The vision of the burned out and half destroyed apartment building wouldn’t go away as she pondered with horror about what had really happened there. Ginger and Monica, in the back apartment, were having a party Friday night she remembered. She had slipped a note under their door when she left Friday morning apologizing for not being there and telling them to feel free to use the spare key they kept for her apartment to help themselves to the bag of ice she had in her freezer. She prayed they weren’t part of the body count.
And she thought about the strange guy who lived across the hall. He was very shy. He never spoke and she didn’t even know what he did for a living. What had happened to him?
The other tenants in the building all nodded or smiled if she passed them in the stairwell, but she didn’t know any of them well. Everyone on her floor was fairly young; they had to be to handle the climb of three flights of stairs every time they came home.
The paper said six died. That thought was so horrible she forced herself to think about something else. She settled in on the memories of that time when she was eleven and her father took her to visit his parents. They were wonderful people and she loved how they made her feel as if she was an important part of the family even if she didn’t visit often. Those pleasant memories eventually relaxed her enough to fall asleep.
When the plane bounced hard on the runway she woke up, grateful the trip was finally over. She hadn’t considered her pregnant condition when she selected a window seat, so she could sleep. So she had to struggle out to the aisle three times during the flight in order to visit the restroom, and still she had the need to go again. As soon as she escaped from the plane she headed for the nearest ladies’ room and when she came out she followed the signs to baggage. It was a long walk. This was a very big terminal. And along the route she picked up more and more traffic as along the way other planes pulled up to gates to disgorge their passengers. She read the cities of origin posted on the gates and realized that all the east coast planes leaving at the end of the day arrived in Los Angeles about the same time.
She hurried along in the stream of people until they all converged near the escalators which would take them down to the baggage area. A large clog developed as people slowed to step on the escalator. Someone bumped Karen, knocking her into another lady. A man wearing a lightweight tan jacket caught her, steadying her enough so she avoided falling. Then when she regained her balance, he hurried on past her with a brief nod acknowledging her thanks. Karen got on the crowded escalator, but at the bottom she broke free of the crowd by veering to the right, away from the baggage area. Pulling her wheelie bag Karen went directly to the street and located the area designated for the buses to pick up hotel passengers.
A glance at her watch told her it was now after eight and she started feeling anxious about finding Claire. What if she had been delayed? How would they recognize each other?
As she waited in the crowd on the curb she felt a prickling sensation, as if someone was watching her. She glanced around discretely, but she didn’t see anyone looking at her. However she did notice a man, who looked familiar. She thought he might have been the one who helped steady her in the crowd at the escalator.
Karen remembered Claire’s admonition to be alert. She didn’t like seeing that man again. With a crowd this big, she wondered how likely it was she would see the same person more than once.
The crowd shifted anxiously as three buses approached. A red bus, marked Marriott, a yellow bus, the name wasn’t clear and, at the end, a blue bus, marked Crown Plaza. The crowd all swarmed for position on the curb where they anticipated each of the buses would stop.
Karen mingled with the people in front of the red bus and when the doors opened everyone pushed to get in, including the man in the lightweight tan jacket. People moved to the back and when the last person boarded, Karen hesitated, shook her head and stepped back on the curb just as the doors closed. She watched the bus head out of the airport toward the freeway. As it passed her, she saw the man in the tan jacket struggle to reach the door, then realizing he couldn’t get off, he glared out the back window at her. That was disturbing. But, she told herself she was really acting paranoid now. She was in California, and there was no way that man could have followed her all the way from New York City.
The yellow bus was now loading and Karen pretended like she was in line, but when it closed its doors and drove off, she was still there waiting for the blue bus. By the time the blue bus loaded and headed for the Crown Plaza the red bus and the yellow bus had already disappeared.
At the Crown Plaza Karen drifted along with the other passengers heading for check-in. While they lined up for service she looked around her. After a few minutes she casually wandered away from the line and explored the lobby, noting signs pointing out the restrooms, the elevators. She went down the hall leading to the bar and restaurants, and saw where the back entrance was located. When she walked back to the lobby she found an empty chair nestled near some potted plants where she could see the front door, but be slightly sheltered from view. She sat down and perused the other people hanging around, looking for someone who was looking for her. She was just relaxing, starting to feel safe when she noticed another airport bus pulling up to the door. She abruptly stood up, and with her heart pounding at an alarming rate she sidled away from her corner. She turned and rapidly headed down the hall toward the restrooms. She had no more than cleared the lobby when the automatic door whooshed open and the shuttle bus started off-loading.
CHAPTER 8
Claire sat close enough to a group of chattering ladies to be mistaken as a part of their group. Meanwhile, she watched the busy lobby and the people coming and going. When the young woman near the stand of potted plants left her seat so abruptly and disappeared down the hall she wondered if she was Karen. When she came in so obviously pregnant Claire had assumed she was not Karen, but now she reconsidered. She was the right age, and her pale face and eyes with dark circles could be a young woman in trouble. And if Karen was pregnant, she was definitely in trouble, because Claire knew Karen wasn’t married.
