Modern Girls

by Gary S. Griffin

  The man picked Andi up again and dragged her across the laundry room, right into the opened elevator. He dropped her on the floor of the elevator and the door shut, and then, the car started to go down. As soon as the door opened, her dragged Andi from the elevator over to his car, and lifted Andi up and dropped her in the trunk. The man cut the duct tape and opened the blanket. Then, the man slammed the trunk lid shut.

  Andi was frightened and angry.

  A minute later, the car started moving. The trunk was warm, dark and uncomfortable as the rough wool blanket rubbed on Andi’s body. Even though she was practically nude, she was grateful for the warmth, but it was an awful place to be.

  She could feel the car moving through the side streets of Torrance, stopping every minute or so, until it got to a busy road with lots of traffic, where the car sped up. After ten minutes, the car began to go very fast. They had to be on the freeway.

  They drove and drove. Andi was tired and was rocked to sleep in the trunk. She slept a long time.

  skipping town

  I woke with a start. Edie was shaking me on the shoulder. I winced in pain as she forgot about the brick falling there. I looked at her and before I could speak she said, “They found Andi’s car at the airport.”

  “What, when?”

  Edie answered, “I don’t know, a few minutes ago. That detective is on the phone.”

  I got up, saw that it was 7:50am and walked to the living room. The aroma of fresh coffee filled the air. Edie had poured herself a cup. As I picked up the phone, Edie pointed to the cup and signed if I wanted a cup too. I nodded yes and said, “Hello” into the phone.

  Lieutenant Lomita said, “Hey, Garrett. We got lucky. We found your girlfriend’s car at the airport in a parking garage. Looks like she took off on us.”

  I said, “No, that can’t be.”

  Lomita replied, “Who knows? We’re doing a trace on the airline reservations now. She’ll be in real trouble if she flew away.”

  “Lieutenant, I don’t believe it. I think she’s in trouble.”

  “She’ll be in trouble, alright, when we find her. It looked like she was in a hurry too. She parked in one of the parking garages, but in a restricted spot for airport employees. That’s how we found it so soon. She picked a manager’s spot and he was pissed and called airport police.”

  Edie handed me my coffee cup. It smelled fresh and rich.

  “Oh, man. Is there any damage to the car or evidence?”

  “I’m here now at LAX. I took a look and didn’t see anything strange. I’m having a tech print it. Do you want to come look at the car?”

  “Sure do. Where should I meet you?”

  Lomita began to pass on the directions. I asked him to wait a second, cupped the mouthpiece with my hand and asked Edie if I she could find a pen and a piece of paper. She found them in a kitchen drawer after a few seconds search. I told Lomita to go ahead and jotted down his location. I told him I should be there in about a half hour.

  I hung up and quickly told Edie the news.

  “Stevie, I’m coming with you.”

  “OK.”

  Edie said, “Let’s take my car.”

  ***

  Edie had a great car; a new royal blue BMW convertible, just like Bambi’s. It had to be more than a coincidence. She showed me how to put down the roof. The car was a gift from Sid for her 25th birthday. She let me drive.

  We made our way up Hawthorne Boulevard to the 405 freeway through rush hour traffic. We followed the 405 north for about three miles until we saw the signs for the airport exit. We exited on Century Boulevard and drove west and merged into the oval shaped road of the airport. The terminals are on the right, the outside of the oval, and the parking garages are on the left, on the inside of the loop. We turned left into garage 2A, took an automated ticket, waited for the gate to rise and made our way up to the second level. We quickly spotted four official vehicles; Lieutenant Lomita’s unmarked car, an LA Police squad car, a LAX Airport police car and the LA police tech’s special van, all surrounding Andi’s silver Honda.

  We had to drive 75 yards away from the police cars before we found an empty spot. We parked, got out of our car and walked over to Lomita. The Detective looked sharp, dressed in tan slacks, brown cowboy boots, a brown sports coat and a striped-tan tie. As we approached he tossed down a thin cigar on the concrete, stamped it out with his boot heel and exhaled the smoke in a thin stream. I introduced Edie. Lomita looked up and down Edie’s pretty, trim body and then said hello and got right to the point. He led us to the Honda, told us not to touch anything, and asked us to look inside each of the four opened doors and the opened trunk and the raised hood from five feet away. He wanted us to point out anything that looked unusual.

