Heroine: California Dreamin' (9 page)

When we stepped out into the street a brown station wagon that had parked on the other side of the street drove right in front of us with screeching tires. A brawny looking man with open shirt and leather jacket jumped out of the car while keeping the engine running. He flashed some ID that revealed a cop for a moment and then he yelled at us outright:

“Police. What are you doing here? These premises are under surveillance. You are suspicious here …” My heart had already stopped beating out of fear – this is how I felt. All my angst and guilt feelings had suddenly come back. Before he could return to his tirade he was stopped by Irene who yelled back at him with her fists clenched.

“Will you shut your damned mouth, you klutz! If you are truly a cop then tell me your name, where you from and what business you have here, now! And if you dare to yell at us any further then I make sure that you’ll be fired on the spot.” Impressive. Only American women can act like that. The dude stood with mouth wide open before us and looked dumbfounded. He didn’t anticipate that.

“What are you waiting for? I want to see your damned ID right now”, Irene continued yelling.

“I’ve just shown you my ID”, the guy barked back but he appeared totally unsettled. Apparently he was not looking for a fight but he neither wanted to back off. Something about him was wrong. A police officer here in California would never back down to a private person. Irene pursued her posture and the man flashed reluctantly his badge that he had taken again from his back pocket.

“Why are you here, Officer Jefferson” Irene kept on barking after she looked closely at his badge.

“Sergeant Jefferson, not officer”, the bullnecked dude grumbled back. “And it is me who asks the questions here.” Obviously in an attempt to win back the upper hand. But he didn’t succeed.

“You answer
my
questions”, Irene yelled back at him. “I’m working on behalf of the district attorney’s office and dammit, I want to know from you right now what kind of business does a cop from Grajales have in this district?” That hit home. The cop turned pale. Something was extremely wrong about this copper. Lightning fast he turned around and jumped into his car. He raced away with screeching tires.

“This is one of them. Now we’ve got the first one by the balls. And the others - we will drive them out of their rat holes”, Irene hissed. I looked at her in astonishment. First I didn’t know what went down here and secondly I just learned about a completely unknown side of my friend. She had never used such coarse language in my presence before.

“What are you talking about?” I asked timidly. She turned towards me and her hard facial features started to relax until she smiled.

“That dude probably frightened you? But you don’t have to be scared. He can’t do anything to you. Beside that he’s a stupid coward. When questioned he’ll probably spill the beans immediately.”

“I still don’t get it”, I insisted carefully. “Why should he be interrogated?”

“Oh my, I think I have to update you to the latest news”, Irene replied and I saw thoughtful lines on her forehead.

“I am really here on behalf of the district attorney’s office. I know him quite well because he and Charles meet quite often and I had processed some files for him. I told him that I suspect that we’ll find some traces here to the gangsters who probably had collaborated with this Gutierrez. I only found out when I told Charles that this Gutierrez had threatened you because your visa had expired. Please don’t get excited. I didn’t tell him everything”, she continued hastily when she noticed that I had turned pale and started to tremble.

“Then I told him that I want to have a look at the house in order to find some possible clues. The dead cop’s accomplices would probably keep an eye on the premises if their buddy had taken his financial secrets to his grave. They were probably still awaiting their shares from his ‘businesses’. Now we have a first clue. We’ve beaten on the bushes and this idiot Jefferson had jumped out. A professional would never have reacted like that. I am pretty certain that he is one of them who covered up for this Gutierrez internally. Once we grill him appropriately he’ll provide us with more names. Those greedy mothers have picked the most stupid one to keep watch here.” She looked at me with a grin on her face and took my arm.

“Please don’t be mad at me. I had to leave you out of the loop a bit. But for that you’ll receive your reward.”

“What reward?” I asked back. I didn’t understand anything anymore and information swirled around my head like in a carousel.

“Your visa. I’ve told you that Charles would take care of it. Therefore I had to forfeit a little bit of what had happened to you. Please try to understand me. I wanted to help you and at the same time I work for the justice department if only as a temp. But I couldn’t ignore this crime.”

“What else does prosecution know about me now?” I inquired with a weak voice. Irene was silent for a while. Then she looked at me in a friendly way and then she told me.

“They know that Gutierrez tried to blackmail you and force you into prostitution. That seemed to be an unchanging pattern with him. He picked suitable victims from illegal immigrants and intimidated them so long until they worked the streets for them. He was on the FBI’s radar screen for a long time but there was not enough evidence against him so they let him continue to work without notifying other authorities. Only a few prosecutors were informed. But these people would never forward this information to anybody else and there won’t be any police investigation. Because if your name would surface at the police it could happen that the attention of officers who had collaborated with the lieutenant might be directed to you and they would try to continue to blackmail you. Once you have a visa then you are safe. Now they attempt to find the helpers of the deceased cop.”

