Lassiter 08 - Lassiter Read Online Free PDF

Ziegler.”
    It hit me then. “Charles Ziegler” was a bold-face name on the society page. There was a Ziegler wing of the hospital in South Miami. A Ziegler charity golf tournament in Coral Gables. But why fear that guy? He seemed more like Daddy Warbucks than John Gotti.
    “You talking about the Ziegler who gives all that money away?” I asked.
    “That’s him. Went legit and made a bundle in cable TV. Back in the day, he was the prince of porn and Krista’s sugar daddy. Rented a mansion on Sunset Island he called the ‘Fuck Palace.’ ”
    Change, I thought, was in the air. Rusty. Sonia. Even the prince of pornhad become respectable. Which made me think again about the lunkhead in that photo at Bozo’s. Just how much had I changed?
    “His videos were called ‘Charlie’s Girlz,’ ” Sonia continued. “With a ‘z,’ as in ‘Ziegler.’ ”
    That was all I needed. I had a name to give Amy Larkin, crack insurance investigator from Podunk, Ohio. Now I could get the hell out. But something kept me on the phone with Sonia, asking questions. Maybe it was just curiosity. Or maybe, subconsciously, I was trying to make amends for having been such a shit all those years ago.
    “Was Krista involved with anyone else?” I asked.
    “Depends what you mean by ‘involved.’ Ziegler passed her around to his friends.”
    “Know any of their names?”
    “Not really. Rich, older guys. Sick fucks, from what she told me. Into drugs and kinky sex.”
    The list of possible suspects just multiplied, I thought. Nothing is ever as simple as it seems.
    “I tried to warn her, Jake. The men, the drugs, the violence. But she was a kid and you couldn’t tell her anything. She started shooting four or five videos a week. Ziegler just cranked them out, using up girls and finding new ones.”
    “She get involved with any of the actors or crew?”
    “Not that I know of. But she was doing her drug dealer off and on. A guy who called himself ‘Snake.’ Rode a Harley. Smelled like motor oil, but handsome as sin in that bad-boy way.”
    “A biker named ‘Snake’?” I couldn’t hide my rolling eyes from my voice.
    “It’s true. Tattoos, leather, the big ass Harley. He wanted Krista to go to California with him.”
    “You sure she didn’t go?”
    “Doubt she would have left Ziegler. He was paying the bills, giving her a sense of security.”
    “And the last time you saw her …?”
    “The parking lot of our apartment building. Said she was going to Ziegler’s house for some wild party with the high mucky-mucks.”
    Whoa. That was big. If Krista was last seen heading to Ziegler’s, he just stepped to the front of the line called “persons of interest.”
    “Any idea who might have been at the party?”
    “All I know is Krista said there were always cops and politicians. Even judges, if you can believe that.”
    I could. Easily.
    “Her car wasn’t in its space the next morning,” Sonia said, “but that wasn’t unusual. A couple days later, she still hadn’t shown up. All her clothes were still in the apartment. I didn’t know what to do, so I drove over to Ziegler’s office. They said they hadn’t seen Krista, and Ziegler was out of town.”
    “Anyone file a missing persons report?”
    “Me. But you know how it is. Stripper and porn actress. Not the cops’ highest priority.”
    Over the line, I heard two quick whistle blasts and the exhalation of steam in the background.
    “I found Krista’s home number in her things,” Sonia said, “and called her father. He flew down the next day.”
    That solved one small mystery. “You gave him the photo from Bozo’s.”
    “Yeah. And I told him the truth about what Krista was doing. You could see the light in him just die. Maybe I did the wrong thing, Jake.”
    “The truth is always best.”
    A policy I didn’t really believe and clearly didn’t adhere to.
    “I could tell from her dad’s face,” Sonia said, “he wasn’t going to look for her. He just wrote