Chapter 21
Ben couldn’t believe his good fortune when Detective Jensen appeared on the plane.
He’d prayed for her the night before, and after saying amen, he had not been able to get her off his mind.
Her tenacity in the face of the crushing loss of her sister touched him to his core.
She had not fallen apart. She was engaged and thinking like a cop.
Her strength and composure attracted him.
On the whole, the woman intrigued him on many levels.
After the flight crew announcements and the emergency procedure demonstration, he turned to Jensen. “How are you doing today?” After the question was out of his mouth, he winced inside. Wow, that was as smooth as sandpaper! Thankfully, she didn’t seem put off.
“I’m glad to be heading home. I think I got the last seat on this flight. Any luck finding Crystal Benton?”
“Not on the island. We’re guessing she’s back in Long Beach by now. Just like your brother-in-law.”
At first, Ben felt like Jensen wanted to stay quiet. Her stiff posture and the way she played with her Kindle made him think she was struggling with an inner demon. Or maybe she simply wanted to read. He would not be the one to bug her. If she wanted to engage in conversation, he would.
She fidgeted for a few moments. “How long has the Bureau been investigating Dallas Vine?”
“The larger aspect of the investigation, in other states, has been ongoing for over a year. My partner and I were assigned to the Long Beach part about six months ago. Vine has proved himself slippery.”
“I think that I know that better than anyone. I’m certain he murdered Daphne Sparks fifteen years ago, but no one could prove it then. Are you guys poking into that case at all?”
Ben sighed. “No. The scope of the multistate investigation concerns federal crimes, not local ones. The Sparks case is cold and up to LBPD to solve. I’m sorry it’s not a priority for us.”
“I hate to hear that. I still think about that poor woman.”
Was there a catch in her voice?
“She was only twenty-three years old, well-liked, and trying to make a life for herself when she was murdered. She should never be forgotten.”
“She’s not forgotten . . .” Ben felt her pain.
“But not a priority.” She turned to face him, her voice vibrating with hurt.
“Her mother broke down at the first press conference, when detectives asked for the public’s help in solving the case.
She had to be hospitalized, and she never recovered.
She died shortly thereafter. It broke my heart then, and it continues .
. .” Jensen paused, turned away, and swallowed. “They both deserve justice.”
“I confess I don’t know as much about that case as I should. What can you tell me?”
She leaned back in her seat and closed her eyes.
“It’s a stone-cold case, but it still twists my gut in knots.
Daphne had just moved to Long Beach for work.
She was hired down at the harbor as an office manager.
Back then, Vine was heavily involved with the longshoremen’s union and active in the harbor. That’s where I think he met her.”
“I don’t recall any connection between the two of them noted in the reports.”
“No one admitted to a connection. But there was evidence that Vine often visited the building where Daphne worked. He was involved in an import-export business at the time. For him to say that he never saw or interacted with Daphne in the time she worked there defies logic.”
“Sounds like you have a theory.”
Her whole countenance perked up. Ben bet that thinking about something other than her sister was therapeutic.
“There used to be a bar on the west side of Long Beach, the Barn. A lot of people from the port and the harbor offices frequented the bar. We discovered that that was where Vine was drinking the night I arrested him. He’d been kicked out at closing time, or so they said.”
“You don’t think so?”
She shook her head. “Closing time was two a.m. I stopped him around six thirty a.m. If they kicked him out at two, where was he between then and six thirty? He was drunk when I stopped him. Blood alcohol was .20.”
“Was that time ever accounted for?”
“No. In court paperwork he claimed to be driving home from the Barn when I stopped him. He never had to explain further. He had no record at the time, hired good lawyers, and got a sweet plea deal. You know he killed another man about five years before Daphne?”
“I do. He was acquitted; the jury saw it as self-defense.”
“They got it wrong,” she said through clenched teeth.
“Maybe, but that case never would have been mentioned, even if Sparks’s case had gone to trial.”
“I know you’re right. It still cements the idea in my mind that he is a killer.”
“So, back to the night Sparks was killed. Either the bar let him stay there and drink, long after it was legal, or Vine was doing something else.”
“I think he killed Daphne and was on the way to dump her body. She’d been deceased a couple of hours at least when I stopped him, and most of her blood volume was gone—she bled and died somewhere else, not in the back of that car. I think . . .”
“Sounds like a solid take,” Ben said.
“My theory got panned by the homicide detectives.”
“Then I want to hear it.”
Jensen took a deep breath. “Vine was in the middle of remodeling a property he owned very near to where I stopped him. The place had been taken down to the studs, and they were getting ready to pour the foundation for an addition. I think he was going to encase her body in the concrete foundation at that property. The detectives at the time thought that I watched too many TV crime shows.”
Ben sat back as he considered her theory. “I know enough about Vine that I would not dismiss that idea out of hand. Did anyone put Sparks with him at the Barn that night?”
“Not that night, but she often went to the bar—never by herself—always with others from her office. She was not interested in dating; she liked to socialize in a group. I think she was killed in the alley behind the Barn. Her clothing had grime consistent with substances there.”
“Was her blood found there?”
“No. By the time investigators checked it out, it had been power washed.”
Ben raised an eyebrow. “No one saw anything fishy in that?”
“Yeah, but there was no way to prove he’d done it to destroy evidence. It was two days after her body was recovered before detectives went to the bar. The owner said complaints about rats prompted the cleanup.”
“Were there any other suspects besides Vine?”
“Two men she worked with were questioned, but they both had solid alibis.”
“So why do you believe that Vine and Sparks knew each other somehow?” He tried not to sound skeptical but feared it came out that way.
“She kept the books for various entities that operated in the harbor, several that Vine interacted with. She was visible, very pretty, and it was only logical that she interacted with him at some point.”
“So, if they knew each other, was it a case of him not handling rejection?”
“I think she caught on to something illegal he was involved in. Remember, Vine was just starting out in his career of crime. Numerous rumors flew around down there about illegal shipments, payoffs, and grafts. After Daphne’s murder, two harbor managers were arrested and convicted of falsifying records and embezzling money.
It wasn’t long after that Vine divested himself of every business he had in the harbor. ”
“Did any of the rumors pertain to Vine?”
“No. The only thing we found out about him was that he couldn’t handle his liquor.
He cultivated a lot of influence in the harbor, spreading money around.
It’s not a stretch to think he paid people off to tell police the story he wanted told,” Jensen said.
“The detectives who handled the case were good, but they never found any actionable leads.”
The smartest crooks knew how to keep their mouths shut. Ben heard the defeat in her voice, and it broke his heart.
“I’d like to tell you that we can swoop in to arrest him any moment, but losing Efren really set us back.”
“Do you think your partner was made?”
The question pierced Ben. “I pray not. Though the longer we don’t hear from him, the more that possibility looms.”