The first man from the airport shuttle burst through the door with an intense expression on his face. He wore a lightweight, tan jacket, carried no luggage, and he made a beeline for the check-in desk, determined to be first. She watched him a moment as he talked to the clerk with his hands, and gestured to a picture he held. The other passengers following him off the shuttle spread out in front of the other clerks and the ones trailing now lined up for their turn.
Claire got up and casually passed closely behind the man in the tan jacket as he spoke to the clerk at the desk. The man was insisting the clerk check their records for someone and when Claire got closer she noticed the discrete little wire attached to a devise in his right ear.
She didn’t like the looks of that. He looked too old to be connected to an iPod as so many of the younger generation seemed to be these days. And the cord running to his ear seemed more subtle than an iPod. It looked more like a hearing aid. Or a tracking devise. She picked up her pace and headed down the hall to the ladies’ room which she assumed was where the pregnant woman went.
“Karen? Karen, are you in here?” she called out softly to the row of stalls.
“Claire? I’m here.” She emerged from the last stall, a shaky smile on her face.
“Are you okay? Did you have any problems?” Claire put her arms around the girl to give her a hug, feeling the quivers going through Karen’s body. “I saw you leave the lobby, but I wasn’t sure it was you until you rushed in here. Why did you leave?”
“That shuttle that arrived had a man on it who scared me. I saw him before at the airport when he helped me regain my balance after I collided with another woman. Then he was waiting in the crowd for the hotel bus. He made me nervous so I just pretended to get on a bus, but at the last minute I didn’t. But he was already on the bus and although he tried to get off, he was still on it when it left the airport. That bus was going to a diffe
rent hotel. So how did he show up here?
“That really spooked me.” She shivered.
“Was it a guy in a lightweight tan jacket?” Claire asked.
Karen nodded.
“Yes, I saw him. He was wearing an earpiece.”
Karen’s eyes widened with confusion.
“You know, a wire in his ear? Listen, Karen, how close did he get to you? Could he have planted something on you? Like a bug?”
Now Karen looked alarmed. “I don’t know.” She felt in the pocket of her jacket, and then pulled out a crumpled Kleenex, a wrapped hard candy, two pennies and a little silver disk. All of which she put on the sink counter.
“There. That’s it. No wonder he found you so soon. You were carrying this in your pocket, so he only had to follow its signal to find where you went. I’m sure he has an accomplice in a car outside with a tracking devise. He follows the movement of the disk and transmits the directions to the guy in the tan jacket through the microphone in his ear.”
They looked at each other a moment, then Claire murmured darkly, “Well maybe we can just distract him. You wait here. I’ll be back in a moment. Best you wait in one of the stalls, okay?” She picked up the little silver disk and marched out of the restroom.
As Claire emerged from the restroom and into the hall, the man they had just been discussing approached her.
“Excuse me, I’ve lost my friend and I was wondering if you saw her in the restroom?” He smiled, with a sheepish look as he held out a picture of Karen.
Claire looked at the picture and then at him as she shook her head regretfully. “I’m sorry; there was no one but me in that ladies’ room. Did you check the restaurant?” She pointed down the hall.
He smiled his thanks and headed that way, while Claire walked back to the lobby looking around her. The ladies she had been sitting near were now on their feet, picking up their belongings, laughing and chatting, as they followed a person to the door. Claire walked near them and then stumbled into the one carrying a tote bag over her shoulder.
“Oh, I’m so sorry. Did I hurt you?”
The woman shook her head barely noticing Claire and certainly she didn’t notice Claire had dropped the little silver disk into her gaping tote bag. Claire followed them outside and watched them stow their luggage, scramble into a large white van, which then headed out of the drive and turned right on the surface street.
Claire stood there a few minutes more, so she saw the man in the tan jacket come barreling through the revolving door, looked right and left, and then hurry across the drive and get into a dark SUV idling there. After that vehicle took off, Claire hurried back into the hotel.
She went into the restroom to find it wasn’t occupied. She felt her heart lurch. “Karen? Karen, are you here?”
She sagged with relief when Karen’s feet appeared under the door after she jumped down from where she had been crouching on the toilet seat. The handicapped stall door opened and Claire saw she had put her wheelie bag and purse on the baby change table so they couldn’t be seen under the door.
“Very clever.” She nodded with approval. “Did he come in here?”
“No, but I wasn’t taking any chances.”
“Well, I saw him take off in a dark SUV following the little disk I slipped in some lady’s tote bag. Come on, let’s get out of here before he realizes his mistake and comes back for another look.”
As they exited the restroom, Claire turned away from the lobby, toward the back exit, telling Karen, “My car is out here.”
Claire watched Karen climb into her old SUV and said, “Karen, can you crouch down on the floor for a while? I think it would be the safest thing to do.” Then she went around to the other side, put the wheelie bag in the back and got into the driver’s seat.
Claire belted up and headed out of the parking lot and was soon on the Four-Oh-Five Freeway, heading north. Karen managed to curl up on the floor under the glove compartment even though she looked pretty uncomfortable in the tight space.
