by B A Trimmer
The noise happened again, but this time it was louder.
“Yup,” I said. “Definitely Lenny.”
We stopped talking. Everyone was listening for more sounds. When it happened again, it sounded kind of like an angry gorilla making whooo-whooo-whooo noises.
“That had better not be what I think it is.” Gina said, sounding a little frustrated.
As a group, the four of us slowly shuffled to Lenny’s office. We got to within about three feet of the door then stopped. Everyone held their breath. All of us were twisting our heads and straining to hear what was going on in the office.
At first, there was nothing but then was the whooo-whooo-whooo noise again, only it was louder and more desperate this time. What followed was a loud aaaahhhhhhhh, aaaaahhhhh, aaaaahhhhhhhh sound. After that, the office was totally quiet for almost a minute.
We looked at each other and Annie let out a giggle. We suddenly heard the noise of furniture moving then of footsteps. We all took two steps back, trying to look like we weren’t eavesdropping.
The door to Lenny’s office opened and Lenny stuck his head out. His face was red and he was breathing hard.
“I hired the new girl,” he gasped. “Sophie, get the paperwork together.”
He disappeared back into the office and the door slammed shut. We all looked at each other, no one saying anything.
“Interesting place you work at,” Annie said to no one in particular.
“Oh, that’s nothing. It’s been a lot worse,” Sophie said.
“Remember the way the Simpson divorce case ended?” Gina asked.
Sophie started laughing. “Oh my God, I almost forgot about that one. It happened about a year before you got here,” she said, looking at me.
“We had been trying to split up the marital assets for about two hours,” Gina said. “We were all in the main conference room, Lenny, opposing council, Sophie, Mr. and Mrs. Simpson, and me. After a while, we were getting nowhere and everyone was just getting pissy with each other. Finally, Mrs. Simpson asked if she could spend a few minutes alone with her husband without the lawyers being present. There was never a history of violence so councils said sure.”
“We were all in the back break room having coffee when we heard a noise up front,” Sophie said. “It kinda sounded like a woman screaming. So, of course, we all ran up to the conference room. When we get there, Mr. Simpson is laid out bare-ass on the conference table, his pants down around his ankles and his legs hanging over the side. Mrs. Simpson is on top, riding him like a cowgirl trying to break a wild horse. She had on a navy-blue skirt and it was bunched up around her waist. I remember she still had her heels on and I was sorta worried they’d scratch the conference table.”
“Now, you have to understand,” Gina said to Annie, now laughing. “That’s the main conference room.” She pointed to the room with a huge table, clearly visible through a floor to ceiling glass wall. “After two or three minutes, Mrs. Simpson looked over and saw us all watching but by then she had gone past the point of caring. We all stood there and took in the show. Nobody knew what to do. I swear it’s like what they say about watching a car crash. We didn’t want to watch but it was like we couldn’t help ourselves.”
“I think it was because of all the moaning and screaming,” Sophie said. “Mrs. Simpson was rocking back and forth, faster and faster. She was really loud and her moans had a weird vibrating sound. It was sort of like watching bad porn.”
“So, after another minute or two, we went back to the break room,” Gina said. “Opposing council was the last to leave. He stood there, watching and sipping his coffee while she moaned and screamed.”
“As far as I know, the Simpsons are still together,” Sophie said. “Go figure.”
Lenny’s door opened. We all turned and watched as a woman walked out. She looked to be in her early twenties and was bone thin. She was wearing a low cut white knit top, no bra, a short see-through Indian cotton paisley skirt, and a pair of nice gold chain sandals. She had limp dishwater-blonde hair hanging down over her face. She had no make-up on except around her eyes, where she had used way too much.
Even as I looked at this train wreck of a girl, the thing that immediately hit me was her perfume. Smelling it quickly made my eyes water and my stomach tighten. It was a cross between burning garbage and stale dog pee. I knew it would have some name like Summer Musk and it would cost about twelve dollars a bottle.
We all stood there looking at each other. Finally, Gina held out her hand and Amber shook it limply.
