Beautiful Girls

by Gary S. Griffin

  We stood at the edge of the cliff. The chasm dropped about forty feet.

  Harmony said, “I am surprised there is any water at all in the stream. I guess the rain a few days ago created the flow.”

  “Right, I know what you mean, I’ve been to Yosemite in the autumn and the waterfalls are very small then.”

  We slowly hiked and bouldered down to the bottom of the falls. A wonderful sight waited for us. At the bottom, the falls pour into a natural pool of clear water that reflected the mid-afternoon sunlight. We were alone in that beautiful, secluded spot. The area around the pool was filled with small pebbles.

  “OK, so, now where’s the clue, Harmony?”

  “That is a good question. My guess is that we need to get closer to the waterfall. We should look on all flat surfaces from top to bottom.”

  “All right, that area to the right seems the best way to get close.”

  I was looking at the falls and the pond in front of it. To the right was a walkable area under the cliff on that side. We slowly made our way around the pond and scrambled on to the ground next to the cliff.

  We were twenty feet from the falls and could go no further. We both spent the next minute or two studying the area for any sign of an envelope or disk. We had no luck.

  I pulled out the clue and read it again. It said the clue would be high and dry at the hidden waterfall of First Creek.

  “Harmony, let’s go back to the top. I think that phrase high and dry means it could be at the top in a sunny spot.”

  “I think you are right. Still, I am interested in that spot over there.”

  She was pointing to a ledge, low on the left wall, about three feet above the water line.

  “See the shiny reflection, Stevie. What is that?”

  “I’m not sure. It could be a disk.”

  “Let me check it out.”

  “Harmony, how are you going to get there?”

  “I will walk over. This pool is only two or three feet deep.”

  “You’ll get your jeans soaked.”

  “I will take them off. Promise you won’t tell anyone that you saw me this way, especially Edie. She will be unhappy with me.”

  “Oh, sure, I promise, but I don’t know...”

  “Thank you.”

  Before I could say another word, Harmony had removed her boots and was unzipping her jeans. She handed her clothes to me and began wadding into the pool.

  “The water is cold, Stevie. Please get my towel ready.”

  “I will.”

  It was impossible not to look at beautiful Harmony walking towards the falls. Like her sister, she wore thong panties. Hers were baby blue. The water went up to the top of her legs. Both her very long hair and her small t-shirt ended at her waist, leaving her pretty, firm bottom uncovered.

  Harmony moved steadily towards the ledge. She walked in an arc away from the falls to avoid getting the top half of her body wet.

  “I am surprised, Stevie, the bottom of the pond is not covered in pebbles. It is smooth and muddy.”

  After a minute of the careful stepping she reached the cliff wall. She reached up and felt something. She grabbed it and moved it into view. My hopes rose only to fall to earth again. She turned her hand to show me; it was only litter, a food wrapper.

  She said, “Oh that is frustrating. I thought I had found it.”

  “Good try, anyway, Harmony. Be careful coming back.”

  She made her way back across the pond. She aimed more to her right away from the falls, towards a flat, dry rock. I walked that way and gave her the towel.

  She sat and dried herself. I laid her clothes next to her and turned so she could dry and dress in private.

  I said, “I think we’re in the right place. We’ll just need to be patient.”

  “I agree, Stevie.”

  “Let’s take it slow going up the hill. It looks like there’s a number of flat rock spots near the top. We will need to be careful as we need to get pretty close.”

  “That sounds fine. I’m ready, Stevie.”

  Harmony had slipped back into her tight jeans and cowboy boots.

  I said, “Are your feet OK walking in those boots?”

  “Yes, they are. These boots are broken in nicely. My feet are used to standing long hours at work in high heels. Thank you for your concern.”

  “You’re welcome.”

  I smiled again at Harmony’s manner of speaking. I found it adorable and didn’t want her to change her affectation. I didn’t think she ever would.

  We made our way up the waterfall. We took the opposite side from the way we came down. At the top we inched closer to the cliff and looked around at all the flat surfaces. Harmony even crawled on her hands and feet to get as close as she could without falling.

  It was then, during her extra effort, that she spotted the real clue. It was another clear disk. It was sitting in a sunny place on a flat brown ledge. A small red and white striped rock had been placed on top of the disk to keep it from moving.

  Harmony grabbed it, crawled backwards and handed it to me.

  “Now, let’s take our break, Stevie.”

  “Yes, let’s.”

  Ten minutes later, after we drank our water and ate our energy bars, Harmony said, “Stevie, shall we read the clue?”

  “Sure, let’s.”

  I was getting to be a pro at opening these plastic disks. I carefully separated the two halves. The verses from 1 Samuel read:

  As she was riding her donkey into a mountain ravine, she saw David and his men coming toward her. David had just been saying, “A lot of good it did to help this fellow. We protected his flocks in the wilderness, and nothing he owned was lost or stolen. But he has repaid me evil for good. May God strike me and kill me if even one man of his household is still alive tomorrow morning!”

  The note said:

  Dear David,

  You have found the oasis in the desert. We enjoyed our visit here this morning. We hope you did too.

