by Pete David
Jesse took her turn in the shower and emerged from the bathroom in a fragrant bouquet of soap and shampoo. A single hotel towel hung from her shoulders, doing little to hide her beautiful body. She walked over to where I sat on the bed. I looked up to gauge her intent and to appreciate her beauty as an art critic might study the Mona Lisa.
“You’re really beautiful.” I stammered, getting aroused at the sight of her.
“Thanks. You’re pretty cute yourself. Mind if I join you?” She sensuously pushed my hair back off my forehead.
“I’d be delighted.” I flung the newspaper to the floor.
She let the towel drop on the carpet before settling down on the bed beside me. Her hand slid up through the pant leg of my shorts to grip me. I pulled her to me and kissed her passionately. She broke our embrace, and fell on her side to help remove my shorts, before sliding back on top.
I paced myself by gently exploring her entire body. My hands, lips, and tongue subjected her to a coordinated application of touch and taste. The soreness in my ribs was forgotten. My desire for her was the cure for physical and emotional ailments.
I focused on her pleasure, caring little about when or how my own climax arrived. I approached it like having the perfect meal where the bites of food became smaller towards the end to prolong the pleasurable culinary experience. She writhed with delight and when it finally ended, we laid there exhausted, her head resting on my left shoulder. Thoughts of Sarah, Andy’s murder, and my family troubles faded away, replaced by the aura of this beautiful woman, with whom, at least at that moment I shared an emotional connection.
The lovemaking left me drained, but not tired. It didn’t matter to me why it happened. I wanted the moment to last and not be concerned about the future.
Jesse’s breathing had reached the steady cadence of sleep; her short hair fell across her cheek and tickled my chest. I caressed her head; my fingers in slow-motion ran through her soft golden locks. I wanted to remember every detail of this night.
Hours later, I woke as Jesse got up to use the bathroom. I became aware of the air conditioning unit by the window rattling and barely blocking out the sound of some lodgers departing in the early morning darkness. She extinguished the bathroom light. Her tall lithe silhouette glided towards me across the thin hotel carpeting. She settled down at the edge of the bed with a plastic cup of water and we each drank half. She slipped underneath the bed sheet and slid over, her breasts and pubic mound pressed up against me, her warm breath caressing my cheek. I kissed her, getting aroused again as I gathered her still warm body in my arms, determined not to let this golden opportunity go to waste.
We slept late, exhausted from our marathon lovemaking. I wanted to stay in that hotel room forever, afraid to venture back to Albuquerque and break this brief magical spell. We showered together and dressed as check-out time passed.
She took her medication so she could share some of the driving. “You look tired.” She had reached over and caressed my cheek. “I’ll start driving to give you a chance to catch some sleep in the car.”
I nodded. At that point I would have agreed to anything she asked, including a return trip to L.A. to kill Junky and his hoodlums. Still feeling the sensuality from the sex and smelling her fragrance, my confidence soared as we headed east up the ramp to I-10 for our return to Albuquerque.
Chapter 25
A week later, Frank Minor called after returning from a visit with Sarah. He filled me in on her progress. Frank suggested I come by the office for lunch to meet his partners. He had repeatedly expressed his gratitude for my efforts and graciously paid all my expenses with no questions asked. He said he thought his company could use my services on a part-time basis. I agreed to lunch the following week after my trip to see my daughter. Getting steady work would be welcome.
Jesse provided no hint of having influenced her father’s generosity when I mentioned his offer. Jesse and I had been out a couple of times since the Phoenix trip, but agreed to take things slow. I accepted that condition, but never bought the tortoise and the hare competition scenario when it came to dating. The speed at which a relationship developed seemed to me to have little to do with whether it lasted.
Jesse urged me to see my daughter. Her support meant a lot to me, but the additional encouragement wasn’t necessary. I retrieved the envelope Detective Anaya had mailed to me. Inside, a printout contained the name and address of a school in the Las Vegas area. After my rescue of another man’s daughter, the time had come to see my daughter on her birthday and attempt to salvage that precious piece of my life.
I booked a flight to Las Vegas and reserved a rental car. Jesse sounded sincere in her disappointment that her work schedule wouldn’t allow her to accompany me. Perhaps she saw it as a return favor for my escorting her to Phoenix, or maybe she really cared about meeting my daughter. Her companionship would have been welcome, but ultimately, making the journey solo seemed appropriate.
Chapter 26
Las Vegas is more than an asphalt jungle of tall glittering hotels and casinos. It’s a city perched on the parched desert floor highlighted by bleached lawns, swimming pools with tepid water, and over two million people, many of them homeless. Joanne and I had made several trips there to visit her sister. It was not one of my favorite places.
After a night in a nearby cheap motel, I drove into Henderson, a suburb of Vegas, where my daughter attended school. The mid-day heat was overpowering when I left the air-conditioned comfort of my car parked four blocks down the road from the elementary school. The neighborhood appeared pleasant and the school relatively new and clean. Joanne had made another good decision regarding our daughter.
