by Robert Boren
Robbie laughed. “Well, not yet, anyway, but give it time.”
“Don’t say that,” she said.
Robbie looked into her eyes, his heart pounding. “Look, you can come live with us if you want, until things settle down. It’s me and three other guys, though.”
“I don’t want to impose,” she said.
“You don’t have anywhere else to go, though, do you? I don’t mind.”
“What are the others like?” she asked.
Robbie chuckled. “Typical South Bay kids like me. None of them are violent or mean, if that’s what you’re asking.”
“Would they get upset if I was there?”
“No,” Robbie said. “There’s not much privacy. It’s a three-bedroom condo. We do have some food though.”
“Your parents aren’t there?”
“No, they took off when things started to go bad. Left in their motor home. They’re somewhere in Arizona right now.”
“I’ll bet you wish you were with them,” she said.
“I do, but you can’t get across the border anymore.”
“Do you have brothers or sisters?”
“I have a sister, but she’s up in Oregon,” Robbie said. “I’ve got to get back to packing. You’d better start packing too.”
“You sure it’s okay?” she asked.
He stood and smiled down at her. “I’d love to have you there. Really. Now go get busy. I’ll help you carry things down.”
“I’ve got a CRV. It holds quite a bit.”
“Good,” Robbie said.
She got up and hugged him. “Thanks so much.”
“Don’t mention it,” Robbie said. “One thing, though. This isn’t all that much safer than here. The building is easier to defend, but that’s about it.”
“I know,” she said, “but at least I’ll be with other people.” She scurried into her apartment. Robbie finished packing his clothes, and then grabbed other essentials. His toiletries, his books, some manuscripts, and other odds and ends. He went out with the first bag. Morgan already had two bags sitting by her door. She heard him and came out.
“Hey, you think I should bring this?” she asked, pointing to a revolver and a box of .38 rounds on the coffee table.
“Yes,” Robbie said. “For sure. You know how to shoot it?”
“Yeah,” she said. “I grew up in the country. My dad insisted that I bring that with me. I have several more guns, but they’re all back home.”
“Just keep it out of sight,” Robbie said. “We’ve got a rifle. That’s how we got out of here last night. Also shot a couple gang bangers in the condo when they were trying to rape the woman in the front unit.”
“Oh, my God? You shot them?”
“No, my friend Gil,” Robbie said. “We’re almost out of ammo for that gun, though, and it’s the only one we’ve got.”
“Oh,” she said, looking worried.
“I told you it’s not really that safe there,” Robbie said. “Not too late to back out.”
“I still want to go,” she said. “I’m almost done packing. Don’t have that much. Should I bring food?”
“Yeah, definitely,” he said.
“How about booze?”
“Yeah, bring that too if you want it,” he said. “Not a good time to get ripped, though.”
“I’ll say.”
Robbie nodded and rushed down the stairs. He dumped the bags into his trunk and went back up for his second load. He locked the door after he carried them out.
“That’s all you have?” Morgan asked as she set two more bags onto the walkway.
“Yeah, but we took some stuff with us last night,” Robbie said, walking past her. “I’ll start bringing your stuff down after I stash this in my trunk.”
She nodded and went back to work. Robbie came back up and grabbed two of her bags, taking them downstairs. Morgan had the last of her stuff bagged before he got back up. Her hair was brushed and she had a slight bit of makeup on when he got there. She saw him looking.
“Figured I should be a little more presentable,” she said, an embarrassed smile on her face.
They each took bags and carried them down the stairs. Morgan opened her garage door and backed out the CRV.
“Wow, this does have a lot of space,” Robbie said, watching her get out of the driver’s seat. He heard a click, and the tailgate opened. She raised it the rest of the way and they loaded the bags.
“I’ve only got one more bag,” she said. “I’ll go lock up and bring it down.”
“Okay, I’ll back out. You can follow me. I’ll make sure you don’t lose me.”
“Thanks,” she said. He watched as she scurried to the stairs and rushed up.
“Hope I’m doing the right thing,” Robbie muttered to himself as he backed his car out. He had it pointed in the direction of the street when Morgan got back down with her last bag. She came over to his driver’s side window. “I’ll pull over to the side and let you get in front of me.”
“Good,” Robbie said. “We’re going to turn right on 182nd Street, take that to Inglewood Avenue and make a right, then take a left on Grant.”
“Okay,” she said. “I kinda know the area. A guy I was dating lived on Matthews.”
“If there’s a blockage, just follow me,” Robbie said. “We had to go way out of the way last night because of that mess at the Galleria. Should be fine now, but you never know. They might have some streets closed for investigations.”
“All right.” She got into her car and made a right turn on Yukon, pulling over to the side right away. Robbie passed her and she fell in behind. There weren’t any problems on the way, but there were lots of spent flares lying on the road, especially at 182nd and Kingsdale, the southern gateway into the Galleria.
Robbie was back to the condo before his friends. He pulled into the garage and got out, motioning for Morgan to pull into the visitor parking place. Then he got in front of the CRV and guided her so she was hard up against the gate.
“I take it you don’t want anybody going through that gate,” she said as she got out.
