Lynn Osterkamp - Cleo Sims 03 - Too Many Secrets

by Lynn Osterkamp

  § § §

  Diana’s massage was so what I needed after hearing about Erik. Her strong muscles and skillful hands wiped away the tension in my body and left me slack and smiling. I didn’t ask her any more questions, just thanked her and went home. When Pablo called that evening, I told him I’d had a massage and was feeling great. Didn’t tell him about Sabrina or Moxie, or anything else that might upset him. I figured Diana would call that codependent, but I called it a sweet and satisfying conversation.

  Chapter 12

  I woke up Sunday morning feeling relaxed and comfortable. No nausea. Got me wondering whether massage is the cure for morning sickness. I didn’t enjoy Diana’s dogmatic negative assessments of people, but her massage was so amazing, I was ready to go back tomorrow for more.

  This morning I was going to Elisa’s house in the foothills for brunch. As I drove up the winding mountain road, I wondered what the Moxie members would think about Elisa’s and my relationship. Even though we’re about the same age—I’m thirty-seven and she’s forty—our relationship isn’t exactly one of equals. She’s been a psychologist way longer than I have, she has tenure at the university, and she has lots of money thanks to her husband Jack’s skill at real estate development.

  If they knew her, the Moxie women would probably remind me that she can be bossy and high-handed, but I’d remind them that she’d lay down her life for me if it came to that—which it almost did last summer. But more than that, we have some chemistry that creates trust at a very deep level. I can let go and be totally myself with her, which isn’t easy for a therapist.

  Elisa met me at the door with a big smile and a glass of ginger ale. “Hi sweetie,” she said, handing me the glass. “This is in case you need to settle your stomach after the drive.”

  “You think of everything, as usual,” I said, taking a sip. I was still feeling good. Smells of wood smoke and coffee drifting in from the living room didn’t even bother me.

  Elisa had a roaring fire going in the living room’s moss rock fireplace and food set out on the coffee table in front of the couch. The room had a cozy ambiance, despite the vaulted ceilings and the wall of soaring windows framing the mountain view that made their house worth the big bucks.

  She took my jacket and motioned me toward the couch. “Sit, girl,” she said. “I put the food out so we can munch. Didn’t want to set a huge plate of food in front of you when you might be feeling nauseous, but I do want to be sure you eat for the baby.” She had made an asparagus quiche and blueberry muffins, and put out a gorgeous fruit plate.

  I sat and leaned back with a huge sigh. “Thanks,” I said. “But I need to talk before I eat. This whole Sabrina situation is getting so complicated. I’m already beginning to feel like I’m in over my head.”

  She sat next to me on the couch and turned toward me smiling. “I’m all ears, girl. Catch me up on what’s been going on.”

  I sighed. “I’ve been meeting with the five women who were up at Indian Peaks with Sabrina. They’re actually a group called Moxie. A single moms’ support group that they named Moxie to emphasize that they’re gutsy adventurous women. I’ve met them all and had long conversations with four of the five. The whole thing is kind of spooky. They don’t know whether she’s dead or alive and they keep changing what they say. Which is especially confusing given that they want to try to reach Sabrina through my Contact project.” I leaned forward to put some fruit on a small glass plate, then bit into a sweet strawberry.

  “Tell me more about them.”

  “Okay, there’s Gayle. She’s a real estate agent and she Bruce’s sister, and she says she is or was Sabrina’s best friend. Then there’s Hana—Asian, a computer whiz, and also a numerologist. She told me all about Sabrina’s destiny number. There’s Lark, a nurse who worked with Sabrina at the hospital—lives up in Nederland, very independent type, says she would have left Moxie a while ago but Sabrina kept talking her into staying. There’s Diana—a physical therapist and a terrific massage therapist, also into boxing. Kind of confrontational and judgmental. Loves pop psych jargon. Told me all about how Sabrina is codependent and an enabler. Then there’s Paige. I’ve only met her briefly. Yoga teacher and a Wiccan high priestess. One of those charismatic voices that can lead you anywhere. She’s the one who set up the wilderness journey. They’re all smart, strong, powerful women, but they’re all over the place about Sabrina’s disappearance. And they seem to think my apparition chamber will give them answers.”

