“Times two,” Oliver said.
Devargas gave them a begrudging nod of respect. “Then you know that these communes were excuses to take drugs and have lots of sex. Beth wasn’t that type of girl, but she was smitten by that boy.”
Decker asked, “Did this church have a name?”
“Church of the Land…some crap like that,” Devargas spat out.
“The Church of the Sunland,” Sandra corrected. “After all, it was California.”
“Did you ever attend church services with your daughter?” Marge asked.
“No, we didn’t,” Devargas said. “We weren’t interested.”
“I did once,” Sandra admitted. “It was an alternative service, but I thought it was very nice. The church rented a storefront and there were about thirty congregants.”
“Do you know specifically where they rented space?”
“It was in San Fernando,” Sandra told them.
Decker said, “There’s the San Fernando Valley and the city of San Fernando, which is surrounded by the San Fernando Valley. You wouldn’t happen to remember a street name.”
Sandra thought long and hard. “I believe it was Becker Street.”
Marge said, “Becker Street’s in Foothill Division.”
“What a memory,” Decker said. “You said things got better between them. Did Beth tell you that things were getting better?”
“Yes, she did,” Sandra answered. “I remember that about a month or so after my visit, Beth called me up very excited-it sounded like my old cheery daughter. The church had a small plot of land in the back of the rented space and the plants were thriving. That gave her an idea. What if they pooled their money to buy acreage in central California, and tried their hand at organic farming? She thought a collective farm would be a wonderful way to serve God and make a living. I was happy because it seemed to me that the kids were finally developing some much-needed focus.”
“The scheme was phony as a three-dollar bill,” Devargas said. “And if you didn’t know already, guess who was in charge of the money?”
Decker asked, “Who elected Manny to be in charge of the money?”
“He probably elected himself.”
“Then the kids disappeared…” Sandra crossed herself and looked at her lap. When she looked up again, she was dry-eyed. “We tried to track down some of the church members and talk to them. We thought that the disappearance might be related to the money that Manny was keeping for the church.”
“Of course it had something to do with the money!” Devargas said. “When Manny and Beth disappeared, so did the money. We tried to meet with the church members, but they were mad and wouldn’t take our phone calls. The few that would talk to us accused the kids of stealing.”
“We were getting nowhere over the phone, so we finally decided to visit in person. By the time we got there, the church storefront had been locked and cleaned out.”
“When you arrived in L.A., how long had the kids been missing?” Decker asked.
“Two weeks at the most,” Sandra said. “The first few days that Beth didn’t call, I thought that maybe she was just busy. We didn’t speak every day. By the end of the first week, I was worried. That’s when we started calling the people in the church.”
“I read the missing-persons file,” Marge told them. “It was thinner than I would have expected, so it may not be complete. But I sure don’t remember reading anything about the Church of the Sunland and any cash that Manny was holding for the group.”
“I read the file also,” Oliver said. “There was nothing in there about that church or any church.”
Marge said, “Did you tell the police your suspicions about the church?”
“’Course we did,” Devargas said. “I told them about the church and the money and everything. I even gave them the name of that friend of Beth’s.”
“She was the one person who returned our phone calls,” Sandra said. “When it became clear that the kids went missing, she was distraught.”
“More like distraught over the missing money,” Devargas said.
Marge got excited. “Do you remember the friend’s name?”
“She had three names,” Devargas said.
“Alyssa Bright Mapplethorpe,” Sandra told them. “I remember her saying that she was a distant relative of Robert Mapplethorpe, the artist.”
“Do you know what happened to Alyssa?” Oliver said.
“No, I’m sorry I don’t know,” Sandra said. “I might have her old phone number.”
“That’s a good place to start,” Marge told her.
Oliver said, “Do you remember anyone else from the church?”
The elderly couple thought a moment and both shook their heads no.
“I’ll tell you what I do remember,” Devargas said. “That the police didn’t consider it a crime if two grown people pack up their belongings and move somewhere else. People do that all the time, they told me. I told them, ‘Well, maybe people do it, but my daughter wouldn’t do it…worry her mother like that.’ That’s when I told them about Manny and him being in charge of the church money.”
“It’s coming back to me,” Sandra said. “I remember the detective saying that if Manny stole money from the church, then the church needed to file a complaint and then they could investigate a crime.”
“I knew that the church would never file a complaint,” Devargas said. “First off, the church didn’t exist anymore. Second off, with all the drugs and sex that was going on, I knew they wouldn’t get the police involved. For all I know, they were buying the land to grow marijuana.”
‘Peter, you’re making things up.”
“I’m not saying it’s true, but you can’t say it wasn’t.”
“We hired a private detective to find Beth,” Devargas said. “What a waste. He found some of the old church members, but they were no help at all. They just accused Beth and Manny of stealing and cutting out.”
“I was hoping he’d find Alyssa,” Sandra said. “But that didn’t happen. I called her number up a month after the disappearance but the line had been disconnected.”
“Who was the private detective that you hired?”
“Caleb Forsythe,” Devargas told him. “He died about eight years ago. He didn’t do much. Just poked around a little here and there and then asked us for a check.”
“In fairness to Forsythe, by the time we contacted him, the case was months old.”
“We wasted a damn lot of a time waiting for the police to do something.”
“Eventually, they did look for them,” Sandra said. “The case was on the evening news. They asked the public for their help. It did jump-start the investigation. The police got many phone calls, but nothing ever worked out.”
“This must have been a month or two after they disappeared. I’m sure my baby had been long gone by then.” Devargas suddenly turned away and went back to his window, his eyes fixed on the front yard’s sprawling cottonwood. Sandra crossed herself and sighed.
Oliver asked, “Do you know how much money Manny was responsible for?”
“Around five thousand, maybe more,” Devargas said. “Five thousand’s a lot of money to me right now. Back then, it was a lot of money.”
“Yes, it was,” Decker agreed, “but even in the seventies, it wasn’t a fortune.”
“Crack addicts rob little old ladies for their fifty-dollar Social Security checks.” Devargas sneered. “If Manny developed a bad habit while he was out in L.A., five thousand to him might look like he hit the jackpot.”
Decker said, “Cathie told me that Manny’s mother died a while back and his father was incarcerated.”
Devargas spoke in hushed tones. “The acorn doesn’t fall far from the tree.”
“Martin Hernandez murdered two men in a robbery,” Sandra said. “It was a terrible, terrible thing. Still, when Beth started dating Manny, I tried not to let it influence my opinion of the boy.”