The Fugitive Grandma Lives

Chapter 24 - Second Act

After his rendezvous in the desert, Tim Schlesinger drove west to the ocean in pursuit of a person of interest in the Valentine case. He had studied the police reports and news articles. He had become intimately familiar with every detail available in the public record of the family's criminal history. 

He knew that Johnny had helped his grandmother escape from a retirement home operated by a crew of small-time mobsters. Then the old woman and her grandson perpetrated a series of armed robberies in the Inland Empire, a succession of heists that included a doctor's office, a grocery store and supply trucks delivering pharmaceuticals.

The scene of their final heist was the Great American warehouse in Norco, which ended in a shootout between the mobsters and a corporate security team.

The only investigator at the time who came close to catching Johnny and Stella was a police detective in the city of Santa Ramona, a woman named Rebecca Little. After the warehouse robbery, Little resigned, leaving the police force under cloud of suspicion.

The rumors that she abetted the Valentine's escape were never proven. Tim had tracked her current location, a one-room apartment in Laguna Beach. It seemed like a pricey neighborhood for an unemployed ex-cop. She must have had some leverage on the Santa Ramona police to negotiate a hefty severance package at the time of her departure.

Tim sat in a parked car on the street and recognized her trudging down the backstairs to set a case of empty wine bottles in the recycling bin. She was a pretty woman, but she was tired and flaccid, a person who had lost her purpose.

Tim could help her regain her rhythm. He had a job for her.

***

She left her apartment around 11 a.m. and walked down to a coffee shop by PCH and the beachfront volley ball courts. Tim bought a scone and sat beside her by the window.

Rebecca's body hardened in a defensive pose. "Who are you? I saw you hanging around my apartment."

"Guilty as charged," Tim said with a grin. "My background is security. Similar to you. Let me buy you coffee. I have a business proposal for you."

He returned from the counter with two lattes.

"I have a wealthy client, a man who prefers to remain anonymous. He is very interested in your work on the Valentine case."

"I don't want to talk about that," Rebecca said. "I tried to find them. I did my best and I failed."

"Really?"

"Yes, really?"

"Some people think you didn't fail. Some people think you found them and let them go."

"That's a lie. Maybe we should end this conversation if you just plan to stir up old rumors."

"Relax, Ms. Little. I am on your side. I don't care about the details. I am not sure what happened but I trust you did the right thing."

"Is that right?"

"Let's just say my client is very sympathetic to the plight of the Valentine family."

"Why is that?"

"We think they are great heroes. They were so brave, planning those raids to get that medicine when they couldn't afford it. How could a child and an elderly woman act with such courage and ingenuity? Is it in the genes?"

"When you push people into a corner they fight back. Some take extreme measures," Rebecca said. "Any cop knows that. It's like a law of nature."

"But cops aren't allowed to follow the laws of nature are they? Cops have to follow the laws on the books, regardless of how natural or unnatural they may be. I used to be a cop a long time ago so I speak from experience."

Ms. Little squinted hard, sizing up her new acquaintance. He smiled and stirred sweetener into his coffee.

"You're a very shrewd judge of character, Ms. Little. I believe you found the Valentines once. I believe you could find them again. What would it take to get you to do that? Name any price. My client can pay it."

"They're still fugitives. You're asking me to send them to prison."

"No I am not. My client has power and connections. He can make those kind of problems go away."

Rebecca didn't answer.

"Think about it, Ms. Little. Your severance money from the police department is going to run out. Take this job for me and you'll earn enough that you never work another day in your life."

When Tim was back on the road driving north, he told his voice-activated phone to call Calvin Montebello to provide an update.