The Middle Sister by Jesse Miles

Author:Jesse Miles [Miles, Jesse]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780990474043
Publisher: Robert Peoples
Published: 2019-08-11T16:00:00+00:00

21

4

Latigo Alliance was in the hills of Malibu, a few miles beyond the pier. During my drive, I passed by the Castellammare district. My natural instinct was to go up the hill and ask the neighbors what they might have seen around the house where I found Lillie Manning, but the LAPD detectives had already covered that, and I wasn’t sure where I could find an investigative foothold.

At ten o’clock, I was in the Latigo Alliance reception room. The sky and the Pacific Ocean filled the room’s only window, which was stretched across the south wall. On closer inspection, Catalina Island was dead-center in the window, faintly visible through a silvery mist.

The décor was all in for warm pastels. I sank back into my peach-colored velvet armchair, wiggling my feet in the pale blue carpet, feeling warm and fuzzy. The matronly woman behind the reception desk asked if I wanted coffee, tea, or hot chocolate. I suppressed the urge to wink at her and ask for Coke.

Sebastien Thurman sauntered into the lobby. He was five-nine, two hundred pounds, no neck, big head, big eyes, and a small, pinched mouth. His thinning, grayish-blond hair was cut into a flattop. We exchanged the usual pleasantries, shook hands, and went down the hall to his office.

The room was fitted out with traditional furniture in neutral colors. A framed print on the wall depicted an idealized version of life on the farm, from an elevated perspective, in a childlike style.

I stared at the artwork. “Grandma Moses in the Security Director’s office?”

Thurman shut the door behind him and spoke in a relaxed baritone. “Grandma Fucking Moses. Heartwarming, isn’t it? Everything we do at Latigo Alliance is heartwarming. Every time I take a dump in this place, I sing ‘Joy to the World.’ But of course, I sing it softly. That way, I don’t pollute the tranquility. Have a chair.”

I landed on a chair. “How big a security crew do you have here?”

“One guard twenty-four seven at the guard shack, one guard roaming the facility around the clock. The total works out to eight heads annually, full-time. I do a little roaming myself. I like to walk the perimeter and go here and there and stick my nose into things at random times. The employees never know when I’m going to appear. Sometimes, if we have an extra-special celebrity patient, I bring in extra muscle. We only use contract labor. I’m the only salaried security employee other than clerical help and a secretary I share with the HR Department.”

“How’s the ownership and management?”

“As long as the revenue continues to flow, and the patients don’t go running down the coast highway screaming, the management is great. They let me do my job. I haven’t had any serious security breaches in my five years here, but you never know what’s going to happen in a place like this. How do you know Gabriel?”

“We worked together at Western Investigative Services in our younger days. Sometimes we help each other on our cases.

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