"Hey, honey, I brought you some doughnuts." "Ooh!" "Doughnuts?" "Coffee first." "Coffee first." "Where?" "Where are the doughnuts?" "Actually..." "Ah!" " What is that?" " What does it look like?" "A kitten." "For me?" "Oh, Fritzi, you can't..." "You can't buy a pet for someone else." "I didn't buy him." "He's a rescue." "Well, he's..." "All right, he's cute." "But, look, I'm not ready for..." "Did you hear that, Joel?" "She thinks you're cute." ""Joel"?" "You named the cat Joel?" "I didn't even get to help pick him out." "And Kitty can't be replaced like this." "I know that." "Joel is not Kitty." "You can't call a cat Joel." "Cats are not called Joel." " They're called things like Dasher or Dancer." " Those are reindeer." "Look, your last cat didn't have a name at all." "Hey, we can call him something else if you want to." "Deputy Chief Johnson." "Yes, detective sergeant?" "Hang on, Sergeant Gabriel." "Just..." "Hang on just one second." "Look, I appreciate the sentiment." "I do." "I'm just not ready to start over again with another pet." "So goodbye, Joel." "Sorry." "Bye, now." "Bye." "Yes, sergeant?" "Hey there." " What the...?" "Jeez." " For heaven's sakes." "What does L.A. have in store for us today?" "I wish I could say, "The usual."" "I'm giving the grand tour." "Come on." "Thank you." "Neighbors say this house has been sitting empty for a year." "But a few members of the Tres Colores have taken it over as a party spot." "Watch the puke, chief." "Come this way, please." "Yeah, the gangs keep recruiting them younger and younger." "Yeah." "We keep getting older and older." "He had a fight with the fiancée again last night." "Hope it's the last one." "Time of death?" " Time of death?" " Time of death, yes." "Midnight, give or take an hour." " Sorry." "I never get used to the young ones." " Yeah, well, neither do we." "Chief, the kid was shot over here three times in the gut pukes, then crawls to where he finally bleeds out right here." "His fingertip's gone." "Yeah, found it stuck to the wall." "Shot clean off." "Probably had his hand out front, just giving up." "So close range." "Based on the outfit and the location, I mean, this kid wanted to be a gangster." "But he's a little young." "And look at his tattoo." "A wannabe." "Buzz, make sure you get a shot of that, please." "So, what, do you think this is the first round in a gang war?" "It takes a lot of cojones to walk through the front door in hostile territory and shoot a kid." "Does our victim have a name?" "No wallet, no ID, but we're pretty sure his name is Manuel." "We got a 911 call from a payphone." "A male voice said a Manuel was shot to death at this address." "I mean, the kid's not even 12." "Does anybody know the nearest middle school?" "Taft or Harding." "Yeah, and there's a Catholic school a couple of blocks south from here:" "Saint something, or Our Lady of whatever." "Get all their yearbooks, see if you can get a photo that matches up to our boy." "Find out Manuel's last name so we can make a notification to his parents." "Then maybe we could learn more about him than the fact that he likes gum." "Strawberry." "Pukey strawberry." "The dead kid is Manuel." "Manuel Soto." "Twelve years old." "Went to Harding Middle School." "No sports, no honor roll but according to the principal, he wasn't much trouble." " Yeah, yet." " What do you mean, "yet"?" "Well, Manuel Soto comes from a bad family." "His father did 11 years for stabbing a guy, and his big brother is Cruz Soto." "Who's doing seven years at Pelican Bay for assault, battery and possession of a fully automatic weapon." "He's the guy that used to run the Tres Colores, right?" "Oh, we think he still does." "Only, now he's doing it from prison." "Has his first parole hearing in a month." "So Cruz Soto's little brother gets shot to death right in the middle of Three C's territory." "Someone's making quite a statement." "Well, if this is a gang war, chief shooting a young boy like this is way over the line." " It's going to get ugly." " All right." "I'll put a call in to Pelican Bay get Cruz moved into isolation so he can't send out any orders or get any info from the outside." "Okay." "Thank you, commander." "In other news, SID sent over print reports from the house." "Two matches." "Known Three C's." "One of them is Rafael Mendez, a.k.a. Sniper." "And the other one, name's Felix Vega, a.k.a. Stank." "Anyway, we got some partials we haven't been able to match up with anything yet." "And we're still processing the rest of the garbage." "Okay, so these gentlemen, Stank and Sniper are either suspects or