My belly told me that this was not everything. But I didn’t want to squeeze her further. If she truly knew more than she revealed to me then she probably wanted to protect me. If I put that into question she, as a facilitator of the justice department, would have to admit that she knew more details than they were good for me. I should not probe her loyalty - not her loyalty to me neither her loyalty to justice.

“Please let us drive back. The scare still sits in my bones”, I asked with exhausted voice.

“At once. I must make a phone call still. This Jefferson must be monitored.” Irene pulled her cell phone from her purse and dialed a number. When her call was answered she spoke some introducing sentences and then forwarded the name of the officer who had laid in wait for us and also the license plate number of his car.

“Well, all done. They now release the FBI dogs who can’t wait to be all over some corrupt copper.” She linked arms with me and we walked to her car. The drive back was as fast and as uneventful as coming here. At my house we had some coffee and ate some snacks; then Irene drove off after we arranged to meet again the next day. I would drive to her place and she would tell me about my job.

I stretched out on the couch and almost instantly fell asleep as I was totally exhausted. I woke up in the late afternoon and felt beautifully relaxed. A small plan had taken shape in my head. I put on a light flashy dress and red sneakers, took a bandana and a big suitcase on wheels that I stuffed with some old jeans and a plain sweatshirt, and also dark sneakers. Then a dark skin lotion, a black plain bag and some cosmetics were thrown into the pink purse. I thought that thick shades were also quite suited for my disguise. Before I closed the door shut I returned briefly. Daniel would come home soon. I wrote a note and put it on the table in the living room.

“Darling, I am on the road with Irene, we went shopping and then have dinner together. I’ll be back home a bit later.”

Then I drove my Chevy out of the garage and headed north.

Once on the road I asked myself whether I had finally turned completely paranoid. First the act with the cell phone after I had found out that my mother had given my phone number to Igor. Even back then I considered that in hindsight an exaggerated hysterical reaction. Now my new plan.

For a while I pondered if it wasn’t too much of what I wanted to stage. But I didn’t want to make a mistake under any circumstances. Rather all these efforts now then being forced to have to explain all of that to a prosecutor at a later point in time.

I drove to the San Francisco airport and parked my car in the parking garage. With the suitcase on wheels behind me and the unfamiliar sun glasses on my nose I went to the United Airlines terminal where the intercontinental flights departed. Then I looked for a rest room in a less frequented area in the departure hall. I waited for a moment until I was in the lobby all by myself. Then I hastily changed clothing in a stall for the handicapped, hid my hair under the black bandana and put the scruffy sneakers on. When I was done I painted my entire face thick with dark make-up so that I subsequently looked like somebody who had spent too much time in a tanning salon. If one looked for me selectively my disguise was probably not sufficient enough but my plan was only to fool guards likely positioned in front of Robert’s house.

The BART train station could be easily reached within a few minutes walking distance from the terminal. An inconspicuous poorly clad young woman with dark complexion pulled her suitcase on wheels to the train station like thousand others do every day. The small train needed only a short time to the Caltrain Station of San Bruno. I got off the train together with many other commuters headed further south with the Caltrain. I on the other hand left the train station and turned east. I could reach Robert’s house in less than ten minutes on foot but I took a little detour. During my morning search in the backyard of his domicile I had noticed that the backside of the yard was only separated by a wooden fence from a little through road on the backside. As with many houses those wooden fence boards were only loosely nailed down and they loosened readily if you only looked at them. There I could enter unobserved because a bush disguised the access to the street.

I reached the backyard without difficulties after I had pushed one of the fence boards carefully aside. At our first visit I hadn’t put the stool back into its place in the house and so I could use it readily to reach the ridge of the roof. Though I balanced on the tips of my toes I had great problems to reach the small opening. I finally had to put the stool on top of the suitcase in order to reach the box.

I pulled vehemently on the heavy metal part and then tilted backwards with a loud scream when the box crashed down. I wasn’t strong enough to hold on to it. Heavily breathing I got up again. I could count the bruises on my behind a bit later. I opened the suitcase as fast as I could and squeezed the box into it. Then I put the stool aside and made sure that I escaped through the opening in the fence. I didn’t forget to put it back in order. When I stepped onto the street I thought to hear voices from the backyard of Robert’s house. I just ran until I reached Main Street out of breath.