“You got it,” Robbie said, moving to the back of her vehicle.
“Nice looking building,” she said. “These are expensive. Your folks must have done all right.”
“I’m surprised they’ve stayed here, frankly,” Robbie said as he helped her pull bags out of the back of the CRV. “They could afford more. They like this neighborhood because it’s walkable, and because it’s close to the freeway.” He unlocked the front door and opened it, moving the bags inside, stacking them in front of the stairs.
“What makes this place defendable?” Morgan asked as she closed her tailgate.
“It’s harder to rush back here, especially when the others get here and park in the driveway. They staggered last night so you couldn’t walk back. It’s not perfect, though. There are sliding glass doors in the downstairs bedrooms. Wouldn’t be hard to break those out. Just a sec.”
He went back out the door and into the garage, hitting the button to close it. He entered through the side garage door, meeting Morgan by the foot of the stairs.
“What about your stuff?” she asked.
“I’ll get it later. Not sure where to put you.”
“Where have you been sleeping?”
“It’s only been one night. I slept in the back downstairs bedroom, just in case anybody decided to break in down there. I guess I should take my parent’s room eventually, but maybe you should be in there now.”
“It’s upstairs?” she asked.
“Yeah,” he said. “Let’s get the perishables up there. Oh, and there’s a deep freeze in the garage if you have frozen stuff.”
“Most of the food I brought is frozen. Why don’t you show me where the freezer is? We’ll load that before we go up.”
Robbie nodded and walked her down the hall.
“You guys have a cat?” she asked, looking at the cat box on the hall floor in front of the laundry room.
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“My folks have one. Mr. Wonderful.”
Morgan laughed. “Great name. Is he here?”
“No, he’s with them in the motor home,” Robbie said. “I should empty out the cat box and take it outside. Here’s the garage door.” He held it open for her. She opened the top of the freezer and stashed her stuff in there.
“Wow, lots of Lean Cuisine,” Robbie said.
“Yeah,” she said. “I’m lazy when I live by myself. Wow, there’s a turkey in here.”
“Yeah, there’s lots of stuff in there,” Robbie said. “More upstairs, and some in the front unit too.”
“Front unit?”
“Oh, forgot to mention that. That unit got ransacked last night, after the attempted rape I told you about. We picked things up, found extra keys, and locked it back up again. The fridge and pantry have food in them.”
“They coming back?” Morgan asked.
“I have no idea,” Robbie said. “Judging by what happened last night, if they have elsewhere to go, we won’t see them.”
“Geez.” She closed the top of the freezer and set the empty bag beside it. “Show me the rest of the downstairs.”
Robbie nodded and took her back inside. “Laundry room.”
She opened the louvered door and looked inside. “These are high-end machines.”
“Yeah,” Robbie said as he opened the door to the back bedroom. “This was my mom’s office. The couch makes into a queen bed, but I just slept on it closed last night.”
She looked inside. “There’s the sliding glass door you were talking about. She walked over and moved the curtains aside. “The fences on the sides of the yard aren’t very high.”
“No, they’re not,” Robbie said. He led her to the front bedroom. “This was my dad’s office. Gil slept in here last night. He’s the one with the rifle.”
“That sofa doesn’t look very comfortable.”
“It’s not as bad as it looks,” Robbie said. “My dad’s PC is connected to the video cameras.”
“Oh, you’ve got video, eh?” Morgan said. “Not a bad thing.”
“We probably should move more of the cameras outside. Right now there’s one outside the garage, one inside the garage, one pointing to the front door, and one in the living room that covers a lot of the upstairs.”
“Your dad set it up so he could keep an eye on the place while they’re gone,” Morgan said. “My dad had a setup like that. He could access it over the web with his iPad.”
“Yeah, same thing here,” Robbie said as he led her up the stairs.
“Oh, this is nice,” she said. “Look at that big balcony. Nice dining room, too.”
“Not bad,” he said. “Steve and Justin slept on those couches, as you can see.” Blankets were still sitting on them.
“Nice kitchen,” Morgan said. “It’s got the electric ovens and a gas range. That’s the hot setup.” She walked around, seeing the door at the far end. “That the pantry? I have some stuff to go in there.”
“Yeah,” Robbie said.
“Be right back.” She went down the stairs, coming up with two bags, setting one by the fridge, and carrying the other to the pantry door. She opened it. “Wow, nice.” She loaded in her food.
“Yep,” Robbie said. “My mom raved about that pantry when they moved in. Good if you go to Costco a lot.”
“How long have they owned the place?”
“Sixteen years or so. They were the original owners.”
“You lived here for a while, then?”
“Couple years,” Robbie said. “Maybe that’s why I picked the back bedroom last night. Used to be mine. Sis was in the front bedroom.”
“Where did you live before here?”
“Torrance,” Robbie said as Morgan put food in the fridge.
“Why’d they move here? Torrance is so close. It has bigger houses and better parking too.”
“They were downsizing,” Robbie said. “My dad was tired of driving surface streets all the way to the freeway from south Torrance, too. He worked in El Segundo.”
“Yeah, I know people who hate the South Bay because of that.”