witnesses." "Lieutenant Flynn and Provenza bring them in so we can have a little chat." "Lieutenant Tao get search warrants for their homes, see if a 9 mm handgun turns up." "Detective Sergeant Gabriel and Detective Sanchez, with me, please." "We get to notify Manuel's parents." "Thank you." "Senor Soto." "Sir, you're going to have to secure that dog." "Gracias." "It's open." "Is Mrs. Soto around?" "Not for eight years." "Sir, is there anyone else in this house?" "Sir, is there anyone else here?" "We're looking for your son Manuel." "Is he around?" "No." "What's this about?" " Did Manuel sleep here last night?" " Nope." " When was the last time you spoke to him?" " He called yesterday." "Said he was spending the night at a friend's house." "Mr. Soto, would you please sit down, sir?" "Sir, I'm very sorry to have to tell you this, but we found Manuel and he had been shot to death." "I understand this is terrible news, but we're here to help." "I don't need your help." "Well, I apologize, but we need yours." "Any idea who would wanna do this to Manuel?" " Was he in a gang?" " No." " He wasn't ready." " He had a Tres Colores tattoo." "Like this one?" "Hey, I hear the city gives you $2000 for a funeral, right?" " When can I get that money?" " We'll look into it." "What about your other son, Cruz?" "I understand he's in prison and one of the top leaders of the Three C's." "Maybe a rival gang was trying to intimidate him by hurting Manuel?" "I think I hear my dog." "Mr. Soto said his son called on his cell." "But there was no phone on Manuel." "I'll check with all the carriers and see if he has an account." "Thank you." "And let's see to it our father of the year gets his burial money." " Yes, ma'am." "All right, thanks." "Got the search warrant on Felix Vega, a.k.a. Stank's house." "Excellent." " Pardon me, Detective?" " Ranski." "Hollenbeck Homicide." "What on earth is going on here?" " Two dead bodies in the backyard." " Okay." "Thank you." "We'll take it from here." "I have to talk to my watch commander about that." "Meantime, you're welcome to observe." "Uh-huh." "Well, that stinks." "A double homicide, probably no witnesses, I bet." "How many other unsolved murders are on your books?" "And if you don't solve these two, how would that look at your year-end review?" "You really want these murders?" "Just think of it as an early Christmas present from me to you." "Casings are 9 mm, same as the ones we found near Manuel." "All right, the coroner's assistant found a wallet on each of them." "Okay, this must be Felix Vega, a.k.a. Stank." " That's him." " Over here, trying to run away must've been..." "Camilla Santiago." "Huh?" "No." "He doesn't look like a Camilla to me." "That's a shame about Cruz Soto's brother being murdered." "But Narcotics is in the late stages of an operation in that neighborhood." "I need Major Crimes to keep a low profile during the first couple days of your investigation." "What do you need?" "I need you to put a Crime Suppression detail into place." "Excuse me?" "Saturate the neighborhood with black-and-whites, 25 or 30 extra units 24/7 for the next week." "Yeah." "Yeah." "I know what a Crime Suppression detail is." "It's basically the exact opposite of what I just said I need." "I have a murdered 12-year-old boy and two dead Tres Colores." " This could be the beginning of a gang war." " All the bodies are piling up on one side." "It sounds less like a gang war, more like an internal power struggle." "Cruz Soto's been in jail a long time." "Maybe his gang is not so excited about him getting out on parole." "No." "From what I hear, Cruz is completely in charge of the Three C's." "Can you prove that?" "According to his official record he's behaved so well, that they have to let him out next month." "Unless you have information about his little brother's murder that I'm unaware of..." "I have a dead gang member that we can put at Manuel's crime scene who had an ATM card in his pocket belonging to a Camilla Santiago." "Was this Camilla in a gang?" "Related to a gang member?" " We don't know." "She's missing." " Uh-huh." "You know what this sounds like to me?" "A major crime." "Is there any way I can help you that won't cost thousands of dollars from another division or interrupt an ongoing investigation?" "No." " Fine." "We'll do what we can on our own." " Thank you." " Hello?" " I called to tell you not to bother stopping to pick up fresh kitty litter on your way home because I already got some." " Fritzi, I told you, I don't want Joel." " I believe you." "That's why I've decided to keep him for