Heroine: California Dreamin' (26 page)

A half an hour later I drove up to the repair shop where Pete worked. One could drive directly from the street into the large hall. Pete stood beside my Chevy before I could make it to the entrance. When I got out of the car he took me into his arms and danced a dance of joy losing my red sneakers. When I caught my breath again I saw that my white blouse had been smeared with oil from his overall. I scolded him. He made a face like a little boy who had done something forbidden. I just had to laugh about it so hard and wrote that expensive piece of clothing off under
‘oh well, just buy a new one’
. A few of Pete’s colleagues approached us with grinning faces and Pete introduced me to his friends.

“Hey dude”, blared one of them who with crew cut, tattoos and broad shoulders, reminded me a bit of the pimp who had threatened me in jail. He walked with a limp and dragged his right leg.

“This broad is far too pretty for you. Julie, get rid of this dude and come with me. I certainly have the right stuff for you.” With his hands he grabbed his balls and all of them bawled with laughter. Except for Pete.

“Don’t pay attention to him. He’s just a show-off. After she had left him his last girlfriend came to us and asked us if we could attach some extension to him. She would do it herself but she couldn’t find his connecting piece.” Everybody laughed even the guy with the crew cut. Their jokes
fit their environment and there was no difference to the jokes back home. For a while they kept on making suggestive remarks. Then I gave Pete another big hug. The blouse was ruined anyway. I needed him now. So I gave him a long kiss in order to convince him to help me.

“Pete, darling, can we take your car? Mine acts a bit silly and I don’t want to use it on the long way to Watsonville.”

“That’s alright”, replied Pete after he had recaptured his breath after the long kiss. “My buddies here can have a look at your car while we are gone.”

“Will do”, confirmed another one. “Ma’am, why don’t you stay here as well then I can check your chassis as well.” Again general laughter. They were good boys therefore I just stuck my tongue out to them before I fetched my things from the Chevy.

I still had the men’s laughter in my ear when I got into an ancient gray Ford Explorer. While on our way I crept down to the foot room so that an observer could only see the driver.

“Are you being followed?”

“Yes, I must be careful. I’ll tell you later when we are on our way to Watsonville.”

“Seems your boss is not at work? Otherwise I’m sure you weren’t allowed to clown around that much, or?” I inquired from down in the foot room when we drove to Pete’s apartment where he wanted to take a shower and change. I was quite certain that I also would land in the shower. After all the excitement today I actually wished for it. More so: I needed it.

“The guy hitting on you first, the one with the crew cut, he is the boss. But he doesn’t take things seriously. When he was young he drove around on his Harley, until he broke his leg. Then he opened the repair shop. He’s a nice guy”, Pete went on. His small apartment was only a few blocks from the repair shop in the third floor of an apartment building.

“We have to hurry up. I want be done before it gets dark”, I begged him, when he started fondling me.

“But a quick shower is still okay?” said Pete q
uite exhausted. I noticed with great satisfaction that he had improved as a lover. In that way he could enchant any woman. It was a shame that we didn’t have enough time after that to continue our amorous play. Time was of essence. I left skirt and blouse be and put on the old clothes that I had brought with me in my bag. They were better suited for walking in the woods at Watsonville.

Pete drove out of the courtyard and made fun of me because I was down in the foot room again. Like the FBI he took the route via the I-5.

Only a few miles before Gilroy I dared to come out of the foot room. Until then I had told Pete most of my story. Since he knew that we would intrude some private premises to look for a dead body he had become rather quiet.

I did not ask him if he’d preferred turning around because I was afraid that he would say yes.

At the end of the mountainous road I asked him to turn into the dirt road towards the mountains. Shortly before the summit we parked the vehicle behind some bushes so that it could not be seen from the road. We needed to walk to the plateau for half a mile and when we reached it I was all wet from sweat.

The fall winds were extremely dry but also hot. Before we stepped out of the woods I took the binoculars that I had bought this morning in a supermarket and screened the surroundings. It was dead silence, no movement anywhere. In a big circle we sneaked around the compound using the shades of the trees. The place was empty, the doors were closed and locked. The blue-green cross on the silo shined in the afternoon sun. We looked around for a few minutes in silence and when we still couldn’t notice any movements we went to the compound.

The tracks of the FBI vehicles could still be seen in the dust and the dirt of the inner court yard. At this time of the day it was incredibly hot in here because the sun reflected directly from the white walls of the building. The sweat poured down my body under my sweatshirt; I had put on because I anticipated that I would need to crawl through the underbrushes. Before going home Pete would need to let me use his shower once more. Undecided I turned to him.

“Last week they went with him over there to the stables. Should we start our search there? If and when Diego is dead we most likely find some traces over there.”

Pete just shrugged his shoulders and started to walk. My euphoria from midday didn’t last for very long and had actually given way to some somber mood when we drove here. Now angst was added. What should we do if we really found Diego’s dead body? Those from the FBI could get the idea that I had known for the whole time where the body was hidden and that I just wanted to fool them. Pete stepped into the building that looked like a stable and peeked inside. Timidly I held on to him.

The rooms were empty except for some agricultural items that were rusting away in some corner. We went on and came to the backside of the building. One had a beautiful view of the landscape all the way down to the ocean and of Santa Cruz. A somewhat steep slope that reached several hundred yards down to a road was overgrown with weeds that were trampled down by footsteps. Obviously it was here where the officers had followed the search dog.

“Do you think they might have buried him in this field?” I asked Pete with a hoarse voice.

