He dropped the cigarette, wiggled his toe on the butt, and then came to the truck as I opened the door. “Where’s the guy that’s following you?”
“Out front.”
“I’ll go have a chat with him.”
“No. Let’s get inside.” I ran up the stairs to safety with Miguel at my back. The three people working busily in the kitchen, stirring, flipping and frying, barely acknowledged my arrival.
Out front Gwen greeted me with, “The parrots are gone. It was too good to last but it gave us one good day. Oh, and a guy named Ryan Vachess came in looking for you. I told him I wasn’t expecting you in tonight. What did you do to piss him off?”
“Not a lot, but sometimes the only way I can’t offend people is to stay indoors and not answer the phone.” I went past her, heading for the corner window in the long row that overlooked the beach. I looked down on the black Escalade. Was Cal inside the vehicle or was he already in the elevator making his way up to find me?
Gwen said, “We could do with one more server.”
“Leave it. The three on duty tonight will be smiling and running their behinds off. They’ll be delighted to finally have a full shift.” I turned away from the window. “Were there any other calls for me?”
“Some guy called and asked for you. I told him you were with your Aunt Kay but I could take a message. He said no, he knew where your Aunt Kay lived and he’d meet you there.”
So that explained how Cal knew where to find me. “Let’s not give out any more information.” Gwen really hadn’t told him anything but still, it bothered me. “Just say you don’t know where I am or when I’ll be back.” I went back to studying Cal’s Cadillac.
“Lately, that wouldn’t be a lie.” Gwen put her hand on my shoulder. “Are you all right?”
“Good question.”
“Well, if I can help . . .” She left it at that.
“You always do, Gwennie, you always do.”
I was in the office punching in the number for Angel Escort when Tully showed up. I pointed him to a chair and waited for Cal to pick up.
“Angel Escort.”
“Cal?” His “Yeah” was cautious and wary. “Sherri Travis. Why are you following me?”
“What gave you that dumb idea?”
“You mean you weren’t at my house late last night, didn’t tail me here from Aunt Kay’s and you aren’t sitting out in the parking lot at this very moment?”
There was a heavy sigh and then he said, “I’m not stalking you, you stupid bitch, I’m trying to protect you.”
It took a minute. “From your brother?”
“Yeah. He’s got a big case of the dislikes for you.”
“It wouldn’t take much, given the chemicals he’s ingesting. What exactly is his drug of choice?”
“Meth and a little ecstasy.”
And this was the paranoid guy who thought I’d gone looking for him. Not good.
“That’s one hell of a combination.” My brain was whirring through coping strategies with a guy on a meth cocktail.
Cal said, “Get lost for a few days until I get him sorted out.”
“How you gonna do that?”
The silence stretched. At last Cal said, “I’m working on it.”
“Work harder.” I hit End and dropped the cell on my desk. “Shit.”
“Tell me,” Tully said.
I filled him in and then said, “Cal’s right. I need to get out of here for a few days.”
“Let’s go see Clay. Do a little fishing. It’s been a while since we did that.”
“I don’t want to leave Aunt Kay. She’s going in for surgery and I want to stay close to her until then.” I didn’t mention that I also wanted to find Angel. Somewhere along the way it had become as important to me as it was to Aunt Kay. “By the time Aunt Kay goes in for her operation Clay will be home.” Or not, the spiteful little voice that resides in my head chirped in.
“I’ll stay at Brian’s and get someone else to work the bar. Everything will be fine.”
“Yeah, right.” Tully was making for the door. “We’ll argue about it later, but for now let’s get the hell out of here.”
CHAPTER 38
Fleeing the Sunset went off like a textbook FBI operation from the movies. From where Cal was parked near the front entrance, he couldn’t see what was happening back of the restaurant. I went out through the kitchen with Miguel, down the alley at the foot of the stairs to where Tully had pulled his beat-up old pickup in beside mine.
I crouched down among the debris on the floor of his truck and Tully threw a plaid shirt, stinking of gasoline, over me. Gwen was on her cell at the window, watching to see that Cal didn’t move. I was hoping he’d spend a good long time out there in the parking lot guarding nothing. I pretty much believed him when he said he was trying to protect me from Ryan, but I’ve been lied to before.
A block away from the Sunset my cell rang. Gwen said, “He’s still here.”
I slid up onto the seat and checked the rear window to be sure. The street behind us was empty. I was free of the Vachess brothers.
Brian lived in a very upscale development on the north border of the Jacaranda Golf Course, a place where even the help didn’t drive vehicles as beat up as Tully’s. As we pulled into the brick drive, the door of the garage went up so Tully could pull in beside Brian’s Mercedes. The door slid down behind us before the engine was off. We’d all seen too many movies.
Brian’s house was on the thirteenth hole of the golf course. Only a long narrow pond separated his lawn from the tee and Brian and I had often practiced chipping from his lawn to the green. But not tonight.
On the lanai with cold drinks in our hands, Brian pointed to the edge of the pond thirty yards away. “That old reptile suns himself there on my property every day.”