myself." " What?" " Yes." "Joel is no longer your kitten." "He's mine." "Unless you're the only one allowed to have pets." "You and Joel are trying to manipulate me." " We are not." " You..." "Never mind." "She's coming around." "Detective Sergeant Gabriel please tell me we found a 9 mm handgun at Felix Vega's home." "I can't, because we didn't." "But our casings jumped to the front of the line down at Ballistics." "Chief, none of the phone companies has a number under Manuel's name." "One for him and maybe the other for Manuel." " Did you dump Mr. Soto's phones?" "Some lawyer at the phone company says we don't have probable cause." "I have a dead 12-year-old shot to bits and two dead gang members." "That's not probable cause?" "What about Camilla Santiago?" "Any word from Surveillance?" "Yeah, the unit has been outside of her apartment ever since we found the ID." "But no sign of Camilla yet." "And she's not answering her home phone or her cell." "But no missing-persons report has been filed." "Turns out she has used her ATM card in the last two days, though." "But it wasn't Camilla making the withdrawals." "Check out the surveillance video from these banks." "Friday night, 11:30 p.m this guy took out the daily max of $400 from Camilla's account." "Buzz, go to the next one." "Saturday, 12:07 a.m." "Technically a new day." "Another $400 a couple blocks away." "I need a face, lieutenant." "Sunday, 11:13 a.m., same vicinity." "Only, this time, he just takes $200 from Camilla's account." "Someone knew how not to get their picture taken." "Freeze that, Buzz." " Manuel Soto." " The day before we found him dead." "Buzz, what's he holding in his other hand?" "Could you punch in on that, please?" "Cell phone." "That gets us probable cause with the phone company." " We need to find Camilla Santiago now." "Hello?" "L.A.P.D. Anybody here?" " Camilla?" " L.A.P.D." " Camilla?" " Anybody here?" "Well, no body." "At least not here, anyway." "Wanna call SID again?" "Yeah." "Hello, Sergeant Gabriel." "Chief, SID found four distinct sets of prints here in Camilla's apartment." "Hold on." "Yeah, hello, chief." "Yeah, we found the partial right thumbprint which matches Camilla's thumbprint from her DMV records." "And we have positive matches on Felix Vega and Rafael Mendez." " They were here, chief." " Okay." "What about Manuel?" "Was Manuel the fourth set of prints we found here?" "Chief?" "Chief, we don't know who the fourth set belongs to." "But I did have SID run Camilla's prints against some of the unidentified partials from the Tres Colores party house." "They got a match." "Wait." "Are you saying that Camilla Santiago was at the house where Manuel was murdered?" " That's right, chief." " Are they sure?" " Absolutely positive." "Okay." "Thank you, sergeant." "Bye-bye." "Chief, I got the Sotos' phone records." "Manuel called home like his father said." " Did he contact anyone after that?" " Dialed two more numbers." "911." "Hung up before they got connected." "And the last call was to a number with an 818 area code." "Anna Santiago." " Do you want me to talk to her, chief?" " Oh, yes, please." "Hello, Miss Santiago?" "My name is Detective Julio Sanchez." "I am with the L.A.P.D." " I am, ma'am." "Ple..." "Listen." "Please." " No." "Hello, hello." "My name's Deputy Chief Johnson." "Are you related to Camilla Santiago?" "Okay, Miss Santiago." "Do you know where your daughter is?" "Ma'am, I assure you, I am with the police department." "Okay, I'll prove it to you." "I'm going to send a detective and two uniformed officers to pick you up." "Okay." "I'll send a black-and-white." "It'll be at your house in five minutes." "Yes, ma'am." "Oh, oh, oh." " Thank you." "Bye." "Sorry." "Right." " Thank you." "Why didn't you believe Detective Sanchez was a police officer?" "People impersonate cops sometimes." "And why would you be concerned about that?" "Just being careful." "Well, I assure you, we are the real deal." "If there's something you need to tell us about your daughter..." " I..." "There's nothing you can do." "I have reason to believe that your daughter is in danger." "So if you know where she is, please tell me." "You're too late." "What do you mean by that?" "Did something happen?" "Yes." "But she told me no police." "She's been through enough." "Now she wants to be left alone." "So Camilla is alive?" " Miss Santiago, where is she?" " Where were you?" "Where were you when she needed you?" "Several men broke into Camilla's apartment." "Two gang members had her ATM card." "Now, I understand you wanna respect your daughter's wishes but whoever