Golden Gate Park is a thousand plus acres of green on The City's northwest side, and is chockablock with everything from forests and open fields, to duck ponds and art galleries, to a Japanese Tea Garden. It exists as every San Franciscan's back yard, and boy, do they ever use it.
On this late --and somewhat chily-- Saturday afternoon, Tai Anne Roper parked her motorbike along a row of SUVs and mini-vans on JFK Drive. She hung her helmet on the handlebars and started walking towards the soccer fields.
She still wore her leathers, but had changed her sweater for an Aeropostale spandex jersey she had snugged in her knapsack. She slipped a pair of RayBan Wayfarer's over her eyes.
Several soccer fields were in use. The closest one seemed to be in play by two teams of 10 year old little girls, none of whom seemed very co-ordinated as they ran after a soccer ball that seemed to get kicked by happenstance. Just the same, the screaming parents on the sidelines all seemed to think they were watching the World Cup finals.
From this crowd, a man came running towards her, waving. A handsome man in his mid forties or so, tall and solidly built, with sandy brown hair and bright blue eyes. Tai noticed he had finally shaved off his goatee as well. He was wearing blue jeans, sneakers and a suede jacket.
"Tai!!!" He shouted.
"Jebster..." Tai laughed as she accepted a hug and a swing in his arms as he picked her up. "Gaaawd its good to see you!"
Jeb Stuart laughed as he looked her over. "Same here! And may I say, you are looking as bootylicious as ever, Tai Anne Roper!"
"Why, thank you, kind sir!' Tai curtseyed and did a turn for him.
"C'mon, lets walk." He nodded to a stand of redwoods nearby. She nodded.
"So how's family life treating you?" Tai asked. "Hows the wifey and all your girls?"
"I am loving every minute of it!" Jeb replied. "And my wife and oldest daughter are in that crowd... watching the twins play..." His eyes drifted back to the game. "Everything is good with them."
"You don't miss the Agency?"
"Hah! Those assholes." Jeb shook his head. "What's the point of fielding intel for an organization that couldn't find its ass if you hung a bell on it."
"So what are you doing now?"
"The same job I did for the Agency," Jeb replied. "Only now I do it for some of the biggest corporations and major players on the coast."
"How do you manage that?"
"OK, let's say you're on the board of directors of Major Mega Corp, and you're really hot for Joe Blow to be your next CEO," Jeb said. "You have his resume, but before you hand him an eight figure salary, the keys to the executive washroom and his golden parachute, you wanna make sure he's on the up and up. Does he have a secret bank account in the Caymans? Does he have a pretty young intern chained up in the basement? Does he have bastard children scattered all over the globe? Inquiring minds, babe."
"And that's where you come in."
"Someone has to dig the dirt," Jeb replied. "Now enough about me. What's new with you?"
"Same old, same old," Tai shrugged, then allowed her eyes to glaze over. "Altho... I think I mighta met a man... the man. The Man I Love."
Jeb frowned. "Not Matt McClintock?"
"Why, what's wrong with him?" Tai asked. "Aw, shit! I knew I shouldn'ta asked you about him! Fuck! He's gay. Or he's a woman. Or he's a man who used to be a woman..."
"Calm down, Tai!" Jeb said. "How long have you known him anyway?"
"Met him this morning," Tai said defensively. "I know you think I'm just being a silly girl..."
"No, I think you're being 19 years old," Jeb said gently. "Keeerist, when I was 19 I was falling in love every 8 minutes."
"It's not like that, Jeb!" Tai whined, as Jeb thought that it was, indeed, exactly like that.
"Look, you want the info I have on this joker or not?"
"Talk to me."
"Uh uh, you first. Tell me what you know of Matthew McClintock."
"Not much," Tai replied. "Just what I got off the net this morning when I did a Google search. Matt McClintock was a baby boomer, born in 1946 in Denver, Colorado. He founded McClintock Industries when only 20 or so. He started off in medical supplies and generic pharmaceuticals. He then bought out an established make-up and beauty supply company called Ororo in 1963."
"McClintock started marketing Ororo as a quasi 'Fountain of Youth', with little jars of this and little tubes of that selling for a hundred bucks a piece. He made millions through the sixties, especially in Hollywood where he sold his stuff to celebrities and the studios.
