Lizzy Gardner #2_Dead Weight (27 page)

Her cell phone rang, breaking her concentration. It was the woman she’d talked to about Burning Man. She asked the woman to hold while she went to the desk in Lizzy’s bedroom. Then she sat down and wrote down the names of the people on the committee in 1989.

After thanking the woman for her help, she hung up the phone.

There were six names in all.

She turned on Lizzy’s computer. She would try to ind out where they lived and hopefully get a phone number. If she could talk to anyone on the list, her irst question would be whether or not they ever owned or drove a Buick.

While she waited for the computer to warm up, her gaze fell on the pile of papers and journals that Lizzy had stolen from Vivian’s apartment. After she researched the names on the Burning Man list, she igured she could help Lizzy out by reading Vivian’s journals.

Suddenly, she had a lot of work to do.

***

The drive to Debra Taphorn’s apartment building was surprisingly nice. The seat in the Cadillac was cushiony and the air conditioner worked a little too well, making Lizzy shiver despite the fact that the temperature outside was still in the nineties.

She wasn’t used to being comfortable while driving. Her hair wasn’t stringy and wet, no sweat dripping down her spine. She could get used to this.

She made a right into the same parking lot where she’d been left a warning last time she was here. Parking close to the building, she hoped that would stop someone from scribbling another note on her windshield.

Had that been a random warning?

Lizzy got out of the car and headed for Debra’s apartment. If Andrea drove an Expedition, she thought, that would mean she was more than likely the one who had been following her. What was Andrea up to?

Debra Taphorn opened the door on the second knock. Her greeting was friendlier than Andrea’s, but despite being the one who had called Lizzy here, Debra didn’t look thrilled to see her either.

“I’ve ixed us some iced tea,” Debra said. “It’s all set up in the living room.”

Without bothering to remove her shoes, Lizzy followed her inside.

She took a seat on one end of the couch, glad she wasn’t hot and sticky. “What’s going on?”

Debra poured the tea, complete with lemon wedge, and handed Lizzy a cold glass.

The iced tea tasted lemony and refreshing. “This is very good. Thank you.”

Debra took a seat on one of two cushiony chairs facing the couch.

“You’re probably wondering why I called you here.”

Lizzy nodded and waited.

“I couldn’t sleep last night. I have no interest in having the feds get involved, but you must understand that I signed a con identiality agreement with Anthony Melbourne when I signed up for his Extreme Exercise Program. I lost over one hundred pounds and I’ve never been happier. The regimen was dif icult and even scary at times. I would never recommend it to friends. Even if I wanted to recommend the program, I’m not allowed.”

“He doesn’t want recommendations?” Lizzy asked. “He never promoted you as the poster child for before and after?”

“No,” Debra said. “It’s not like that at all. He hand picks the people he thinks he can help. He’s a very passionate man. He truly cares about his clients. Every once in a while he checks up on me to see how I’m doing.”

“Really. Melbourne calls you to check up on you?”

“Anthony has called me once or twice. Sometimes his assistant will call.”

Jane certainly got around, Lizzy thought.

“Before I can tell you much more I need a guarantee from you that I won’t be sued. I run a very lucrative weight loss center. My clients can ind me in my of ice twelve hours a day, ready to help them reach their weight loss goals.”

“Like Weight Watchers?”

“No, not exactly. I don’t offer meals. I am considered a consultant. My clients can call me at any time. I get calls in the middle of the night and sometimes I need to talk them down from the ledge, in a sense.

Many times they call when they’re tempted to binge.”

Lizzy nodded.

“I can’t afford to have my story get out to the public. I would lose my reputation if my clients knew what I had to do to lose the weight.”

“What did you have to do exactly?”

“Are you willing to sign a document stating that you will not go public with what I am about to tell you?”

Lizzy nodded. “I’ll sign anything you want.”

Debra had already typed up a one-page agreement. Lizzy wasn’t worried about signing it. She had no plans to go public with anything Debra told her. Her lips were sealed. She signed and dated the agreement. “Okay,” Lizzy said, “now what?”

“Now I’m going to tell you about Anthony Melbourne’s well-kept secret. The morning he and Jane picked me up, I had a small suitcase packed with my favorite books, CD’s, iPod, anything I might need for a long vacation.”