  There was a beach mat and chair in the trunk. There were all kinds of makeup and beauty supplies jammed in the glove box. Other than that, the car was messy with assorted scripts, shoes and jackets in the back seat.

  As we were looking at the car, Lomita was called by one of the uniformed officers. Lomita walked over to the squad car, picked up the radio’s receiver, ducked his head into the car and listened for a minute. I could hear him speak into the receiver and then end the conversation abruptly. He turned and looked straight at me as he started back towards us.

  When Lomita got back, he put his hands on his hips, which spread open his sports coat, revealing his large handgun in the shoulder holster, and said, “Well, your girlfriend has run away, Garrett, to Dallas, Texas. She flew out last night at 6:55 on American Airlines.”

  I said, “What? No, really?”

  Lomita answered, “Yes, really, Garrett. She landed in Dallas at 1:01 this morning.”

  I did not believe what I was hearing; the whole developments over the last day were crazy.

  Edie said, “Detective, can you show us the information on this airplane ticket?”

  Lomita answered, “Yeah, but we have to go into the terminal. We can get it there.”

  Seven minutes later, the three of us were standing on one side of a closed American Airlines check-in counter and a reservation agent was standing on the other side reviewing the itinerary with us. The agent was a perky twenty-something redhead named Summer. The itinerary showed what Lomita had quoted, the departure from LAX, and the Dallas destination. It was a one-way ticket with no return flight scheduled in American Airline’s reservation system.

  I asked, “Was the flight non-stop?”

  Summer answered, “No, it connected through Tucson, Arizona.”

  Edie asked, “Does that mean it stopped in Tucson?”

  “Yes, but she didn’t need to change planes.”

  Edie looked at me and said, “Stevie that confirms it. My father is involved.”

  Lomita jumped on that statement, “What do you mean, Miss?”

  Edie and I gave Lomita a quick summary of our working theory of this crime.

  Lomita replied, “Garrett, you don’t know that for sure. This is all your unconfirmed theory. What I do know is that your girlfriend skipped town and she’s in big trouble. She’s now a fugitive.”

  “Detective, we think she’s been kidnapped. There’s no reason for her to go to Arizona or Texas.”

  Lomita made a small smile and said, “People do strange things when they’re in trouble, Garrett. We just put a warrant out for her arrest.”

  I asked Summer, “Can you tell me if this ticket was actually used?”

  Summer answered, “Umm…let me look in the system.”

  Summer started typing on the keyboard in front of her. After keying and waiting and keying again and waiting, Summer said, “Yes, the ticket was used.”

  I asked, “Can you tell for sure that Andi stayed on the plane to Dallas?”

  Summer answered, “No.”

  Edie said, “Did Andi check any bags?”

  Summer typed something again on her keyboard. I looked at Edie and nodded, as we both knew what the answer would be. “No, she didn’t check luggage.”
<
br />   I said, “Thank you, Summer.” I turned to Lomita and said, “This is all a set up. I think our killer is heading to Arizona…”

  ***

  “It can’t be true, can it, Edie?”

  We were in an airport restaurant having breakfast, talking about the discovered flights to Arizona and Texas. We could tell Lomita thought our theory was crazy, our wishful thinking. But, he did take down Edie’s cabin’s address and phone number and said he’d try to convince Tucson police to drive up the mountain and look around.

  “No, I don’t see Andi doing that, Stevie.”

  “But, maybe she got scared and took off.” But, I quickly reconsidered and said, “No, it just doesn’t fit with what we know.

  Edie replied, “No, it doesn’t. Look, Stevie, I think we need to go to Tucson. I need to find what’s up with my father.”