  “Whew! That does sound like one strange group of women, Elisa said, pouring herself a cup of coffee. “I guess they think that if she’s dead they can reach her and find out what happened, but if they don’t reach her, that means she’s alive.”

  “Something like that.”

  “I’m not telling you how to run your business, but you did tell them about how people don’t always reach the dead person they’re trying to contact?” Elisa said sharply.

  “Not yet,” I said wearily. “We can’t really have that conversation right now. They’re too distraught and confused to even think about whether to go right or left. They just want to plunge ahead, hoping for some resolution.” I sipped my ginger ale.

  “So now you’re stuck right along with them? Is that a position you want to be in, girl?” Elisa asked, her voice rising.

  “It’s even worse than that,” I said. “I found out from one of the women that Sabrina was involved with that sociopath, Erik Vaughn—the guy who was friends with your friend Sharon last summer. Remember him?”

  Elisa shrugged. “The name’s familiar, but I can’t put it to a face.” She bit into a muffin.

  “Great face,” I said, “but he was a big-time scam artist and worse. Selling people $500 herb kits they were supposed to grow and sell back to him, but then he disappeared without ever buying them back.” I put a muffin and a slice of quiche on my plate and took a small bit of the quiche, which was delicious.

  “Come on, honey! You can’t be serious! Why would Sabrina get involved with someone like that?”

  “For one thing, he has a hot body and a way of being charming that’s hard to resist. I admit I liked him myself at first. But Pablo met him a couple of times and no way found him charming. I think his police radar picked Erik for a rat from the get-go.”

  Elisa polished off a piece of pineapple, raised her eyebrows and gave me that this-is-so-unbelievable look that I know so well. “So Sabrina fell for Erik’s charms? Really?” she asked.

  “I can only tell you what I was told,” I said, trying not to sound defensive. I knew Elisa’s questions were well intended, but I did feel kind of bombarded. I turned my face down to my plate and ate my muffin.

  “Sure. Sorry if I’m being pushy. It’s just hard to believe she’d be with him is all,” Elisa said. “Anyway, what else do you know?”

  “This is great food, Elisa,” I said. “Anyway, here’s what I know. Apparently Sabrina and Erik had a relationship last spring and summer. He had a nutrition and exercise practice, Vaughn’s Holistic Healing, and he did some work at the hospital where she worked. After she got involved with Erik, she got friends and colleagues to invest in his herb-growing business. Of course they all lost their money when he left town.”

  Elisa frowned. “Did she break up with him or the other way around?”

  “It sounds like she broke up with him. Somehow her Moxie friends were convinced he was a con artist and no good for her. She resisted but finally broke up with him. From my interactions with Erik, I know that wouldn’t have been easy if he didn’t want to end the relationship. He’s very good at getting his way.”

  “So they think he came back after her?” Elisa cocked her head, which I knew meant she was skeptical.

  “At least one of them thinks that. She could be right. Erik has a pattern of marrying women with money. The three women he married died or disappeared under mysterious circumstances, and he ended up with their money. Sabrina had an inheritance from her father. If she did marry him,
it could be the worst choice she ever made.”

  “Do you think he convinced her to go off with him and get married without telling anyone, even Ian? Why would she do that?”

  “The police were looking for Erik because of the herb-growing scam. Also, her friends are all totally against him. And they are some powerful women. She probably wouldn’t have wanted to fight it out with them.”

  By then we were done eating. The sun was shining brightly, which in Colorado’s altitude and dry climate warms winter days into feeling more like fall. We decided to take Maria’s dog, Gustav, on an easy hike up a short trail just down the road from Elisa’s house, and continue our conversation as we hiked.

  The trail was icy in spots and muddy in others, so we climbed slowly, but it felt good to stretch my legs and work off some of the tension I’d been storing up.

  “Okay, honey. You have a theory,” Elisa said as Gustav strained his leash, trying to get her to move faster. “But it’s not a very good one. I just can’t see Sabrina leaving Ian that way. She would have known he’d be worried sick about her.”

