“None taken, Deputy. Facts are facts. I’m aware of the racial makeup of this community and I think you’re right—being lily-white and clean-cut served these home invaders well.”
Duncan used the interruption as an opportunity to eat two more big bites of pizza. When he spoke again, it was with his mouth half-full.
“The guy who acted as ringleader of the crew and took a swan dive onto the patio was Joel Dalander. He grew up in Woodland Hills, went to Taft High School, and spent two years at Pierce College, where he got an associate degree in business administration and became night-shift manager at a Burger King in Reseda.”
Duncan tapped Sherry Simms’ picture. “Dalander’s girlfriend, Sherry, is from Santa Clarita and also went to Pierce, which is where I assume they met and when they moved in together. Her parents wouldn’t talk to me.”
“They are protecting her,” Eve said.
“That’s a parent’s job,” Duncan said. “Sherry left Pierce with a skills certificate in small business entrepreneurship, which she put to use to create her online store It’s A Steal to sell stolen goods.”
“Can we prove that they’re stolen?” Shaw asked.
Deputy Ross answered. “We’re still reaching out to the robbery victims with photos of the merchandise that has been recovered from the homes of Dalander, Colter, and Nagy. Nothing has been ID’d yet.”
“But CSU determined that the shredder at Dalander’s place was full of credit card smithereens,” Eve said. “That strikes me as highly suspicious.”
“Agreed,” Shaw said, and gestured to Duncan to continue.
“Greg Nagy, the guy I shot, grew up in Canoga Park, went to Canoga Park High School, then on to Cal State, Northridge, where he studied creative writing. He was working as a freelance script reader for Pinnacle Studios and was an aspiring writer. I read one of his screenplays to see if there might be a clue in it. All I learned is that he was better at robbery than he was at writing.”
“He got killed robbing a house,” Clayton said.
“That’s true,” Duncan said. “I stand corrected. He sucked at both. His family also refuses to talk to me and suggested that I submit any questions we have in writing to their lawyer so he can refuse to answer them.”
Shaw said, “Did you get anything from his computer?”
Eve answered his question. She’d been watching videos all morning, the monotony broken only by the calls she fielded from CSU.
“Not yet, sir. CSU is taking the MacBook to the morgue so they can unlock it biometrically with his fingerprint. They’ll do the same with Colter’s laptop.”
Duncan continued: “Colter is the assailant who led Eve on a merry chase and was shot by the security guard at the Commons. He grew up in Sherman Oaks and somehow his parents finagled him into Reseda High School, which is on the other side of the 405 from where they live.”
Eve went to Reseda High School, too, and just realized that she and Colter were students there at the same time. They might have passed each other in the hall a hundred times, never knowing that their paths would cross again on his last day alive.
“Colter barely graduated and has had a string of odd jobs ever since,” Duncan went on. “Waiting tables, phone sales, clerking at a shoe store, that kind of thing. He lived with his parents and, when he wasn’t robbing homes or watching porn, was driving for Uber and Lyft.”
Shaw dabbed at his lips with a napkin. “Have you found out how they all met or what brought them together to form this crew?”
“Nope,” Duncan said. “The lack of cooperation from their families isn’t helping, either.”
“I can’t really blame them for refusing to help us prove their sons were criminals,” Shaw said.
“They are probably busy with their lawyers trying to prove we are responsible for their sons’ deaths,” Duncan said.
“Did you get anything from their burner phones?”
“Another dead end,” Eve said. “CSU says they were just activated and no calls were made.”
“How about their guns?” Shaw asked.
Eve said, “CSU says the serial numbers were removed and they haven’t been able to raise them. The lab also test fired the weapons, ran the expelled bullets through the national ballistic database, and got no hits.”
“Okay,” Shaw said. “Did anything come up in the canvass of Vista Grande after it was locked down?”
“Nope,” Duncan said. “Deputies interviewed everyone in the community. The residents didn’t see anything unusual. Same goes for the guests, most of whom are regulars, like maids, gardeners, pool men, et cetera, who come and go every week. The rest were contractors, electricians, plumbers, painters, or delivery and utilities, like the telephone company, the electric company, United Parcel Service, Spectrum Cable, FedEx, Lightning Delivery, Sparkletts Water, and Amazon.”