did this might still be looking for your daughter." "So I'm going to ask you again, where is she?" "She's at the Rape Treatment Center on West Pico." " Camilla was raped?" " Yes." " I will help your daughter, I promise." " No." "You're too late." "Detective Hendrix." "I'm Lieutenant Provenza." "This is Deputy Chief Johnson." " Thanks for waiting." " No problem." "How's Camilla doing?" "Well, it's hard to say." "She's here resting, which is a start." "But like I told Lieutenant Provenza, she's traumatized, numb." "I can't get her to officially report." "Her mother brought her here, right?" "Around 2 a.m. in the morning." "Apparently Camilla didn't wanna come in." "But her mother convinced her she needed preventive care." "Camilla's mom, she's tough." "Even talked her daughter into letting me see the examination results." " And what did you find?" " I promised I'd keep that information confidential." " I understand." "But somehow Camilla's connected to three homicides, and we need to find out why." "Detective, if your notes just happened to be lying around you might want to read those to yourself out loud." "And maybe we might just happen to overhear them." "Let's see." "Some scrapes." "Some bruises." "Right thigh, knees, cheek, shoulders, forearms." "A concussion with temporary loss of consciousness which is why she was kept here." "Abrasions on neck." "Significant tearing and trauma to both ends." "And plenty of DNA evidence should she choose to report." "Okay." "Thank you so much for your help, detective." "Yes." "Thank you, detective." " You've been very, very helpful." " Ma'am, where are you going?" " To talk to Camilla." " Chief, please." " Do you realize what she's been through?" " Yes, which is why I need to talk to her." "I should've listened to my mother." "After I moved out, she told me not to go out late by myself." "Not to shop at night." "Or if I did, to always ask someone to walk me to my car." "And I'd worked late, and I hadn't had any dinner and I was in a hurry." "And when was this?" " Friday." " Three days ago?" "Now, did someone follow you home?" "No." "He grabbed me in the parking lot outside the grocery store." "It's my fault." "I should've listened to my mom." "Don't..." "Don't blame yourself." "I spoke to your mom." "She doesn't blame you either." "She just wants us to find the men who did this to you." "Now, you were in a house on Alma Street." "Do you remember who was there with you?" "I don't remember anything except running away and calling my mom." "Okay." "Okay, good." "Let's start there." "Yeah." "So you made the call to your mom." "Did you make any calls after that?" "No." " Sure?" " Well, I was gonna call 911, but..." "But you hung up before the call went through?" "And did you use your own phone to make these calls, or did you?" "Did you borrow one from this boy here?" "No." "Okay." "Is that your purse?" "Camilla, where did you get this gun?" "I understand you've been through a lot." "But I need you to tell me where that gun came from." "I got it from him." "From that boy there in the yearbook." "I got the cell phone from him too." "Did he do this to you?" "What?" "No, he..." "He just stood guard so I wouldn't try to escape." " But I had to get away." "I had to." " Of course you did." "So it was just the two of you in that house?" "You and Manuel?" "Yeah." "The others left." "Went to get some beer." "And I wanted a stick of gum." "I needed to get the taste out of my mouth." "So I asked Manuel to bring me my purse." "And he did." "He..." "He came closer." "He sat right across from me." "And I told him he could have a piece too if he wanted." "Then he smiled at me." "And he put the gun down to unwrap his gum, and I grabbed it." "I got the gun, and I..." "I think I shot him." "I shot him." "And I just ran as fast as I could." "I had to get out of there." "I had to run away before everybody came back." "Do any of these men look familiar to you?" "Were any of these men with you in the house on Alma Street?" "Good." "Now, which one of them abducted you outside the grocery store?" "He's not here." "The one with the crooked eye, he's not here." "So there was another man with you in that house with a bad eye?" "Okay." "Now, I know that this is difficult but which man raped you?" "All of them." "I pulled all known Three C's with anything physically distinctive about their eyes." "One guy floated to the top." "Zico Belgado, a.k.a. Pescado." "Now, SID matched Pescado with some of the partial prints pulled from the party house and Camilla's apartment." "Excuse me." "Taylor says you got Manuel Soto's