VIP Companion

by Thomas Henry

The only thing I could think to do was wait for someone to come home. I had no idea how long that would be, and Crystal needed to study, so I decided to take her home and come back.

  When I pulled up in front of Crystal’s house, a woman came to the door and peered out at us.

  “That Mom,” Crystal said.

  I took a closer look, and my heart thumped in my chest. I turned my face away and hoped she hadn’t gotten a good look at me. It had been quite a few years ago, but at one time, Crystal’s mother had been a stripper who had ended many a night in my bed.

  After an instant of panic, I realized that Crystal couldn’t possibly be my daughter. Her racial makeup was wrong, and even more important than that, she was too old. She already must have been around ten or so at the time I was bedding her mother.

  I quickly pushed the button that kept the interior lights from coming on when the car door opened. Crystal gave me a peck on the cheek and hopped out.

  I decided that I should trade vehicles before going back to Thuy’s house to wait. I was driving my V-12 Mercedes coup, and there’s just no way to be incognito in that gaudy thing. It turns heads everywhere I go. So, I swung back by my Halawa warehouse and traded the Merc for my ubiquitous white Chevy cargo van. I’d bought the van to haul materials back when I was building my man-cave, and I found it to be so handy that I just hung onto it. I figured no one would pay any attention to a run-of-the-mill white van, so I could park on Thuy’s street and watch without arousing suspicion.

  I drove back to Thuy’s house and parked a bit down the block where I would have a good view, but not be so visible myself. Her house was still dark, and her husband’s car was still missing.

  I slipped between the seats and moved into the back of the van where I would be less visible than if I were sitting in the driver’s seat. Fortunately, I’d had the presence of mind to bring a folding chair and a bottle of water. I set up the chair and waited.

  A little after ten, a car came up the street and slowed. The male driver was the sole occupant. The car turned into Thuy’s driveway and pulled into the carport. A sixty-ish man got out and went into the house. A couple of lights came on, and a few minutes later, a blue light began to flicker. He apparently was watching television.

  After a couple of very long hours, the flickering blue light went off. A few minutes later, the other lights went off, and the house was in total darkness again. I assumed he had gone to bed.

  So, Thuy’s husband obviously wasn’t going to go bring Karen and Thuy home from wherever they were tonight. I wondered if someone else would bring them home, or if they would be gone all night.

  Then I had a sudden realization that really made my stomach knot. They might not even be on the island. It was entirely possible that they had flown to one of the other islands, in which case they couldn’t come home before morning because the interisland flights were done for the night.

  I was tired, and my butt was sore from sitting on the metal folding chair. I wanted to go home, but I couldn’t let myself do it. I had to stay and see if Thuy and Karen came home.

  I guess I dozed a bit, because it suddenly was almost 3 am when I became aware of a minivan taxi coming up the street. It pulled over to the apron at the foot of Thuy’s driveway and stopped. The lights went off, and the driver came around to the side door.

  He grabbed the handle and slid the door open. A moment later, a pair of female hands held out two bags of the type Thuy used to carry her bachelor party costumes and supplies. The driver took them and set them on the ground next to the van. Then he took the woman’s hand and helped her out of the van.

  It was Thuy. She seemed a little unsteady on her high heels so I assumed she’d had a lot to drink.

  The driver climbed into the van. I figured that Karen was drunk, too, and needed help getting out of the van. But instead of helping her out, the driver slid the door shut from the inside.

  Thuy turned her back to the van and planted her butt against the side. She slowly panned her head from side to side as if she were some kind of lookout.

  The van began to rock. At first, it was barely noticeable, but then it became so pronounced that I could hear the suspension creaking. There could be only one explanation. My stomach churned. The driver was having sex with Karen.

  The van stopped rocking. A couple of minutes later, the door slid open and the driver climbed out. He tucked in his shirttail, zipped his pants, and buckled his belt. He pulled some money out of his pocket and counted out several bills for Thuy.

