Beautiful Girls (9 page)

 

^{The autumn sun had baked the Mustang in the soup kitchen's parking lot. I started the engine, put down the windows to let out the oven heat and opened the envelope. Inside was a folded five by seven inch sheet of paper. A smaller piece of paper, two inches on a side, fluttered out of the folded sheet onto my lap. I glanced at this scrap and saw it had text printed on both sides. One side had a long blue diagonal line through the text. The other side did not. I looked closer at the small sheet. It had been cut from a book. The unmarked side had the number twenty-five printed in a large font on top of the column of text. The sentences that followed were numbered one through three and printed in a smaller font.}

^{The text read:}

 

^{1.
Now Samuel died, and all Israel gathered for his funeral. They buried him at his house in Ramah. Then David moved down to the wilderness of Maon.}

^{2. There was a wealthy man from Maon who owned property near the town of Carmel. He had 3,000 sheep and 1,000 goats, and it was sheep-shearing time.}

^{3. This man's name was Nabal, and his wife, Abigail, was a sensible and beautiful woman. But Nabal, a descendant of Caleb, was crude and mean in all his dealings.}

 

^{This was from the Bible. Rob had cut a few verses from the twenty-fifth chapter of an Old Testament book. The “David” mentioned had to be King David. I knew the Bible well enough to recognize that the verses came from one of the books of Samuel.}

^{What a strange thing to do, and, what an unusual passage to select. I opened the folded sheet. It was handwritten by Rob with the same blue pen.}

^{Hello David,}

^{You found where I was.}

^{Do you want to find me now?}

^{If you do, you'll go to the wet bar in Sodom.}

^{I'll leave my second clue there. Seek help from a titian-haired maid.}

^{Come alone to the desert.}

^Nabal

 

^{So, Rob must mean Las Vegas, the modern-day Sodom. Why there? I guess Sin City in 2004 was a good place to hide if you're a wanted man, and a good place to drink if you're an alcoholic. What was his game? I wasn't sure other than that I was the hunter. And, he was the prey. Or, were the roles reversed?}

^{What was with this pseudonym Nabal? I didn't recognize the name or the biblical story. Samuel was a ruler of Israel before David. But, Samuel wasn't David's father. No, that was Jesse. I reread the three verses of this chapter. With Samuel dying I supposed David was about to become king. I wondered why David went into the wilderness at that time. Also, I was surprised by the town named Carmel. I didn't realize that appeared in the Bible. There is a Carmel in California, in the Monterey Bay area. Could Rob have a connection there? His note only mentioned Sodom, which had to be Las Vegas.}

^{I looked at the car's clock: 4:45. I wanted to check out Edie's mountain cabin and find Rob's sister, Natalie, now or very soon; certainly before I left Tucson. I had already driven over five hours that day. Still, this was a real clue. I needed to get to Las Vegas, soon.}

^{Before I did anything, I shut off the car, and walked back into the soup kitchen's lobby. Stacked on a table in a corner were Bibles. I picked up one. There are two Samuel books in the Bible; first and second Samuel. I paged to 1 Samuel and found chapter twenty-five. There was the text I had in my hand, “Now Samuel died, and…”}

^{I closed the Bible and walked outside with it to the Mustang. I spent the next twenty minutes reading the twenty-fifth chapter and scanning the remainder of this book. I was correct. The book's chapter is the time just before David becomes King of Israel. Chapter twenty-five is really a stand-alone story that, except for two notable events, would not be mentioned when summarizing this book or David's life.}

^{First, David correctly sees Nabal as a cruel and uncaring rich man. Nabal won't help David and his men. David is hurt and seeks vengeance against Nabal. However, Nabal's wife, Abigail, secretly meets with David and begs him not to fight her husband. She agrees Nabal is a bad man, but tells David that God will punish Nabal for his acts. David yields and calls off his attack. Within a week, Nabal is stricken and dies of a stroke.}

^{Then, at the end of the chapter, David marries Nabal's widow, Abigail.}

^{I closed the Bible again and thought about this story. There were some parallels with Rob's life. He saw himself as Nabal. There were also a limited number of similarities between David and I, and Abigail and Edie. The biggest one was that I promised Edie not to hurt Rob. Was that what Rob was counting on?}

^{I returned the Bible to the lobby, got back in my car and drove to Natalie Malone's house. She lived on the east side of Tucson in a detached home development. Natalie was a divorced empty nester about fifty years old. She spoke to me through the screen of her opened front door. She did not invite me inside her home to talk. She had very little to offer me. No, she had no idea of Rob's location. No, she didn't realize that he was being investigated for murder. No, she did not keep in regular contact with Rob. No, she really hadn't seen Rob very much since he and his deceased wife moved to Los Angeles over thirty-five years earlier. Yes, she knew Rob had been in jail and had been released recently. But, no, she had not visited him in prison and only saw him once since he was paroled, and that was several months ago when he unexpectedly visited Natalie.}

^{“Mr. Garrett, there's not much I do with my brother. He's an alcoholic, like our father, and an ex-con. This new news shows I've done the right thing by cutting him out of my life.”}

^{I gave Natalie my card and asked her to give me a call if she heard from Rob. I didn't expect to see or hear from her again.}

^{It was almost six when I stopped at a diner Natalie recommended. It was the only helpful piece of information Natalie provided me.}

^{I was late calling Lomita. I left a message on his cell phone.}

^{I sat in a quiet booth at the diner. I had just ordered a chicken Caesar salad and an iced tea when Lomita called me back. We talked so long that my dinner was delivered while we still talked. He listened closely to my story of Sister Carrie and the letter from Rob Nealy.}

