Birthdays of a Princess (26 page)

“I don’t know, it all sounds too smooth for me,” Harding said. “He
can’t be that innocent.”

“Try and poke a hole in his statement.”

“How come he’s got a sister all of a sudden? We didn’t know he had a
sister.”

Macintosh considered this for a moment.

“Actually we did. Josh had mentioned it before that there were two
Alvares descendants, Tony and Inez, but it hadn’t seemed important then, so we
never checked up on this information.

“That could mean Tiara is right after all. The Purple Shadow is a
woman.”

“Could be. Could very well be.” Macintosh got excited by this
theory. “Inez Alvares is the Purple Shadow, and Tiara was raped by a client of
her pedophile ring. One of many. It’s her we got to go after.”

Harding nodded. “We have to let Texas know. Once they got her, Josh
and his men will catch all the others as well!”

The two detectives opened their beers and saluted each other.

Chapter
55

The following day, their stalled investigative machinery begun to turn
again.

First, they ordered Melissa to MCS again. Harding called her at
seven to make sure he would reach her before she left the house and told her to
show up or he would personally pick her up at her workplace.

“Let’s put the fear of God into her,” Macintosh outlined his
strategy. “If we find the slightest proof of her being involved, we book her on
the spot.”

Melissa arrived just after nine. She looked unkempt and uncaring.
And very tired, like she hadn’t had a decent night’s sleep in ages.

Before the detectives could start their interrogation, she made a
foregone conclusion.

“I understand now why Tiara didn’t want to see me. She thinks I knew
what was going on with Tony, him taking those horrible pictures, and you think
so too. So charge me if you want, I don’t care if you believe me or not. It
really doesn’t matter anymore, I have lost everything that was ever dear to
me.”

Macintosh took the lead. “As a matter of fact, we don’t think it was
Tony who abused Tiara. We are pretty sure by now that he had no knowledge of
your daughter’s exploitation.”

Melissa’s expression reflected her inability to understand. “He
didn’t?”

“No.”

“But yesterday you said—”

“And we were wrong. I want you to look at part of an interview with
him the Texas police taped yesterday.”

“I don’t want to see him.”

“Oh, but I’m sure you do.”

Macintosh clicked the pre-set start button and once more he placed
himself so he could watch Melissa’s reaction. Regardless of what she had
claimed a second ago, her eyes were drawn to the screen as soon as it lit up.
When she recognized Tony, an involuntary deep, anguished sigh escaped her. And
then an even louder one when she heard him speak. What he said shook her to the
core. By the time he was confessing his feelings for her, tears were streaming
down her cheeks. She didn’t wipe them away.

After the section the detectives had selected for her was over,
Macintosh switched the computer off, convinced that she was innocent, at least
of any active involvement. She couldn’t be such an actor.

“So Gracie lied to me,” Melissa said after several minutes of
pent-up silence, with the detectives watching her closely while she was trying
to process the information. “Why did she do that?”

“She needed to blame it on somebody in case Tiara would try and talk
to you. She wanted to discredit Tony and give you a target for your motherly
rage. Her strategy worked, didn’t it? You never questioned your daughter about
what had happened on that day.”

Melissa slowly shook her head, too overwhelmed for words.

“But quite frankly, why you wouldn’t know about all those years of
exploitation is incomprehensible to us,” Macintosh said.

Melissa shook her head again, more forcefully. “It only happened
that one time. I never noticed anything before.”

“You got to be kidding me!”

She threw her hands in the air. “I didn’t even know about that
particular incident until Gracie told me. You can’t blame me. I never thought
anything like this was possible.”

“Not even when Tiara came home from those so-called photo sessions
and seemed aloof and unapproachable? You never tried to get through to her and
find out what troubled her so much?”

“Gracie told me some people react like that to the dream-juice.”

“You knew she drugged your daughter?”

“It wasn’t a drug.” Melissa sounded firmer now. “It was just to make
her calm. Those sessions took a long time to set up and kids get fidgety.
Gracie told me it was only to help the photographer do a good job. What should
I have done? Those photo sessions brought in good money, and Gracie always said
Tiara liked doing them. I didn’t know there was anything wrong with it. Tiara
earned the money we needed to live on, that’s all I knew.”

“That’s all you cared about? The money?” Macintosh could feel the
familiar anger poke inside his head with a red-hot lance. He would need a
Tylenol tonight. The woman was guilty of so many things, yet there was nothing
he could pin on her. Nothing official, that would make her do penance.

 “Our Texan counterparts are very keen to find out who the
photographer was. I’m sure you can give us his name—”

“I’ve got no idea.”

Macintosh just shook his head, “—as well as the name of Graciella’s
friend who has been instrumental in your daughter’s molestation.”

“You mean Tiara’s sponsor?”

“You got a name there?”

“Inez?”

Macintosh just glared at her.