“How long were you planning on being away?”

“I knew it could be anywhere from two to four months.”

“That’s a long time.”

Debra nodded. “They told me to dress comfortably. I wore shorts and a T-shirt. It was summertime, not quite as hot as it is today, but the point is I didn’t need to bring much. It wasn’t long before we stopped for gas. At that point, which was about an hour into the trip, Jane asked me to put on a blindfold. I didn’t like the idea because I’m claustrophobic, but she said if I didn’t cooperate we would need to return home.”

That didn’t surprise Lizzy.

“The tone of Jane’s voice, and Anthony Melbourne’s sudden inability to speak, caught me off guard. I began to worry about what I had signed up for, but I put the blindfold on and I did whatever I was told.

It all seemed suddenly very serious.”

“Did they ask you to do anything else?”

She shook her head. “I’m almost certain I was drugged.”

“How?”

“Jane must have switched my water bottle because suddenly she was telling me I needed to drink more water or I was going to get dehydrated. She hadn’t told me to drink water until after the blindfold was on.”

“That is strange.”

“I must have dozed off within fifteen minutes of drinking the water,”

Debra went on. “I never fall asleep in a car while someone else is driving. But that day—I passed out immediately.”

“So you never saw where they took you?”

“Funny you should ask. Right before I dozed off I had the sensation of going in circles. I don’t know if Anthony Melbourne was actually driving in circles or if he had made a U-turn. I have an inkling that he was trying to throw me off. You know, as to which way we were headed.”

“They thought of everything,” Lizzy said.

Debra nodded. “While I was sleeping, though, my blindfold must have slipped to the side in such a way that I could see out of the corner of my left eye. Just barely. Enough to see a sign for a lodge as I was coming to.”

“At that point do you know how long you had been in the car?”

Debra shook her head.

“Do you remember the name of the lodge?”

“No, I’m sorry. It was a wood sign and there were lowers painted on it. Daisies, I believe.”

“Can you draw a picture for me?”

“Sure. After seeing the sign, we made a right turn. It was all windy uphill from there on. I remember feeling nauseous before I passed out again. If you think any of that was weird, wait until you hear the rest.”

Thirty minutes later, Debra finished her story.

It was hard for Lizzy to believe that the same woman who had been chained, cuffed at the ankle for three months, left with enough food to feed an army, but expected to ignore a ridiculous number of temptations, was sitting here now, telling Lizzy she was not only grateful for the journey but thankful to have had the opportunity.

Despite spending thousands of dollars to be in Melbourne’s secret program, her life had not been the same since. And she insisted that was a good thing. Not only did she look terri ic, she now had a thriving business and a loving fiancé.

Debra Taphorn was happy.

Chapter 35

Good News and Bad News

“I have good news and I have bad news,” Hayley told Lizzy the moment she walked into her apartment.

“This has been the longest day of my life,” Lizzy said. “Please tell me because I couldn’t make a guess if you paid me.”

Hayley followed Lizzy to the kitchen, talking as they went. “I have a name of a man who not only helped plan Burning Man back when Carol Fullerton disappeared, he also drove a Buick. His name is Dean Chandler. I haven’t been able to ind an address or a telephone number, but I was hoping you could talk to Jared and have him run a report on the man.”

“That is great news,” Lizzy agreed.

“Not only that,” Hayley went on, “I also read every single one of Vivian’s journals and notes.”

Lizzy poured herself a glass of cold water from the fridge.

“Man, that Vivian woman likes to make notations about everything.

She even writes about bugs that crawl by. And she had a lot to say about the neighbor you met.”

Lizzy winced. “She doesn’t like that sweet old lady?”

“Not one bit. But forget about the neighbors for now. According to Vivian’s journal, she hadn’t heard from her friend, Diane Kramer, so she drove to Diane’s house. That was over six months ago. When she arrived, Diane was getting into a car. According to Vivian’s notes, there was only one person in the car besides Diane. It was a man--a muscular man. Vivian decided to follow them. Unfortunately, an hour later, she ran out of gas and lost Diane. For weeks she was angry with her friend for leaving without telling anyone, but after failing to hear from Diane, her anger grew to concern.”

