by Laina Turner
“Good. We played a few rounds and then grabbed a couple beers and watched some ladies sunbath,” he laughed as I swatted him on the arm. “I hope you don’t mind, but I told Randy we would have dinner with him and Denise.”
“No, I don’t mind. That’ll be fun.”
“Ok, then I need to take a fast shower because we are meeting them downstairs in about fifteen minutes.”
Chapter 9
We met Denise and Randy in the lobby and all decided we were in the mood for the steak place located in the resort. If it was a good as the seafood place we ate at last night it was going to be fabulous, and it was. Following a great meal of bacon wrapped filet we all ordered espresso and sherbet for dessert. Just the right combination of sour and sweet. The men decided on an after-dessert brandy and I ordered a cappuccino as did Denise, although hers was decaf. An alcoholic drink after all the food would have put me to sleep in about five minutes.
“Caffeine this late doesn’t bother you?” she asked me.
I shook my head. “No, I think I drink so much I’m just immune to it. It’s what keeps me going. So, Randy, what do you do for a living?” I asked conversationally. He had spent most of the time at dinner talking to Cooper and I was trying to be a good hostess and engage him in conversation. He was just a really quiet kind of guy.
“I own a fleet of town cars and limos. Based out of Los Angles we mostly service high end business clients, some movie stars.”
“Randy started his business right out of college with himself and a friend and two rust bucket Lincolns. He’s a self made man, aren’t you honey?” Randy shrugged off her comment and I could see he was a little embarrassed but also pleased.
‘That’s something to be proud of,” I said. “Anyone famous I might have heard of?” I teased.
He thought for a moment. “We took Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt to an Oscar event once.”
“Wow! That’s exciting!”
That got a smile out of him. We spent another hour enjoying one another’s company and eventually said our goodnights, and Cooper and I headed out to the beach to enjoy the warm breeze and the sound of the water lapping up on the sand. “That’s pretty cool how Randy built a million dollar company from a couple of vehicles. Renews faith in the American dream doesn’t it,” I said leaning against Cooper with his arm around me.
“It sure does. And he’s about to expand.”
“Oh, really?’
“Yeah, that’s why they are down here. Randy is working out a deal with a company similar to his down here and has been meeting with the business owner to finalize the transaction.”
“Good for him.” We walked along a few more minutes when it hit me and I stopped in my tracks.
“What’s wrong?”
“That’s it!”
“What’s it?”
“Today Belinda and I got copies of the call logs from the day each of the victims died and three of them shared a common phone call with a car service here in town, plus they shared a couple other commonalities. We were looking for a personal connection, but I bet it’s someone who works for one of those places.”
“Wait a minute. When were you going to tell me all this?”
“I wasn’t keeping it from you,” I said defensively as I had ben known to hide things in the past. “I just haven’t had time. You got back from golf and we immediately got ready and met Denise and Randy for dinner.” I turned around and started walking back to the hotel.
“Where are you going?” Cooper said rushing to catch up.
“I’m sorry, I have to call Belinda and I left my cell back in the room.”
Chapter 10
The phone ringing woke me up from a sound sleep and I opened one eye to try and focus on looking at the nightstand to locate my iPhone. I grabbed it and saw on the screen it was Belinda and that woke me up fast. When I had called her last night to tell her my theory about the owner of the car service company, or one of the other places, being owned by the businessman we were looking for she said she would do the research and find out who owned the companies. I had fallen asleep waiting for her call and hopefully this was it.
“Hello?” I croaked.
“Presley, I think we found our guy!” she said excitedly.
“Really?” I said sitting up. “It’s Belinda,” I whispered to Cooper as he looked at me.
“I had to do some digging as a couple of the businesses are corporate owned which means managed by a board. However, I found out the car service company was started by one Johann Lopez. The only business started by a man.”
“Johann? That doesn’t sound very Mexican.”
She laughed. “ He’s only half Mexican. His mother was German but he was born and raised here. He is in his mid fifties, has owned several business’s including the car service, and get this,” she said dramatically.
“What? Tell me!”
“He has a penchant for starlets. Beautiful young stars on the rise.”
“Oh my God, really!” I shrieked, startling Cooper, who went right back to sleep. How guys could do that so easily was beyond me.
“Yes. Now it’s not all that startling if you think about it. He’s a middle-aged man who has money. He’s been married, had kids, and divorced. So he now amuses himself with pretty young things who love the fact he is a powerful businessman who can buy them expensive things and take them expensive places.”
“Well when you put it like that,” I said. “How can we determine if it is really him who talked to the girls and not just one of probably many, many employees or even people who might have access to a phone there?”
“I was hoping you might have an idea on that.”
I sat there for a minute chewing on my nail wishing I had some caffeine so my brain would be more effective. I reached for my laptop, balancing the phone between my ear and my shoulder. Opening it up and connecting to the hotel wireless I said to Belinda, “what about Google?”
“What do you mean?”
“Maybe if we look to see what women Johann Lopez is linked too in the media we might see a connection.”
“I’m such an idiot to not have thought of that. That’s a brilliant idea!”
