Fairplay, Denver Cereal Volume 6 (16 page)

~~~~~~~~

Wednesday mid-day – 12:30 P.M.

“
You don’t have to come in
with me if you don’t want to,” Lizzie said.

James Schmidt, Schmidty, Seth’s music agent
pulled his BMW to the curb. He’d known Lizzie most of his life and
loved her almost as long. She glanced at him and smiled at the look
on his face.

“
What did Lupe say?”
Schmidty asked what Lizzie’s childhood caregiver had said to her
before they left.

“
Don’t be stupid,” Lizzie
said. “It’s just that…”

“
What?” Schmidty
asked.

“
I don’t exactly have a
scarlet A but…,” Lizzie said. “Maybe I should.”

“
I think you’re
beautiful,” Schmidty said. “And as usual, you’re doing something
wonderful for someone else.”

“
Do you think I’ll ever
have a life?” Lizzie asked.

“
I think you’re having a
life,” Schmidty said.

“
Of ill repute,” Lizzie
said.

Schmidty smiled. Trying to assess what he
was thinking Lizzie furrowed her eyebrows at him.

“
I mean get married, have
my own house, a sane life,” Lizzie pushed her old friend Schmidty
on the shoulder. “You’re my age and you have all that stuff. Well,
not a wife, but… I want my
own
BMW.”

Blushing bright red, Schmidty gave her an
odd smile.

“
What?” Lizzie
asked.

Schmidty shook his head and unbuckled his
seat belt. She put her hand over his and he stopped moving. He
looked at her hand then at her face.

“
What?” Lizzie
asked.

“
I’d buy you any house you
wanted, settle into a sane life, you can have my BMW or any other
you want and…” Schmidty skin matched his red hair. “Will you marry
me?”

“
What?” Startled, Lizzie
spoke before she realized what she’d said.

Schmidty panicked and opened his door. She
grabbed his arm.

“
Why don’t we start with
dinner?” Lizzie asked.

Schmidty nodded.

“
I…” Lizzie
blushed.

Schmidty looked at her.

“
I’ve always thought you
were too good for me,” Lizzie said. “I mean, I’m not really your
type.”

“
What’s my type?” Schmidty
asked.

“
Blonde, big plastic
torpedo…” Lizzie gestured to her breasts. “Rich, cheerleader,
Jewish.”

“
My only type is you,
Lizzie,” Schmidty said.

“
What about all those
girls?” Lizzie asked. “Every time I saw you, you were with some
pretty…”

Schmidty nodded and she blushed.

“
I saw you with those
girls because you wanted me to be jealous?” Lizzie asked. “You
didn’t like them at all.”

“
That’s not true,”
Schmidty said. “I’m not that much of a cad. I did like them. I’ve
just always liked you a lot more.”

“
I don’t want to be your
shicksa,” Lizzie said.

“
Yes, you’ve told me that
since we were ten years old,” Schmidty said.

“
What about your mother?”
Lizzie asked.

“
What about my mother?”
Schmidty asked.

“
What about…” Lizzie waved
to her step-father induced pregnant belly.

“
Seems to me like you’re
doing what you always do, Lizzie,” Schmidty said. “You’re making
someone very happy.”

“
What will your mother
say?” Lizzie asked.

Schmidty groaned.

“
Well…”

“
Why do you care what my
mother says?” Schmidty asked. “For the record, my mother has always
said I could do a lot worse than you.”

“
That’s not much of a
compliment,” Lizzie said.

“
We’re talking about my
mother,” Schmidty said.

“
Hmpft,” Lizzie crossed
her arms and leaned into the seat.

“
They’re watching from the
doorway,” Schmidty said. “They probably think you changed your
mind.”

“
Oh,” Lizzie looked over
at the large early twentieth century home. Seeing Colin and Julie,
she waved. Turning back to Schmidty, she kissed him on the lips and
got out of the BMW. Stunned, Schmidt took a minute to gather
himself before he joined her.

“
Dinner?” Schmidty
asked.

“
Dinner,” Lizzie
said.

“
Please come in!” Julie
said.

Lizzie took Schmidty’s hand and went up the
stairs to Julie and Colin’s home.