“Damn,” Lizzy said as she put her empty glass in the sink. Believing Hayley was inished she said, “I talked to Debra Taphorn again today.

She never met Diane, but she’s been through some sort of crazy secret weight program of Melbourne’s. Although this is all to be kept con idential, she paid thousands of dollars to be cuffed and chained at the ankle for three months. I guess Melbourne hand picks the people for his program. He takes them to a secluded mountain cabin complete with treadmill, kitchen, and enough food to last a dozen people for months.”

“It’s a weight loss thing, right?”

Lizzy nodded.

“Then why all the food?”

“According to Debra, he wants his clients to learn to live with the temptations. Debra said it worked for her. Although she was scared at times, she’s glad she did it.”

“Are you going to call the police?”

“No. Not yet. Melbourne hasn’t admitted to anything and Debra has no idea what direction they were going when they took her to the cabin. She did see a sign for some sort of lodge. There were lowers painted on the sign. I asked her to draw a picture, but do you have any idea how many lodges there are in California? Anyhow, after the sign with the lowers, they made an immediate right. It was all long and winding roads after that. North, south, east, I have no idea where to start.” Lizzy sighed. “I feel helpless. Diane Kramer has been missing for too long. If she was a part of the program, why hasn’t she come home? And now Vivian is missing too. It can’t be a coincidence.”

“Well, you haven’t heard the good news yet.”

“Give it to me.”

“Vivian wrote down the name of the highway. They were headed east on Interstate 80. Vivian made it as far as Gold Run, past Colfax.”

Lizzy’s phone vibrated and she picked it up.

“Lizzy, it’s me, Jessica.”

“Thank God. Are you okay?”

“I’ve been to hell and back. I want a raise.”

***

It was early the next morning when all three of them, Lizzy, Hayley and Jessica, sat in the front room in Lizzy’s apartment. They all looked equally haggard—complete with puffy eyes and pale faces.

Last night, Hayley and Lizzy had driven for hours in order to meet with Jessica. After hearing what had happened to her, Lizzy didn’t want Jessica driving home alone. Hayley had driven Lizzy’s rental car back while Lizzy and Jessica followed behind in the Honda. They returned to the apartment after three in the morning and all three of them found it hard to sleep, thus the early morning meeting.

Jessica passed around orange juice that nobody bothered drinking.

Dean Chandler, the man who had picked Carol Fullerton up on the highway over twenty years ago, was sitting in jail in Kern County for kidnapping Jessica. Although Jessica wasn’t keen on pressing charges, especially after getting the chance to talk to Carol in person and hearing about her reasons for running away, she had agreed with Lizzy to start the process until they knew exactly what was going on.

Apparently, Carol had not met Dean Chandler until that same fateful day she disappeared. Why Dean felt the need to kidnap Jessica made no sense to Lizzy. Carol tried to explain to Jessica that her husband had panicked. Dean and Carol had been hiding for so long, that the idea of being found out was beyond his reasoning at the time.

Ellen Woodson, it turned out, had been keeping Carol’s secret for a very long time. Ellen, being a good friend, maybe too good considering her own life seemed to have suffered because of her secret, vowed never to tell anyone of Carol’s whereabouts. The two women had been corresponding with one another on a regular basis for over twenty years.

Jessica sat down and was now looking through the pictures Hayley had stolen from Frank’s home of ice. She grunted and huffed as she sifted through the photos, one at a time. “Poor Carol,” she said.

“Did Ruth admit that she knew what was going on?” Hayley asked.

Lizzy shook her head. “She didn’t admit to anything, but she knew what was going on. No matter what, she knew enough. She’s in denial. Either way, their time is up. I need to hand these pictures over to the police and let them take care of Frank.”

Lizzy looked at Jessica. “Did you tell Carol that her mother was dying and wanted to see her?”

Jessica nodded. “I don’t think that’s going to happen. I’ve never seen such raw hatred before; almost as if all the bad stuff that went on had happened to Carol only yesterday.”

“I don’t blame her,” Hayley said. “It doesn’t sound like Ruth Fullerton deserves to see her daughter one last time.”