“I’m in front of my computer now,” I said to her and typed in Johann Lopez girlfriends. “Wow. He’s is a busy boy!” I said looking at the first page of Google and all the different women he was linked to.
“No kidding. I’m looking at it too. How does a successful businessman have so much free time?” she asked.
“Heck if I know.” I scrolled down looking for the name of one of the victims. I see Lucia!” I said excitedly. “They went to some Snow Ball together it says. That seems an odd choice of things to name a ball in this climate.”
“Ok, that’s one. Ooh! I see Gaby Ruiz!” Belinda said. “And Fawn Garcia!”
“So we are looking for Malia Ortega and Esperanza Ochos.”
“Found Esperazna!” Belinda almost screamed in my ear.
“I just saw her too and I see Malia Ortega. That’s all five! This can’t be just a coincidence. He seems to be quite the ladies man.”
“I agree, Presley, but it’s not concrete proof just circumstantial. We need to find out for sure if he killed them.”
“To do that we need to find a reason he would want to,” I said. “Kill them I mean. He’s got to have some twisted psychosis.” We both sat in silence for a few minutes. “I’ve got an idea!” I exclaimed. “What if we can find out who he is currently dating and track them to see if he tries it again? The previous five victims were in somewhat the same circumstances so maybe we can find an upcoming similar situation.”
Belinda didn’t say anything for a moment. Probably because it was a bad idea. I was just about to say as much when she started talking.
“You might just have the right idea. Yeah, yeah that might work.”
“Really?” I said skeptically, already having talking myself out of the idea being a good one.
“I’m thinking so. Let’s both
do some research and then reconnect in a few hours and see who we come up with. You use the all knowing Google and I will make a few phone calls to people who are in the know on this sort of thing.”
“Ok. I will see what I can find out and will talk to you later.”
I hung up, leaned over to order room service coffee so I could think better, and then went back to my laptop to see what I could find out. I looked down at Cooper, who hadn’t woken back up, and just shook my head. Must be nice to be such a sound sleeper.
Chapter 11
We only had two more days left before having to head back to not so sunny Chicago, so as much as I wanted to find out who was murdering those girls I also wanted to take advantage of the sunny weather and go back with a good tan. Since Belinda was checking on some things and was going to call me later my morning plan was to head out to the pool, run into Denise and Regina, and find out what they were hiding. It was just bugging me and while it might not be my business I somehow had the feeling if I pushed just enough they would let me in.
I found them in the same spot they had secured the last couple days and happily joined them. Deciding today to try a peach daiquiri as my after breakfast drink, it was fruit, I realized I could easily get hooked on morning sunbathing and drinking. Good thing I couldn’t do this back in Chicago. I would quickly turn into a leathery lush.
“You won’t believe what we did yesterday, Presley?” Denise said to me leaning over and patting me on the knee.
“What?”
“We went zip lining! You know where they hook you to a cable and you fly through the air at crazy heights?”
“It’s fun isn’t it? My brother Jesse used to be a zip line instructor and I think Cooper bought us tickets at the concierge to do one this afternoon. I can’t wait.”
“You ever been?” Regina asked.
“No. But I’m not scared of heights so I think it will be a blast.”
“It was, and I am scared of heights. But once I got started the scenery was so awesome I forgot about the heights. It’s amazing how far you can see up there.”
We chatted a little longer about the sights and how we would all be sad to leave though they both lived in California so the weather was much nicer than the Chicago weather I was heading back too. I had been looking for a natural segway in the conversation to bring up the question about the Mexican family and I just wasn’t finding one. So I decided caution be damned, I was going to have to just come out and ask it once again. I don’t know why it was bothering me so much. Maybe because I could see it was bothering them?
“Ladies, I’m sorry to ask again, but what is the real deal with the family of your housekeeper?”
They both looked at one another, and then at me nervously.
“If you have some sort of secret I’m not going to tell. I promise.”
“What makes you think we have a secret?” asked Denise.
“I don’t know. The way you looked at each other the first time I asked. Maybe I can help?”
There were a few minutes of silence and finally Regina said, “Go ahead and tell her, Denise. Maybe Presley can help. She certainly can’t hurt.”
Denise hesitated and then threw up her hands. “Ok, fine,” she said glaring at Regina a little. “Maybe Presley can help.” She took a breath. “We didn’t lie, that is the family of my housekeeper. What we didn’t tell you is we are planning on smuggling them into the United States.” She stopped speaking presumably to let me take that bit of information in.
My eyebrows shot up. I don’t know what I expected them to be hiding but this wasn’t really it. They didn’t seem the criminal type.
“Don’t think bad of us, Presley. We’ve tried it the legal route to no avail,” Denise said.
“I don’t think bad of you, I can understand why your housekeeper would want her family with her. I assume those are her children?”
Denise shook her head yes. “She’s been in the US for three years now. Her visa came through right after her youngest was born and she felt if she left them she could work on making a better life and then bring them over. She never thought they would not be able to come. Immigration law is so confusing.”
