CHAPTER ELEVEN

Paul’s was a lot like the coffee shops that used to be all over Los Angeles, like Ships, Bob’s Big Boy, and Sambo’s, but were fast becoming extinct. Eve loved them and this one was the real deal. The tabletops in each vinyl-upholstered booth were shellacked with business cards from local merchants, something she’d never seen before. The place was popular. There were at least two dozen customers at this early hour.

She ordered coffee from a young waitress who looked like a college student squeezing in a job before her day of classes. Cleve showed up a few minutes later and ordered a cup of coffee, too. He wore jeans and a UC Merced sweatshirt. GO BOBCATS! was written across the chest.

“Have you been to Merced before?” he asked.

“Not really. I took a prisoner to Atwater Penitentiary once and stopped at the In-N-Out off the freeway here on my way back to LA.”

“I was born and raised here. Half the population is Hispanic, another twelve percent is Asian, mostly Hmong refugees. We’ve got a twelve percent unemployment rate and twenty-eight percent of our adult population didn’t graduate high school. Home values have dropped sixty percent from ten years ago. Sixty percent. I keep asking myself why I stay.”

“There must be something that keeps you from moving.”

“Family, I suppose. My heart is here, well, half of it, anyway. The other half is in LA with my kids.” Cleve looked into his empty coffee cup. “The Merced cops came by the office yesterday. All they told me is that Tanya and the kids are gone and there might be ‘foul play’ involved. What does that even mean? I’ve been imagining the worst. I can’t help it. I need to know if my kids are okay. Are they okay?”

She didn’t want to tell him yet that they were dead and dismembered. She was spared giving him an immediate evasive answer by the waitress, who filled Cleve’s coffee cup and refilled Eve’s. Once the waitress was gone, Eve spoke in a low voice.

“A friend of Tanya’s reported her missing yesterday and your kids didn’t show up for school. We went to the house to investigate and discovered evidence of a struggle. Now we’re searching for Tanya and your kids. I’m hoping you can help us find them by answering a few questions.”

“You aren’t telling me everything.”

“No, I’m not.”

“Because you think I had something to do with whatever has happened to them.”

“I need to rule that out,” she said.

“What about Tanya’s boyfriend?”

“What about him?”

“He’s beating my kids and I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s abusing her, too.” Cleve poured four sugars into the coffee and took a sip. It seemed to take some of the grogginess from his face. “I told her to get the hell out of there or I’d go to court for custody of the kids. She said I was overreacting to a little ‘parental discipline’ but he isn’t the Goddamn parent in that house—she is.”