  He stuffed the rest of his money back in his pocket and reached back into the van. A white leg appeared, and then a white arm. And then a blonde head. Relief washed over me, followed immediately by confusion and concern. Whoever the blonde woman was, she wasn’t Karen. So where was Karen?

  The hem of the blonde’s skin-tight dress was up around the middle of her hips. She tugged it down to hide her bare pussy. She and Thuy picked up their bags as the driver got back in his taxi and eased away from the curb. He turned on his lights and sped around the next corner.

  So where was Karen? Was she coming separately? Was she spending the night with some guy she met at the party? I watched Thuy and the blonde stagger up the walk to the house. I really wanted to ask Thuy about Karen. But how would she react to me spying on her? She was drunk, and who knows how she or the blonde might respond to a man jumping out of a van and rushing toward them in the darkness. They might scream. And I certainly couldn’t call out to identify myself at that hour. I just sat there and watched them disappear into the house.

  A couple of lights came on in the house, but about fifteen minutes later, they went off again. I was pretty sure that meant they weren’t expecting Karen. They would have left a light on if they were. I decided to go home to get some sleep, but I needed to swap vehicles first. There was no telling when Mai might call and want me to pick her up.

  * * * *

  Sleep eluded me, and Mai didn’t call. I forced myself to wait until noon the next day to call Thuy. She answered in her usual bubbly voice. I told her I was looking for Karen. She confirmed that Karen had come to her bar on Friday night and had spent the night sleeping on her couch. But Karen hadn’t wanted to go with her to the bachelor party on Saturday night, and she hadn’t felt comfortable staying alone with Thuy’s husband, so she had left. Thuy thought maybe she had gone home.

  I knew Karen hadn’t gone home. She had driven her car out to my place. I didn’t see any point in telling Thuy that, so I thanked her and said goodbye.

  Now what? I was pretty sure Karen hadn’t been in touch with Ted because he would have called me to let me know. But just to be certain, I called him. He hadn’t heard from her, and he was quite worried. I tried to reassure him that she was okay, even though I had my own concerns. I was tempted to tell him what I had found out so far, but I was afraid that would open a whole can of worms, inasmuch as Ted knew nothing about Thuy or how it was that Karen knew her. So I just told him I’d let him know if I heard from Karen.

  After I finished my conversation with Ted, I pondered what little I knew. Karen had left Thuy sometime on Saturday, presumably driving her own car. I had found Karen’s car and her note at my man-cave on Saturday afternoon. So, “our friend” hadn’t been a reference to Thuy. “Our friend” most likely was whoever picked Karen up from my place. It wasn’t Bill, so who was it? What other friends did we have in common? There was Crystal, of course, but it obviously wasn’t her.

  Then I got an idea. Maybe Karen was with Max. The gorgeous black lesbian had been lusting after Karen ever since that night at Sally’s place, so she no doubt would have been happy to take Karen in.

  So far as I knew, Karen didn’t have Max’s number, and her phone was broken anyway, so she couldn’t have called Max and asked her to pick her up from my place. But Karen knew where Max lived because she had been to Max’s house when Max took her home for me after that night at Sally’s. Karen could have driven to Max’s house, and then Max could have followed Karen b
ack to my place so she could leave her car with me. It was a bit of a stretch, but it was a theoretical possibility, and it was all I had. I decided to give it a shot and called Max.

  “Hey Sugar! Looking for Karen?”

  “Yeah. I…”

  “She was right! She said you’d figure out who ‘our friend’ was. Said she didn’t want to put my name in the note because she didn’t know if you’d be alone when you found it.”

  “Yeah, I’m a regular genius,” I said. After having spent the prior night staking out Thuy’s house, I wasn’t feeling so smart. “Mind if I talk to her for a minute?”

  “Oh, Honey, she ain’t here no more. I ain’t seen her since last night at Sally’s Club.”

  I was stunned. “Sally’s Club? What the hell…”

  “Yeah. Amy and I went back for another try. Didn’t take the first time, know what I’m saying? Sally said it be okay if Karen came, too.”

  I felt like I couldn’t breathe. Visions of Karen at Sally’s last time flashed through my mind.

