Gated Prey (Eve Ronin #3)(53)

Duncan and Eve walked back outside to the last unit in the building, where a dazed, unshaven man sat in a chair outside his door, wrapped in a blanket. Eve wondered how long he’d been sitting there, waiting. He looked up with bloodshot eyes as they approached. Eve’s heart ached for him.

“Alejandro Alvarez?” Duncan asked.

He nodded. “Who is asking?”

“We’re detectives with the Los Angeles sheriff’s department. We’re looking for Priscilla.”

Alejandro sat up a little straighter in his chair and drew the blanket tighter around himself. “Why are you looking for her?”

Eve said, “We think she might be able to help us with a case we’re working on in Calabasas. Do you know where she is?”

Alejandro shook his head and began to softly cry. Duncan found another chair, pulled it over, and sat down facing him. Eve had to look away, afraid his tears would provoke her own.

“How long has she been missing?”

“She went to work on Tuesday and didn’t come back. I tried calling her but got no answer.” Alejandro looked pleadingly at Duncan, then up at Eve. “I don’t know what to do. My children, they are crying for their mother. So am I.”

“Did you try calling the Grayles? The people she works for?”

“I don’t have their number. It’s on Priscilla’s phone. I don’t even know where the house is in Calabasas. Do you know what happened to her? Is she all right?”

“That’s what we are trying to find out,” Duncan said. “But first, we’ll need to file a formal missing person report.”

Alejandro hesitated and Eve had a good idea why.

“We don’t care whether you are here legally or not,” she said. “All we care about is finding your wife. Could you get us a better photo of her?”

Alejandro nodded, got up from the chair, and went inside the motel room. Duncan got up, too, and stepped into the motor court with Eve, who said, “This is heartbreaking.”

“You will get calluses on your heart working homicide,” he said. “But the moment you begin to feel them, Eve, you’ve got to get the hell out.”

“How do you feel them?”

“It’s what you don’t feel.” He tipped his head toward the empty chair. “It’s when you stop feeling their pain.”

She didn’t ask him if that’s why he was retiring because she was afraid of the answer. Instead, she said, “We need to get her toothbrush, or her hairbrush, so we can compare her DNA to the baby’s.”

Duncan waved that off. “That’s almost irrelevant at this point. Our priority right now is getting CSU to the Grayles’. Daphne can paint the whole damn house and it won’t hide any blood on the walls.”

“Do you think we have enough for a warrant?”

“Now that we know Priscilla is truly missing, and that the Grayles’ house was the last place she was before her baby ended up in Anna McCaig’s dumpster, and that Daphne Grayle, who is aching for a kid, suddenly had the urge to repaint, yes, I’d say we do.”

“You make a compelling but entirely circumstantial case,” Eve said.

“That’s why I’m going to call the ADA and ask her to get the warrant,” Duncan said. “This is going to take some fancy legal footwork to dazzle a judge.”



While Duncan made the call, Eve got some basic information about Priscilla from Alejandro, along with her hairbrush and a photo of her in a park, sitting on a blanket. The picture was taken before she was pregnant, or at least before she was showing. Priscilla was unsmiling, eyeing the camera warily, her black hair tied in a severe bun. She was in her thirties, round faced and a little chubby, wearing a Lakers hoodie and jeans. She seemed tired to Eve, but more than just physically. It was her whole being, body and soul.

Eve promised Alejandro that they’d get in touch with him as soon as they had any information. But Eve sensed that he knew they were holding something back and that it wasn’t good.

Before heading to Lost Hills, Duncan insisted that they have lunch at Dr. Hogly Wogly’s Tyler Texas BBQ, which was only a few blocks away, and since he was driving, Eve had no choice in the matter.

The ribs came drenched in watery sauce. Duncan was tempted to take off his jacket, tie, and shirt to protect them from stains but instead covered himself in napkins from his chin to his knees. Eve ordered a pulled pork sandwich, to cut the risk of staining her clothes, and a large Coke, hoping the sugar and caffeine would keep her alert.

Rebecca Burnside, their go-to ADA, called Duncan while they were eating to let him know they got their warrant to search the Grayles’ house for evidence of murder and for Priscilla Alvarez’s body. She also strongly advised Duncan to buy a lottery ticket today, because he was a very lucky man. The grounds for the search warrant were very thin.

But Duncan already knew he was lucky. He’d finished lunch without getting a single spot on his clothes.



The first thing Duncan and Eve did when they got back to Lost Hills station was to bring Captain Shaw up to date on the case. When they were done, he stared at them from across his desk. He didn’t look pleased.

“This will make two homes you’ve searched in two days.”

Since Duncan was the one leading the charge on the Grayles’ house, Eve let him answer the captain.