The gator had to be at least twelve feet long and looked more like a plastic replica than the real thing.
“See,” Brian said, gesturing towards a man on the green with a cell phone taking a picture of the gator beside a large white sign that said TRESPASSERS WILL BE VIOLATED. “Someone likes my warning. I’ve been asked to remove it by both the golf club and by the homeowners’ association; seems it lowers the tone of the place.”
Tully said, “That big bull is way too large to be around humans.”
“Yeah, it’s time they got him out of here.” Brian leaned forwardto put his glass on the coffee table. “The wildlife people are supposed to be coming to remove him this week. Our association has already had four of his size taken out this year.”
Tully turned to me. “Don’t you go out there until it’s gone, Sherri.”
“How dumb do you think I am?”
He grinned but refrained from pointing to my current situation as an example. Instead he said, “You’ve got the best of it all, Brian, a little nature and a great house.”
The truth was, Tully hated suburban life even more than I did. He thought golf courses were a blight on the landscape and would normally express this view to anyone who would listen. Either he was really grateful to Brian for taking me in and giving me a spot to hide, or Bernice was teaching Tully to play nice. Oh hell, what was I thinking? Bernice and the word nice didn’t belong together.
Brian gave us a small wry smile. “I thought it was a great deal. Way underpriced when I bought it at the top of the market and in another ten years it may even be worth what I paid for it. I should have learned after the tech bubble, but no, there I was just as excited as all the other clowns to jump back into the latest disaster.”
All the regulars at the Sunset had heard about Brian’s adventures in investing and took it as an example of how not to make money. “At least you have something to show for it this time.”
“Yeah, four empty bedrooms and a po
ol no one uses.” He smiled. “But at least you’re here now.” He rubbed his hands together. “I’m glad of that, but how much trouble is this guy going to be, Sherri?”
I was feeling like prey, stalked and cornered with the hunter moving in for the kill, but there was no way I was sharing that with Tully and Brian. Their reaction would be extreme and violent. “It will blow over, no worries.”
Tully, his brow furrowed in worry lines, asked, “Do you think his brother can control this guy?”
The thing was if Tully heard the wrong answer, he was going to take it upon himself to correct things.
“Sure. In a day or two he’ll be all hot and bothered about someone else.”
“Better be.” Tully leaned forward, elbows on his knees. “If not, I’m going to have a long talk with that boy.”
Which was exactly what I was afraid of. “Do you want me to get a restraining order?” Brian asked.
“You have much more faith in the law than I do. Those things never stop bad things from happening.” I tilted my head towards the gator. “You might just as well go out there and wave a piece of paper at that big boy. He’ll eat you and the paper.”
Brian nodded. “It’s true. They only seem to help after the fact.”
“Cal will take care of Ryan. I just have to stay out of his line offire until he loses interest.” But I’d rather deal with ten drunks than one guy on meth. “If it’s okay with you, I’ll stay in your guest room and away from the Sunset for a couple of days.”
“Stay as long as you like,” Brian said. “I’m happy to have you.” The sound of yapping drew our attention. A small Jack Russellterrier dashed out from the house next door. Darting forward and then stopping to bark, the dog ran to the edge of the pond, startling a heron into the air.
The gator rose from its belly to its legs. “Dinner,” Brian said.
A middle-aged woman ran across the lawn calling, “Benjy, Benjy.” We were all on our feet screaming, “Go back.”
The woman hesitated. “Benjy, come here.”
She ran forward and scooped the little dog up in her arms. Then she stood there holding the dog and staring at the gator. Even the dog stopped yapping and waited for the attack.
The gator paused and then turned and slid into the water. We all took deep breaths and began talking at once.
“Stupid woman,” Brian said and headed for the door. “I’m going over to talk to her.”
Tully slumped into a chair.
“I have to go make some calls,” I said, the first call being to Marley to make sure she didn’t go near the beach house. Even though the dental office was closed for the week, and she was out at the ranch and wasn’t supposed to come into Jacaranda, I didn’t want her to pop into town for lunch and accidently bump into either of the Vachess brothers.
After I called Marley, I ordered Chinese and we ate in the lanai. The weather was changing. There was a feeling of tension in thecharged atmosphere; a sense of waiting descended as the languid feeling of tropical heat was replaced by cooler air. Over the pond a flash of lightning lit up the sky and a cool breeze blew through the screens.
I stood up and gathered the plates. “The weather is going to break at last.” The first big drops of rain plopped on the brick path outside the lanai. “Let’s take in the cushions before it happens.”
During the night, thunderstorms shook the house and woke me from vivid nightmares. I got up and roamed the house in bare feet, thinking of things I had no answers to.
I stood at the living-room window and stared out into the violent night. More than one kind of evil was waiting in the dark for me.
CHAPTER 39
Aunt Kay called early the next morning. Maybe the change in the weather had energized her, or maybe it was the fear of what was yet to come for her, but she was eager to get started.
“We’ll stay well away from the Vachess brothers, but we need to talk to the people who Holly worked with. That will be safe, won’t it?”
“My truck is at the Sunset. I’m not going back there to pick it up so I have nothing to drive.”