  “Um… So what happened to Karen? Where is she?”

  “Honey, I don’t know. Sally was talking to Karen about something during the mating dance, you know? And then when Amy and I got done takin’ care of business, Karen had disappeared. I asked Sally where she was, but you know how Sally is about confidentiality. Won’t tell you shit about shit, know what I’m saying? Just said that Karen asked her to tell Amy and me she wouldn’t be going back home with us.”

  “So you don’t know if she left the club with someone or what?”

  “Sorry, Sugar. I got no idea.”

  I called Sally, but I got nowhere. She reminded me of her strict confidentiality policy. She couldn’t tell me anything about any of her members without their permission. She did, however, promise to ask Karen to call me if she saw her.

  I pondered my options for a while. I really couldn’t come up with much. I could just leave Karen alone and wait for her to call and ask for her car back. But I couldn’t see myself doing that. Karen was acting strangely, and I was worried about her. I remembered how she had let PD drug her last time she was at Sally’s Oasis. What if something like that had happened again, only worse? What if Karen was in trouble? What if she was in no condition to ask for help?

  That left me no option but to try to find her. But I had nothing to go on, really. She could be anywhere.

  I remembered the Random Walk illustration of the Efficient Markets Hypothesis I had learned about in college. Suppose you turn a drunk loose to wander aimlessly in a field. If you come back later to try to find him, where do you start looking, given that his movements probably have been random? You start looking where you last saw him. That’s the best guess you have at where he will be.

  So that was it. I’d have to start by looking at Sally’s Club…and maybe Sally’s Oasis. It would be a bit of a challenge. I couldn’t go in without an invitation, but I could watch from outside.

  But what was I going to do about Mai? I’d likely be out at all hours for who knows how long. How would I explain to her my obsession with finding another man’s wife? And if I knew Mai, she’d want to tag along. I couldn’t handle that.

  I started packing a suitcase. I’d tell Mai I was going to the Mainland to take care of some urgent business. She’d accept that without much question. Then I’d use my man-cave as a base from which to operate while I spied on Sally and tried to find Karen. If Mai ever found out I’d lied to her, she’d be pissed. But she had put up with worse from me.

  I called Mai and told her I’d be catching the redeye that night. I asked when she wanted me to come pick her up. She said not to worry about it. Maybe she’d stay with her friend for a couple of days. If I wasn’t back, one of her friends would bring her home later.

  I headed back out to Halawa to swap the Merc for the van and to stock the van with some supplies.

  * * * *

  I arrived at Sally’s Club about 7:30. The parking lot was empty. I didn’t know if the festivities would be starting later, or if nothing was happening there on a Sunday night. It was still relatively early, so I decided to wait for a while.

  Along about 9:30, I concluded that I wasn’t going to see anything there, so I headed over to Sally’s house. I parked across the street from the Oasis and climbed into the back of my van to wait and watch through the tinted side window.

  Other cars were parked along the street. Were they an indication that Sally had visitors? I had no way of knowing.

  I waited and waited. It was nearly midnight when the front door opened and a tall man came out. He had to duck his head to pass through the doorway. It was Body, the huge Samoan who had ravished Karen last month.

  My stomach knotted. I tried to see around him to get a glimpse of Karen, if she was there. But I saw no one. Body closed the door and climbed into a black SUV.

  It was as if my worst fear had been realized. I didn’t know for sure, of course, but I suspected that Sally had hooked Body up with Karen again like he had asked.

  I didn’t know what to do. There was nothing I could do, really. But if I was right, there was no point in me staying any longer that night. Karen was sure to be out of commission for a while. I climbed back into the driver’s seat and headed to Halawa.

  * * * *

  I was back before eight Monday morning. I had brought plenty to eat and drink because I planned to watch all day if necessary.

  Along about eleven, one of the garage doors opened, and a white Cadillac DTS backed out. The window tint was so dark I couldn’t see who was inside. I wondered if I should follow it.

