Getaway Girlz (35 page)

Pierre joined them soon afterward, short of breath.

“She’s nowhere,” Pierre gasped. “Gone.”

“What happened when you talked to Stella?” Vivian asked Adrienne.

“I went upstairs into the game room and saw a woman with long black hair hunched over, crying on the couch,” Adrienne explained excitedly. “I was able to see the tattoo you talked about on the small of her back, the spider, so I knew it had to be her.

“I went over and asked if she was okay. She was sobbing, very upset. She said she’s been looking for Dominik for two days, wanting to apologize. Said she saw his friend here and he told her Dominik is dead. That he was murdered on the beach two nights ago.”

“And?” Vivian prompted.

“I asked her why she needed to apologize, and she said – get this - that she had
lost control
.”

“No way!”

“I asked her if she argued with him on the beach and she said YES!”

“Did she say how she hurt him?” Kate asked.

“No, but she did say he was cheating on his wife, that’s why she was so upset. She said, ‘I was so mad, then he fell down. I don’t know what happened.’ ”

“Then what?” Lucy asked.

“I tried to console her. She just kept saying she needed to confess. And she was grasping a cross necklace she was wearing. I asked her if she wanted a glass of water, and she said yes, so I ran down here to tell you girls. You know the rest.”

“This totally means Stella is the killer!” Vivian exclaimed.

“We’ve got to call Detective Vega,” Wendy said.

Vivian dug Vega’s card out of her purse. Her fingers shook as she tried to dial. It took three attempts.

“It’s ringing!” she whispered.

“Dammit! Voicemail.”

“Hey Detective Vega, this is Vivian Taylor, you know, from the murder. I’m here at Julio’s party, and Crazy Stella, remember, we told you about her, was here and just confessed to my friend, Adrienne, that she accidentally killed Jon, whom she thought was Dominik, the soap opera star, cheating on his wife. She was here just a minute ago but seems to have disappeared again. She can’t have gone far so we’re going to search for her, and you know, make a citizen’s arrest or something when we find her. Can we do that in Mexico? Anyway, come as soon—”

BEEP!

“It cut me off!”

“I think he probably will get the gist of it.” Kate tried to reassure her.

“And it’s true, she can’t have gone far,” Wendy said. “Y’all want to split up again and search for her?”

“I’ll search the beach,” Lucy said. “I can run fast if I take off these shoes.”

Vivian considered what to do for a moment and looked over to the fire pit, where Stella had been seen. She hoped to see her again, but spotted Al instead, talking with Shorty, Victor and Joel. They looked serious.

Shorty glanced up and caught her looking at him.

Adrienne followed her line of sight and called, “Al, honey. Come here, we need your help.”

Al excused himself and walked over to them. Shorty and company went inside.

Just as Al asked what they needed help with, they heard, “
Policia
!
Nadia Mueve
!”

“
POLICIA
!
NADIA Mueve
!” Detective Vega shouted again, louder this time.

Vivian spun around to see that Vega had burst through the front door, followed by, of all people, Ponytail. Guns drawn.

Police in bullet proof vests ran in behind them and through the gate in the garden. Party guests threw their hands up, looking at each other confused. Several looked a little nervous and some tried to run off but couldn’t get out.

“Ponytail is a cop!” Vivian gasped in shock, throwing her hands up like the rest of the crowd, hurting her sunburned shoulders. She turned back around to face the girls and Pierre, whose arms were sky high. Al and Adrienne weren’t standing beside them anymore.

“Where? Where?” Vivian stammered, pointing a finger to the space that had just been occupied by them.

Pierre kept his arms in the air and nodded toward the beach. “They took off that way.”

Al must have ducked through all those plants
.

“What do we do now?” Kate asked.

“Whatever they tell us to do,” Pierre said, watching the police break people into groups, frisk them and sit them down.

“We haven’t done anything wrong,” Vivian said. “We need to talk to Detective Vega.”

Lucy’s right foot tapped uncontrollably. “I’ve never been in a raid before and I do
not
want to be put into a paddy wagon. Plus, I can’t do another trip to the police station. If you recall, the first one didn’t go so well for me.”

A cop came over to them, yelling something in Spanish.

