The Loverboy (32 page)

them and told the driver to take her back where he had picked
her up. Then she raised the divider again and got changed back
into her normal clothes and shoved the clothes, purse and
jewelry into the backpack. Then the pulled the money out of the
backpack. There were three stacks left, sixty thousand dollars.
She couldn‟t believe she had spent that much in such a short
time, but it had been worth it. She shoved the money in the
pocket of her hooded sweatshirt and sat back waiting for the
driver to drop her off lost in thoughts. They arrived at the
corner and the driver let her out. She gave him a hundred dollar
tip and he left her there.
She didn‟t want to go back to the hotel. She needed
someone. She walked to her old apartment and on the way dropped
the backpack with the clothes and jewelry into a trash can. She
found the Honda and sat down in it. Not twenty minutes later the
white BMW pulled up and Kim looked intently. Max got out and
seemed in a great mood. This didn‟t seem like someone about to
break up with his girlfriend that was hopelessly in love with
him. He ran the bell to the apartment and was buzzed in. Not two
minutes later he walked out with Ally behind him. Kim watched as
they talked for about five minutes and halfway through the
conversation Ally started to cry. Max made no effort to console
her and finished his spiel after which he got into his car and
sped off. She felt bad for Ally but after seeing this unfold she
knew it had been the right thing.
Like Jake had felt nothing for her, Max had felt nothing
for Ally and was just going to use her for his benefit. He
didn‟t even wait for the next day. She considered going out
there to console Ally for a minute but the door opened and her
mom came out and wrapped her arms around Ally. Kim wished so
much to be part of that embrace but she couldn‟t. There was
unfinished business and Kim had to figure out what next. Ally
and her mom went back inside and Kim got out of the car.
She opened the mailbox slot of their old apartment and
dropped one of the stacks of bills in it. Then she went back to
the Honda and got in. She started it and for a moment wondered
what to do now and for a moment she considered just turning
herself in and serving her sentence. But she still had forty
thousand dollars so she might as well enjoy that before she had
to go back. That was what she was going to do she decided. She
was going to live carefree for a while and see what happens. She
pulled the cell phone out of her pocket and called Annie.
Annie answered “Hello?”
“Hi, Annie. It‟s done. It worked” she said.
“That‟s great!” Annie said, “Come over and we will
celebrate.”
“I can‟t. I have to move on. I am a fugitive and the longer
I stick around the more danger the people around me are in. I
just called to say thank you for everything, for all your help
but most of all for being my friend. I am leaving now” she said.
“Where are you going?” Annie asked.
“I don‟t know yet. I have a little bit of money left over
and will see where I can get with that before they catch me”.
“I understand, take care of yourself” Annie said.
“You too” Kim said holding back the tears, “Say thanks to
Matt from me.”
“I will” Annie sniffed.
“I love you” Kim said and hung up.
As the line dropped dead the tears flowed freely. She
whipped her face and started the car and put it in gear. She was
about to drive off when the phone buzzed. There was a text
message from Annie. She opened it and read the message:
“Dear Gabriella, don’t forget to check your glove box
compartment before you leave. I love you too!”
Puzzled Kim opened the glove box compartment and in it she
found Gabriella‟s passport and a USB memory stick. Kim looked at
passport and understood. Then she looked at the USB stick and
wondered what that was for. She turned it over and on the other
side was a sticker that said: “Switzerland – Gabriella Garza”.
Kim drove to the nearest BestBuy and plugged the USB stick into
a display computer. There was a file on it showing a balance of
$96,529,586.56 USD in a Swiss bank account in the name of
Gabriella Garza. She pulled out the USB stick and left the store
then got into the car and headed west.
Chapter 39:
It took her three days to make it to Los Angeles. There she
left the car and found a plastic surgeon. The surgery was
fifteen thousand dollars and when the bandages came off a week
later her nose looked exactly like it did in Gabriella‟s
passport. She was taking Gabriella‟s identity. Gabriella was a
United States citizen and had been buried somewhere in the
Mexican mountain ridge.
She had hesitated for a little while wondering if it was
the right thing to do but this way at least Gabriella‟s death
would not be for nothing she figured. With the final twenty five
thousand dollars she got a hotel room on the beach and spent as
much time as possible in a tanning center. The skin tone was the
only thing that was off but after a few weeks of working on that
it was pretty close and she felt comfortable with it. She
considered having the tattoo removed but it had become a part of
her life and it had formed her in a way. Getting rid of it would
not undo the damage and she decided to keep it as a reminder of
how fragile happiness could be.
Next she opened a bank account in Gabriella‟s name and got
an ATM card. She transferred some money into her new account
from the Swiss account and obtained a transcript of Gabriella‟s
high school records. Next she went to UCLA and submitted two
applications. She was informed that it would be tough to still
get in with only a month until the semester started. Kim
mentioned that she was planning to donate two hundred and fifty
thousand dollars to the school she was attending to update their
legal library as she would be using that quite a bit. This
promise made it so there was almost instantly place for the two
late enrollments.
She left the campus with the acceptance letters and found
an apartment on the beach in Santa Monica. It wasn‟t cheap but
it had to be just right and this one was. It came fully
furnished. She sat down in her new apartment and finally felt
she was almost there. She had started over and made it but there
was still one thing missing. She found the yellow pages and
found herself a lawyer and instructed him to send a letter to
Alison Brown in Milwaukee. The letter was supposed to offer a
full scholarship to UCLA including room and board. There should
be no mention of her in the letter and included should be two
tickets to come check out the campus next week. Also he should
contact Alison and her mom and convince them to come.
A week later Ally and her mom were on their way. They were
met at the airport by the lawyer and again they asked who had
arranged this but the lawyer told them he had been sworn to
secrecy. He drove them to the new apartment on the beach. Kim
was lying in the sun on the beach about one hundred yards from
the apartment. She was lying on a beach towel reading the
newspaper and next to her was a list of all the books she needed
for her first year of law school. On the front page of the paper
was an article about a drug related murder in Milwaukee
Wisconsin. The victim was Jake Juliano and it reported that the
rumor was that he had stolen a large amount of money from a
dangerous Mexican drug cartel and they had found him by tracing
the transaction. It had been the last in a string of six murders
that were all related to the Mexican cartel. They would never
hurt anyone again she thought.
She startled as the cell phone next to her buzzed, a new
text message.
It was from the lawyer and read:
“Your guests have
arrived.”
“Let them in, I’ll be right there”
she responded quickly.
She looked over and saw the lawyer, Ally and her mom get
out of a black Cadillac. They walked around the apartment and
were clearly impressed and surprised. After they went around the
building the lawyer herded them inside and Kim got up. She
picked up her towel, book list and cell phone and headed towards
the apartment. On her way she dropped the newspaper in a trash
can not giving the article another thought.
When she got to the apartment she saw Ally and her mom
marvel at the apartment. Ally was bouncing around it like a
little kid and her mom was quizzing the lawyer for information.
Surely there must be a mistake. Who would offer something like
this and why them? The lawyer shrugged and kept quiet. None of
them noticed Kim standing by the sliding door. Then Ally noticed
a picture in a frame on a shelf.
“Look Mom” she yelled pointing at the picture, “that‟s us.”
Her mom looked closer. The picture was smudged, old and
crumpled but it indeed was the two of them. Now she was really
confused and demanded answers from the lawyer and he just told
her that they had to wait for Gabriella, Ally‟s roommate, to
find out what it was about. Kim swallowed hard and opened the
sliding door and stepped in. Ally and her mom looked up clearly
confused by the situation and all Kim could say with a lump in
her throat was “Hi Mom.”