  “But he’s not worried sick, is he? From what Maria said, Ian and Brandi think Sabrina is okay and they aren’t worried about her. Maybe she told them that she was planning to go off with Erik, but …Yikes!” My foot hit something hard that made me trip and fall to one knee. It was the skeleton of some small animal, picked clean and left on the side of the path. I shuddered as an image of Sabrina lying under a snow bank flashed through my mind. Suddenly I hoped she had gone off with Erik.

  Elisa grabbed my arm and helped me up, while Gustav sniffed the bones. “Are you okay?” she asked.

  “Fine,” I said, ignoring a slight shiver. “I just got distracted and tripped on those creepy bones. Anyway, maybe Sabrina made Brandi and Ian promise not to tell because she didn’t want her friends to know. Remember Maria said she knows something that’s confidential.”

  “But what about the searchers? Would Sabrina go off like that knowing all those people would be searching for her? Would she let her friends go through the grief of thinking she’s dead? That seems so cold and cruel.”

  I stopped dead in my tracks. I didn’t want to see the truth in Elisa’s points, but I had to face it. “You’re right! I’m just spinning out possibilities without thinking through the details. When you put it that way, I see the conflict. Sabrina’s friends all say she is a kind, caring, helpful person. How could she do something so thoughtless?”

  “Maybe Erik came and kidnapped her,” Elisa said. “He sounds like the kind of guy who could pull that off.”

  “Definitely he is. But that wouldn’t explain Ian and Brandi not being worried. They have to know something.”

  The trail got a little steeper toward the top and we climbed silently for a few minutes, pacing our breathing. At the summit was a bench facing the stunning view below. We sat and took it in. A spectacular mountain view puts my world in perspective and clears my head of the fog of details swirling around inside.

  I had a sudden flash of clarity, followed by intense foreboding. “Even if she is alive, I think she’s in terrible trouble,” I said. “I think someone needs to talk to the police about finding Erik.”

  “And I think we need to find out from Maria what Ian and Brandi know or think they know about where Sabrina is,” Elisa said.

  As we wound our way back down to Elisa’s house, Gustav jumped and pulled on his leash, barking excitedly. “He sees Maria’s car,” Elisa said. “She’s back from rehearsal. Let’s go see if we can impress her with the urgency of Sabrina’s situation so she’ll tell us what she knows.”

  Maria was in the kitchen sitting on one of the high stools at the center island snacking on the remains of the food Elisa had put away before we went for our hike. We joined her. She sat on the floor and grabbed Gustav in a big hug.

  I had mixed feelings about trying to get her to break her confidentiality agreement and tell us what she knew, but my concern for Sabrina won out. I told her why I was worried that Sabrina might be with Erik.

  Maria burst into tears, jumped up and paced around the room, Gustav running frantically behind her. “I promised Ian I wouldn’t tell anyone. If I could, I’d talk to him, tell him what you said about Erik, ask him if I could tell you.” Her voice broke. “But he’s up in Copper Mountain at a meet. I can’t call him now. He’s too busy to talk. Plus I don’t want to upset him while he’s competing. You’ll just have to wait until he gets home.” She continued pacing, her head in her hands.

  “Waiting can be risky,” Elisa said. “Don’t you think he’d want you to tell us? Wouldn’t his main priority be keeping his mother safe?”

  “He thinks she is safe,” Maria said, shaking her head in denial. “But of course he doesn’t know all the stuff you told me. Actually Ian and Brandi like Erik. They said he’s a good athlete and fun to hike with. They were sad when Sabrina broke up with him. Are you sure Erik is as bad as you say?”

  “Absolutely positive,” I said. “The last thing Erik said to me before he disappeared last summer was that someday when I least expect it he’ll show up and make me pay for exposing him as a fraud. He said he’ll never forget me and what I did to him and that he knows how to find me.” I felt a surge of nausea—not pregnancy related.

