“Maybe, but the papers say he keeps it in Ventura,” said Gonzales. “One good thing, he’s not going to get far in that thing, though he could set out on a fake pleasure cruise, dock in Santa Barbara or farther in San Simeon, or go the other way and bail in Long Beach.”

“Why keep the boat in Ventura when he’s got a slip right behind the condo?”

“Still trying to find out. Meanwhile, I’ve got a two-person team rotating on him, just what I said, couple of clueless young ’uns willing to sell their own mothers for the privilege of having their butts fall asleep.”

Milo said, “Eight-hour shifts?”

“Twelve,” said Gonzales. “Poor little suckers. Then again, I never met their mothers.”

Tracing the Corey girls’ escape turned out to be simple. Milo cold-called Visa, MasterCard, Amex, and Discovery, struck gold with Visa, struck platinum with an astonishingly cooperative supervisor named Brenda. His assurance that it was a “life-or-death matter” might’ve cut through the red tape, but he hung up beating his chest and proclaiming, “The charm has been reactivated! Rico Suave is back!”

Like the old song says, little things mean a lot.

Each sister had her own card but the account numbers were sequential. Ashley’s had been used to buy a tankful of gas just east of Palm Springs. The rest of the charges alternated between the sisters, all racked up in Las Vegas, just as Laura Smith had said. Additional fuel, food, cosmetics, substantial charges at the Venetian that approximated the hotel’s rate for a deluxe room plus some room service.

Milo said, “Escaping to Sin City. Hopefully it’s actually them and not someone with their plastic.”

I said, “They can’t be thinking too straight. Even if Ursula paid the charges before, Richard would get them now.”

“Ah, impetuous youth.” He called Brenda again, confirmed that a request had been made to mail the bills to the condo in Oxnard.

“Is there any way to block that temporarily?”

“Why would we do that, Lieutenant?”

“Between you and me, that’s their father’s address and he’s who we’re worried about.”

“Oh … sorry, officially there’s no way without a court order.”

“But,” said Milo.

Click click click buzz buzz. “Now we’re not being recorded. At least on my end.”

“Not on mine either.”

“All right,” said Brenda. “Here’s what I think: We’re a big company with excellent technical support. But glitches do come up. Though they tend to get fixed pretty quickly.”

“Maybe one glitch could be replaced by another?” said Milo.

The woman laughed. “You’re a demanding fellow.”

“Truth, justice, blah blah blah, Brenda. Seriously, these are scared kids and they’re in danger.”

“From their father. That’s horrible. Okay, I’ll see what I can do.”

“Thanks a ton.”

“My brother’s a cop. Indianapolis.”

“That’s great, Brenda.”

“Thought you’d see it that way.”

CHAPTER

28