Beautiful Girls (5 page)

 

^{We talked as Edie got dressed.}

^{Edie asked, “Did Lomita say what the mansion looks like?”}

^{I said, “Nothing he spoke about, but you'll notice anything odd better than the rest of us. Detective Lomita told me that they found a half-drunk cup of tea in the library. There were clothes in the washer and dryer, but, otherwise, nothing that seemed unusual. Did you hear anything else?”}

^{She answered, “No, they really didn't speak to me about what they found.”}

^{Edie walked out of the bedroom wearing a knee-length flower print dress and sandals. She grabbed her keys and held my hand as we left the pool house.}

^{Lomita was sitting at the poolside table with the young, redheaded patrolman, McBride.}

^{He introduced us and said, “Let's go, but make sure you don't touch anything.” I think Lomita's comment was mostly directed at McBride.}

^{It was 9:00 when the four of us entered the mansion's basement tunnel in the hillside near the pool. The thirty foot walk ended inside what was once the bomb shelter, now the wine cellar. The wine cellar looked unchanged since my visit the prior year and Edie didn't see anything out of place. Further on, we walked into the basement under the mansion. The next room had a large sectional couch and a huge wall-mounted television. Edie thought it looked in order.}

^{She then said, “Let's check my father's area.”}

^{She meant the old servant's quarters which had an entry here in the basement, in addition to its outdoor entrance. Bambi had generously allowed Edie's father, Rob Nealy, to use this space when he was in L.A., which happened once or twice a month. He did maintenance work for Bambi. Nealy spent the remainder of his time in Edie's mountain cabin, high above Tucson, Arizona.}

^{Edie unlocked the servants quarters' door. We walked in, and turned on lights as we began a slow search of the two bedrooms, living room, dining area and kitchen. These quarters were furnished in new, durable-looking oak furniture. The place looked untouched from the last time Solana cleaned it. The bed was made, sofa and chair cushions had not been sat on and the curtains were drawn.}

^{I hadn't been in here before and was surprised to see photos and memorabilia of Edie in the second bedroom. Clearly, this had been her room when she grew up. I lost track of time for a while. Intrigued and interested, I lingered and simply looked around. There was Edie at a dance recital. In another photo she was acting on stage. I guessed correctly; Edie had always been gorgeous, with a precocious, intelligent look in her eyes — even in the earliest photo of her, which I guessed was around age five or six. The high school diploma and other awards of Edith M. Nealy, Edie's birth name, were in wall-mounted frames. I was seeing, in this brief time, a new view of my love. I had never known or seen any of this about her.}

^{On Edie's desk was a photo of a beautiful middle-aged dark-haired woman with Hispanic features. The woman smiled at the camera and looked quite a lot like Edie. It was her mother.}

^{Edie blushed as she saw me taking in her life. She whispered, “Oh, Stevie, do you really want to look at this stuff?”}

^{“Yes, I do, I love looking at this beautiful little California girl.”}

^{“We can come back sometime soon.”}

^{“Promise?”}

^“Yes.”

^{I walked into the main bedroom while Edie used the bathroom. Rob's room was spare and orderly. The closet and bureau were less than half-filled. There were photos of Edie and her mother on the desk. On the wall, a photo of a younger Rob smiled out at me. He stood on the deck of a yacht docked in a harbor.}

^{I asked, “Whose boat is that?”}

^{“It was Sid's parents'. My father sailed it for them when they were alive. He really liked that boat but he sold it after his parents died. It held too many sad memories for him.”}

^{I walked into the kitchen with Edie right behind me. A newspaper folded in half, and half again sat on the kitchen counter top. A nearly empty Dunkin Donuts foam coffee cup sat next to it. I pointed it out to the detective.}

^{Lomita unfolded the paper without touching it by using a wooden cooking spoon so he could read the name and date of the edition. It was the sports section of the Sunday Arizona Daily Star.}

^{Edie, looked and said, “My dad's been here.”}

^{I said, “Yeah, and it couldn't have been before Sunday.”}

^{That's when Edie broke down again. I hugged her.}

^{Edie recovered enough to say, “Oh, Stevie, this keeps getting worse.”}

^{I didn't know what to say. I kissed the top of her head, held her hand and led us out of the servant's quarters, back to the basement hall.}

^{Lomita said, “I'll get a tech in here.”}

^{The rest of the search was anticlimactic. In the laundry room we saw Bambi's cold cup of tea and the wet and dry clothes.}

^{I met Solana, the maid. I asked and Solana said she locked the front door and shut the bedroom and bathroom doors when she finished cleaning the pool house the prior Thursday.}

^{Some cards and flowers had been delivered, and Solana had placed them in the living room. Edie stopped and looked at the cards and the notes attached to the flowers. She read out the names of the friends and celebrities who sent the condolences.}