Reaching BART station again took me only a few minutes and soon I waited among a large crowd on the platform. Many of those who waited carried a suitcase like I did. Half an hour later I was back in the bathroom at the terminal and removed carefully the brown make-up from my face. When I opened the suitcase I was shocked. The heavy box had crumpled my expensive dress and scratched the sneakers. It was embarrassing to walk around so sloppy but I could do nothing about it. With my head lowered I made my way to the parking garage. In fact I felt more embarrassed about the creases in my dress than I was happy about the found prey. Joy only returned when I reached the freeway.

‘This was my second strike, all I need now is the third one’
, I remembered the stories from Wilhelm Busch’ ‘
Max and Moritz’
that I loved to read when I was a kid. So far I was able to raid two of Robert’s hiding-places and tomorrow the third one would be next. The whole adventure didn’t take longer than two hours. When I parked my Chevy in the garage my mood was close to euphoria. Daniel’s new car was already parked beside mine. When I got out of my vehicle the door on my driver’s side banged into the black metal of his car and left an ugly dent. First I was terrified but then I just shrugged my shoulders. Daniel’s company would take care of that. I left my luggage in the trunk and stalked into the house on the dented shoes. Surely Daniel would console me.

“What the hell ever happened to you?” my shocked husband greeted me. Some football game was shown on TV but he turned it off. I appreciated that because sports were normally important to him.

“It was terrible”, I whined. “In the department store I got stuck in the escalator with my shoes and then fell down. I think I have bruises everywhere.”

“Let me see that. I think we have some cooling ointment for that somewhere in the house”, Daniel said all concerned.

“Later. First I must take a shower and then I need to eat something. I’m dying from hunger.”

I took my time until the football game was over. Then I allowed him to take care of me. Despite the pain I felt in my backside I was in the best of moods and wanted to get spoiled by my husband. For a while he searched the bathroom for an ointment that helped with bruises. He used it sometimes after a workout with his colleagues. When he came back into the bedroom he made a long face.

“I can’t find it. There is only massage oil. May I use that? Perhaps it helps against pain too.” I agreed and crawled again out from the blanket. Daniel smacked his lips when he saw me naked stretched out on my belly.

“Well, these are quite some bruises. For the next two weeks you’ll carry around quite a colorful behind. Today they are blue, then they’ll turn yellowish perhaps with a touch of green. I guess you may save wearing pants – with this range of colors nobody will notice when you walk around naked”, he teased me.

“You bastard”, I growled back, “instead of feeling sorry for me you’re making fun of a poor helpless woman. Just watch out I’ll pay you back.” Daniel was a bit embarrassed and my punishment for him was that he not only had to caress my bruises but he was also sentenced to gently massage my whole body. Later we lay on top of one another, exhausted and groaning.

“Well, that was great. Why haven’t we done that before? Oil massages! That is so splendidly glibbery – that is just extra fun.” I remembered that the last time I had such an adventure was with Horst and Tanja. But I didn’t tell that to my husband.

The next morning I woke up when Daniel had already gone. Irene wanted to spend all morning with me to train me for my upcoming job for her. So I hurried to get to her place. Before I left I dragged my ‘prey’ from the ‘raid’ yesterday into our house and hid it in my clothes commode together with the other box. I was pretty sure that it contained things identical to the other box therefore I saved my curiosity and hit the road.

Until noon my friend Irene explained what was to be done in that job. It was simple office work. Copying written statements, machine-type hand-written documents and composing files. For this kind of work she had setup her own office in her home. This office – how could it be any different compared with the other rooms - featured at least as many square yards as our entire home. Irene was totally elated when I answered one of her questions about foreign languages that I spoke French and some Russian. Besides German and Romanian. Perhaps we can utilize that one day she commented. But currently she was rather in need of somebody who spoke and understood Spanish. I was not allowed yet to start working. She was very diligent in that respect since I didn’t have my social security number yet. So we only sat together drinking coffee for half of the time and talked about her duties.

“When I was young I wanted to become an attorney at law”, she mentioned in between.

“First I went to Yale. But I didn’t like it there. New Haven was simply too small for me and in winter it was mostly lousy cold. I hate snow. Therefore I convinced my dad to let me go to California. In that way I landed at Berkeley twenty five years ago. Then I met Charles and from that point in time on I didn’t fancy studying any longer. We married and a few years later I gave birth to Ron. It was a wonderful time”, she raved on. “My husband was the best lover somebody could wish for. I wanted to help him with his career goals and therefore I stayed at home. But I think this was only an excuse. My family always had money and my parents gave me this house as a wedding present. In reality I just wanted to enjoy life after I had met the perfect man.” I found it exciting. The only ‘perfect’ man I knew was
Norman. A little nostalgia swept through my belly when I thought about him.

