Chapter 14
Catalina felt she had to apologize to Benjamin. They were in the car on their way back into the city.
“I’m sorry that I had to keep this from you,” she started, casting him a sideways look.
“The security tape showing your brother stealing the necklace? Yeah, that would have been helpful,” he replied.
“Are you mad at me?”
He looked at her for a moment, then directed his eyes back on the road. “No. I get it. Certain things are hard to talk about, especially if they can change a person’s opinion drastically.”
She was surprised that he understood. She slid her hand onto his thigh, and he immediately placed his hand on top of hers.
“You’re a very generous man. I know you don’t have to do anything for me or my brother, yet you—”
“You forget that you’re offering me sex pretty much whenever I want it,” he interrupted with a smirk. “I can hardly call myself generous, when I’m so amply rewarded.”
She smiled back at him. “I thought we established that the sex between us isn’t meant as payment for your help.”
“True. But wouldn’t you expect your boyfriend to help you when you’re in a crisis?”
Warmth spread inside her. Hearing him call her his girlfriend for the second time now made her feel safe and treasured. “Not expect, but hope.”
“Well, then you’re getting what you’ve hoped for.”
He lifted her hand and brought it to his lips, pressed a kiss on it, and placed it back on his thigh.
She could feel his firm muscles flex under her palm.
Emboldened by his words and deeds, she moved her hand to the inside of his thigh.
A breath of air rolled over his lips, but he didn’t stop her from moving her hand up to the apex of his thighs.
“You do know that I’m driving on the freeway. In heavy traffic. Don’t you?” he pressed out.
“You shouldn’t have started talking about sex. It gets a woman all hot and bothered,” she murmured.
“Does it now?” he asked, while he took her hand and guided it to the hard bulge that had formed beneath his pants. “Is that what you were looking for?”
She pulled her lower lip between her teeth, her pulse speeding up. “I wasn’t going to be that bold, but since you’re offering…”
She squeezed his cock. This time, he took her hand and lifted it off him, placing it on her own thigh.
“I think that’s all I can handle right now. If we didn’t have important things to do, I’d take the next exit…”
He didn’t finish his sentence, and he didn’t have to, because the way he looked at her, his eyes blazing in an even more intense blue than she’d seen before, she knew exactly what he wanted. And she wouldn’t refuse him either. In fact, she wouldn’t even mind if they had sex in the car.
In order to distract herself from the sexual tension between them, she asked, “Where are we heading?”
“To police headquarters on Bryant Street.”
“What do you want to do there?”
“Look at the police file of your brother’s case. It’s different from the court transcript.”
“But the police won’t let you look at their files. I tried. And even as his sister, they refused me.”
“Don’t worry. I have connections. My friend’s wife is employed as police liaison between Scanguards and the SFPD. She’ll get us what we need.”
She marveled at his confidence. “Isn’t she gonna get in trouble for that?”
Benjamin shook his head and cast her a quick glance. “It’s literally her job. Scanguards isn’t just a security company. We don’t only provide bodyguards and security personnel. We’re also private investigators. The city hires us for cases where they need our expertise.”
“But isn’t that what the police are for?”
“True, but we have certain specialties.”
“Like what?”
“Think of us as Sherlock Holmes, and of the SFPD as Scotland Yard.” He shrugged. “So, trust me, your brother’s case is in good hands.”
“I really appreciate you doing this.” She sighed. “I wish I could pay for your work. Or that I had known about Scanguards before Santiago’s trial. But we couldn’t afford a private investigator. All the money we had…”
“Tell me about your mother. What kind of cancer does she have?”
“Pancreatic cancer, stage four.” Catalina looked out the passenger-side window. “I wish I could do something for her and Papa.”
“I’m sure you’ve done all you can. How long ago did they get deported?”
“Almost a year ago. My mother had just started chemotherapy and was responding well. She was on her fourth week when ICE set up roadblocks outside of Fresno. My dad was driving her back home from her treatment. Even though they both speak good English and were able to tell them that they had work permits, they weren’t given an opportunity to get their papers and prove to the officers that they were legal.
They are Latino, and they have an accent. That’s all they looked at.”
She felt her heart clench painfully at the recollection of the events.
“It took us nearly a week to find out where they’d been taken.
We found them in a detention center down in San Diego.
We brought all their papers to show them that they were legal, but they wouldn’t even look at them and deported them a few days later.
I heard one of the pro bono immigration lawyers say that when ICE realized that my mother was undergoing chemotherapy, they decided to fast-track her deportation, because she was a drain on the American healthcare system. ”
A tear stole itself down her cheek, and she wiped it away quickly, not wanting Benjamin to see it.
“She had health insurance through her work. She wasn’t a burden on anybody.”
Benjamin clasped her hand and squeezed it. “I’m so sorry, baby.”
“Thank you.”
“Where in Mexico are your parents now?”
“In Guadalajara.”
“Is your mother in treatment there?”
Catalina nodded. “Yes, but it took several months until she could find a hospital that was willing and able to treat her. Santiago and I sent as much money as we could, but we didn’t have much either. Then Santiago got that job with the electrician. A few months later he was arrested.”