^{While Edie did that I looked at the three Oscars statues on the mantle. Two of these were earned by Sid, Senior for his
Sheriff
movies. I wondered when they were made. I knew there was a gap of ten or more years between the two films.}

^{I asked and Edie said, “The first one was made in 1969, the year before I was born. My parents moved to L.A. to work here after filming ended. I think the second one was made in 1980. Both movies were filmed in Tucson.”}

^{The first and second floors of the mansion were neat and undisturbed by the exterior violence. The only surprises to me were the few decorating changes Bambi had made in the past year and the messy state of Tawny's teenage bedroom.}

 

 

^{We returned to the pool house and Edie called the home of Tawny's best friend, Jessica Manning. Edie had met Jessica many times before and had driven Tawny to and from the Manning's home. No one answered the phone so she left a message with her cell phone number. We planned to stop there on there on the way home. Both of us continued our phone calls to family and friends postponing our wedding and talking about the sad news. By 10:45 AM we were glad for a break from the emotionally draining conversations.}

^{We escaped in the BMW and drove to Edie's OB/GYN doctor's office down the hill into Westwood. The drive went smoothly through late morning traffic. I parked the BMW and led Edie inside. The receptionist welcomed us and told Edie to go to an examination room when we entered. Fifteen minutes later, I was escorted to Edie's room. Edie was sitting on the examining table wearing a hospital gown.}

^{The doctor, Sally Tobin, was a heavy set, short woman in her late twenties with thick, closely cut dark brown hair. She was a serious, conservative looking woman.}

^{Dr. Tobin turned towards Edie and said, “Well, everything seems okay. You can get dressed Edie. Relax and get comfortable.”}

^{The doctor asked me, “Are you Ms. McCall's husband?”}

^{I said, “I'm her fiancé, Stevie Garrett.”}

^{She looked at Edie, “Is he the father of the child?”}

^“Yes.”

^{The doctor took off her latex gloves, extended her right hand to me, and said, “Congratulations, Mr. Garrett, your fiancée is four months pregnant and mom and your baby boy are doing very well.”}

^{Both Edie and I said, “A boy?”}

^{Dr. Tobin blushed. “Oh, I'm sorry. Edie didn't want to know. Please forgive me.”}

^{I asked, “Are you sure we're having a son?”}

^{“I'm fairly confident. We've been doing ultrasounds for a few visits now and I'm sure I see something between his legs. I'm not 100% certain, because we didn't do an amnio, but I'd bet I'm right.”}

^{I said, “A boy…”}

^{Edie laughed and said, “Oh, Stevie, look at you. You're totally dazed!”}

^{I said, “Wow…”}

^{The doctor again said, “I'm sorry, Edie…”}

^{Edie said, “Oh, doctor, I'm not upset. This is the first good news we've had in several days.”}

^{“Mr. Garrett. Mr. Garrett!”}

^{“Stevie!”}

^{I snapped out of my daydream of Little League games and Boy Scout hikes.}

^{I turned to Edie. “Oh, right, I'm sorry, baby.”}

^{“Don't be.”}

^{“This is terrific!”}

^{“Yes, I'm so glad you think so.”}

^{I gave Edie a hug and kiss and asked the doctor, “We've had a terrible family tragedy. I'm worried. Is there something we should do to protect Edie and the baby?”}

^{Dr. Tobin said, “Be careful. Make sure she eats right, that she gets plenty of rest and sleep, and that she takes her vitamins. Protect her and the baby, Mr. Garrett.”}

^{“I will.”}

^{Dr. Tobin then finished, “Congratulations you two and good luck. I'm so sorry to hear about the terrible things that happened. Stevie, whatever you two do, think of your baby and make life the least stressful you can for Edie. Be very kind to her!”}

^{Then Edie spoke clearly and determinedly. “He is my wonderful man and he'll get me through this. First, we must find my father and Tawny Gabriel and figure out why this happened. Then, we're getting married.”}

^{Dr. Tobin looked at her, then at me, nodded and walked out.}

^{After the doctor left, I leaned over and kissed Edie again. Edie told me she'd had blood drawn before I came back to the examination room. The doctor would have it ready for the police lab technician.}

^{We walked on a cloud out of that office. Once inside the BMW, we kissed for a moment and then we started talking.}

^{Edie said, “Oh, this is all so screwed up. I'm so happy and sad, all at the same time, Stevie. This has been an incredible experience. It's unbelievable!”}

^{I hugged her tight and whispered in her ear, “I can't believe all this either.”}