~~~~~~~~

Wednesday afternoon – 1:30 P.M.

Pulling up to the storage unit, Sandy
swallowed hard. She was going to have to do this alone. Seth still
wasn’t walking. Just back to work, Aden was reviewing sites with
Jake.

And there was no way Sissy and Charlie were
coming. At least not this first time. No way. No how.

That meant Sandy was there alone.

Of course, alone meant Heather, Tanesha and
Jill. With Tanesha in the passenger seat, Heather pulled up next to
her. Jill pulled in on the other side of her. They didn’t really
count.

She needed someone tough to help her think.
The girls were nice and smart and certainly had her back. And no
one was tougher than Tanesha.

But Seth was a police officer. He knew all
the ins and outs of what happened to her. Seth wouldn’t be here
today.

Sighing, she dropped her head and took a few
deep breaths to calm her racing heart.

“
Hey!” She heard Heather
greeting someone. Sandy looked up to see Ava stepping out of Seth’s
unmarked police sedan. Curious, Sandy got out of the
car.

“
Ava!” Sandy
said.

“
Seth was devastated he
couldn’t come today,” Ava said. “I thought I’d come to see if I
could help. I know the forensics team, so we’ll get the inside
scoop.”

“
Thanks,” Sandy
beamed.

“
Don’t thank me yet,” Ava
said. “This afternoon is going to suck. No matter what we do, it’s
going to suck.”

Sandy nodded. Out of the corner of her eye,
she saw Heather, Tanesha and Jill nod. She saw the Agent Angela
Montiz, the nice FBI agent from Tucson, and waved.

“
Angie!” Ava
said.

“
Amelie!” Agent Angie
said. “What a treat! I thought I was only going to see you at pizza
last night.”

“
Seth couldn’t make it
today,” Ava said. “I wanted to be here with my friend, Sandy. Do
you mind?”

“
Not at all. I’d love your
eye on some of this stuff,” Agent Angie said. “You have good taste
in friends, Sandy.”

Sandy nodded.

“
Are you ready?” Agent
Angie asked.

Jill slipped her arm into Sandy’s elbow and
Sandy nodded.

CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED and SIXTY-SIX

Fresh Start

Wednesday afternoon – 3:35 P.M.

“
I’ll be right back,”
Sandy said.

She smiled at Agent Angie and Ava and walked
out of the storage locker. Jill, Heather, and Tanesha were sitting
under a tree in the parking lot. They were going through the boxes
the FBI agents brought them. Just starting to feel the babies’
weight, Jill was seated on a makeshift throne of boxes with
something under her feet. Sandy’s best friends were dirty and
hot.

And it had only been two hours.

“
I’m going to pump,” Sandy
said.

“
Do you want…?” Jill
asked.

“
I need some time to
think,” Sandy shook her head.

“
Your water, madam,”
Heather said. “Got to prime the pump.”

Sandy smiled. Her breast feeding champion,
Heather, gave Sandy a small bottle of water. She drank it down and
gave the bottle back to Heather. Heather refilled it from the
orange plastic water cooler they’d nabbed from Lipson Construction.
She gave the bottle back to Sandy.

“
We’d hug you but…”
Tanesha raised her dusty hands.

Sandy gave her a sad nod. She waved at them
and went to Aden’s SAAB. She didn’t usually drive, but Aden had
insisted today. He wanted her to be able to get away when she
needed to. She told him Jill would be there, but he was so
concerned that she took his car.

Turning on the car to get the air
conditioning running, the subtle smell of Aden’s cologne filled the
interior. She loved this car. Every time she got in, she remembered
their first date. They’d met at the gym and he usually drove a work
truck. Noelle had insisted he take his fancy car. She smiled.

She put up the metallic window screen and
the side window shades. She put on her nursing cover and set up the
breast pump. She said a silent prayer for Rachel and began
pumping.

