The Heart of the Beach

“Oh, for the love of all that is holy!” Detective Amelia Mendez had about enough of the night shift. This was the tenth call tonight, and there is just no point in answering, many are anonymous tips leading nowhere, not that it would matter. The Long Beach Precinct does practically nothing to solve anything: homicides, domestic disputes, burglaries, parking tickets. And yet, the Powers that be still want Mendez to do her job, because it shows other counties that “we are not just lying down on the job” as the Captain states. Psshh. Detective Mendez ran her hands through her hair. The Captain has not done his job in three years. Not since Los Angeles fell into rubble. The riots were too much, climate change had taken a number on the big city, and most citizens had fled once water became scarce. After that, People flocked to other areas and states, searching for wherever the hell the “American Dream” went. It ain’t here, Mendez thought.

Amelia Mendez was born and raised in Long Beach, California. It was a new decade in the New Millenium. She was 10 years old when her household was hit with the virus. She got better, but the country did not.

So many things hit the country so close to each other that it was just too hard to recover. That earthquake, “the big one” that your Abuela kept on talking about? Yeah, it finally hit in 2022, the hurricanes (yup… plural) of 2023, and then the West Coast suffered a major heatstroke in the summer of 2023, where major cities went into a drought. Electing new politicians to take charge was no help, and people started protesting...hard. But voices were left unheard, and pretty soon, the National Guard came… and never left.

Nowadays, the “Federalies” don’t do much to help. There is not much hope left in people around here anymore. No hope for change, no need to protest, no need for the Guard to stop anything. People just do what they can to keep out of trouble and survive.

This is why Detective Mendez continues to do her job, even though all of the files she completes get put onto a desk, and there they lay gathering dust. What else can she do?

Amelia makes a right onto Long Beach Blvd. and right into Steelcraft’s parking lot. Some anonymous citizen called in a Jane Doe. All of the calls are anonymous now. It’s surprising ANYONE calls for anything anymore. Most people keep their heads down and their mouths shut.

Detective Mendez wanders towards the body, the first one on the scene. She looks around: All cameras have been smashed, probably for years now, and it looks like most of the restaurants have been shut down for years. The bar doesn’t look as dirty and abandoned, but Mendez suspects that they won’t come into work today. Nobody wants anything to do with a murder.

Being the good detective that she is, Mendez surveys the body. Maybe early thirties, clean body, fingernails looked broken, maybe from a scuffle. There might be DNA hiding under there. Mendez, applying gloves to her hands, kneels down to swab for DNA under each nail. She smelled of roses and vanilla. She could only have been dead for a couple of hours. As she inspected Jane Doe, Detective Mendez saw that there were no track marks, her skin and hair looked well taken care of. This was not just some drug addict homeless person, like so many other Jane Does she had seen in the past. Her make-up was barely messed with, only her mascara had run down the sides of her cheeks, probably crying while she struggled with her murderer. She followed the black mascara line to her neck and noticed something shiny. A gold, heart-shaped necklace hung around Jane Doe’s neck. It is peculiar that the perp did not steal it as it looks like it is real gold. Upon further checking, the necklace was the only thing that was on Jane Doe’s body. So someone stole her wallet but not the necklace? Strange. Detective Mendez didn’t know how strange it was about to get.

All of a sudden, Detective Mendez heard sirens coming from the distance. Why? Usually, it only takes one car to cover one crime scene, and Amelia had already been given the pleasure. What was more shocking was that her Captain had decided to grace a crime scene with his presence, a feat which has not been seen by the human eye in almost ten years.

“We will take it from here, Mendez.” Captain Bullock practically shouted at her. Something was wrong, Amelia thought. There has not been this much “presence” at a crime scene in well over a decade, and she is being dismissed? The one detective that still crosses her t’s and dots her i’s in every piece of paperwork she files is being told to leave the crime scene she started canvassing? “Okay, Cap,” she said and turned to walk away. “Wait just a minute,” Captain Bullock walked over to her. Is this brute trying to intimidate me? She thought. “Did you find anything interesting on the Doe?” “No sir. Just took some potential DNA from under her fingernails.” “I’ll take that. That will be all Detective.” As he snatches the evidence bag from her, Mendez turns to go back to her car. She couldn’t leave fast enough.

