck with that," he says. "As I said, CJ was cunning and diligent. She left no traces behind. So I'm telling you this now and I'm only saying it once: You can look all you want, but you won't find a thing."