“Hi Amber, I’m Gina, one of the investigators here. This is Laura and Sophie. They also work here. And, this is Annie. She’s helping us with an assignment.”
Annie smiled, then held up her hand and finger waved to her.
“Great, my coworkers,” Amber said with an uninterested tone to her voice.
“What’s your degree in?” Gina asked.
“I don’t have one. Actually, I dropped out of college a couple of months ago. School was such a hassle and my professors were all idiots. I couldn’t see the point of doing all that homework. It’s not like I don’t have a life, you know?”
“Do you have any legal experience?” Gina asked.
“I’ve gotten a butt load of parking tickets, you know.” She said, laughing like a donkey while she elbowed me in the arm.
“Do you know how to use a computer?” Sophie asked.
“Sure, I have an X-Box. I’m excellent at Skyrim.”
“Know how to use any of the Office software?
“No, but I’ll probably pick it up pretty quick. Look at all the morons who use that stuff, it can’t be too hard, you know?”
She laughed her donkey laugh and elbowed me again. I had a pleasant vision of grabbing her stringy blonde hair and slamming her face against the top of Sophie’s desk. I thought one slam probably wouldn’t be enough. I’d probably need two or three really good face slams to shut her up.
“Did Lenny tell you what your duties would be?” Sophie asked.
“Oh, I know what my duties will be. And, from what happened during our interview, it looks like it’ll take me about thirty seconds, two or three times a week, for me to do my job, you know?
“Umm, there’s an empty cubicle you can use in the back offices,” Sophie said. “If you want to get started. I’ll be glad to show you the computer and filing systems.”
Amber started to laugh her donkey laugh again. I half expected her to start braying and kicking.
“Filing? You’ve gotta be shitting me. I’m Lenny’s new executive personal assistant. All I’m supposed to do is hang around the office and wait for him to call me. When he goes to court, I’ll carry his briefcase. When he travels, I’ll go along and see to his personal needs. I don’t do filing. Sorry, but I have a nail appointment in a half an hour, so I’m outta here. I told Lenny I also need a personal day off tomorrow. He said it was fine with him.”
She turned and walked out the front door. If it hadn’t been for the lingering stench of her perfume, I’d have sworn she’d been a mirage. I looked over at Gina and I saw she was getting angry.
“Where’s my gun?” Gina asked. “I’m gonna shoot Lenny.”
I told Annie to wait while the three of us went into Lenny’s office. He was sitting behind his desk with a dazed and slightly confused look on his face. The nasty odor of Amber’s perfume hung in the air.
“What happened in here?” Gina asked, now sounding a little pissed.
Gina is the only one I know who can talk to Lenny like that. Part of it is she was a Scottsdale police detective and part of it is she thinks Lenny needs a mother.
“I don’t know what happened,” Lenny said in a confused voice. “I met Amber at Martini Ranch last night. She said she was looking for a job so I told her to come over today for an interview. She comes in and next thing I know she’s on her knees working on me. It was like I couldn’t stop her.”
Lenny looked up to see all three of looking at him. He
must have seen the looks on our faces.
“Hey,” he said. “I wanted to stop her but it was like I couldn’t. It’s not my fault. Seriously. It’s been a while.”
“You know you can’t have her working here,” Gina said in a stern motherly tone. “You know it will disrupt things. You know you don’t want the clients to see her. And most of all, you know how much trouble this could bring.”
“Yeah, I know,” Lenny said. “You’re right. I’ll get rid of her.”
“Right away?”
“Right away.”
~~~~
We walked back out to reception and Sophie started closing down her desk for the day. Before we left, I called my contact from the phone company. As I suspected, Jackie’s phone was either not turned on or had gone out of range. The reason I suspected her phone would be turned off was it would have made my job too easy. I don’t seem to get those kinds of breaks very often.
I also called Grandma Peckham. I told her I would be traveling for the day and might not make it back in time to feed Marlowe. She said not to worry since Marlow had already had a second breakfast at her place.
