Free I'll Take Care of You by Caitlin Rother Page B

been monitoring the funeral, followed her to the Champion Yamaha shop in Newport, where she used Bill’s credit card to pay off the balance on three motorcycles for which she’d already made a deposit. Including an earlier purchase for a trailer, helmets, and other equipment, the total came to nearly $8,000. She signed the bills, Nanette McLaughlin. Then she went to the bank and got a $3,100 cash advance on one of Bill’s credit cards.

CHAPTER 10
    Following up on Kristofer’s comment at the memorial service, the Newport Beach police kept an eye out for a strapping guy who looked like he played football.
    The next afternoon, around four-twenty, they were watching Nanette and the Seashore Drive house when a man pulled up in a black Nissan Pathfinder, with New York license plates. Nanette’s kids ran outside to greet the athletic-looking guy, and they all went inside together.
    Who is New York boy? Detective Dave Byington wondered from his post near the house. The way those kids are hugging him, he must be a relative.
    The undercover officers, who watched the man leave about ten minutes later, hopped into an unmarked car to follow him, alerting dispatch to have a marked car do a “cold stop,” once they found some kind of probable cause. That wasn’t too hard, the vehicle code book was full of potential violations.
    An officer in a patrol car subsequently stopped him, took his name and address, and ran a background check. The man said he was Eric Naposki, and that he lived in an apartment in Tustin. But after the police let him go, they followed him to a Ramada Inn, where they learned he was registered. Why had he lied to the detectives?
    When they discovered he had an outstanding warrant for “failure to appear” on a $343 traffic violation, they had a legal excuse to bring him in for questioning.
    Later that night, uniformed officers followed him to the Thunderbird nightclub, where he worked. After he got off at 2:00 A.M. , they arrested him on the warrant, brought him to the city jail, and searched his car.
    In his Pathfinder, they found a notebook that served as a journal and datebook planner.
    Once you get your ass out of this financial disaster, do not overextend yourself anymore, he wrote.
    Two other notations read: Look into work positions in Lido and Get Nanette Ring $2,500 so far—Why? And a calendar showed that he was planning to propose on New Year’s Day.
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    Sergeant Van Horn and Detective Voth arrived a couple of hours later. After being briefed about the items found in Eric’s car, they read him his rights.
    â€œAm I in trouble for something?” he asked.
    â€œI hope not,” Voth replied.
    â€œI hope not too, because I don’t understand.”
    Voth told him he would understand things better soon.
    Eric said he’d recently started working at the Thunderbird, which had only just opened in Lido Village two or three weeks earlier. He ran through all the football teams with which he’d played briefly, as well as the local jobs he’d had in between, including physical trainer at the Sporting Club and head of security at the Metropolis sushi bar and nightclub, both in Irvine. He was in between apartments, he said, was carting his belongings around in his truck, and had been living at the Ramada Inn for the past day or so.
    â€œWhat other kind of security work do you do?” Van Horn asked.
    Eric said he worked as a bodyguard for private clients, such as a clothing manufacturer in Glendale, whom he occasionally accompanied to Mexico. He said he also worked security at some apartment complexes with another guy.
    â€œI’m just now getting kind of into it, because football for me just really ended this year, because I was in Canada to play in the Canadian League, but I’ve had so many injuries,” he explained.
    â€œDo you do any armed work?” Van Horn asked, meaning that he carried a gun.
    â€œNo, I don’t