murderer?" "No, no, no." "We only found the person who killed him." " What did I just say?" " Camilla Santiago shot Manuel." "She was trying to keep from being gang-raped again." "I hardly think she should be considered a murderer." "Okay, so justifiable homicide." "Any of the other suspects in her assault still out there?" "Two of the men have been shot to death, and one we're still looking for." "The casings we picked up at Manuel's crime scene definitely came from Camilla's gun." "Okay." "What about the other casings found next to Stank and Sniper?" "From another gun altogether." "So there's some other shooter out there picking off the guys who raped Camilla?" " Which is why we need to find Pescado." " Well, I know how." "We just sit here and wait for the phone to ring." "He'll turn up dead soon enough." "Get some copies of Pescado's mugshot." "I can get you 10 more units in that neighborhood to help find him." "Really?" "Sure it won't screw up your big Narcotics investigation?" "No, I am not." "Hey, chief." "If this whole thing is revenge for what happened to Camilla you think there's a chance it's the mom pulling the trigger?" "I'll tell you, if it was my daughter, I'd think about it." "Hm." "Did Camilla have a boyfriend?" " Or an ex?" " No." "What about a brother?" "No." "Camilla didn't have a brother, but I know someone who did and he's a model prisoner about to make parole." " Oh." "Detective Ranski." " Hi." "We just wanted to thank you again for taking those murders off our hands." "And we, uh..." " Actually, I got you a little something." " Oh, my favorite." " Thanks." "You didn't have to..." " Oh, no, don't worry about it." "Don't worry about it." "Please." "So listen, uh, I was thinking if you're free some night, maybe we could get a little dinner." "Oh, detective, I'm married." "Married." "I know." "It's just dinner." "Oh, thank God." "I mean, thank you." "For the chocolates." "Really, I have to..." "I can't..." "You have to go." "Bye." " Hello?" "Deputy Chief Johnson." " I'm surprised to hear your voice." "You haven't been answering the phone or returning any of my calls." "Oh, right." "Sorry about that." "I had a long night." "Really?" "Or are you just avoiding me?" "And Joel." " Look, does he really have to be called that?" " Is he my cat or yours?" "You..." "Joel misses you." "He's purring." "Can you hear that?" "Well, tell Joel I slept here last night because I had a 12-year-old murder victim in the morning my two primary suspects turned up dead in the afternoon, and last night when I found the killer, turned out she'd been gang-raped for the last three days." "Well, I'm not telling Joel any of that." "He's still just a kitten." "Hey, can I bring you some fresh clothes or breakfast?" " What can I do?" " No." "Right now, just hearing your voice is enough." "So how is Joel adjusting?" "I think very well." " She broke off the engagement, huh?" " Yep." "I'm old and I'm all alone." "Well, as usual, you're only half-right." "You're pretty old." "Come on." "Look at it this way:" "You finally broke the cycle." "No divorce, and you don't have to wear the clothes she made you buy." "You can skip right past feeling sorry for yourself..." "And move right on to hatred anger resentment." "Okay." "Anyone turned up anything on Pescado yet?" "No, chief." "The guy's gone underground." "Oh, good, commander." "Did you talk to your warden friend?" "Yeah." "When I called yesterday they moved Cruz Soto into solitary confinement." "No one has so much as spoken to him since his dad called to break the bad news about Manuel." "Wait a minute." "You had Cruz put in isolation before I made the notification to his father." "Have the warden send a recording of the phone call Mr. Soto made to his son." "Thank you." " Cruz?" " Dad, why are you calling me so early?" " Manuel, he got shot." "He's dead." " How did that happen?" "He was partying at that house on Alma, and some girl shot him." "Son of a bitch." "He shouldn't have been at that house." "Who was he with?" "Pescado, Stank and Sniper." " Translation." "Translation." " "I wish I could get out for the funeral."" ""I know."" ""But I can't." "So make sure there's a funeral."" ""I will."" ""You know who to talk to about making those arrangements?"" ""Yeah."" " "Yes." "Goodbye." - "Make sure there's a funeral."" "Now we know how Cruz Soto passed along that assassination order." " Chief, looking at the call log here." "This phone call was recorded at 7:30 a.m." "And we didn't notify Mr. Soto about Manuel being dead until 2 p.m." "So the old man knew his kid was dead before we