Getaway Girlz (16 page)

“I still have their number memorized.” Wendy finished rubbing in the SPF 15 and handed the bottle to Kate.

“Maybe we should contact the closest U.S. Embassy or something?” Kate squeezed a bit of sunscreen into her hand.

Vivian pushed her sunglasses over her swollen eyes and tuned out their worst-case scenario planning. She had seen the show
Locked Up Abroad
, and she definitely did not want to be locked up abroad.

Surely not, there’s no way, not jail…Right
?

INSTRUCTED NOT to go far and not knowing where to go or what else to do, Vivian sat by the pool, drank beer, and listened to the girls spin ideas on how to get out of Mexico, legally.

After beer two, a shadow was cast over her and she looked up to see Big Al.

“Hey, man-hater.”

A horrified Adrienne hit him on the shoulder. “Al, don’t say that.”

“Oh, I’m just kidding. She knows I’m kidding.”

“Still.”

“It’s okay, Adrienne,” Vivian waved her off. “I know I didn’t do it.”

“Heard any good rumors about who could have?” Wendy asked, sitting up in her lounger.

“Not really, but the police have been all over the hotel and the beach,” Adrienne said.

“Yeah, they searched our room while we were at the police station.” Lucy pushed her sunglasses onto her head.

“Really?” Al’s eyebrows shot up in surprise. “Then you definitely need to do a room sweep and look for bugs.”

“Oh, there aren’t any bugs,” Lucy shook her head. “I wouldn’t stay here if there were.”

“He’s not talking about creepy crawly bugs, Lucy.” Kate took a sip of beer. “He’s talking about listening devices; you know, spy stuff.”

“Oh. Well, I’m not up on those invasion of privacy gadgets!”

Al shook his head and sat down on the empty lounger next to Vivian. “Listen, sweetheart, I have a cousin, Salvatore, a.k.a ‘Slinky Sal,’ who’s an attorney in Jersey. I don’t mind putting in a call for you.”

“Is he real limber and bendy?” Lucy asked. “I used to love my slinky.”

“No, not really.”

“Then why do they call him Slinky Sal?”

Al suppressed a grin. “It’s rumored he’s been known to send things end over end down stairs.”

“What do you mean?” Lucy asked.

“Oh, you know, like the occasional witness.”

Obviously, Slinky Sal was not a man to be toyed with.

Adrienne punched Al playfully in the arm. “You shouldn’t be talking like that, Al.”

He shrugged.

Vivian couldn’t help but smirk at their exchange. “Thanks Al, but hopefully it won’t come to anything like that.”

Adrienne sat on the end of Vivian’s lounge chair. “So what the heck happened after we left last night? Last I saw you looked like you were on your way to some Canadian bacon.”

“There was no bacon but, as you saw at the club, there was a lot of kissing.”

With that, Vivian raised her beer and gave another toast to Jon. “To the best Canadian salsa dancing kisser in all of Mexico.”

Clink.

Vivian then continued, “We left the club around 1:45 or 2, I guess, came back here, stopped by the bar and then went for a walk on the beach. That was it. He stayed down on the beach when I went back to the room. He was waiting on a call from his agent about a movie part.”

“I just thought of something.” Kate pointed to Vivian with her beer. “Did you tell Detective Vega we keep seeing creepy ponytail guy everywhere we’ve been and that Jon and Pierre were there, too? Maybe he was following them.”

“No, I didn’t even think about that. Did anyone else mention it?”

Wendy shook her head. “Nope.”

Lucy: “Me, neither.”

“It didn’t seem like a big deal at the time,” Kate continued, “but now it makes me wonder if there’s a connection.”

“We’ve got to get hold of Detective Vega or Arturo and tell them.” Vivian looked around to see if Arturo was in sight. “This could be important. I can’t believe I didn’t think of this sooner.”

“I agree.” Kate sat up and swung both feet on the ground. “Jon, Pierre and Ponytail were there the first night at the Purple Peacock, then yesterday morning at the marina,
and
at Club Caliente last night.”

That did raise the suspicion up a notch, or ten, in Vivian’s mind.
It has to be Ponytail. He’s the killer
.

“We’ve been to the Purple Peacock. Al didn’t like the swings. Said they didn’t feel stable.” Adrienne looked at Al and tickled his robust stomach with her fingers. “Sweetie, isn’t there something you can do to help find out who this ponytail guy is?”