“I think he wants to see our IDs,” Wendy said.

Wendy told him they didn’t have their passports, and that they needed to talk to Detective Vega. That it was about the murder of Jon Tournay.

The officer squinted his eyes at her, then walked back to the house. He talked to two other cops, pointing in their direction, before he went inside.

“At least there wasn’t any shooting or anything,” Kate said.

“This is crazy.” Lucy said. “And I need to pee!”

“You’re gonna have to hold it.” Vivian used her ‘Mom’ voice again.

They all took a seat around the fire pit as the two
policia
took a stance on either side of them.

Vivian whispered over to Wendy, “Are we being guarded or held?”

“I’m pretty sure the latter.”

Detective Vega walked out the back patio doors about five minutes later.

“Thank goodness you’re here!” Vivian yelled and stood up.

The
policia
standing around them took a few steps toward her and reached for their weapons.

“
Está bien
,” Vega said to them.

They backed off.

“Did you get my message? We found the killer! It’s that lady, the crazy fan. She’s a total whack-job!”

“What message?” he asked, sounding uninterested.

“I just called you, right before the raid. We found out who killed Jon! She practically confessed!”

“Of course, she’s vanished now,” Lucy said.

“Slow down, Mrs. Taylor. Who killed Jon?”

“Crazy Stella, his fan! We told you about her, remember? She’s the one with the tattoo who thinks he’s actually his soap opera character.”

“Ah, yes. I remember,” Vega said, nodding his head.

“She was here, went up to Pierre, and asked him where Dominik had been for the past two days.”

“I told her he was found murdered on the beach,” Pierre interjected. “She freaked out and ran into the house. That’s when Adrienne found her and she confessed.”

“Who is Adrienne?”

“She’s staying at our hotel. Adrienne Russo,” Vivian informed him.

“And where is Adrienne now?”

“I don’t know. She was standing right here with us before you came in guns-a-blazin’.”

“I will have to talk to her, see if her story is the same as yours. Where is Stella?”

“Oh, that lady has a tendency to vanish like invisible ink. She took off before you got here. I bet she’s long gone,” Lucy said, shaking her head.

“We need to search the house for her.”

They followed Vega inside, but Vivian knew they wouldn’t find Stella.

As they walked through the living room they saw Shorty, Victor and Joel handcuffed, and sitting apart from each other on a couch.

“Are they under arrest?” Vivian asked Detective Vega.

“
Si
.”

“What’d they do?” Lucy asked, trying to sound nonchalant.

Vega ignored her.

He took them through the house and past various groups of party-goers but they could not find Stella. They did see Rodney; however, zip-tied and sitting in a kitchen chair next to the trainer.

He turned his rear their way and waved one of his zip-tied hands at them, and called over his shoulder, “Yoooouuu whooooo! This is an exciting night, huh! You girls sure know how to pick ’em!”

“Hey Rodney!” Vivian said, then shrugged. “Who the hell knew?”

Detective Vega looked over at her. “He is with you?”

“Yep. He’s one of ours.”

Vega pulled a knife out of his pocket and indicated Rodney stand up and turn around.

He gave them an “oh” look, and did as he was told.

Free of restraints, Rodney put himself between Vivian and Lucy. “I’m definitely one of them, and so is he.” He pointed to the trainer, then said quietly to the girls, “I generally only use handcuffs, of any sort, in combination with lubrication.”

More than I wanted to know
.

Detective Vega cut the trainer loose as well, then put the knife back into his pocket. “Mrs. Taylor, looks like Adrienne and your so-called murderer are nonexistent.”

She hung her head.

Frustration
.

THE PARTY was definitely over and most of the guests had been allowed to leave. Rodney and trainer guy hit the high road after giving a round of hugs.

“Well what now?” Kate asked, exasperated. “Where do we begin to look for the phantom black widow woman?”

Vivian’s phone buzzed with an incoming text message. She flipped it open and saw it was a message from Adrienne.

Hope this helps you out. Al said we r outta here. Good luck
!

She scrolled down and saw a picture of Stella on Shorty’s couch in the man-cave.

“It was definitely her, then,” Vivian said, as she passed her phone around to everyone.

“Let’s take this picture to some hotels tonight and see if they know her, if she’s staying there,” Kate suggested.