“It’s all right, I have. My PT Cruiser is in the garage. I haven’t been able to drive it since my troubles began.”
“I’m not going near your place.”
“Fine, but there’s been no sign of anyone watching my house. My neighbor uses my vehicle now and then, when they need an extra car, and in return she takes me for groceries. I’ll see if she’ll drive me to that big Walmart Plaza on Forty-one. You can meet me there.”
Brian and I had to drive around the enormous lot a couple of times before we found Aunt Kay.
“You’re kidding, right?” I considered her ride. “It’s purple.”
“No it isn’t. It’s burgundy.”
“Burgundy and ugly, but a great disguise. Ryan will never look for me inside a great big plum and with any luck, if our paths do cross, he’ll think it’s a hallucination.”
“Such a precious little princess.” Aunt Kay handed me the keys and a piece of paper. “That’s the address of the place where Holly worked before the baby was born.”
I peered in the window to make sure that there was a steering wheel, gearshift and all the other things a car normally has and not just a big pit, while the passenger door slammed behind Aunt Kay.
The Southgate Day Spa was in a small plaza on Tamiami Trail, standing all on its own away from the other stores as if to show it was a class beyond. The large windows were covered in gauzy curtains and the glass door was etched with a tropical design of palm branches so you couldn’t see inside. The door opened into a small waiting area where a perfectly made-up receptionist talked quietly on a phone. Behind her the long line of manicurists, in identical white smocks, looked up expectantly as we came in. Nail grinders and buffers whirred and the smell of polish filled the air. The receptionist smiled and pointed to the gilt chairs lined up in front of the windows.
Aunt Kay plopped down. Six inches of her anatomy overflowed the chair on either side, but she planted her bag on her lap and sat there like this was the kind of place she came to every day.
Beside her, I picked up a brochure off a glass table. Rejuvenation treatments, massages, waxing and airbrush tanning, plus facials, makeup and nails, were all offered by the salon.
“Let’s get a bikini wax,” I whispered and pointed to a picture in the brochure I’d picked up off the table.
Aunt Kay didn’t respond.
I nudged her. “There’s something called a body polish. Funny, I never felt the need to polish my body, but there it is, one more way for me to fall short of someone else’s expectations. ’Course, with your full figure, they’ll have to charge you double, more area that needs polishing.”
She huffed at me and stared straight ahead, so I took it that she wasn’t interested in self-improvement and put the brochure back.
The receptionist was sweet and wanted to be helpful but she’d only been there since Christmas, so she went to find someone who might have known Holly. That person was Kerry, no last name, just Kerry. She was the manager and looked almost perfect, apart from the frown.
Aunt Kay told her about Holly’s death and asked who Holly’s friends were at the spa.
Kerry said, “We don’t encourage staff to get friendly. It leads to cliques and factions and then there are problems in the workplace. It just doesn’t work out.”
Aunt Kay wouldn’t let it go, asking more questions but getting no more information.
It wasn’t that Kerry meant to be unhelpful, it was just that she had noticed very little that was personal about Holly, barely remembered her beyond her work record. Kerry wasn’t interested in anything unless it added to the bottom line.
“Staff come and go pretty quickly here. Mind you, Holly stayed longer than the majority. I was sorry to let her go.”<
br />
“Why did you fire her?” I asked.
Kerry jerked back. “I’m not sure . . . I don’t want any trouble.”
“We aren’t here to stir up trouble for you, dear,” Aunt Kay said. Kerry worried her lip. “The wife of a famous producer comes inhere. Holly went on and on about auditioning for him. The man’s wife asked not to have Holly do her nails again. Then Holly got her number from the receptionist and called him at home. We can’t have manicurists that do things like that. Besides, she was eight months pregnant.” As soon as the words were out of Kerry’s mouth, she screwed her lips shut into a hard knot.
I asked, “Did Holly come back with her baby?”
“God no. Why would she do that?”
“You’re right,” I said. “It would have been foolish.”
My cell rang when we got back to the car.
The caller said, “It’s Dan.”
“What’s up?” He didn’t speak. “What is it, Dan?”
“It’s . . . Holly.”
“What?
“I worked overtime this morning. Hung about and checked in with the lead detective, just casual, like I was interested because I found her. I asked about the autopsy.”
I could hear Dan crying. “What did the autopsy show?” It took a while for him to answer. “Holly was HIV-positive.”
“Sweet Jesus. Are you sure?”
“Don’t be stupid,” he yelled. I swallowed and said, “What about you?”
“I’m leaving now to get tested. There’s a new quick test they can do. They can tell in under an hour if the antibodies are there.”
“I’m sorry.” What else was there to say? “Dan, did the autopsy say she committed suicide?”
“She had enough pills in her system to kill her twice.” His voice was harsh and low with emotion. “She was never going to wake up.”
“What kind of drugs?”
“Oxycodone.”
“Why that drug?”
“It’s what every suicide I’ve ever been called out for uses.” It sounded like he was struggling to breathe. “I don’t care about Holly.”
5 Highball Exit Page 16