Sandy’s mind drifted to the storage locker.
When she had stepped into the storage unit, she knew her entire
life had been a lie. Her eyes glanced from a lavish ball gown to a
gold leaf chair to a bear skin rug. No wonder her mother couldn’t
afford glasses for Charlie! She’d spent all her money on this…
junk.

While the ridiculously expensive garbage
angered Sandy, the waste made her furious. Ava pointed out a rat’s
nest in a pile of hand sewn, hand painted kimonos. Her mother could
have paid for Charlie and Sissy’s college two times over with the
money she’d spent on just the plush junk she’d destroyed!

That’s not to mention the wall of boxes
filled with… more pricey junk. Heather found three boxes of stage
costumes. Too small for her mother, they were clearly created, worn
and cared for by someone. Jill thought they must have been Sandy’s
biological mother’s clothes. The rush of information was almost too
much for Sandy to process.

She switched off the pump to massage her
breasts for a minute. She tried to force her mind to think of her
precious little baby who was dependent on her milk. The more she
pumped, the more milk was available to help Rachel grow. She took
out her iPhone to look at pictures of Rachel from last weekend. She
drank her bottle of water and turned on the pump.

The passenger door jerked opened. Sandy
gasped with surprise.

“
Oh sorry,” Leaning on
metal crutches, Seth’s head poked into her car cave. “I didn’t mean
to scare you. I’m not moving well and…”

“
Sit down,” Sandy said.
“Please. I have about five more minutes.”

Seth carefully put one foot in the car and
eased himself into the seat.

“
You should be in the
hospital,” Sandy said.

“
Locked ward,” Seth said.
“That’s what Ava said.”

“
How’d you get out of the
house?” Sandy asked.

“
Maresol went to the
market,” Seth said. “I made Dale take me.”

“
In your fancy race car?”
Sandy asked.

“
I’m not letting that boy
touch my performance vehicle. Are you crazy?”

Smirking, Sandy waited for Seth to continue.
Seth chuckled.

“
We came in his car,” Seth
said. “We had to pick up Ava’s replacement car. We stopped by here
to surprise Ava.”

“
You convinced Dale to
help you get the car and while you’re out you managed to stop over
here?” Sandy laughed.

“
Hmm,” Seth said. “Sounds
diabolical when you say it.”

Sandy smiled.

“
Is it so wrong for a man
to want to give his girlfriend a vehicle?” Seth laughed. “She needs
to be able to get around..”

“
Hmm,” Sandy
said.

As they often did, they fell into
companionable silence. Sandy finished pumping. Seth helped her put
the bottles into her ice filled cooler. Under the nursing cover,
she cleaned up and put the pump away. For a moment, Sandy sat in
the car.

“
Do I have to go back in?”
Sandy asked.

“
No,” Seth said. “You and
the girlfriends can go home. We’ll hire people to go through
everything. That’s easy.”

“
When did you start
calling Jill, Heather and Tanesha ‘the girlfriends’?”

“
Charlie made a good case
for why they’re ‘the girlfriends,’” Seth said. “They are the
pinnacle of great female friends – loyal, dedicated to each other,
kind, loving, willing to step in at a moment’s notice – with none
of the usual petty jealousies and stupidity. I mean Heather’s in
love with Tanesha’s summer fling and they worked it out. Who does
that?”

“
I see,” Sandy said. “And
I still have to go back in there.”

“
I think the hope was that
you would find something we missed,” Seth said. “No one knows your
mother better than you do. No one has watched her year after year
being her horrible self. You know in your soul that she created,
managed, and profited from your abuse and from the distribution of
the videos. You’ve told me that.”

Sandy nodded.

“
So where is it?” Seth
asked.

“
Where is what?” Sandy
asked. “I’m not even sure what we’re looking for.”

“
I don’t think we’re
sure,” Seth said. “Would your mom use physical ledgers or a
computer?”

“
Computer,” Sandy said.
“Maybe a network of computers. A couple of years ago she was all
about the computer network.”

“
Would she network via the
Internet?”

“
No way,” Sandy said. “She
was too paranoid. She always talked about hackers and she was
really pissed when the Patriot Act was passed.”