The other annie, p.19
THE OTHER ANNIE, page 19
“Okay. Maybe I’m mistaken.”
He looked like a disappointed father.
“Well, at least I got a free meal and a couple of drinks out of it.”
The waiter returned with Quinones' to-go box and the check for me.
“I'm Sorry I jumped on you,” Quinones said. If you learn something more, call me, and you can take me to lunch again.”
This guy was a roller coaster. It made me wonder if his accusations against Bannie weren’t taken seriously because of his personality's ups and downs.
“I’ll keep in touch,” I said.
“Great. See you around,” Quinones said.
He left the table and walked out of the restaurant quickly, not even waiting for me to sign the check.
Well, that was fun.
Chapter 31
Iarrived at my hotel, sat on my bed, and closed my eyes.
I needed a few minutes to absorb everything I’d learned over the last forty-eight hours. If I’d complained that not enough had happened in the first several weeks of my investigation, that certainly wasn’t the case anymore.
It started with the call from the modified voice. Undoubtedly, the most important moment of my investigation to that point was surpassed by the information I’ve ascertained since.
After all, when that call came through, it was just a nameless, faceless, disguised voice. Now, I had an actual suspect.
The turning point was my father telling me about the Dateline NBC episode he’d seen and how that had led me to Kira Palova. If I solved this case, my father should be credited with a huge assist.
Knowing what was said in Annie’s journal led me to Gina, and then she dropped the nuclear bomb that ‘The Other Annie’ was a high-schooler named Wade Bannie, who was two years older than Annie and was either having sex with her or trying to.
That would have been enough, but Gina just kept on giving. She said she’d been afraid to go to the police because Ed Bannie—Wade’s father—was a well-known police officer himself.
This led me to research Ed Bannie and eventually to conversations with Cassius Fields and Greg Quinones.
The talks with the reporter and the former cop helped me arrive at my current theory: Wade Bannie killed Annie Ryan and likely had his father help cover it up. The other possibility was that they included Mike Minter in the cover-up, but I wasn’t ready to go that far. Why add a third if it wasn’t necessary?
If I was able to get the evidence room information back, I could see who went there in the days that followed Annie’s murder. If it were Mike Minter and not Ed Bannie, then my opinion would likely change to include him.
If I was playing devil’s advocate, here’s where I’d poke holes in my theory.
First and foremost, I had no objective evidence that Wade Bannie killed Annie Ryan. I had nothing tying him to the crime scene. All I had was a diary entry from twenty-five years ago that references ‘The Other Annie’ and Christmas Eve, but that wouldn’t even be close to enough information to get a warrant.
If I went to the police and told them about Kira's work, I’d likely be laughed out of the precinct. Not that I wanted to go to the cops, anyway. First, I needed to determine whether I thought Mike Minter was involved.
So, where did this all leave me?
Ironically, I was a million miles ahead of where I was only three days ago, and yet, I wasn’t sure I had the proverbial card to play. I couldn’t/wouldn’t go to the cops, and I didn’t have enough evidence to confront a district attorney.
And possibly the weakest link of all of this. The only woman who knew that Annie Ryan referred to Wade Bannie as ‘The Other Annie’ was a nervous wreck named Gina Galasso.
The more I thought about it, the more I wondered if I was jumping to conclusions.
What if Wade Bannie - and, by extension, his father - had nothing to do with this?
I woke up the next morning, and the screen name itallstartedwithanAR immediately came to mind.
It all started with.
Did that mean he was saying he’d committed more than one murder?
Was he referring to Kai Butler or other people who had nothing to do with the Annie Ryan case? He also could have just been saying his life had spiraled downhill once he murdered Annie Ryan. But Wade Bannie’s life hadn’t spiraled downhill, as his Instagram photos showed.
Which is where I went next.
I looked at his photos' time, date, and location and started making a spreadsheet. In the occasional photo, he’d say something like, ‘This reminds me of my trip to Puerto Rico in 2002.’
If that were the case, I’d add Puerto Rico, 2002, to the spreadsheet.
One problem was that Wade started his Instagram page in 2016, and I was in the dark about anything before then—except when he mentioned them like he had with Puerto Rico.
When I finished the spreadsheet, I started Googling about murders in that country during that time.
The Caribbean - especially the very touristy islands - was generally pretty safe, so murders didn’t occur all that often. And when they did - like Natalee Holloway - they tended to get much media attention.
My process went something like this:
Wade had a picture of himself in Jamaica in August of 2017, and I found the unsolved murder of a young French girl on August 9th. I added that to my list.
I tried to look for murders that had occurred a few months before or after he posted the picture. One, he might not have been likely to post a photo in the same month he committed a murder. And two, he may have stayed in these countries for months on end.