My body baked as I strolled past the curb lined with expensive cars towards the main school entrance where a group of mostly women congregated to wait for their children. Being the rare male, I ignored their glances and my own nerves, committed to seeing my daughter on her birthday. Another guy playing Mr. Mom with an infant in a backpack harness nodded to me, as if we shared a common bond. Several female parents gave me furtive glances, I assumed in response to seeing a strange face in front of their kid’s school. I understood, having worked numerous child disappearance cases.
The group focused on the front doors as the ringing bell triggered the weekday outpouring of kids, teachers, and a security guard. Josie exited the double doors with another girl, but disappeared behind a mass of adult bodies
I inched closer behind the line of adults working in unison toward their offspring to whisk them away to their waiting cars. Josie and the second girl headed straight for a short woman with dark hair, wearing baggy shorts, a blue t-shirt, and leather sandals. Josie looked adorable in her short pink dress and a sleeveless yellow top decorated with a collage of flowers.
I stood five feet behind the woman who greeted the two girls. Suddenly, after a moment of hesitation, she smiled, and with a sparkle of recognition, she bolted into my arms.
“Daddy.” That one word and Josie’s tight embrace melted my heart.
“Hi sweetheart.” I mumbled into her hair, while bending to plant a kiss on her forehead.
I heard an accusatory voice. “Excuse me. Who are you?”
The woman holding the hand of the other little girl glared at me.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t have time to introduce myself. I’m Arch Caldwell, Josie’s father.” I broke from my daughter’s grasp and the woman shook my outstretched right hand as my daughter gripped my left.
“Oh my. I’m Claudia and this is my daughter Samantha. ” She launched into an explanation of being Joanne’s neighbor and then she stopped not knowing how to proceed. The embarrassing moment passed.
I smiled down at Samantha. “I just wanted to wish Josie a happy birthday.” I handed Josie the package containing the Miss Kitty bracelet Jesse had helped me pick out. “I think it’s something you’ll like.”
Josie started to open it, but I put my hand on hers. “Wait until you get home. I just wanted to see you a
nd let you know how much I love you.”
“I love you too, daddy. Can you come home with us?”
“Not today.” Her disappointed face tore at my heart.
“I’ll come back another time,” I said without the appropriate conviction. “It looks like you’re making a lot of good friends.”
Josie nodded. “I’m going over to Sam’s house to play.”
“That’s good.” I risked an ad-lib. “Maybe you can come to Albuquerque to visit me.”
“Really?” Her face lit up with the possibility. “Is that the capital of New Mexico?”
“No, Santa Fe is the capital, remember? But it’s very close to Albuquerque.” Like many parents, Joanne and I had fulfilled our patriotic duty by teaching our daughter the fifty states and their capitals.
“Tell your mother I said hello.” I thanked Claudia for taking care of Josie, whose clutch on my arm had tightened. I gave her one last hug before Claudia turned toward the street with both girls in tow. My heart felt like a lead weight as Claudia’s blue Chevy van continued down the street with the sad face of my daughter peering out at me through the side window.
I slinked back to my car. Guilt nearly devoured me for allowing so much time to elapse since I last saw my daughter. My turmoil caused me to get lost searching for the freeway. I pulled the car over to the curb and stared at my arm still expecting to see the desperate clutch of my daughter’s tiny hand. When I looked up, a large green sign stood ahead directing me to the airport and my journey home to what seemed an insurmountable distance from my daughter.
Chapter 27
“What the hell is wrong with you? You just show up at her school without any warning?”
Joanne’s angry voice boomed on the speaker of my cell phone. The sun was setting behind me as I drove home from the Albuquerque airport.
“Hi Joanne. Great to hear from you.” I plugged the phone cable into the lighter socket to prevent the battery from dying. While married, I had let my phone battery expire on numerous occasions. In response, Joanne had bought me a number of plugs and adaptors for charging my phone. She insisted I be available in case anything happened to Josie. I promised more than once, but broke the pledge many more times.
“You could have just let me know you were coming and I would have made arrangements. You terrified my neighbor; she thought you were a pedophile.”
“Sorry, Jo. I just wanted to see Josie on her birthday and I didn’t want to bother you, since you made it clear you didn’t want me around.”
Silence greeted me on the other end of the line. My ex-wife let out a long breath before her voice changed to an air of civility. “Arch, you know I don’t want to keep you from seeing Josie. I just needed some time. You need to be a part of her life.”
“I wasn’t ready.”
“And you are now?”
“I think so.”
We began to talk like adults. I provided her with the bad news. “Andy’s dead.”
Joanne gasped. “Oh my God. How?”
“Shot in the back. We had a breakfast meeting scheduled and he didn’t show. I found him at his house.”
“Oh, Arch, I’m sorry. Here I was ragging on you.”
“I deserved it. Besides you couldn’t have known.”
“Do they know who killed him?
“Not yet, although I have some theories.” I gave her a brief summary of my return to L.A. and my confrontation with Junky.
“He’s going to kill you one day, Arch. And Josie will be without her father.” Despite that grim thought, Joanne put little anger behind the accusation. Because of her history with the case, she had seen what happened to girls like Sarah who fell under Junky’s tight grip.
“You disappeared with Josie.”