  I said, “If your father and Kathy took off, what did they do with Andi? She wouldn’t get on a plane by herself or with them. She knew she’d be in big trouble. She had to call and check in with Lomita each day as part of her bail.”

  Edie answered, “I agree.”

  We stopped talking and thought for a few minutes. Edie then looked at her wrist watch. I looked at mine too and noticed it was almost 10am. Edie wondered if we should catch a flight to Tucson. The same thought crossed my mind too.

  Edie said, “I want to check out my cabin as soon as possible.”

  We walked back to the American Airlines counter and checked on flights to Tucson. We had missed the three morning flights and the next one wasn’t until 4:30PM. That was over six hours away.

  “Shit, Stevie, let’s drive. We’ll miss traffic and we could make it before the flight, and we’ll have my car, instead of a rental.”

  “OK, but let’s go back to the apartment so we can pack a few things.”

  Edie answered, “Sounds good; I’ll borrow a few of Andi’s clothes, too.”

  ***

  Before we left the airport, I called Lieutenant Lomita. He had just arrived back at his Hollywood office. I briefed him on our plan. I also asked him if he could check to see if Rob Nealy was on any of the Tucson flights since last night. He said he would check it out.

  Then, we made a stop at the United Airlines counter and asked for a manager. No, he told us, Kathy Reese wasn’t working today or yesterday.

  I walked with Edie from the terminal back to Garage 2A. My head was spinning, but I found that being with Edie calmed me; comforted me. I liked being with her, but knew it wasn’t going to last. While those thoughts were still bouncing around in my head, we arrived at the BMW. We got in and headed back to Torrance, in a hurry.

  andi - absolved

  When Andi woke, they were driving fast and still must have been on a freeway. It was getting warmer. She could see bright light around the edge of the trunk lid - it had to be the morning, maybe near noon. There wasn’t much traffic near by. She heard only trucks and a few fast cars, once in a while.

  She was getting really scared. Where was the man taking her? They had to be out of L.A. now. Andi guessed they were going north or east since they’d probably be in Mexico and she didn’t think he’d want to try to go there with her in the trunk. Wherever they were, not many people were around.

  They kept driving. It was really uncomfortable in that trunk. She couldn’t stretch out. She had to lay on her side because it hurt to lay on her arms and hands behind her back. The wool blanket was starting to chafe her legs and hips. Turning from one side to the other was not easy. Her stomach and left side and behind were sore and swollen and hurt from the woman’s attack.

  She tried to loosen the handcuffs from her wrists and ankles but nothing happened. They were just too tight and she only ended up making her arms and legs sore.

  Finally, after a long time they slowed down and she could tell they got off the freeway as they drove in a circle. It must have been an off-ramp. For a while, they were in stop and go traffic. It was a city. Then, they started to go faster, but not as fast as before and they were climbing. She got colder as each minute passed.

  They drove an hour on this road. Then, he stopped the car, got out, and was gone for five minutes. He came back, started the car and drove off. Soon, the road became rougher and Andi was getting bounced around. It was also dusty as she could feel dirt coming in the trunk. They drove about 15 minutes on this road, and then, he stopped the car and turned it off.

  Andi flinched when the man popped open the trunk from his front seat. They were in the middle of nowhere. It was bright and a warm, sunny day. The car was pulled off the road to the right. The man opened his door and slowly walked to the back of the car. Andi was so scared. She knew he was going to do something terrible to her and she couldn’t do anything about it.

  The man looked at her and around the trunk. He no longer wore his ski mask. Andi couldn’t believe it! It was Rob Nealy; her apartment manager.

  Rob had a big black plastic trash bag in his hand that had something in it. He reached inside the trunk and turned her on her stomach. He checked to see if her handcuffs were still on her wrists and ankles. She stayed face down; she was afraid to move. By this point, she could feel the temperature outside. It was warmer than LA, for sure; probably in the eighties. It felt a little hot, and she started sweating all over. Andi could smell alcohol on Rob’s breath. He had been drinking while he was driving and appeared very nervous.