^{“That's some luck that he left that clue for you, and that you went there.”}

^{“Well, I guess he knew Edie would send me to Sister Carrie. Plus, she sent Edie an email message this morning asking to see me. It was just a coincidence that I was already on my way there.”}

^{“So, what are you planning next, Garrett?”}

^{“I'm heading to Las Vegas in the morning.”}

^{“Do you think this Sister Carrie was playing it straight with you?”}

^{“I do, mostly. I think she knew more about Nealy, about his activities, maybe even more about what he's doing now. I don't know. I guess if she was really helping him she wouldn't have given me the clue.”}

^{“Oh, I don't know. You could be walking into a trap or he could be sending you on a wild goose chase.”}

^{“I know. I'm not sure what to think.”}

^{Lomita said, “Read me the clue again.”}

^{I did.}

^{He asked, “What's a titian-haired maid mean?”}

^{“I think it means she's a redhead.”}

^{“Do you know a redhead in Vegas?”}

^{“I don't know anyone in Las Vegas.”}

^{Lomita said, “So what does he mean by the wet bar? Every bar is wet in Vegas.”}

^{“I'm not sure. Maybe it's a play on words.”}

^{“What do you mean?”}

^{“Maybe there's a bar with a name like wet or water or something like that.”}

^{“Maybe. I guess he does mean Vegas. Sodom could be Tahoe or Reno, too, or an Indian reservation.”}

^{I said, “True, but the other two towns are a long way from the desert and Tucson. I think Vegas works best with the Bible verses he selected. You know, that David went to the wilderness, which was the desert in the Holy Land.”}

^{“Perhaps. That stuff is weird.”}

^{“Yeah, it is. It makes me think he doesn't care about being caught or surviving. It's like he wants to make a point, a final statement.”}

^{“Maybe. He's playing a game, a potentially deadly game.”}

^{“So, I'm heading there in the morning. I need to call Edie at 9 PM and check in. Have you heard anything from them?”}

^{“No. But, I called Charlie and he's keeping an eye on them. The ladies took a ride on the golf cart today and went to the library. They also went for a swim in Dot and Charlie's pool.”}

^{“Good. I'll give Edie the full update and ask her to do a search of Vegas hotels and casinos for anything that could be the ‘wet bar'.”}

^{“OK, let's do this. You go on your chase and see if you can find his trail. I'll call Las Vegas P.D. tomorrow and give them a heads up. When do you think you'll get there?”}

^{“Well, not until tomorrow afternoon. It will probably take, what, six or seven hours to get to Vegas?”}

^{“It'll be longer that that. You won't get there until after dark. I'll tell them you might check in with them on Saturday morning if you find anything. I'll give you a contact when we talk next. I guess that could be Saturday morning, too.”}

^{“OK. I'll call then and tell you what I've found, if anything.”}

^{Lomita asked, “So, you're headed to the mountain cabin now?”}

^{“Yes, I need to check it out.”}

^{“Tucson police did that, but you might notice something they didn't.”}

^{“Could be, plus I plan to sleep there, too.”}

^{“Do you want a patrol car to meet you?”}

^{“No, I don't think Nealy's there.”}

^{“Alright, Garrett, call me Saturday.”}

^{I ate my now room-temperature salad and melted-ice tea. I ordered a slice of carrot cake and coffee. It was 7:40. I probably wouldn't be on the road until 8 PM, which meant I wouldn't get to the cabin until a few minutes after nine; too late for my worrying fiancée.}

^{“Hello, baby, how are you?”}

^{“Oh, Stevie, it's so good to hear your voice. Is something wrong? It's not nine o'clock yet.”}

^{“No, baby, nothing's wrong.”}

^{I explained why I was calling early.}

^{She said, “I'm glad you called now. I would be worried. I got an email from Sister Carrie saying that she wanted to show you something.”}

^{“I know. She told me. I have a letter from your father.”}

^{“A letter?”}

^{“Yes, a weird letter.”}

^{I read the contents of both the note and the Bible passage again.}

^{“Oh, that is weird. Who is Nabal? I never heard of him.”}

^{“He is an obscure person in the Bible, but the story shows David in a good light, and a special woman, too, named Abigail. Read the whole chapter in 1 Samuel when we get off the phone. I did. There are some parallels with Nabal and Rob, and, I guess with David and me, and Abigail and you.”}

^{“OK, but I'm not following you, Stevie.”}

^{“I worry that Rob might see parallels with this story. That he thinks God will strike him down, but wants to see if I will hunt him and kill him first, like David wanted to do to Nabal before Abigail came to him.”}

^{“Maybe it will become clearer once I read it.”}

^{“It will. I could be mistaken, but read it and see what you think.”}

^“OK.”

^{“Here's the deal. I'm going to Las Vegas in the morning. Rob's clue is so vague that I need your help with an internet search, OK?”}

^{“Sure, anything I can do.”}

^{I explained my guess about the wet bar. She would look for bars and lounges with such names. I also asked her to make a reservation for me at a reasonably priced hotel on The Strip; nothing fancy, but I wanted to be centrally located in Sodom. I told her not to guarantee the room as we wouldn't know for sure if I'd use it.}

^{Edie got all that and said she'd call me back in two hours, at 10 PM, with her results. Plus, she wanted to hear about the state of her cabin.}

^{“I love you, Stevie. Be careful!”}

^{“I will, baby.”}