“I would like to meet your husband”, I pondered because I would like to see if he shared any similarities with
Norman.

“Well, and he would like to meet you as well. He only saw you when you drove off and he came in. But I also told him that I would scratch his eyes out if he only came close to you. You are
my
friend and I won’t allow that he starts flirting with you. I don’t mind if he fucks his secretaries or those young broads who come to his department right from law school. But he has to stay away from you.” The tone of her voice sounded grim and I became a bit rattled.

“I don’t understand. Would he try to seduce me? I wouldn’t let him do that.” Irene laughed.

“Sweetie, as far as I know you by now you wouldn’t resist his charm for more than two minutes. He’s already seduced women who thought they never go to bed with a man.”

“How do you know about that? Do you live separate?” I dug deeper, now even more rattled.

“It started a few years back. I sensed that he didn’t like me anymore. He didn’t sleep with me anymore. Then I caught him with a female colleague who was kissing on him in his office. There were a few ugly scenes but I couldn’t stop him from having affairs. They became more and more obvious. But we didn’t want a separation. So we negotiated a truce and treat one another like friends. To be honest I still hope that he comes back to me one day”, she concluded her explanation with a sad look on her face.

“You can’t just let go of a man like he is. He is a dream of a man. If he weren’t unfaithful.” She sighed deeply. “But now I have Stanley. I hope it makes Charles jealous.”

We kept on talking until noon whereas she granted me deep insight into her world. But I couldn’t claim afterwards that I had a better understanding of her complicated relation to Charles. Only one thing was clear to me. In their parish they both were considered the perfect married couple. Her Husband had ambitions to enter politics and he worked hard to become senator. Without Irene’s help his efforts would probably remain fruitless and that was the reason why she got anything and everything she wanted - however not in their marriage bed.

The house Daniel and I lived in always appeared downright tiny every time I returned from Irene. But it was our house and Daniel and I were happy in there for the most part. That I had already been raped in there I tried to forget.

I changed my clothes again and put on old jeans and some stained sweater instead of the nice summer dress. Then I lifted the heavy box from the trunk of my Chevy and dragged it into the kitchen. As I had suspected the key that I had taken from the film studio in San Jose didn’t fit this box either, so I relied once more on screw driver and hammer.

The other contents revealed no surprises. The box contained the identical documents and papers. Even small flat bars of gold were hidden under the raised bottom.

But then I noticed something that was different. The autopsy report of Alan’s body was missing. I searched through the documents and saw that they didn’t contain any files about me, neither were there any photos of me. Obviously Robert had hidden this box before he had control over me.

It was clear now that Robert had deposited the papers and the metal box I’d found in the storage hall after he’d met me. This box in his house in San Bruno was his ‘life insurance’ which the lieutenant had hidden a while ago. So the unknown key I found in his desk in the storage hall could only belong to his hideout in San Francisco.

It was time to visit this hideout where he was living under the name of Robert Rodriguez. I packed his driver’s license and the key from the box into an old black purse that I picked from my suitcase. Then I checked if the taser was charged and took a few more things that I needed. So far my plan was to simply drive to the address in San Francisco and to go to the apartment. Somehow I would manage to get in.

Yesterday I was more careful. Once on the freeway angst came creeping up my back again. What if his accomplices had set up guards there? Or the FBI? If those agents got a hold of me they would want to know how I found out about this address. Then they would search my house and find all that paperwork. Angst was replaced by panic. I drove off the next exit and stopped in front of a liquor store. Should I work up my courage with a couple of drinks? But then I would probably lose my train of thought altogether and turn into a horny bitch. I might actually provoke any possible observers just driven by my sexual desires. Strike that!

But if somebody knew about Robert’s apartment in San Francisco they would have found his documents a long time ago. And something would have surfaced somehow in the documents that Irene had shown me. Slowly I calmed down again and I drove on carefully. I didn’t return back on the freeway but rather stuck to the El Camino Real so that I could stop the car at any time in case of another panic attack. I forced myself to stay calm. I needed to get my fingers onto the documents in Robert’s apartment under all circumstances because my life depended on it.
Norman’s image resurfaced before my eyes and I smiled. It lent me strength again.