“Well, I guess we now know that your fears are real, not just some paranoid musings. I don’t know who is looking for you or why, but I’d say it’s a pretty professional group. Earphones? Bugs? Good lord, girl, what kind of mess have you gotten yourself into?”
Karen’s expression lit intermittently by passing street lights was full of misery. “I don’t know. And I don’t know how they found me here. Thank God you were waiting for me, Claire. If you weren’t here to pick me up, they would have me, wouldn’t they?”
“A better question is, how did they track you? You didn’t see that guy on the plane with you, did you? What about in New York? Could someone have slipped that bug on you then?”
Karen shook her head. “I didn’t see him in New York.”
Claire suddenly realized how uncomfortable Karen must be, and said, “You can climb up in the seat now. I think we’re far enough away so we won’t risk running into Tan Jacket now.”
Claire moved into the outside lane and slowed the SUV a little while Karen maneuvered herself into the seat. Karen sighed, stretched her legs out and then fastened the seat belt so the warning light on the dashboard went out.
“That was a little tight with my stomach. The baby was kicking a lot. She was probably annoyed at being squeezed.”
“Well, speaking of the baby, that was a surprise. In fact, I didn’t identify you when you arrived because of your stomach.”
Karen nodded, her embarrassment clear even in the dim light. “Yeah, well, I suppose I should have mentioned it. Then, for sure you would have recognized me right away. But frankly, I have a hard time remembering I’m a pregnant lady, and I was stressed when I was talking to you, so I guess that’s why I just forgot to mention it.”
Claire nodded. “Well, your father has been worried about you. Last time he talked to you he thought something was wrong. That’s why he was determined to go visit you. But I guarantee he had no clue as to what the problem was.”
They were both silent for a while, Claire concentrated on driving as they moved through the valley and then merged on to Interstate Five. As they headed up the mountains past the big amusement park she asked, “Are you hungry? Do you need to stop?”
Karen shook her head. “Not now, probably later. I seem to have to visit lots of restrooms these days.”
Then she turned her head and looked at Claire. “I just don’t understand how they found me.”
“You didn’t use your credit card, did you?”
When Karen shook her head, Claire asked, “What about a bank card, did you go to an ATM?”
Karen’s eyes widened while she shook her head. “I didn’t use an ATM, but I did go to the bank before I called you. I needed money, you see. I didn’t have much with me and I had lots in my account. I was afraid if they thought I was dead they’d freeze the account and then I couldn’t get it. And I needed it.” She looked at Claire. “I shouldn’t have done that, should I? Somehow they knew about my withdrawal. That’s how they knew I was alive and planning to leave, wasn’t it?”
She wailed, “Oh, how stupid of me. You know the woman at the bank didn’t want to give me cash, they wanted to give me a cashier’s check, but no, I insisted. I was afraid they could track me when I cashed the check and I didn’t want to take that chance. I insisted on taking the money in cash.”
“You were right. They would have been able to see where it was cashed.” Claire nodded. “They must have had some flag notice on your account, so they saw the withdrawal. They didn’t know where you were going, but because they were looking, they saw your name appear on the manifest on a flight to Los Angeles.”
She risked a glance at Karen and said optimistically, “Well, Los Angeles is almost five hundred miles from where we’re going and there are oodles of people in every direction between here and there. They’ll have a job of it, tracking you to Bayside. And now we’ve been warned that they have access to bank records and airline passenger lists, so we just have to be very careful not
to use your name on anything official. Then they won’t be able to locate you.”
The traffic was thinning out, and the businesses were appearing further apart. Claire’s old SUV labored on, higher into the mountains, before heading down the Grapevine into the great long valley which stretched through the interior part of the state. Karen let her seat back and closed her eyes. The droning of the motor, the late hour, the stress she had been under was affecting her. Her eyes closed and she was soon asleep, while Claire’s mind was churning with all she had learned.
CHAPTER 9
Traffic Alert:
A deadly multiple vehicle accident has closed the Four-Oh-Five Freeway, southbound at the juncture of the Long Beach Freeway until further notice. Traffic is advised to take alternate routes.
A white van swerved in front of a tanker truck, which was entering the Four-Oh-Five from the Long Beach Freeway on ramp causing a collision with multiple fatalities.
Witnesses reported seeing a black SUV sideswipe the van causing it to swerve into the path of the truck. Another car following the truck could not avoid the pileup. The cars following the van somehow managed to avoid the collision.
Witnesses reported the black SUV didn’t slow down and didn’t stop to assist the victims. No one was able to obtain the license number of the SUV which caused the accident.
The freeway was closed to allow life-flight helicopters to land and take the injured to the nearest hospitals. The freeway will be reopened when the vehicles have been removed and the oil has been cleared from the road surface.
Names of the fatalities have been withheld until the next of kin are notified. The highway patrol urges witnesses to contact them with additional details.
CHAPTER 10
It was almost midnight before Claire pulled into the Comfort Inn she had used before when she headed home after packing up at the end of the annual travel conference at the Crown Plaza. She didn’t wake Karen until she had registered them and pulled around to the back entrance.
Claire Gulliver #06 - Carnage Goes Coastal Page 5