~~~~
Scottsdale lies in the northeast part of a large bowl in central Arizona called The Valley of the Sun, or simply, The Valley. On the East Valley side are the communities of Chandler, Gilbert, Mesa, and Apache Junction. The east side of the Valley ends at some high cliffs that are the start of the Superstition Mountains. The Central Valley is mainly the sprawl of Phoenix. The West Valley contains the retirement communities of Glendale, Sun City, Anthem, and Surprise. To the north of the Valley is North Mountain, beyond which are the sheer cliffs of the Mogollon Rim, which rise several thousand feet to the Colorado Plateau. The southern edge of the Valley is marked by the bulk of South Mountain, beyond which is one-hundred miles of the Sonoran desert leading down into Mexico.
Sophie, Annie, and I climbed into my car and we headed south. At Casa Grande, we found a truck stop where we loaded up with drinks and snacks. We then headed west to the desert town of Gila Bend. We then turned south and headed into the deep deserts of southern Arizona.
I know some people can’t see the beauty of the Sonoran Desert, all they see is dirt, rocks, and half-dead plants. For me, the drive down to Rocky Point is breathtaking. I love the feeling of cresting a hill and seeing fifty miles of colorful desert stretched out before me. In the dry desert air, there’s no haze or pollution, so details don’t seem to blur with distance. It is especially beautiful after one of the rare winter rains. Two weeks after a rain, the desert becomes a bright green carpet, with every cactus, tree, and bush flowering at once.
We stopped in Ajo, a small copper mining town where they have a lovely town square, to get money from the last ATM before Mexico. We then made a quick bathroom stop at the tourist-trap gas station called Why, when Sophie decided she had to go again. We were briefly stopped at a roadblock checkpoint by the border patrol a mile north of the Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument. Finally, we were at the truck-stop sized town of Lukeville, which marks the border to Mexico.
As always, I felt a little intimidated when crossing over into Mexico. And, as always, I was a little sad as I drove through the poverty-stricken border town of Sonoyta. Needless to say, I kept well under the speed limit.
As the last of the border town was in my rearview mirror, the final stretch of desert opened up before us. This part of the Sonoran desert is especially severe, consisting entirely of sand and dirt with almost nothing growing, save for an occasional creosote bush or clump of desert grass.
Driving in the desert always gives me time to think. Unfortunately, when I think, I usually think about my pathetic love life, then I think about sex, and then I think about how horny I am.
Having Reno back in my life, at least partially, seemed to help at first. We had spent a hot night together and then a few times since then. But now I had actually started being with a man again, my body seemed to wake-up. I crave sex all of the time, which unfortunately isn’t happening. As a result, my libido is higher than ever. Since Reno and I are only together occasionally, I’ve been left in a state of constant frustration.
~~~~
At about one o’clock, our destination came into view in the distance. Although the name on the map is Puerto Peñasco, everyone from Arizona just calls the town Rocky Point. I’ve always assumed it’s named after the mountain sized rock located at the end of the three-mile long peninsula on the Choya Bay side of town.
Rocky Point is a beautiful semi-tropical fishing village sitting on the northern end of the Gulf of California, which the locals call the Sea of Cortez. The beaches here are bright white and the sea is a brilliant blue. The music is festive, the food is great, and the prices are reasonable.
In college, we would drive down to Rocky Point a couple of times a year. We’d lay out on the beaches during the day and hit the clubs at night. It was well known the bars would serve anyone old enough to walk up and ask for a beer. Spring break in Rocky Point was almost mandatory for all Arizona State University students. Everyone would have a crazy good time and if you didn’t get laid, it was only because you weren’t really trying.
Annie had said Jackie was leasing a house at Las Conchas, which is a loose community of beach houses about a mile east of town. I’d been here a couple of times before when a group of us would rent a house for the weekend. It’s a lot quieter than the hotels in town and the beaches aren’t nearly as crowded.