  Now head to the library at your helper’s place of higher learning and seek your next clue in the books about your home town.

  Nabal

  “Oh, how does he know that I attend UNLV?”

  “I have no idea, Harmony, and I don’t want to think about that. I got a little freaked out when I read the words ‘we’ in his note. It’s hard to believe that Rob and Mel were both here this morning.”

  “I agree. It is troubling.”

  “So, UNLV is in Vegas?”

  “Well, it is actually in a town called Paradise just north of The Strip. It should take us about forty minutes to get there.”

  “And, the college has a library?”

  “Yes, it does; Lied Library. What does he mean when he writes to look for books about your home town?”

  “The only thing that comes to mind is history or travel books about Wilmington, Delaware. But, he could be thinking of Philadelphia, too, since that’s where I work. He might not know I grew up in Delaware.”

  “That is true. OK, let’s carry on to my university.”

  We loaded up our day packs and started the mile walk back to the Mustang. Harmony was good company and a good sport. Like her sister, she didn’t complain about the runaround we were getting from Rob. In the midst of this crazy search she kept me focused.

  The car was where we left it. I almost suspected that Rob would have disabled it or would have confronted us somewhere out here in the desert. We saw only three other people the whole time we were at First Creek. This would have been a good opportunity for an evil deed.

  I put those thoughts out of my mind before they made it to my lips. Then, I called Lomita and told him of our desert mountain trip. He hadn’t heard from the local police, but he’d pass on the news about our UNLV visit. He asked me to call again when we had anything to report.

  We pulled out of the lot and followed Charleston Boulevard for fifteen miles back to The Strip. We were quiet with our thoughts for a few minutes. Then, feeling the break
our building tension, so we talked about our common interests.

  The topics ranged from baseball (she was a Diamondbacks fan and had been lucky to go to a World Series game in 2001), to philosophy (she was Christian like me yet studied other beliefs for their insights on life), to our favorite books and authors (we shared an interest in mysteries), to my investigations (she was especially interested to learn more about my times with Edie) and places I’ve seen (she yearned to see lots of the east coast). We shared our love of history and those major events that changed the course of the future. She had the true thirst for information and had the perspective on life of a liberal arts major. I could see the budding intellectual inside her. Yet, she was approachable and humble as she realized how much she didn’t know.

  Once we got back near Vegas, Harmony guided me north to UNLV, in Paradise, Nevada.

  UNLV

  We were starving. We ate a quick lunch at a Thai restaurant near the campus. It was a favorite of Harmony’s and the food was fantastic.

  Somehow my writing came up during lunch. Of all our conversations, my books surprised and interested Harmony the most. She had no idea I had written about my most interesting adventures. I had to promise to let her read them once they were finished. She thought their titles were provocative; Modern Girls and Sexy Girls. I told her the titles were not made up; they were important parts of the stories.

  We also talked about our futures.

  “Where will you and Edie call home?”

  “I’m not sure, Harmony. That’s one of our biggest challenges.”

  “How so?”

  “Our plan to adopt Tawny changes things. Still, the east coast is my home. I own a house in northern Delaware. Edie and I own a vacation cottage at the Delaware beaches and I’m the managing partner of an investigative firm in Philadelphia. Plus, Edie owns her vacation home in the mountains outside Tucson. She also has the legal right to live in the pool house at the Gabriel estate in Beverly Hills for another nine years. And, she’s an actress so her jobs can take her all over.”

  “I can see there is a lot to think about.”

  “There sure is. Also, Edie’s four months pregnant.”

  “She is?” That surprised her.

  “Yes.”

  “Congratulations! I think you will be a great father.”

  “Thank you. But, I didn’t mean to say that…I mean we haven’t made it public yet...so much has happened. I’m sorry.”

  “Don’t be. I am glad you shared that, even if you did not want to.”

  I stopped talking. I folded my hands and closed my eyes for a moment. Harmony reached across the table and put her hands on top of mine.

  She whispered, “You are not alone in this. I will help Edie, Tawny and you. It is the least I can do. Especially, once you rescue Mel.”

  I shuddered at her confidence in me. Confidence I didn’t feel.

  “I know you will.”

  I quietly said, “Thanks.”

  “You are welcome. I want to be your friend.”

  “Now, that’s easy. We’re already friends, Harmony.”

  “I am glad we are.”

  I looked at my watch. It was 4:45.

  I said, “So, six days ago I would never have believed I’d be sitting here on the UNLV campus talking to a beautiful twin named Harmony Pima, my newest friend. Instead, I thought I’d be a married man today after a big wedding at a Beverly Hills mansion.”

  “You will marry Edie McCall very soon.”

  She continued to hold my hands.

  “That’s true.”

  I was enchanted with Harmony. But, I was in love with someone else. My heart was taken. I said, “We should go soon.”

  “Promise you will keep in touch with us after this is over.”

  I looked at her and smiled. My fiancée had said nearly the same thing to me nine years earlier.

  I said, “I know I will.”