She looked at Benjamin. “The prosecution knew about all of this, and they used the information on our parents’ deportation and the need for money for Mama’s cancer treatment to paint him in the worst possible light.
They tried to make the jury believe that Santiago was an undocumented alien, a parasite, even though he was born here and is therefore a citizen.
And they claimed that he had a financial motive for stealing from the Prestons: so he could pay for Mama’s chemotherapy in Mexico. ”
Benjamin felt his heart break for Catalina and her family.
It wasn’t hard to imagine how the jury had reacted to the prosecutor’s allegations and come back with a guilty verdict.
Santiago was the perfect scapegoat. But he’d seen something different in the young man he’d met in the San Bruno Jail.
He was glad now that Catalina had withheld the information about the security tape from him.
It had allowed him to form an unbiased opinion of Santiago.
He liked the kid. He’d seen no deception in his eyes, no evil or treachery in him, no greed, just desperation and fear of what else would happen to him in prison.
Luckily, the latter issue was something he could handle.
“I’ll do what I can to help Santiago and your parents.”
For starters, from tonight, there’d be somebody inside the prison who’d have Santiago’s back.
He’d have to pay for it, but that wasn’t a problem.
He’d been working for Scanguards since he was eighteen, and because he’d been living in a flat owned by his parents, he’d never had to pay rent.
He’d saved most of his money, and now it was time to spend it on something worthwhile.
And protecting a life was always worthwhile.
But he didn’t want Catalina to know that he was spending money on her brother.
She would feel even more indebted to him, and he didn’t like that kind of dynamic between them.
He wanted her to be with him because she wanted him, not because he was generous to her family.
As for her mother: he would speak to Maya, the Scanguards physician, to see if there was something they could do to help.
This was a more sensitive issue, and it wasn’t his decision even though he wished it was that easy.
It was something that Amaury, Gabriel, and Samson, the three top vampires at Scanguards, would have to vote on.
“We’re almost here,” Benjamin announced when he saw the Bryant Street exit.
He parked in the police lot of the SFPD building after flashing his special police pass that Chief of Police Michael Donnelly had ordered all Scanguards investigators to be issued.
This was relatively new and had been instituted after Cooper, one of the vampire hybrids at Scanguards, had been arrested by his now-mate, Anita, who’d suspected him of being the serial killer she’d been hunting.
Even though Cooper had reportedly enjoyed the handcuffs she’d put on him a little too much, Donnelly had insisted that Scanguards investigators carry additional identification they could flash should they get into similar situations.
“Come,” Benjamin said and led Catalina into the building.
His phone had chimed earlier, and he now checked his messages.
“Anita is expecting us.”
“Is she your friend’s wife? The one who’s the liaison?”
“Yes. She was a Sheriff’s Deputy back in a small town in Nevada when she came to San Francisco hunting a serial killer. That’s where she met my friend Cooper. They’ve been together for four years now.”
“She hunted a serial killer? She sounds impressive.”
“She is.”
After signing in, they made their way to the third floor, where Anita’s office was located. She was expecting them.
“Hey, Benjamin,” she greeted him, then looked at Catalina. “Hi, I’m Detective Anita Diaz-Montgomery.”
“This is Catalina Vargas,” he introduced Catalina.
She shook Anita’s hand. “Thank you for seeing us.”
“Nice to meet you, Catalina. You’re Santiago Vargas’s sister?” she asked, and Catalina nodded.
Anita looked at him. “I can’t give you a copy of the police file for the case, but you can both look through it as long as you do it in my office.”
She motioned to a table with several chairs in one corner of her rather large office. A thick police file lay on it.
“Thank you, I really appreciate it,” Benjamin said. “But we don’t want to displace you.”
Anita made a dismissive hand movement. “I have a meeting with the chief anyway.”
“That’s great! Thank you. And can we use your computer to play back the security video in the file?”
“The security video?” Anita asked, furrowing her brow.
“Yes, it was part of the evidence,” Catalina said quickly.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t know there was video evidence, or I would have arranged for it to be sent up too.” She sighed. “I’m sorry, but all original audio-visual evidence is kept in a different area. You know, so that it won’t accidentally be wiped by a powerful magnet.”
“A magnet?” Catalina asked, clearly confused.
Anita nodded. “Yes, like in that movie: The Big Easy. It’s standard procedure. Though these days we’re not worried about magnets since we’re not dealing with VHS tapes anymore. But if the video evidence was submitted as an SD card, then it would be vulnerable to an electromagnetic pulse.”
“I understand.”
“Could you get us the video, please? It’s really important that I see it,” Benjamin said.
“I can, but I’ll have to put in a special request. It won’t be available today. Maybe by tomorrow afternoon?”
Disappointed, Benjamin nodded nevertheless. “Thank you, Anita. I’m really grateful.”
“Sure thing. See you guys later.”
When the door fell shut behind Anita, Benjamin cast Catalina an encouraging smile.
“Let’s read through all the interviews and the forensic evidence that was found. That should give me a good idea of how they made the case against your brother. We’ll just have to wait for the video until tomorrow.”
Catalina took a breath and nodded. “Let’s do this.”