“Well, I guess that’s the one you’re thinking of. Inez was paying
for all the pageants. She was working with the photographer, setting up the appointments,
and later on she was in charge of selling the pictures to the ad agencies,
that’s what Gracie told me anyway. So Inez is to blame for all this; who would
have thought? But frankly, I never liked her. She’s always been a bad influence
on Gracie.”

Macintosh felt awful. He should have put all the dots together much
sooner. Inez was heavily involved in the studio business. She was the one
calling the shots from start to finish. She was the sponsor and the Purple
Shadow, all in one!

“As Graciella is deceased,” he said, “it leaves only Inez to face
the consequences. A warrant for her arrest is out. As soon as the Texans
capture her, we’ll find out who else was involved. Did you know that Inez is
Tony’s sister?”

Melissa didn’t seem to listen.

“Oh my, Tony. All those things coming out now. I would never have
guessed.”

 Macintosh suddenly realized that she had totally ignored what he
had said. If she had heard it at all, she had shrugged it off. She didn’t waste
a single compassionate thought on her daughter. All she was interested in was
Tony. Her face was glowing with anticipation and she actually clapped her
hands.

“Oh dear Lord, he didn’t lie, did he? He’s telling the truth. He’s
been in love with me all along. I need to see him and tell him that I love him
too.”

Macintosh drove straight back to the BYSC, without asking for an
appointment. They would make Tiara available to him, even on short notice. He
felt the desperate need to talk to her and explain things to her.

Driving down Kingsway, he was still fuming. The case was as good as
solved. They had the ringleader identified, yet he felt like a failure. It
didn’t sit right. The usual shoulder-slapping, silly-grinning satisfaction
after a case was untangled hadn’t emerged, neither with him, nor with Harding.

He was twiddling with his phone, when they brought her into the
meeting room.

“Hi there,” she greeted him and quickly sat down about five feet
away from him. Hands on her thighs, chin down. “What’s up? You found out whom
I’ve stabbed?”

“Sorry, no,” he said with a heavy voice. “And we still don’t know
who the guys …, the persons who—”

“You mean the ones who raped me?”

Oh God, she didn’t make it any easier for him. Then it crossed his
mind that it was a bit selfish to feel sorry for himself, considering the
courage it must take her to be so bland.

“Yes. We don’t have their identity yet, not of the motel-man or of
the one in the video but they will be caught eventually. Texas police will take
care of that and it’ll be only a matter of time before they catch them, and all
the others involved.”

She stared at him with dark eyes.

“But I got something else for you. We finally have a name to the
Purple Shadow.”

Her eyes darkened even more.

“You were right all along, it was a woman. It was Tony’s sister. Her
name is Inez Alvares. Does that ring a bell?”

Tiara didn’t answer right away. She seemed different today, more
guarded, more reserved. Her eyes dropped, her hands formed fists, like she had
to hold back some inner turmoil. Then she looked back at him and her fingers
opened up again.

“Can you imagine, in all those years, I didn’t even know Tony’s last
name. But I know Inez of course. She was the one who paid for everything.” She
halted, looked puzzled, while her mind tried to fit this new information into
an existing pattern. “Are you saying you think my sponsor Inez was the Purple
Shadow?”

“Yes, we’re pretty sure about that. She either ran the operation
herself, as the boss, or worked for some powerful people behind the scene. Your
aunt Gracie was her friend and most likely her business partner. Would that
make sense?”

Tiara thought about it.

“Sure, it’s possible, why not. I don’t remember much about Inez. And
even if I would, I’ve never seen the Purple Shadow without a cover, so I can’t
confirm that it was Inez. Does it matter?”

“Not any more, not to you. We’re convinced now Gracie and Inez ran
the business together. One of those two must have been pretty savvy with
computers.”

“Not Gracie.”

“I wouldn’t think so. It’s up to Texan law enforcement now to deal
with this case. It’s out of our hands but whatever they uncover will greatly
influence what happens to you. It will prove that you had more than your fair
share of … I mean … look, you got a shit hand dealt, kid. Your mother is a
piece of work and your own aunt is a sexual predator.”

Tiara burst out laughing.

“And my grandmother is a thief.”

He was taken aback.

“What?”

“She told my mom there were five thousand dollars in Gracie’s room.
Did I mention last time that I found the money in the garbage bag? No? Well, I
did. On our drive back to Canada, we stopped at a gas station close to the
Canadian border. It was pretty cold by then. I was shivering in the thin
clothes my mom had dressed me in back in Galveston. While my grandmother went
inside to pay for the gas, Mom told me to go to the trunk of our car and look
for a sweater in the bags there. That’s when I came across the manila envelope
with a big wad of cash in it. I didn’t count it, but it was a lot more than
five thousand, believe me. It was all in hundred dollar bills, about two inches
of it.”

Macintosh didn’t really know how much that would add up to, but he
planned to find out.

“Christ, I bet that must be at least a hundred thousand.”

“Yes, and she never gave it to Mom.” Tiara shrugged. “But then
again, Mom didn’t deserve it, right?”