  It pulled up in front of the house and waited. A couple of minutes later, Karen and Sally came out the front door. Karen was dressed very casually in shorts and a t-shirt. Sally was wearing her drag-queen garb.

  As they got into the backseat of the Cadillac, I hopped into the driver’s seat of my van. I gave them a two-block head start and then followed.

  The Cadillac dropped them at Ala Moana. I quickly parked my van and followed them into the shopping center.

  What followed was a scene reminiscent of Vivian Ward shopping with Edward Lewis in Pretty Woman. Sally was taking Karen on a shopping spree. Over the course of several hours, they visited countless stores and bought dresses, shoes, lingerie, handbags…you name it. All the while, I succeeded in keeping an eye on them without being noticed.

  The Cadillac always managed to be nearby. Whenever they had accumulated a few purchases, they dropped them in the car and went back to shopping. By mid-afternoon, they were done, and I followed them back to the Oasis.

  I climbed into the back of the van again. Fortunately, I had taken a detour to the men’s room while Sally and Karen were shopping, so my bladder was good to go for a while.

  I was fascinated…and beside myself with curiosity. Why in the world was Sally buying all those clothes for Karen? Certainly not so that Body could come over and rip them off of her…I hoped. The thought made me cringe…and it sent a tingle through my balls.

  I got my answer about 6:45 pm. A grey limousine pulled up in front of the Oasis. The driver went around and opened the back door, and a handsome Middle-Eastern man stepped out. He was perfectly groomed and wore an impeccably tailored suit. I guessed he was in his early 30s. I thought he looked vaguely familiar, but I couldn’t place him.

  The driver stood by the car while the young man strode to the entrance of the Oasis. The front door opened before he got to it. He stepped inside, and the door closed.

  About five minutes later, the door opened again. When the handsome Middle-Eastern man came out, Karen was with him. She was drop-dead gorgeous. Stylish. Elegant. Conservative. None of the painted-on clothes and bare skin that I was accustomed to seeing. She was prettier than Vivian Ward on her way to the opera.

  That thought made me worry. This guy obviously was loaded. Was he about to whisk Karen off to parts unknown on his private jet? I had visions of him kidnapping Karen as an addition to his harem.

  As the l
imo pulled away from the curb, I hopped into the driver’s seat and followed. I hoped my van would be allowed to go wherever they were going.

  When the limo pulled up in front of the Halekulani, I had no doubts about their immediate destination. La Mer. Karen had been to that restaurant before on a double date with Marilyn, Bill, and me. I wondered if the waiters would remember her. But then again, I wondered how they could not.

  I found parking for my van at a meter on a nearby street and headed for the House Without a Key. With any luck, I would be able to have a drink there and see Karen and her date through La Mer’s second-story windows.

  I was lucky. Karen and her date and another couple were seated at a table on the Diamond Head side of the restaurant, near the window. I was able to watch her with no difficulty at all.

  I got the impression that Karen’s date was only casually acquainted with the other couple. So far as I could tell, it looked like some kind of business dinner. Despite the knot in my stomach, I was proud of Karen. She looked perfectly at ease, and she even managed to keep control of her escargot.

  I was ordering my second drink when I suddenly remembered why Karen’s date looked familiar. I didn’t know exactly who he was, but I had seen his photos in the tabloids. He was a playboy prince from some royal family. He had quite a reputation as a ladies man, with a new conquest on his arm every time he appeared in public.

  I was forced to acknowledge what I had been trying not to think about. This wasn’t just going to be dinner for Karen. I was sure her date had every intention of bedding her. But would it be here at the Halekulani, or would he take her elsewhere?

  I nursed my second drink until dinner was over. When everyone got up to leave the restaurant, I decided I should be prepared to follow them in case he decided to take her to another hotel. Or maybe he owned a home somewhere on Oahu.

  As I headed for the street, I saw the grey limo pull up in front of the Halekulani. I made a dash for my van. They obviously were going somewhere else, and I intended to follow.

  Imagine my surprise when the limo returned directly to Sally’s Oasis. The handsome young man walked Karen to the door and said goodnight to her. He didn’t even try to kiss her.