I only focused on women who had been murdered. Could Wade Bannie have been a serial killer and murdered twenty people, including men? I guess, but I didn’t think so. When he said he’d killed between one and how many Conrad Drury had, I tended to believe that it was closer to one and that it was likely attractive women.
Once again, there was a distinct possibility he’d killed Kai Butler and stopped there. Still, I continued on with the spreadsheet.
By the time I finished, it was after one p.m.
Next, I called Cassius Fields.
“You don’t give up, do you? Greg Quinones called and told me about your little lunch with him.”
“Are you retired or semi-retired?” I asked.
“Why?”
“Would you want to write a tell-all expose if I come to you with enough evidence?”
“I already told you I enjoyed being an old man.”
“That’s not an answer to my question.”
“The evidence would have to be overwhelming,” Cassius said.
“Well, I’m not there yet, but that’s why I’m calling.”
“So, I have to help get the evidence for you and then write the expose? What exactly do you do?”
“I’m your man on the ground, and trust me; I’ll be coming to the attention of Ed Bannie a lot sooner than you will.”
I still was leaving Wade Bannie out of the conversation.
“What did you need?”
“Okay, here’s the thing.”
“Stop sugarcoating it, and just give it to me straight.”
“I need the name of someone who is still on the police force in the Hollywood division. Someone you trust and can be discreet.”
“What do you need him or her for?”
“I need to know who checked things out of the evidence room in the immediate days after Annie Ryan went missing.”
“That’s it?”
“That’s it.”
“And what is the end game with this?”
“I’ll let you know when I get the results back. Don’t take this the wrong way, but it’s probably better you don’t know too much before I lay it on you all at once.”
“You’re quite the character, Bobby. Telling a guy who wrote about the LAPD for thirty years what he should and shouldn't know.”
He sounded ticked off.
“I understand why you’re upset. I promise to tell you all after I get back this information. If I don’t get what I’m hoping for, all of my assumptions may have been a house of cards.”
“That hardly breeds confidence.”
“Then I look forward to changing your mind.”
I heard a sigh on the other end.
“I think I can get that for you. It might be a few days. I’ve been retired for a while now, and I need to find out what active officers I still trust.”
“How long should I wait to call you back?”
“You don’t call me back. I’ll call you when I’ve heard something.”
“Okay, thank you, Cassius.”
“And one more thing.”
“What?”
“This better be one hell of a story if you’re making me come out of retirement.”
“It would be massive,” I said.
I had more questions for Greg Quinones, but he was so on edge at the end of our interview that I decided to let him chill out for a day or two.
He had it in for Ed Bannie, and I was afraid he might go shouting his name all around town. He was a wild card—a potential liability. I had to tread lightly with him.
Similarly, I had more questions for Gina Galasso.
Did she know what type of car Wade Bannie drove back then? Maybe someone had seen the make and model driving near William Ryan’s house that night. And no, I hadn’t forgotten that this was twenty-five years ago.
Did Wade ever brag to her and Kai that Annie had been to his house? If so, Ed Bannie likely knew who she was.
Like Quinones, I let Gina chill out for a few days. My conversation with her had taken a lot out of her, and unless it were a question I needed to have answered immediately, I would give her some space. She deserved it.
Chapter 32
By ten a.m. the next morning, I hadn’t heard back from Cassius Fields.
The last thing I wanted to do was sit around and wait for people to get back to me.
I knew what I had to do: see Earl Razzle.
The last time I saw him, he made my father a martini. That was a leading contender in a crowded field of ‘most surreal moment of the investigation.’
I called ahead just to make sure. His secretary said he was in and would see me in twenty minutes.
Earl Razzle sure was at his office a lot. I wonder if he now delegated more authority than he did as a younger man. He was still a private investigator, or at least, his sign out front of his office said he was.
Then again, he could do most of his work via a laptop these days. I’d certainly spent quite a bit of time investigating online, but I still liked getting out there and meeting with people, as my up-and-down lunch with Greg Quinones proved.
I walked over, was led in by his secretary, shook Earl’s hand, and sat on the couch. This was becoming old hat.
“Don’t tell me I’m on martini detail again,” he said.
I smiled.
“No, today is business.”
“Sounds serious. What do you need?”
“I need a big favor, but I’d prefer if we kept this between us,” I said.
“I wouldn’t have gotten this far in my business if I didn’t know how to keep a secret.”
“Okay, good. I want a copy of the evidence room information from the Annie Ryan case. It’s not in the summary you gave me.”
“You want to know what the police submitted as evidence?”
“If that comes with it, great,” I said. “But mostly, I’m trying to get a list of people who went in to look at the evidence in the days that followed Annie’s disappearance.”
I knew Annie was dead, but sometimes it sounded more appropriate to use disappearance.
“Okay,” he said pensively. “That shouldn’t be too hard to get my hands on.”
“Great, thanks,” I said.
“You don’t get off that easy, Bobby. It sounds like you might be making some progress. Anything you’d like to share?”