  “That’s pretty scary.” Maria stopped next to my chair, blew her nose into a tissue and wiped her eyes. Than she sat on the floor and gathered Gustav into her lap. “Okay, Cleo, I’ll tell you what I know.” She paused, took a deep breath and continued. “Brandi told Ian that Erik called right after his mom and her friends went up to the mountains for their celebration, and he said that he had a really special birthday surprise for Sabrina. So Brandi told him where Sabrina was. I guess he said he was going up there to find her, but he told Brandi not to tell anyone except Ian. She’s sure Erik went up and got Sabrina and they went off—like maybe the surprise was a special trip or something.”

  “Has she heard from Sabrina?”

  “I don’t think so.”

  “Isn’t that strange? Wouldn’t she call if she was on a trip so everyone would know she’s okay?”

  “I guess it is a little strange, but Brandi wants to give Sabrina space to work out her relationship with Erik. She’s sure Sabrina will be back soon. That’s all I know. Don’t ask me any more questions.” She jumped up and headed off to her room with Gustav at her heels.

  Chapter 13

  I drove down the mountain from Elisa’s house brooding about the Erik situation. My head throbbed with possibilities jumping over each other to be front and center. Should I confront Brandi to get the details of her phone conversation with Erik? Should I share Maria’s information with the Moxie members? Or could I, given that it was told to me in confidence? Should I try to find Erik on my own? Maybe call his brother in Minneapolis? Or should I go directly to the police? But if Erik knew the police were on to him, there was no telling what he’d do.

  I wanted to make a considered choice of action, rather than jumping in impulsively and making things worse. Part of me longed to discuss it with Pablo—especially since he knew Erik—but my sensible part warned me not to tell him I was involved in another possible murder investigation. I could hear his voice in my head reminding me, “Amateurs shouldn’t get involved in police business. It’s way too dangerous. Yada, yada, yada.” He’d pitch a fit if he knew I was doing it again. I didn’t want to hear it. I already had enough on my plate being pregnant and trying to work out my relationship with him.

  “Yo, Cleo!”

  “Tyler! Good grief!” I swerved sharply when I saw the surfer-dude spirit floating in midair outside my window. “Can’t you see I’m driving? You need to get inside the car before I crash and end up as dead as you are.”

  “Chill, Cleo,” he said as he drifted down through the roof of my car and perched cross-legged on the passenger seat beside me. “You’re not even wet.”

  Easy for him to say. He’s already dead. But I decided to forget about how he a
lmost ran me off the road, and see if I could get some advice. “Tyler, I don’t know what to do about Erik. Can you help me with that?”

  “Heavies are coming in. Don’t hotdog. You’ll get pounded.”

  “So you’re telling me to play it safe?” This was strange. Usually I’m the one worried about risks and Tyler is the one telling me to go for it.

  “Sometimes it’s cool to surf with a buddy.”

  “So I should get some help? Does that mean I should go to the police?”

  “Sometimes the best place to catch a wave is your home swell.”

  I mulled that over as I maneuvered around a sharp curve. Amazingly Tyler didn’t float away while I was thinking. Then I got it. “My home swell? You mean talk to Pablo instead of going to the Boulder police?”

  “Keep your leash attached to your board, Cleo. Don’t get axed.” With that, he floated out the window, surfed up over the trees, and disappeared.

  § § §

  I called Pablo as soon as I got home. I got his voice mail. Even though it was Sunday afternoon, he was in a training class. They don’t take weekends off at these intensives. I left a message. “Hey, sweetie, hope you’re having a good day. I need your advice about something, but it’s a long story—too long for voicemail. I have a meeting this afternoon, but maybe we can talk later? Can you leave a message telling me when is a good time to call tonight? Love ya, bye.”

  § § §

  My afternoon meeting was with Paige Mosier, the last of the Moxie women. Looking back over my notes, I realized that Gayle’s email introducing the women had said that Paige is also Rivka Ravenstar. That meant Paige had organized the personal journey gathering where Sabrina had disappeared. I wondered why none of the women had said anything about that when I talked with them. I decided her Rivka role would be the first topic I would bring up with her.