  After lunch, we walked across the UNLV campus to the library. On the way, Harmony pointed out her favorite places to study and read.

  Lied Library is a rounded, five-story, modern building with a curved roof and a glass wall of windows on the east facing wall. It typified Las Vegas; it was new, hip, brightly lit and garishly attractive. We found the historical books section on the third floor. We found three books on Philadelphia and the clue envelope was in the second one we paged through.

  I said, “This search was the easiest yet.”

  “I agree. I wonder why, Stevie?”

  “Well, Rob wants us to find them. Maybe he thought some of the early ones were too hard to find. He could also be getting impatient.”

  “Perhaps, or perhaps he just likes playing with us.”

  “I’m sure that’s part of it. Whether it takes a long time or not to find the clues, he sure has us traveling all around Las Vegas.”

  Harmony asked, “When will it end?”

  “I hope soon, but who knows? There’ still a fair amount of that Bible chapter left.”

  “That is true. I read it this morning. It is an interesting story of vengeance and intervention, is it not?”

  “Yes, it is.”

  “Stevie, let’s go outside and read the clue.”

  ***

  We sat on a bench outside Lied Library. It was a warm afternoon, but the heat felt good as the air conditioning inside the library had chilled us, especially Harmony. She opened the letter. The next verses of scripture were Abigail’s appeal to David.

  When Abigail saw David, she quickly got off her donkey and bowed low before him. She fell at his feet and said, “I accept all blame in this matter, my lord. Please listen to what I have to say. I know Nabal is a wicked and ill-tempered man; please don’t pay any attention to him. He is a fool, just as his name suggests. But I never even saw the young men you sent.

  “Now, my lord, as surely as the Lord lives and you yourself live, since the Lord has kept you from murdering and taking vengeance into your own hands, let all your enemies and those who try to harm you be as cursed as Nabal is. And here is a present that I, your servant, have brought to you and your young men. Please forgive me if I have offended you in any way. The Lord will surely reward you with a lasting dynasty, for you are fighting the Lord’s battles. And you have not done wrong throughout your entire life.

  “Even when you are chased by those who seek to kill you, your life is safe in the care of the Lord your God, secure in his treasure pouch! But the lives of your enemies will disappear like stones shot from a sling! When the Lord has done all he promised and has made you leader of Israel, don’t let this be a blemish on your record. Then your conscience won’t have to bear the staggering burden of needless bloodshed and vengeance. And when the Lord has done these great things for you, please remember me, your servant!”

  Harmony said, “That is a powerful part of the story!”

  “It is.” I said, and read the clue:

  Dear David,

  I hope you liked the glimpses of your home inside the book. Will you see them again?

  Now, you two are off to Paris to see the view from the top of the landmark that made it famous.

  Nabal

  “I do not like that statement about seeing your home again.”

  I said, “Me either.”

  “He must mean the Paris hotel and the replica of the Eiffel Tower out front.”

  “Agreed. OK, on with our journey, Harmony.”

  Eiffel Tower

  I started the Mustang at 5:20 PM. We drove back to The Strip and parked in the garage of the Paris Las Vegas Casino. This hotel casino is directly across the street from The Bellagio where Harmony works.

  Harmony led the way through the Paris hotel lobby, out the front doors, to the Eiffel Tower. The hotel is amazing, with its cobblestoned sidewalks and the facades of French neighborhoods. She explained that the Tower, as well as the nearby Arc de Triomphe, is a half-scale replica of the Paris original.

  Even though it is miniaturized, the Tower stands nearly fifty stor
ies high, with a restaurant at the eleventh floor and an observation deck near the top. Standing at the base and looking up the Tower seemed to climb to the sky. I could only imagine the view at night when the city was lit up.

  “Wow, this is pretty amazing, isn’t it?”

  Harmony replied, “Yes.”

  “I think we should go to the top, Harmony. My guess is Rob hid the next clue up there somewhere.”

  She looked concerned. She quietly said, “I have never been up there before.”

  “Really?”

  “Yes, it is true.”

  “Why not?”

  “I must admit. I am scared of heights. Especially, open-aired venues like this.”

  “Do you want to stay down here?”

  “No. I want to be with you. Although, I may need to hold onto you as I will have my eyes closed most of the time.”

  “OK, that’s fine.”

  We paid our fees and entered the large glass-walled elevator. I found a place near the back wall. Harmony stood close to me. There were about fifteen other people taking the ride with us.

  “Hold me, Stevie.”

  I put my arms around her. She moved her hair in front of her face and buried her head in my chest. She never looked at the incredible view as we rode up. I noticed she was shivering and praying.

  The elevator stopped at the restaurant and a few couples got off. This first stop took about a minute before we lifted off again into the sky. The view became spectacular. The entire Strip was at our feet. The desert and mountains were totally in view. I could see out west to Red Rock and north to UNLV.

  It was just before six o’clock and we were only a minute or two before sunset. What a view! We couldn’t have planned this better.

  I whispered to Harmony to open her eyes. She shook her head from side to side. I told her the view was amazing. She held me tighter.