did?" " How'd he know about the girl?" "We're about to find out." "Lieutenant Tao, get in touch with Animal Control." "Mr. Soto, we need to talk to you about your son." " You already told me." "He's dead." " I'm talking about your other son, Cruz." "Okay." "Sam?" "Come on." "I need you to put both of your hands where I can see them." "Do it now." "Do it now." "Mr. Soto, I want you to very slowly take your hands out from underneath the blanket now!" "Oh, chief, he's shot." " I'll call the paramedics." " No, don't." "We can't just let you bleed to death." "Now, tell me who shot you." "No one." " Did Pescado shoot you?" " Who's Pescado?" "Mr. Soto, I really wish you wouldn't be that way." "I mean, look at your leg." "That is a serious injury." "That's the life." "I ain't afraid of dying as long as I die strong." "Okay." "While you're still conscious, I think you should be aware that I have a recording of the phone call that you made to your eldest son yesterday." "So I know that he ordered you to have Pescado killed along with Stank and Sniper." " Bullshit." " I'm gonna play that tape at Cruz's parole hearing next month and he'll end up in jail for the next two years." "But if you were to admit that you killed those boys on your own then Cruz could go free." "Cruz didn't order anything." "Okay, sir, I need to inform you of your rights." "You have the right to remain silent." "Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law." "I have the right to an attorney." "If I can't afford one, you will provide one." "Yeah, yeah, yeah." "I heard it all before." "I waive my rights." "Good." "Now, the phone call between you and Cruz was recorded at 7:30 in the morning." "That was hours before we informed you of Manuel's death." "So who told you that Manuel had been murdered?" "Pescado." "He came by." "He said he and Stank and Sniper were partying with Manuel." "And some stupid bitch, who was all high, shot him." "What did you do after that?" "I told Pescado to call 911 so Manuel's body wouldn't rot in that house." "Those idiots had left him there." "They went out hunting for that girl." "And then you called your son Cruz." "Is that correct?" " Yeah." " So, what did you do in the seven hours between the time of your conversation with Cruz and when we notified you about Manuel?" "I couldn't find my gun." "So I went out and found another one." "And I took it over to Stank's house." "And I went in the backyard, and I shot those two punks." "Pescado wasn't there." " You found him this morning, didn't you?" " Yeah." "I guess he was expecting me." " So Pescado did shoot you?" " Yeah." " Do you know where he went?" " Nowhere." "He barely got off one round before I popped him in the head." "But none of those boys killed Manuel." " It was that stupid bitch." " No." "She was nothing." "It's their fault my boy was there." "Cruz told those fools to stay away from Manuel." "But they disrespected Cruz." "And they disrespected me." "Manuel wasn't old enough for Tres Colores yet." "One more year." "But they didn't listen." "So they paid the price." "So that's it." "You won't be testifying at Cruz's parole hearing, right?" "No." "I'll save everything I have to say about Cruz for his murder trial." "His murder trial?" "But you said..." "You lied to me." "You lied..." "You lied!" "I'm sorry if you feel misled, sir, but I did not lie to you." "As soon as you and your son are convicted of three counts of murder parole will no longer be an issue." "As you said, that's the life." "Which is exactly what you and your son will be serving." " Ma'am?" " Gentlemen." "It's gonna be all right." "Hi." "Hi, Camilla." "She's really not up to any more questions." "No, no, no." "I don't have any more questions." "I just wanted to let you both know that it's safe to go home now." "You don't have to worry about those men ever again." " You arrested them?" " No." "They're all dead." " All of them?" " All of them." "Even Manuel?" "Even Manuel." "But you're not legally responsible for his death." "So..." "It's all over." "It doesn't feel over to me." " Hi." " Hey." "What's this?" "It's for you." " What for?" " For bringing a little Joel into our lives." " I didn't react well when I first met her." " Oh, my God." "It's a him." "Joel is a him." "Kitty was a her." "I was worried that if I became attached to Joel like I was to Kitty that eventually I'd have to go through the same thing all over again." "Well, I'll be here." "Just like I was before." "And I so appreciate that." "Well, thank you." "And thank you for these too." "Half of them are gone." "I had a really hard day."