After several minutes of driving through the narrow and winding streets, Annie directed us to Jackie’s house. It was located on a small hill about a hundred yards up from the beach. The house was small but well maintained, painted the traditional yellow with orange accents. There were several fan palms along with bright green and red bougainvilleas planted around a large front deck that looked out over the sea.
As we climbed out of my car, I felt the warm humid air and heard the sound of the pounding waves coming up from the beach. Sea gulls circled and cawed in the distance. There was a slightly salty, slightly fishy, scent to the air that I’ve come to know and love.
Jackie’s car, a maroon Jaguar convertible, wasn’t visible anywhere near the house. We went up to the door but knocking produced no results. A quick peak in the front window showed someone was living there since some breakfast dishes were still on the table. We spent five minutes looking in windows before we had convinced ourselves Jackie wasn’t in the house.
“Jackie usually goes into town for lunch,” Annie said. “Then she stops by the fish market to grab things for dinner. We can probably catch her there.”
~~~~
The heart of Rocky Point consists of the harbor, where thirty, or so, shrimp boats dock. Next to the harbor is the main shopping district, which features a large fish market with maybe twenty concrete stalls, each one set up as an independent business. Here you can buy freshly caught shrimp, scallops, and fish at ridiculously low prices. Surrounding the fish market are a dozen restaurants, all specializing in the fresh seafood along with traditional Mexican dishes. Scattered among the restaurants are the tourist curio shops, which sell the ceramics, t-shirts, and souvenirs that help make Mexico such a colorful place.
Jackie’s car was parked in one of the spaces overlooking the sea, down the street from the fish market. We decided to split up. I took one side of the street while Sophie and Annie took the other. In less than five minutes, Annie found Jackie, looking through one of the stalls in the fish market.
Annie ran up to Jackie and they gave each other a long hug. As I remembered from the only other time I had seen her, Jackie looked to be in her forty’s and was pretty. Like most wealthy Scottsdale women, she looked like she regularly went to a gym, was fashionably thin, and had some curves that looked doctor assisted. She had on a simple beach outfit of white shorts and an oversized fuchsia top. She had sparkly diamond rings on her fingers, a thick diamond and ruby bracelet on her wrist, and several strands of gold draped around her neck. Her long auburn hair was
curly and nicely styled. Her skin and makeup were flawless. At first, I was a little disappointed she was only wearing simple black flip-flops but as I walked closer, I noticed both the quality and the designer label. I hadn’t known Farucci made beach sandals and I could only imagine what they had cost.
Jackie saw Sophie and me walking towards her. A look of panic washed over her face and I could see she was deciding whether to run or not. Her body froze as she stared at me, trying to remember where she had seen me before. She quickly looked at Annie then back to me, trying to make the connection.
“I’m Laura Black,” I said as I walked up and held out my hand. “We met a couple of months ago in Jeannie’s.”
“Oh, right, I remember now.” I saw her entire body relax. “You were in there looking for someone. Did you ever find her?”
“That one worked out great, but right now, I’m looking for you. Terry Lennox contacted Leonard Shapiro, my boss. He said you two had had a fight and he wanted me to find you so he could try and patch things up.”
Jackie looked stunned. Like that was the last thing she expected me to say.
“Terry and I didn’t have a fight. I used him for sex a few times then I dropped him. Terry’s an idiot and I could care less if I ever see him again.”
Now it was my turn to look stunned.
“Look,” Jackie said. “I really don’t want to talk about this on the street. Let’s head back to my place and we can talk. Besides, I think I need a drink.”
I agreed. Her place seemed like a good idea. Sophie and I drove back in my car. Annie got a ride with Jackie.
~~~~
In less than thirty minutes, we were sitting on Jackie’s deck, overlooking the Sea of Cortez. The humid air was warm and a light breeze coming in from the water was cool.
Jackie made a pitcher of sangria and soon we all were all sipping one. The view of the sea was peaceful and beautiful. I watched as a couple of boats slowly moved across the horizon and saw a pod of dolphins popping out of the water close to the shore. I could see why Jackie liked this place so much.