^{Edie told me, “Oh Stevie, I can't describe how much I'm in love with you.”}

^{With that, we kissed again for a long, long time.}

^{I then said, “Let's have lunch.”}

^{We had a soup and salad lunch at a casual restaurant. We refilled her prescription, and then headed to Tawny's friend's home in Beverly Hills.}

 

 

^{The Mannings had a beautiful, sprawling ranch-styled home on Laurel Way. Carol was the forty-four year-old wife of Dr. Timothy Manning, plastic surgeon to the wannabe-hot girls and the young-at-heart women of Beverly Hills. We found Carol and her only child, Jessica, sympathetic and empathetic to Edie's tragedy. They wanted to help anyway they could.}

^{We sat at a table in the shade of a yellow umbrella next to the swimming pool while we sipped lemonade. I couldn't imagine the value of this one story home. It seemed to spread all across the top side of a small mountain and had wonderful views to the east and southeast. Carol was a redhead with pale, freckled skin. She avoided direct sun, and lived her life in the shade – a tough thing to do in L.A. Jessica inherited her mother's friendliness and her father's darker hair and coloring and was a true water bug. She sat next to us in the seat with the most sun, sunning herself in her green bikini.}

^{We determined Tawny's whereabouts before the crime on Sunday. She spent the afternoon sunbathing poolside with Jessica Manning. Jessica said Tawny seemed fine and the girls worked on a school Social Studies project due that week.}

^{Carol Manning said Bambi dropped off Tawny at 1 PM. She drove Tawny back to the mansion at dinner time; around 6 PM. Carol didn't see anyone at the mansion. She saw four cars in the driveway, Bambi's white BMW, Edie's blue BMW, Troy's black Jeep and a silver Ford sedan with an Arizona license plate. She remembered it was white and purple because she pulled right behind the Ford as it was stopped in front of the other cars, blocking the turnaround by the garages.}

^{Tawny said everyone was home so Carol didn't need to wait. She waved to Tawny and backed down the driveway. Carol thinks Tawny started talking to someone as she started driving away.}

^{That's all they could remember. That said, the Mannings provided better information than we expected and confirmed our worse guesses.}

^{I called Detective Lomita when got back in the BMW and left a message with this news.}

^***

^{We arrived back at the mansion before two o'clock.}

^{As we got out of the BMW, Edie said, “I need to take a nap. I'm wiped out.”}

^{“Go ahead. I'm still jet lagged myself and I'll join you once I get some things together for dinner. I saw some nice steaks in the mansion's refrigerator when we were doing our search. I'll get them and some vegetables I saw there, too.”}

^{“OK, don't be long.”}

^{By the time I entered the pool house bedroom, Edie was in her short nightgown and brushing her teeth. The curtains were drawn in the bedroom.}

^{When she finished, she looked at me and asked, “Stevie, you sure look happy?”}

^{I confessed to Edie that I was thrilled that I'd be a parent, but also really scared and worried.}

^{She said, “I know how you feel.”}

^{Edie walked into the bedroom and sat on the edge of the bed. I stood in front of her and began to empty my pockets and take off my shoes and pants.}

^{“I'm so glad you're in my life, Stevie.”}

^{I said, “I'm absolutely thrilled that we're going to have a baby. I just can't believe the rest of this.”}

^{Edie answered, “My God, Stevie, the last few days are a crazy nightmare. I keep thinking of my father and Tawny.”}

^{“I do, too, baby.”}

^{“That was his car that Carol Manning saw. I'm sure of it.”}

^{I said, “I think you're right.”}

^{“We need to do something.”}

^{“What do you have in mind?”}

^{She said, “We need to go to Tucson.”}

^“Why?”

^{“I'm sure he went there. He knows the area. He would want to be home, to act like everything's normal.”}

^{I chose my words carefully. “Right; I thought about that, too. Whoever killed Bambi and Troy and Lisa tried to make it look like a murder-suicide, with Bambi as the killer.”}

^{Edie said, “But, you and I know Bambi would never do that.”}

^{She paused, gasped and said, “It's just like when Sid was murdered.”}

^{“Well, it was a little different.”}

^{“True. They tried to make Andi look like the murderer…”}

^{She stopped again, and broke down. Her tears came quickly and steadily. She stood and hugged me.}

^{After a few minutes, she said, “Did you hear what I said? I said, ‘They tried', you know, Kathy Reese and my father. Until I said that, I always forced myself to believe that my father was somehow fooled by Reese. That she planned it all, that she killed Sid and tried to blame Andi.”}

^{“I thought that, too.”}

^{“But, maybe we got it wrong. Maybe my father fooled us. That he really worked with Kathy. And, now, this…”}

^{She paused again and cried some more. I patted her back and just kept quiet.}

^{She was thinking like I was. That's my partner.}

^{Then, Edie's cell phone rang.}