“It’s so unfair!” Regina exclaimed.
“Which is why we are trying to help them,” Denise said.
“How are you planning on smuggling them in the country?” I asked.
“We are still trying to figure that one out. We thought at first we could get false papers for them, but that’s proving to be difficult because we don’t have the slightest idea of what we are doing. We’ve been trying to think and we’ve run out of ideas and we are almost out of time before we head home. Our husbands would find it odd if we tried to stay. We just don’t know what to do.”
Just then my phone rang, it was Belinda. I held my finger up, “I’m sorry I have to take this,” I said getting up and stepping away for some privacy. “Hello?”
“OK, I think I have two hot prospects of women he is dating who by default could potentially be victims,” she said.
“Me too. I found he’s been currently linked to Marisol Villanueva and Lupe Herrera. Is that what you found?”
“Yes, but I called a friend at the entertainment desk at a rival station and she said he seems to be really smitten with Lupe, but she won’t commit, so he has also been keeping his options open.”
“Hence Marisol.”
“Exactly.”
“So are you still thinking we could follow him and see if it looks like either of the girls are in danger?” I asked.
“I can go one better. My contact said Lupe is having a party tonight to celebrate the renewal of her contract for five more seasons as the anchor of our most popular reality show. I say we show up tonight and take a look for ourselves.”
“You want to sneak in to her party and spy on them?”
“Not sneak. As invited guests. I got us two tickets!”
“You’re kidding!”
“I hope you brought something formal. I will pick you up at eight.”
“Ok,” I said and hung up the phone. I was going to have to cancel my dinner plans with Cooper, hopefully he wouldn’t be too angry, and then figure out what to wear. I had brought a couple things that might do. A celebrity party. This could be fun.
Chapter 12
I ended up leaving Cooper a message and he hadn’t made it back by the time I was going to leave, so I hoped he got it. I also left him a note on the bathroom mirror just in case. I had decided to wear a tight fitting black sheath dress one of the two dressy dresses I had brought. It was sleeveless and had a low neckline. I jazzed it up with some silver accessories and silver sandals and felt as ready as I would ever be.
I walked out in front of the hotel just as Belinda pulled up. Opening the door of her Mercedes I slid in, shutting it behind me.
“You look nice,” I said to Belinda. She had on a gown of a gorgeous vibrant aqua. The color would have washed me out but on her olive complexion looked amazing.
“Thank you. You too. You ready for this?” she said pulling out into traffic.
“I’m not sure. What if he notices us following him around?”
“My contact said there will be about 200 people at this party so it should be easy to blend in.”
We chatted about nothing in particular and it wasn’t long until we pulled up in front of an enormous house and got out giving Belinda’s car keys to the valet.
“Is this a hotel or resort?” I asked.
She shook her head. “Neither. Private residence if you can believe it. It belongs to the producer of her reality show. I’ve only ever seen pictures of this place and regardless of what we might find out tonight I am thrilled to be able to see it in person.”
She gave our passes to the guard at the gate and he motioned us inside. Walking down a long walkway lined with tea lights we could see people in groups mingling. We reached the main area, the party was outside by the pool, or should I say pools. There was a big pool surrounded by th
ree smaller wading pools. All had beautiful underwater lighting that was giving a color display. Flowers were in the pool floating and I found myself wondering how the chlorine wasn’t killing them or maybe it just took time for that to happen. We accepted the champagne that was offered to us and walked a little farther into the group of people.
“Do you see him,” I whispered.
“Not yet. You look that direction and I will look over here.”
Since I had only seen his picture on Google I hoped he looked the same in person. Was that him way over there, I tried squinting. I really needed stronger contacts.
“Belinda. I think he’s over there. By the woman in the red dress. It’s not Lupe though I don’t think. I don’t see her in that group of people.”
“That is him, but where is she?”
“I have to go find the ladies room so you stay out here and keep looking and I will see if I can find her on my way.”
“Ok,” she said positioning herself to be able to see him.
I gave my empty glass to a passing waiter and asked for directions to the ladies room. Following the stone path as directed I wound around the house and past the large enclosed tent where the formal sit down dinner was going to be taking place. I was about to turn the corner and walk into the bathroom when I heard loud voices coming from the direction of the tent. I could see the shadows of what looked in shape and size to be two women. I paused to listen, hoping no one walked by and caught me spying. That would be embarrassing.
“You are a crazy bitch! How dare you crash my party?”
“Lupe, you haven’t seen crazy yet. I tried to warn you. I told you to stay away from my man!”
Was this the Lupe Herrera? Who was she arguing with? I walked closer to the tent, almost breaking my ankle as my heel slid into the soft ground and twisted my foot. I bit my lip to keep from crying out in pain and pulled my heel out. I proceeded on tiptoe, hoping they were too busy arguing to see my shadow approaching.
“He divorced you. Get that through your head he doesn’t want you!” Lupe screamed so loud I couldn’t believe everyone at the party didn’t hear her. Who was she yelling at? Could this be Johann’s ex wife? I wish Belinda were here to listen to this.