Amelia closes the front door to her house and slams her head on it. I am an idiot, she thinks. She reaches into her pocket and takes out the gold necklace, throwing it onto her desk. Something odd is happening. There is no reason that the Captain would be that “Gung-ho!” about a crime scene. Unless he wants to cover something up. Why did that Jane Doe get under her skin? Because, Amelia thought, she was too clean to be someone just out in the streets. She must have seen something or know something that she is not supposed to. And if the “higher-ups” are involved, there is a reason why our Jane is a Doe.

Amelia set to work on the locket. She got her home-kit out and started dusting for prints, although her database is at work, it will be smarter to do most of the work here, and leave the necklace at home. One print, could be the perp’s, could be our doe’s. We will have to see. She didn’t notice this before. There is a small crease in the middle of the necklace. Two pieces of the heart. A locket? She opens it up to reveal two tiny pictures. One of our Jane Doe, with a smile full of life and beauty. The other is of… Ronny? Holy shit! That’s MY ex-girlfriend? My ex-girlfriend knows my Jane Doe!? Amelia’s mind was swimming, but she had to go get answers... She needed to get answers.

Amelia drives down PCH, loving every minute of it, even though she dreaded this conversation. Ronny, Amelia’s ex-girlfriend, had a small boathouse, parked just down the row from Schooner or Later. Ronny was there, but not for long. She looked as though she was carrying two gas canisters. Maybe a trip to Baja.

Ronny sees Amelia and immediately breaks down. “O man, I can’t believe you are here right now.” Amelia stops. “Ronny. I am assuming you know why?” Ronny pulls a handkerchief out of her jeans pocket and wipes her face. “I know you don’t want to hear this, and you are the last person that I want to talk to about Briza… we were, we were going to get married!” “Why?!”, bursts out Amelia, then stops. “I am sorry. It’s just, what’s the point… now?” Ronny gave a half-hearted laugh. “ Of course you would say that. Bitter bunny. But, when the world is going to hell in a handbasket, why not? Why not have even a small amount of happiness… you know, before it all goes to poo.” Now it was Amelia’s turn to laugh out loud. “Ok, ok… I am only slightly bitter.” There is a slight pause as the two looked at each other with mutual respect. “So, do you want to tell me what happened to your… fiance?”

“I told her not to take that job, but the money was too good to pass up.” “What job?” asked Amelia. “She was working for a research facility. She was just an assistant, but her team was researching a way to efficiently and effectively desalinate ocean water. But not for the likes of Amazon Prime. This facility wanted to get these prototypes into homes across the coast. They would be able to create jobs, manufacturing the machine, sales, and it would put Long Beach back on the map.” So why the cover-up, Amelia thought. Isn’t that a good thing? As if Ronny could still read Amelia’s thoughts, she said, “Something happened. The company needed more funds for the initial prototype and their loanshark wasn’t having any of it. One of the researchers opened a whole can of worms and communicated with some new, big company to help back them. I guess there was a fight over adding additional people because Briza came home two nights ago and said that we needed to leave. That’s what we were planning to do, but...?” “Hey,” Amelia started, “ I want you to go ahead and keep that plan. You are probably on their radar too, and if they are getting rid of people that know too much..” Ronny let out a sob. “ I am sorry for your loss, Ronny. But now you need to go.” Ronny just gave a nod and got on her boat.

If the Captain is getting paid, some big company must be looking for something, Amelia thought as she drove home. She locked her door. Going to her desk once again, she picked up the necklace and opened it up. Studying the picture, she saw that the one on the left looked like it was bulging out compared to the one on the right. She got a pair of tweezers and carefully took out the picture. A very small microchip was hidden behind the picture.

“O shi…” Detective Mendez started to say, but was cut-off by someone from behind, choking her out with a piece of piano-wire.

To be continued...