“I surely don’t think so. Your kidnappers had only be gone for a few minutes. Even for strong men it takes a few hours to dig out a grave. And that would also attract attention. No, I have another idea. Do you smell something?” I poked my nose into the air and sniffled. It smelt somewhat sweet but not unpleasant. Like flowers but somewhat stronger.

“Rapeseed”, said Pete. “They had planted rapeseed on this field. A few plants are still there. If they would be blooming now you could hardly stand it. I think that your acquaintance lies in the tank over there.” He pointed with his thumb behind him.

“In the silo? How could he get there? Then you would notice some smell of decay.”

“This is an oil tank not a silo”, he corrected me. “Some farmers in this area had grown rapeseed here for a while and for storage they put up these huge tanks. Later they had problems with the quality because with some harvests the acid contents of the oil were extremely high. We had some trucks that drove with bio-diesel in the shop for repair. The rapeseed oil from bad areas just ate through lines and gaskets. Was good business for us in the shop.”

“Okay”, I replied, “and how do you think he got in there? You think he flew in there?”

Pete didn’t answer but went back to the tank that was lowered into the ground on its western side. He disappeared behind the tank. I hurried up to follow him. A ramp that could not be seen from the courtyard led all the way up to the top of the tank. It was easily accessible for a tractor from the south side. Why didn’t anybody see that?

But footprints in the grass proved that not long ago quite a few people had roamed around here. Pete climbed the tower whose diameter was at least about six
yards. The middle of the metal column featured a circular lid that could be opened with a wheel. Pete unscrewed the lid.

“Be careful”, he held me back. “If you fall into it you would never come out again. Until I could drain the oil there below you would miserably drown.” I flinched but then leaned carefully over the edge. A horrible stench of rancid oil hit my nose. No surprise that the search dog didn’t find anything here.

“If they had killed Diego here all they needed to do was to throw him into the opening then he disappeared forever. This oil will dissolve a corps in a few days. Nothing will be left. Clever solution.”

“Why didn’t the cops think of that? They must have known that also.”

“Ask me something easier”, Pete replied while he closed the lid again. “I don’t know their procedures. When they had a search dog with them they might have perhaps trusted that the dog would give alarm. But the poor creature had no chance here. All the dog could pick up was the smell of rapeseed.” He took a paper hanky from his pants and diligently wiped the lid’s handle.

“In case your FBI friends should come back and look for fingerprints” he answered my questioning look.

“Let’s get out of here. The place gives me the creeps.” Hastily we trotted back to the car. I was sad and frustrated. I had to give up my search for Diego. To at least convince Irene of my innocence all I had to do was to find this Joe. In Pete’s Ford I pulled my cell phone from my purse that I had hidden underneath the seat. The display indicated two new messages. One was from Irene the other phone number I didn’t know. After I listened to Irene’s voice mail I slid restlessly back and forth on my seat. She urged me to contact her. The FBI was looking for me. They had questions about the shootout this afternoon. I dialed her number immediately.

“Darling, where are you? The officials want to talk to you. They are totally confused about what happened today at noon. I am so concerned about you.” The voice of my friend almost shrieked while we were on the phone. I promised her to come back as soon as possible but I didn’t tell her where I had been. I could be at her place in two hours the latest. Then she would drive to the police with me. The second message electrified me. It was from Kate.

“Julie, I need your help, please. My lawyer pulled a fast one on me and I can’t get out of jail because I don’t have any money for posting bail. Meggie doesn’t wonna give me anything because she’s mad at me. You are the only one who can help me. I have to stop now because I have no more credit.” That was all. We were already on the mountain pass road down to Gilroy.

“Pete, please turn around. We need to go to Prado. A female friend of mine who I met in jail is in trouble. Do you know how long the courts will be open so that I could post some bail?” Pete stopped at the curb.

“Normally they are closed in the afternoon, as far as I know. What did your friend do? Sex in public?” He grinned boldly and I was glad that his depressed mood had gone away.

“Shop lifting. How much bail do you think they want for that?”

“They ask for setting bail for this now? That’s crazy. They had caught me once but they let me go again. I only had to sign a piece of paper that I would show up for my court appointment later. Be that as it may. Today you won’t accomplish anything anymore. Beside that you should look after yourself a bit better. When the FBI wants something from you then you should make sure that you show up there ASAP. Currently they don’t take any jokes especially not from foreigners.”

He had noticed the message on my mail box. And he was probably right. It was better to first of all talk with Irene. I would call Kate in jail. It took me a long time until I found the phone number of the Prado jail and then it took the operator even longer to bring Kate to the phone. She was totally beside herself and cried while she described that her girlfriend had abandoned her.

“How much is bail?” I asked.

“They went bonkers. They want ten thousand dollars. Only because they had found a couple of joints in my camper. Because I had been convicted once back in Kansas due to possession of drugs they claim now that I am a repeat offender. That the police had no search warrant when they went through my camper didn’t interest the judge at all.” I was shocked. Where should I get all this money from? My credit card was still maxed out and overdrawn and the credit company would never authorize this amount.

“Why did police search your car anyways?” I tried to win some time to think.

“They just wondered why a van with Kansas license plates had been sitting on a parking lot directly in front of their precinct for such a long time. One of them seemed to have panicked and brought something up about a bomb. Then the idiots towed my car and searched it with a special team. All they found was those joints.” She sobbed.

“Kate, calm down. I will get you out of there. I will think of something. Please still tell me the name of your lawyer.” I would first talk with Irene. I was sure that she could find out why bail was set so high and probably then negotiate with them to bring bail down. After all she was friends with the female prosecutor in Prado.