“I know who you’re talking about.” Al reached for his phone, which was in his shirt pocket again, making it droop and show off too much chest hair. “Let me make a few phone calls and see what I can find out. Maybe some of my connections have connections down here.”

Al walked off, phone in hand, and Adrienne patted Vivian’s hand. “It’s going to be okay. Al knows a lot of people.”

Kate hopped up. “I’m going to the parking lot, see if I can find Arturo. He can help us. I know it.”

She slipped on her flip-flops and trotted off down the sand.

Wendy turned to Lucy. “Go with her please. We’re officially implementing the buddy system from here on out. No more going off anywhere alone.”

Lucy put on her shoes and raced off to catch Kate. She could run the fastest of the girls, even after a tequila shot and a beer.

She turned around, jogging backwards and yelled out, “Good idea!”

Little too late for that rule to kick in. Dammit
.

“So who are Al’s contacts?” Wendy asked Adrienne.

She tried to make the question sound innocent, but Vivian knew better. Wendy was an avid reader and Vivian figured she was having a book moment, fancying herself as Nancy Drew or some such.

“Oh honey, Al has connections everywhere,” Adrienne answered. “He’s really into the local politics in Chicago and he’s pretty good at trading a nice meal for information, too.”

“The ol’ wine and dine trick, huh?” Wendy put her hair up in a ponytail. “Bet he learns a lot that way. Loose lips and all.”

“As long as his connections help me out, I don’t care who, what or how,” Vivian said.

Kate and Lucy came running back.

“We found Arturo in front of the hotel,” Kate stood beside the lounger Vivian shared with Adrienne. “He called Detective Vega and he’s on his way.”

“Okay, let’s be rational here,” Wendy said. “Just because we’ve seen Ponytail a lot doesn’t automatically make him a killer. He looks like a killer, what with dressing all in black and that huge scar on the side of his face, but we need to be careful. Playa is not a huge place and we don’t want to make any more enemies.”

Book moment over or she would have pinned it on Ponytail.

“Well, it is odd you have seen him so much.” Adrienne slipped her sandals off and on. Vivian noticed they were Cole Haan.

Lucy got back underneath her umbrella. “He looks like he’s been in a knife fight. It’s him.”

“Ponytail’s not the only person we’ve seen a lot of,” Wendy said, book moment evidently not over.

“Who else?” Adrienne asked.

Vivian’s mind flashed on an image of the short guy pointing his finger gun at a passerby. “There are Shorty and The Ladies.”

“Oh, that’s right.” Lucy snapped her fingers.

Vivian continued, “They were at the Purple Peacock, and we think Jon and Pierre were on his boat yesterday. They were also at Club Caliente last night.”

“Who’s that?” Adrienne said, wiggling her toes and inspecting her pedicure.

“Some machismo-lookin’ mini-guy Jon and Pierre were hanging out with. He had a girl on each arm, but I’m telling you, he doesn’t look like a ladies’ man.”

“Mini-guy?” Adrienne asked.

“He seriously
might
be 5-feet tall.” Vivian held her thumb and index finger an inch apart. “Mini.”

“Shorty freaked out on Jon last night, remember?” Lucy noted.

“Oh yeah, I forgot. We were so flustered at the station this morning, I guess none of us thought of it.”

“And don’t forget the crazy lady,” Wendy said, moving her finger in circles by her temple. “We didn’t see her last night but Jon got a drink from her, remember?”

“No…Jon didn’t, Dominik did,” Kate said, dipping her right foot in the pool.

“That’s right, his soap opera persona. She’s a good candidate, can’t rule out the crazies,” Adrienne said. “What did she look like?”

Vivian raised her arms above her head to stretch and ran her hands through her hair. “She’s normal looking, I guess. Hispanic, about my height, with long, black straight hair. She wears green contacts, but it looks like her eyes are really brown.”

Kate touched the small of her back. “And she has a spider tramp stamp.”

“Classy,” Adrienne said, cleaning her sunglasses with her form-fitting tank top.

When she lifted it Vivian noticed she had a belly button piercing.
She’s blingin’ everywhere
!

“What’s her name again?” Adrienne continued.

Lucy stood up and yelled out,
Streetcar
style, “Stellaaaaaa!”

Adrienne and Vivian looked at each other and laughed. At least they could still find a little humor in things.