  Rob gently touched her behind with all the fingers of his right hand. His hand was trembling. Andi flinched a little because even the lightest touch brought pain. Rob sensed that and lifted his hand.

  All of sudden, Rob pulled a pair of scissors out of the plastic bag. Then, he grabbed her ponytail and pulled it so her head lifted off the trunk floor. Andi was so scared but really mad that he was about to cut off her hair. She started crying and couldn’t stop. Tears immediately poured from her eyes and her body shook. She just imagined how she would look and she couldn’t handle it.

  Then, Rob stopped pulling her ponytail. He slowly, gently lowered her head back on to the trunk floor.

  Rob said softly, “Now, don’t cry, please don’t cry.”

  There was a kind tone to his voice.

  Then, he spoke again, “Oh, I don’t want to do this. I can’t cut your hair. It’s too beautiful. Just like all of you, even with all she did to you.”

  Andi actually relaxed a little after he said that. She turned to look up at him. She was still scared, but, Rob then spoke again.

  “Andi, this whole thing is crazy. I just thought Kathy Reese was mad at you because you were fucking Mike. I thought she’d just hit you or slap you or something. I had no idea she’d try to make it look like you killed Sid. She wanted you to spend the rest of your life in prison. That was insane. I had no idea she was going to do that.”

  He stopped talking for a minute and looked her in the eyes. It all became clear to Andi. Kathy Reese must be Sid’s killer. She should have guessed. She quietly nodded and tried to look concerned and understanding. Rob slowly looked down her body, stopping at her breasts and her g-string for long looks. Andi didn’t dare move away. He smiled, as if he knew Andi wanted to please him.

  He started speaking again. “She got insanely jealous of you. I’m not sure why. Her marriage with Mike was bad. God, we were having our own affair, too. I’ve thought about it a lot over the last week and all I can think is it was because you’re so gorgeous, and better looking than she is. She hated your new boobs. I think they’re perfect. And, your stomach and butt and legs are so lean and toned. I guess that was it. Plus, she hated Sid for dumping her. I tried to tell her Sid just dated a lot of girls. I just had no idea she was going to set you up. I would have stopped her. You got to believe me!”

  The sun was very bright, and she was really blinded by the light but Andi nodded again and thought then that she’d be OK, somehow.

  Rob continued, “I think the last straw was when the police let you out on bail. Kathy went completely crazy. She thought it was t
he perfect crime. She couldn’t believe you were right back living your carefree life, wearing your sexy little clothes and showing everybody your hot body. You were still dancing and fucking Garrett. And, then Garrett started snooping around, asking questions. He was getting closer to the truth about everything.

  “That’s when she decided she would punish you and make you look ugly. Then, she would kill you. She made me join her because she threatened to turn me in to the cops and tell them I killed Sid by myself. I told her no one would believe her, and she said sure they would, because who would believe a woman killed Sid. She said everyone knew I lusted over you. That wasn’t true, really; you’re just so sexy and I couldn’t help looking at you, when you walked past me or when you were in the hot tub. I’m not a creep; I never touched you or did anything weird. You believe me, don’t you?”

  Andi nodded her head again, several times.

  “Kathy came up with this plan. She wanted it to look like you ran away, flew away to Texas, to make it look like you were guilty of killing Sid and getting scared that you’d be convicted. That’s what she’s doing now, pretending to be you. She has your purse and she’s using your ID.”

  Andi nodded.

  “She got off the plane here in Tucson last night. She’s at the airport in a hotel. I’m driving there to meet her.”

  That’s how Andi found out where she was.

  He paused a moment and said, “I thought we were in love, but she dumped me, that bitch! I thought she was going to move here with me. But, she’s not leaving L.A. I was going to drive her back to L.A. so we could move. Now, she’s flying back to L.A. tonight. I’m going to be alone here if Garrett finds out more and she’s going to blame me for Sid’s death.”

  He stopped again and Andi squinted her eyes, trying to see him better in the bright light.

  Rob started again, “So, I’m supposed to kill you up on the mountain and hide your body.”

  Andi flinched and started crying again. She couldn’t help it.