“I knew you’d find us when you wanted. Just call next time you want to see Josie, so we can arrange something. You have the legal right to see her. She adores you and it would be good for her to spend some time with her father.”
I mumbled an ‘I’m sorry’, which I had done so many times now, my apology had lost meaning. “What about her mother? Does she still adore me?”
“Not nearly as much.”
“I didn’t think so.”
Joanne exhaled. “Look Arch. I know what I did was illegal, but I did it to protect Josie.”
“I never doubted your motive. I’ll call you in a few weeks about another visit.”
“That would be great.” She paused. “I’ve got to go Arch. I’m really sorry about Andy.”
I was tempted to cram in a few details about the new me—the part about the healthy diet, nicotine-free lungs, renewed exercise, reduced caffeine consumption, only occasional and absolutely necessary bouts with Jack Daniels, and how these changes had contributed to my enhanced maturity. But Joanne had moved on with her life and if I became consumed by my past mistakes, I might forget to have a future. I promised to visit Josie soon, and meant it.
Chapter 28
Jesse, Josie, and I were drifting in a boat on a bright blue lake with big trees growing right out of the water. The trees had large bright green leaves shaped like hearts that shivered in the breeze. I tried to make sense out of how the trees could live rooted in such deep water. Sarah floated in a separate boat, but despite my cries, she continued to drift further away. A rope from her boat dangled on the water surface just beyond my reach. I frantically tried to grab it and pull her back towards us.
I woke up sweating and anxious about Sarah. Barbara had returned home with her a few days earlier to a grand celebration of family and friends. Sarah looked healthy after 45 days in the clinic. Fifteen pounds heavier, color and beauty had returned to her face. She seemed happy and greeted me with an affectionate hug.
Everyone glowed with optimism, especially Jesse who voiced certainty of her sister’s complete recovery. Despite the hopeful atmosphere around me, my experience with cruelty and disappointment on the streets of L.A. taught me to keep everything in perspective.
After the party, Jesse and I returned to spend the night at her apartment. I wanted to voice my concerns about Sarah’s recovery to ensure the family stayed vigilant in their support. Sal had recommended another month in the clinic, but the family wanted her home. I felt the family had been pre-mature in their desire to remove her from a protective environment.
Chapter 29
I spent a chilly Monday in November investigating a vacant building near downtown Albuquerque owned by Frank’s real estate law firm before returning to my office. There had been reports of squatters and drug dealers using the abandoned structure. With negotiation for the sale of the building was proceeding, Frank wanted me to secure the premises to avoid any liability issues.
I stopped for an hour workout, picked up some Chinese take-out, and headed to my apartment. Frank Minor called as I settled in to watch Monday Night Football.
“Arch, we’ve got a problem.” I assumed he was referring to a real estate issue.
“What’s up?”
“It’s Sarah. She left Barb’s house about three this afternoon and hasn’t returned.”
“Did she leave a note?”
“No. And she hasn’t called. We’re all hysterical.”
“Does she have access to a car?”
“No, Barb had gone to the studio for a few hours. There was no car for her to use.”
“Has anyone tried contacting her friends? Unless she’s on foot, someone would have had to pick her up.”
“Barb’s made a few calls, but Sarah hasn’t contacted any of her local friends. Maybe you can call Barb.”
“Okay, I’ll get back to you.”
Barb sounded agitated and it took me a few minutes to get her focused. “How long were you at the gallery?”
“I left after lunch and returned around four.”
“Could Sarah have walked somewhere from your house?”
She sighed. “No, I live in the outskirts of Santa Fe. She called someone while I was at the gallery.”
“How do you kn
ow she called from the house?”
“I don’t have a house phone.” Barb hesitated. “I left her my cell phone in case she needed to reach me at the gallery. But she didn’t take the phone.”
“Did you check to see if she made any calls?”
“Yes, there are three calls to two numbers.”
“Read me the numbers and times of the calls.” She gave me the numbers Sarah called that afternoon. The calls were placed between 1:00 and 1:30 p.m. The second number looked familiar. I scanned my contacts for Joey Marconi. The numbers matched.
“Barb, I need to go.”
“You know these guys she called?”
“Yeah, one of them is an Albuquerque drug dealer.” I wondered how she knew both numbers belonged to guys. She must have tried the numbers.
“Oh, my God.” Barb screeched.
“I’ve got to find her.”
“I’m coming down to Albuquerque to help.” Panic filled her voice.
“Barb, listen. It’s best you stay at the house in case Sarah returns. I’ll call as soon as I have her.” The optimism in my voice was meant to convince Barb to stay put. If Sarah was with Marconi and I found them, I didn’t want to worry about another person to protect in case things got violent.
I loaded my gun and called Frank to give him an update before heading out the door.
Chapter 30
A cold mist fell as I drove the streets searching for Sarah with two stops at Low Spirits, Marconi’s favorite hangout. According to the bar staff who knew him, he hadn’t been in all night.
The first number Sarah had called belonged to Freddie Martinez. I didn’t need to call for confirmation. The scenario was clear. Sarah called Freddie, the man who got her hooked, to score some drugs. He referred her to Marconi, the man responsible for shipping her off to Junky. She might end up back there, or worse, if I didn’t find her soon.