Lucy took the phone and looked at the picture. “Yeah, okay, but you know, my mom’s stories of Catholic school are coming back to me. Remember Adrienne telling us what Stella said about confessing? I think it means something. Maybe if we see churches while we’re hotel hopping we should check them out too. Maybe she’s Catholic and will be looking to confess?”

“Good call, Lucy. Great idea,” Vivian said.

They hiked out to the car and squished in. Kate got behind the wheel, Vivian called shotgun and Pierre was humpin’ it again, flanked on either side by Lucy and Wendy.

They scanned the streets, looking for any sign of Stella, as Kate drove them through the main area of town. Lucy thought she saw Stella once and jumped out of the car as Kate brought it to a screeching halt. Lucy scared some poor girl half to death as she ran up to her and grabbed her arm. Close resemblance from behind, but definitely not the crazy lady from the front.

They took turns (with the exception of Vivian) running into hotels with the phone, showing the picture of Stella and had just hit their seventh when they passed a church. Lucy hopped out and checked the door. Locked. She went around to the side, but still no luck. They moved on.

They tried a few more hotels with still no luck. They also tried two other churches that were locked up tight as the Mona Lisa in the Louvre.

“I’m tired,” Lucy groaned.

“I know. Me too,” Kate said. “It’s almost 5 a.m. and I think we’re coming to the end of our options. We’ve covered almost every hotel and church we’ve seen.”

“Where in the hell does this girl disappear to?” Wendy asked the rhetorical question that had been on Vivian’s mind.

Nobody spoke for a moment.

Vivian took a deep breath. “I think there’s something I need to tell y’all.”

Sensing the seriousness in Vivian’s tone, Kate pulled over, turned off the car then twisted around to face Vivian. Pierre and the girls in back looked worried.

“When I was, uhhmmm,” Vivian paused, not wanting Kate to freak out. She started again. “When I got off the plane I went to powder my dent.”

“Your dent?” Pierre asked.

Vivian pointed to the indention in her forehead. “When I pulled out my compact it was broken.”

She held her breath.

“So what,” Lucy said. “We’ll buy you another one.”

“Uh, okay,” Wendy said, not understanding why Vivian had just told them that.

But Kate knew. She gasped, mouth agape and hand on her chest. “You broke the mirror, didn’t you?”

“Well, the mirror was broken, but I don’t know that I really broke it. I just found it like that.”

“Oh my god Viv, that’s why this is happening. This is the beginning of seven years of bad luck!”

“Now hold on a second,” Wendy said holding up both hands. “I’m not really a believer in all that mumbo jumbo.”

“Look what has happened,” Kate said. “Jon is dead and Vivian is suspected. It has to be because of the mirror.”

“Seriously,” Wendy said, still not buying it. “All because of a three-inch mirror?”

Pierre squeezed Vivian’s hand. “I don’t really think you breaking a mirror had anything to do with Jon getting killed.”

“Well, whether it did or didn’t, I felt like I needed to tell y’all,” Vivian said.

“Maybe it did have something to do with you being suspected, though,” Lucy said, then changed the subject. “I think we should call Arturo and see if there are any other Catholic churches we missed.”

“Worth a shot.” Vivian dialed Arturo.

A groggy voice answered. “
Bueño
.”

“Hey, Arturo, it’s Vivian. I’m super sorry to be calling you so late, or early. We were at Julio’s party tonight and Stella basically confessed to Adrienne that she killed Jon. In the chaos of a police bust, compliments of Detective Vega, she disappeared. We told him but we’re not sure how hard he’s looking for her, so we are, but we’re running out of options. We’ve searched almost every hotel but think she may be at a church in town. We’ve hit the church on 15th and
Iglesia De Presbyteria
on 20th. Are there any others we might have missed?”

“There’s the House of Hope on Avenue 25, then
Companerismo de la Comunidad de la Riveria
.” He paused then said, “Stella confessed?”

“Yes, pretty much. We think she might be at a Catholic church. Are any of these Catholic churches?”

“If you’re looking specifically for Catholic you need to search
Señora del Carmen, de Fatima
, and
de Guadalupe
. It doesn’t sound like you’ve been to those.”