“I guess,” Robbie said. “It’s kind of nice not having freeways so close, as far as I’m concerned. Never liked it as much here as I did in South Torrance. That’s still my stomping ground.”
“To each his own,” she said, closing the fridge doors. “What else?”
“There’s a powder room here,” he said, leading her back into the living area. “And here’s the master.” He opened the door.
“Like that shower,” she said, looking into the bathroom, to the right of the door. Then she walked into the main part of the bedroom. “This is nice. Nobody’s using this?”
“No,” he said, “You could sleep in here if you want. It’s the most private place we have.”
“Not a chance,” she said. “You should move in here. It’s your place.”
“Maybe,” Robbie said. “We’ll see. We’ve got some planning to do after the others get back.”
“Okay,” she said. “If they don’t want me here, I’ll find someplace else.”
Robbie looked at the concern on her face. “Like you just said, this is my place. You can stay if I say so. Don’t worry about it.”
“You’re nice,” she said. “Wish you would have asked me out.”
His face turned red.
“Are you embarrassed?” she asked, smiling at him.
“A little, I guess,” he said. “I was never very good with girls.”
“You’re just a little shy,” she said.
“Oh, forgot about one thing. You okay with dogs?”
“I love dogs,” she said. “Why?”
“One of my friends is bringing his brother’s dog. Supposed to be a good watch dog. It’s a Pit Bull, though. You okay with that?”
“Of course,” she said.
They left the master bedroom, going back into the living room. There was a harsh knock at the door. Robbie shot Morgan a worried glance, and then rushed to the balcony, looking down at the front door. There were two police officers there.
“Hi,” Robbie said, trying to sound friendly. “Be right down.”
“Thank you, sir,” one of the cops said. Robbie rushed down the stairs, Morgan right on his heels. He opened the door. “Come on in.”
“Thanks,” the first officer said. He was a large Hispanic man. His partner was a white woman. Her eyes darted around as she came in.
“Sorry to bother you,” she said.
“No bother at all,” Robbie said.
“You the owner?” the male officer asked.
“No, it’s my parent’s place. They’re off in their motor home. Arizona, last I heard.”
“Do you know the couple who own the front unit?” the female officer asked.
“Rick and Diane,” Robbie said. “Yes. They fled last night after some gang-bangers attacked them. They coming back? We picked things up around their house and locked the doors up for them.”
The two officers looked at each other.
“The house got ransacked?” the male officer asked.
“Yes, sometime overnight,” Robbie said. The officers looked at each other again.
“Oh no, what happened?” Robbie asked.
“They were murdered last night,” the female officer said. “Right before the on-ramp to the 405, on Artesia.”
“Crap, they drove by the Galleria?” Robbie asked. “Bad place to be around last night.”
“Yes, but we have reason to believe that they were followed from this location,” the male officer said. “One of the gang-members expired later in the evening. He had a bullet wound to the side. Bled out.”
“Why do you think they followed Rick and Diane from here?”
“The deceased gang member had keys to the condo on him,” the female officer said.
“They had a dog with them,” Robbie said. “Big German Sheppard.”
“Dead at the scene,” the male officer s
aid. “Same gun that killed the couple.”
“Is there next-of-kin in the area?” the female officer asked.
“Don’t know, sorry,” Robbie said. “I didn’t know them very well; only lived here for a couple of years, when I was a teenager.”
“I see,” the male officer said. “Anybody living in the middle unit?”
“That’s a rental,” Robbie said. “When we got here, it looked deserted.”
“When did you arrive?” the female officer asked.
“Last night,” Robbie said. “My friends and I had to leave my apartment in North Torrance. This was the only place we could come.”
“It’s not much better here than it is in North Torrance,” the male officer said. “Don’t go out after dark. Protect your girlfriend, too. They’re on the prowl for young, attractive women.”
“Will do, officer,” Robbie said.
“Okay, you two take care,” the female officer said. They walked away. Robbie shut the door.
Morgan giggled. “Girlfriend?”
Robbie shot her a sheepish grin. “Correcting them would have been kind of a long story. I wanted them out of here before they asked too many questions about the gang bangers Gil shot last night.”
“It’s okay,” she said, resting her hand on his shoulder as he turned towards the stairs. “I should be so lucky.”
Robbie’s heart raced. He turned back to look at her face. “Let’s go have something to eat. I’m starving.”
They walked up the stairs.
Chapter 6 – Park Rules
“You about ready?” John asked, standing next to the kitchen counter.
Sarah came out of the bedroom, putting in earrings as she walked. “Yes, I’m ready,” she said. “Is there going to be drinking at this thing?”
“That again,” John said. “I haven’t had a drop since this mess started. We all need to stay straight.”
“Good, that’s what I wanted to hear,” she said. “Let’s go.”
They left the motor home, walking towards the clubhouse. Sid and Yvonne joined them.
“Hey, John,” Sid said. “How you doing?”
“Nervous,” John said.
“Me too,” Sarah said.
Yvonne looked at them, nodding in agreement.
“You’ve got a little bit of sunburn,” Sarah said, looking at Yvonne’s reddish forehead. “Didn’t think that happened.”