“See, so we need to be careful,” Wendy said. “There are at least three strange people in this town…”

Vivian cut her off. “You can say that again!”

“Who could and should be considered ‘persons of interest,’ ” Wendy finished, all that reading paying off with her amateur sleuthness. “But I have to admit, if I were reading, I’d think it was you.”

VIVIAN LOOKED up to see Pierre walk out of the lobby, heading straight for them, a scowl still on his face. She was relieved, however, that he was not carrying any objects that could be described as weapons.

He walked over to her and sat down on the lounger Al vacated earlier.

“Vivian. Listen, I’m sorry about earlier at the station. Surely you can understand I’m upset, and having the police all in my business isn’t helping. I’m sorry they brought you in, I feel bad about that. I don’t think for a minute you did this.”

Whew
. Vivian sat down next to him and gave him a long hug. “Thank you, Pierre.” After a moment she asked, “Do you know what happened to Jon? Did the police tell you anything?”

Pierre leaned over and put his thumb and finger over his eyes. He cleared his throat. “The evidence indicates his neck was sliced with some sort of jagged weapon, severing his jugular. He was dead within minutes.”

Vivian was too upset to speak. She leaned into Pierre and sobbed into his chest. He cried silently as he held her and the other girls were upset, too.

After a while the tears subsided and the group let out a collective sigh. Wendy then asked, “So I guess they didn’t find the weapon?”

He shook his head. “No. Vega didn’t give me a lot of details. He started off interrogating me, though I don’t think I ever really was a suspect. He said it went fast, that Jon took a few steps and collapsed.”

Everyone was silent.

“It just doesn’t make any sense.” He cleared his throat again. “I can’t imagine who would want to hurt Jon. Vega kept asking me that in the interview this morning, and I can’t think of anyone. I’ve known him for years, and he’s never had any enemies.”

“I didn’t know him for long.” Vivian was sad thinking about Jon lying on the beach bleeding to death. “But I can’t see anyone wanting to hurt him.”

“Did he have any stalkers?” Lucy touched Pierre lightly on the arm.

“No, not that I know of anyway.”

Wendy asked, “Did Jon have a blog, Twitter account, Facebook page, something?”

“He has a Facebook fan page but doesn’t use his Twitter account much.”

“Have you checked it since last night? See if there are any strange comments on his wall?”

“Briefly early this morning, but it was more than I could take.”

“Can you check his Facebook on your phone?” Vivian asked.

“Battery is dead,” he said with a sigh. “I left it in the room charging.”

Kate, who had been pacing, stopped and asked, “Where’s Jon’s phone?”

“The police must have it.”

“I’ll go grab my laptop,” Wendy said and dashed off. She was a loan officer for a mortgage company. She brought her computer on vacation “just to keep tabs on a couple of files.”

Adrienne sat on the lounger, legs crossed, right foot shaking back and forth. “Did Jon ever do drugs? Could he have been into something you didn’t know about, maybe money laundering or sleeping with married women? Those things can get a guy killed.”

“No,” Pierre answered. “Absolutely not. Compared to most people in show business, Jon led a clean, honest life.”

Arturo walked up and announced, “Vega will be here in a few minutes.”

Kate gave Arturo a nervous grin. “Can you tell us if the police were able to find the weapon that was used to kill Jon?”

He shifted from foot to foot and watched as Wendy arrived with her computer and sat down. “I’m sorry, I can’t say. You need to talk to Vega.”

Vivian pushed her sunglasses on top of her head and looked directly at Arturo. “Do you know who this guy is with the scar on his face and the long ponytail? Have you seen him?”

Before Arturo could answer, Pierre interrupted, “What are you talking about?”

Vivian touched his hand and said, “Hold on a sec, Pierre,” then continued, “he was at the Purple Peacock, at the marina
and
at Club Caliente. We think he’s the killer.”

“Whoa, Viv,” Wendy interjected. “There’s more than just him. You need to tell Arturo everything.”

Pierre moved his hand away from Vivian’s. “What guy? Do you think he was following us? What do you mean there’s more than just him?”

“There’s also Shorty short short and Crazy Stella,” Wendy said.

“Who is Shorty? I have no idea what you are talking about.” Pierre put his head in his hands and slowly shook his head back and forth.

Arturo, too, shook his head. “Sorry, you really need to tell Detective Vega. I shouldn’t make any comments.”