“Can I let you know after seeing the information I requested?”
Earl smiled, but I could tell he was hoping for more.
“Do you think a cop was involved?”
“Why would you think that?”
“One, don’t answer a question with a question. And two, police officers are generally who check out things from the evidence room. It’s a logical question to ask, so stop being evasive.”
His point was spot-on. Why else would I be asking who went into the evidence room? It’s not like John Q. Public could just walk in off the street.
“I’ve narrowed my focus to one critical piece of evidence,” I said. “And I want to know who also found it important in the days that followed the Christmas Eve party.”
“That’s very smart, Bobby. You gave me a little bit of information without giving much away. That’s a very private investigator thing to do.”
“Maybe your expertise is rubbing off on me.”
Earl smiled again, but it wasn’t his megawatt version. It was the ‘I’m humoring you’ version.
“That’s all you’re going to give me?” he asked. “After all I’ve done for you.”
I trusted Earl Razzle, but I was still trying to limit who knew precisely what I was up to. I was already fearful that the wildcard - Greg Quinones - could be blabbing around town.
Earl was right, however. He had been helpful every step of the way. I decided to give him something.
“What if I told you I was beginning to suspect someone who wasn’t even at the party?”
Earl combed his hands through his hair.
“Hmmm,” he muttered. “That’s interesting. If that is true, it makes me wonder how many months of my life were wasted interviewing people who were actually at the party.”
“Hey, me too.”
“No offense, junior, but you’ve been on the case a month. I’ve been on it for twenty-plus years.”
By using the word ‘junior,’ Earl had lost out on getting more information from me.
“Don’t call me junior,” I said.
“Calm down, Bobby. I didn’t mean it like that. You’re doing a hell of a job.”
When I didn’t respond, he knew he had to apologize.
“I’m sorry, Bobby. That was out of line. Maybe I was just jealous that you were getting somewhere, and I’ve been stuck in neutral for so long.”
“Now, that’s an apology,” I said, and this time he truly smiled.
“Why don’t we meet again this afternoon? Let’s say three p.m.”
“You think you can get it that quick?”
“I know a great many people in this town,” he said.
Yeah, so does Ed Bannie, I thought to myself.
“I’ll be here. And one last thing,” I asked.
“What is it?”
“Can you try to get it without going through cops who worked the case?”
“I’ll try to go through it secretarily. Is that a word?”
“I don’t think so,” I said.
“Well, you get my point. I’ll try to get it through a secretary or someone with a desk job. They might have to get someone higher up, like Mike Minter, to sign off on it.”
“See if you can get it without him knowing,” I said.
“So, you think Minter could be involved?”
Earl was fishing, but I had a solid response waiting.
“He knows everyone involved,” I said. “So, that’s my fear with him.”
“Good bullshit answer. You really are getting good at this.”
I stood up from the couch.
“I’ll see you this afternoon.”
“See you then, Bobby.”
Two minutes later, as I was walking back to the Beverly Hilton, I got a call from William Ryan. I hadn’t talked to him in several days. The timing of the call was suspicious. Maybe Earl called him to see if William could get more out of me.
“How are you, William?”
“Bobby, it’s been a while.”
“It has. I’m sorry, just been busy working the case.”
“That’s what I’m calling about. Did you realize that tomorrow is one month?”
My heart sank. William wasn’t going to kick me off the case right when I was making serious inroads, was he?
“I knew it was coming up,” I said. “I didn’t know it was tomorrow, though.”
“Well, it is. Do you think I should keep you on for another month? Are we making enough progress to make another month worthwhile?”
William didn’t know about the garbled phone conversation, my meeting with Kira, talking to Gina, or reaching out to Cassius Fields and Greg Quinones. If he knew any of this, there would be no question. He’d have to keep me on.
“I’ve been meaning to call you, William. Yeah, I have made some inroads recently.”
“Inroads?” he said skeptically.
“Yeah, my puzzle has picked up a few more pieces in the last several days.”
“Interesting. Do you have time to come see me?”
I wanted to say no, but William was the guy paying me to do this job. I sometimes forgot that.
“Yeah, I could come up and see you. How about later today? I’m meeting Earl Razzle at three p.m. and could drive to your place afterward.”
“That would work. Why are you meeting Earl?”
“There’s a file he hadn’t included in his summary.”
“What file?”
William Ryan didn’t beat around the bush. I assumed most people who had made it big in Hollywood didn’t pull their punches, and William was no different.
“I’m trying to get a list of things submitted to the evidence room.”
That was partly true.
“What evidence specifically?”
He did hire you!
“Annie’s diary. There are a couple of passages that interest me. It would probably be easier to show you in person tonight.”
There was a pause, and I knew William was exploring his options.
“Okay,” he said. “I’ll expect a little more candor from you in person.”