"Eventually he moved his operations to LA, which is where he met actress Fiona Jacklin and married her in 1969. Through the '70s she kept making movies while he diversified into medical research. His main thang was to find pharmacuetical alternatives to plastic surgery.
"Daughter Jessica was born in 1982, He and Fiona got divorced a year later. McClintock continues to pioneer medical research including new and cheaper AIDS treatments. Jessica grew up living in the lap of luxury and recently started college. The end."
"Very good!"
"Makes me wonder what I needed you for!" Tai snorted.
"Well try this on for size," Jeb said. "McClintock isn't a baby boomer, he was born in 1933. And he was no boy genius when he founded McClintock Industries..."
"Waitasec," Tai stopped in her tracks. "You're telling me he isn't 51, but is... sixty -fucking- eight years old?!"
"A-yup."
"But he doesn't even look fifty!" Tai said. "Jiminy Crickets, if I was passing him on the street, I would think... mid-thirties at the oldest!"
"It gets better," Jeb said. "According to her offical bio, Fiona Jacklin was 18 when she made 'Runaway Carousel' in 1962 with a young Marlon Brando. But she was really 28 at the time. That makes her almost as old as her ex-husband. But not only doesn't she look 67 years old, she can't pass for her official age of 57! Which is why she runs those workout spas for a 'younger, healthier you'."
"C'mon," Tai said. "Hollywood is full of stars who looke younger than they are. Goldie Hawn, Striesand, Jane Fonda..."
"Not like Fiona Jacklin. My sources say that she hasn't aged a day since she was twentysomething. She now has to wear makeup to look older, just to stop inquiries into this... miracle."
"Jiminy Crickets," Tai muttered. "How sure are you of this?"
"Very sure. It can't be proved, of course. When you have McClintock's kind of deep green, you can get offical records to say you're Mickey Mouse if you want."
"But, Jeb!" Tai exclaimed. "You're talking Dorian Gray... Sci Fi Channel kinda stuff!"
"Read a newspaper sometime, Tai," Jeb replied. "Yesterday's science fiction is today's front page. Ever hear of gene splicing? Recombination of DNA? Stem cell research? Human cloning?"
"But these aren't bad things!" Tai said. "This is the new science that's gonna someday cure diabetes and cancer and even AIDS!"
"It all depends on who owns the cure, darlin'," Jeb said. "Is this new science going to be used for curing diseases, or is it going to be used to let a few, very rich old men live to be 200 years old?"
"You think McClintock is... shady?"
"I think he goes to a helluva lot of trouble and expense to cover his tracks and the truth," Jeb replied. "But as to what's in his heart... I dunno."
"Who else knows about this?"
"More than McClintock would like. Don't worry, if you ask him about this, it won't come back to me." Jeb looked at her. "But think hard before you do that, Tai. If you call him on this, he might not view you in the same light as he does now."
"And Jessica?" Tai croaked. "How do you think she factors into all this?"
"Dunno," Jeb said. "She could be a runaway, or a random crime vic. But I doubt it. Consider this; McClintock and his wife genetically experimented on themselves for at least 10 years, and then had one daughter. Makes you wonder what Jessica inherited from her parents besides a lot of money and a pretty face."
"Dammit." Tai stood there, looking at the blue Pacific visable through the trees.
Jeb gently reached over and removed her sunglasses. She was blinking back tears.
"Tai..."
"Fuck." Tai sniffled, wiping her eyes with the back of her hand. "I'm... okay."
"Want my advice?" Jeb asked. "Forget this case. Forget McClintock. If you want a job, then work for me. Hell, I need someone to handle my legwork. It's not exciting, but it pays the bills."
Tai pouted. "What? Now you don't think I'm capable of handling this case?"
Jeb sighed. "Tai, you have the smarts and the instincts of a fine investigator..."
"But..."
"But, you're a 19 year old girl. Hell, you're only a year older than my oldest and I know what kinda trouble she can get into!" Jeb said. "Look, answer me this question. How many times today --since you woke up this morning-- have you been placed under involuntary physical restraint of some kind?"