Macintosh felt a bit more cheerful. Melissa being cheated by her own
mother, now, that was something he could appreciate.

 “Your mom is already making plans to go back to Texas. Hooking up
with Tony again.”

All the blood drained from Tiara’s face. Her hands flew to her mouth
and her eyelids fluttered. For a second Macintosh thought she would faint, but he
knew better than to touch her. Then she lowered her hands again, was visibly fighting
for composure.

“Will I have to go back with her if they let me out?”

“Not if I can help it.”

That was another promise he had just given her. One he would fight
tooth and nail to keep.

Chapter
56

It was one of those days. Whatever you do, fate, or chance, or
destiny, is always a step ahead of you. The harder you try to keep in control
of the day’s schedule, Macintosh thought, the progression of events gives you
the middle finger.

Harding called him on his way back to MCS, informing him that law
enforcement in Texas had tracked down the last known address of Inez Alvares.
They were already on the way over there with a still ink-wet warrant for her
arrest. How he would have loved to have had that information an hour earlier.
He was briefly tempted to turn around and drive back to the Center. Tiara would
surely sleep better, knowing the Purple Shadow would soon be in custody.

It might even have jolted her memory, opening up the last locked
door to make the Starbucks incident more explainable. With Dr. Eaton’s report
already on the judge’s desk and their own investigation wrapping up at
lightning speed, it was more important than ever to find out quickly what had
driven her to stab the victim.

His bet was she had attacked a total stranger because she looked
Hispanic and reminded her of the sponsor. The dreaded trigger effect. Maybe the
stranger had insulted her, aggravated her somehow.

Standing at yet another red light, he fished for the card with the
number of St Paul’s and dialed just in time before the light turned green again.
He put the call on speaker and drove on. After a few minutes and several
transfers, he got hold of the doctor currently on duty, a Dr. Vanderhoof.

Macintosh listened with rising excitement to the doctor’s brief
summary of the victim’s condition. The CT scan had confirmed normal brain
activities and the endotracheal tube had already been removed some days ago. It
was now possible to speak to her, if only under doctor’s supervision. She was
still quite weak and should not be subjected to unnecessary excitement, but she
made remarkable progress, short of a miracle.

Macintosh called Harding, who was also immediately excited when he
heard the news.

“I’ll meet you there,” he said, “don’t you dare go in without me.”

Macintosh changed route and turned left onto Broadway. Ten minutes
later he was driving over Burrard Bridge, and another five minutes after that
he parked close to the Emergency entrance at a special permit spot reserved for
police cars.

It took all of Macintosh’s discipline to wait for his partner. Ten,
fifteen minutes went by. While several ambulances drove into the delivery area
to unload their patients, Macintosh withdrew into a corner of the reception
area to get away from the hectic sounds of saving lives. Way too many things
rubbed him the wrong way nowadays. His dilemma was, he wanted to turn the clock
back without having to go back. He didn’t want to live through his past again.
Too many painful memories.

That’s what he admired about Tiara. Her memories must hurt like
hell, yet she had been doing her best to bring them on.

All they needed now was to establish the identity of the victim.
Fingers crossed that she had given Tiara motive. Surely the judge would take
her past into consideration. Please, God, give me something the judge can use
to make her treatable, as Dr. Eaton put it. Something that would at least get
her a lighter sentence.

His prayers were interrupted by Harding’s arrival.

“Sorry I’m late. I was ready to leave when the Sergeant asked for a
final brief on the South Vancouver case. Had to hang around and couldn’t call
you.”

Macintosh waved it away. The victim wasn’t going anywhere soon, so
half an hour more or less didn’t really matter.

“Let’s go and find this super-duper important doctor.”

They went up to the sixth floor where the intensive care unit was
stationed and had to wait another twenty minutes before the doctor in charge
finally came up to them.

“I’m Dr. Vanderhoof,” he said.

“I’m Detective Macintosh. This is my partner, Detective Harding.
Good of you to see us.”

“Sure, sure,” Vanderhoof’s apparent hastiness seemed slightly disdainful.
“You’re lucky you caught me. My shift ended over an hour ago.”

Macintosh squinted annoyed.

“We don’t want to hold you up longer than necessary. We are here to
see the coma patient from the Starbucks stabbing who can now be questioned. It
was me you were talking to on the phone earlier on.”

“Yes, I know that. By the way, we got her name now.”

“How come?” Macintosh asked. “She had no ID on her.”

Dr. Vanderhoof looked mildly forgiving at the detectives.

“It is normal procedure to ask patients for their name when waking them
up from a prolonged period of unconsciousness. That’s the first thing we ask.”

“And?” Macintosh asked. “What did she say?”

“I was actually on duty on that day when she came to. Her name is…,
hold on, let me double check to make absolutely sure. I did write it down.”

He walked over to the reception desk, asked the nurse for a file and
took the few steps back to where the detectives were waiting, leafing through
it.

“Here it is. Her name is Graciella.”