Tai sniffed. "That's really an unfair question!"
"Answer it."
"Alright, three -no, two!-- two times."
"That's twice in what, 8 hours or so? You know I spent 20 years doing wetwork for the Agency and didn't get hooked up once?"
"Well, goody for you."
"That's my point, Tai! You are a kidnapping waiting to happen!" Jeb growled. "You know, I have considered abducting you myself, for your own good!"
"A-and where exactly would you try to take me?" Tai asked defiantly.
"There's a small convent up north in the wine country," Jeb answered. "The nuns there specialize in taking girls like you --girls with more attitude than maturity-- and sequestering them away for a couple of years so they can learn discipline... and live long enough to grow up."
"H-how do they keep them there?"
"Bars. Cells. Chains," Jeb smiled. "Concepts that aren't exactly foriegn to you."
"And you would wish that on me?"
"Better that than being the sex slave to some Saudi emir," Jeb retorted. "Or winding up at the bottom of the bay with cement overshoes. Or in a shallow grave with your head blown off..."
"Okay, okay. I get the picture." She smirked at him. "And you think you could take me?"
"Babe, I could hook you up, deliver you to the convent and be back in time to buy ice cream cones for the girls on the team."
"Sez you," Tai muttered. "But I don't think you're gonna do that. Not today."
"No, not today."
"Look, Jeb," Tai said. "I know I need to... grow up a bit more. Get more experience. But the only way I'm gonna get that experience is to keep doing what I'm doing. And that means seeing this case through and finding Jessica McClintock."
Jeb nodded. "I hear ya."
"Now let me ask you one more thing," Tai said. "What do you know about a nightclub called The Brickyard?"
"Just word of mouth, I've never been there," Jeb replied. "Its in the SoMa, on Folsom. Huge place, takes up a square city block and is two stories tall. Its an old red brick warehouse that was rebuilt after the '89 shake. A nightclub and several Dance floors. Has a couple of bars and a pretty good restaurant."
"And the clientele?"
"Straight and gay, even mix plus anything inbetween," Jeb said. "But the club's main draw is the BDSM crowd. Fetish dress. Ritual submission. Slave auctions. 'Lick my boots, worm'."
"Bingo." Tai smiled.
"What's your interest in this place?"
Tai drew a paper from her jacket and handed it to Jeb. "These are the records from a Pac Bell payphone at Grant and Pacific..."
"Chinatown."
"At 11am Thursday, Jessica's last contact with her dad was a call from that payphone. SFPD traced back all the calls for the last week, up to this morning."
"And?"
"On Thursday, two minutes after Jessica hung up from her dad, somebody called The Brickyard and talked for less than a minute."
"So?"
"The day before Jessica vanished, on Wednesday, someone called The Brickyard on that payphone at 6:04 pm and talked for less than a minute." Tai smiled. "And on Friday --yesterday-- someone called The Brickyard at 6:11 pm and talked for less than a minute."
"So, you're gonna stake out this phone around 6 pm and see who shows up?" Jeb said. "Brilliant! Except for the fact that a dozen people might use that phone in a ten minute space of time..."
"But I know what the caller looks like," Tai said. "She's the same girl who was with Jessica all afternoon on Thursday. A young, attractive Asian girl in fetish gear. Which clicks with what you just told me about The Brickyard."
Jeb nodded. "You're so good it's scary."
"Here." Tai handed Jeb a wad of cash from her pocket.
"I won't take your money."
"It's McClintock's money."
"Then I'll take it."
"Seeya." Tai gave him a peck on the cheek and hurried back to her motorbike. Jeb went back to the sidelines of the soccer game and sat down on a blanket beside his wife and his oldest daughter.
"Get everything straightened out?" his wife asked.
"Oh yeah."
"Is that the young girl you were telling me about?"
"Yup."
"Hmmm..." His wife watched her as Tai ran across the green. "I wish you would've introduced her. I might've asked her how it's possible to walk in leather pants that tight."
"I imagine it takes practice, dear."
Jeb's oldest daughter took off the headphones to her portable CD player and took a look.
"I think they look too kewl!" she said to her parents. "Can I have a pair like that?"
Chapter Nine