Chapter 17
Liz, Stacie and Caryss walked without hesitation into the atrium of Laurie’s complex and onto the elevator, but as they stepped off and walked down the tastefully decorated hallway towards her door, uncertainty and reservation became quite prevalent with each additional step.
“This is it,” said Stacie meekly as they approached condo 3515. She pressed the doorbell and the chiming sound could be heard into the hallway where they stood.
“Wow, that’s really loud,” joked Liz trying to lighten the mood. The tension in the air was so thick if someone had a knife they could have cut it. All three had a bad feeling, but they didn’t know why.
They stood outside Laurie’s door another thirty seconds waiting for her answer, but no one came. Stacie pressed the doorbell again, more so on principal than actual logic. If Laurie were actually home or going to come to the door, she certainly would have heard the doorbell the first time it chimed and a repeat of that sound wouldn’t make the slightest bit of difference.
“Try the door,” whispered Caryss, unsure of why she was whispering. Stacie turned the knob and the door popped open. “That’s odd…” she continued, letting her words trail off as they stepped into the condo without an invite.
They each spread out in different areas, looking for any sign of Laurie or any trace of where she might be. Caryss began flipping through pieces of mail on Laurie’s counter and noticed an envelope still sealed with her name and the address of her hotel on it.
“Guys, I found something,” cried Caryss as she held the letter up for her friends to see. “She was sending it to me, should I open it?”
Liz and Stacie exchanged worried looks, then turned back to Caryss and nodded their heads up and down in unison. Caryss tore open the top of the envelope and anxiously pulled out the folded piece of paper.
“Caryss,” she began reading out loud. “I don’t know what lies Trevor has told you already about me, but there are some things you need to know. I’m not sure I’ll even get a chance to mail this before I have to leave; I need to be gone before he gets here. I cannot go into more detail right now because I don’t know if this will ever make it into your hands and there are certain people that cannot know what I need to tell you. I will be disappearing for a while, but I will be in touch with you soon. I really hope you get to read this letter so you know to be careful and watch your back. Laurie.”
All three ladies stood in Laurie’s kitchen in shock. It was a good three minutes before anyone said a word. When the silence was finally broken, it was to all three girls talking at once.
“Oh my God.”
“What do we do?””
“What is going on?”
The confused ramblings and panic-filled mutterings continued until a sound in the hallway outside the condo interrupted them.
“Holy shit, someone’s coming. Hide!” Liz hissed as quietly as she could and the three ladies scrambled out of the kitchen and crammed themselves into the closet in the hallway just off the living room. They heard a loud thud and knew the door had just been kicked in.
“She said the door would be open, why was it locked?” they heard a male voice say. Caryss looked back at Liz wondering the same thing when the door was open when they tried it.
“I locked it after we came in; I didn’t someone to just walk in on us snooping around a condo that isn’t ours,” Liz whispered in explanation. She shrugged her shoulders in defense and continued listening for sounds indicating where the man was in the condo now.
“I don’t see a letter addressed to the Four Seasons anywhere on this counter. Someone must have gotten to it before us. We better call her and tell her,” another male voice said, but not the same one as before. Caryss looked down at her hand and realized she was still holding the letter Laurie was going to send to her.
Is that what they are looking for? Why? What is going on? Caryss’s mind was racing, she knew she had to talk to Laurie and find out what was going on. Is she going to know that I came in here and found the letter, or is she going to think that someone else found it? What does she mean that she’s “disappearing” for a while? How is she going to contact me? Her thoughts were interrupted by the sound of a cell phone ringing. She knew it wasn’t hers, and quickly looked at Liz and Stacie, both of them shaking their heads that is wasn’t them either.
The ringing stopped and they heard one of the men talking on the phone. “Are you sure she got it? Mmhmm, mmhmm, okay, yes, yes, okay, bye.” Ten seconds later the condo was silent and both men were gone. Caryss, Liz, and Stacie slowly peaked out of the closet, making sure the coast was clear before emerging fully.
“What was that all about? Why were those men looking for the letter?” Stacie asked even though she knew that neither one of her friends would be able to answer that question.
“They knew exactly where to look and they kept saying ‘she’, so I think that Laurie sent them here to get the letter so they could send it to Caryss,” replied Liz. “What do you guys think?”
“That makes sense. But how are we going to let Laurie know that it wasn’t Trevor or someone else that got to the letter first, that it was actually me?” Caryss wondered out loud. Before anyone could answer, Caryss’s cell phone started ringing. She didn’t recognize the number on the screen, but answered it anyway.
“I know you found the letter. Go to the public library on South Figueroa tomorrow afternoon. Go into the section where the index books are and look in the R volume of the encyclopedia, the 2005 edition. On page 247 you will find something important. Go alone.” The line clicked and Caryss knew the mystery called had hung up. The problem was that she had no idea who it was.
“Who was that?” Stacie asked, worried by the look on Caryss’s face.
“I don’t know,” replied Caryss quietly. “It sounded like they were using a machine or something to change their voice. They said to go the library on Figueroa tomorrow alone and look in one of the encyclopedias because I would find something important.”
She looked back and forth between Liz and Stacie, not sure what to do or what was happening to her happy, normal life. All she knew was Laurie had “disappeared”, strange men were looking for a letter addressed to her, and someone going through a lot of trouble to hide who they are had just called her and told her to go somewhere alone for something “important”. She was a little freaked out and a little hysterical.
Her cell phone rang again, this time she recognized the number. After she finished talking, she turned back to Liz and Stacie. “That was Nick; they are going to Mood in Hollywood and they will be there in about an hour. He says we are on the list at the door so if we want to go we can.” She said this with no expression in her voice or on her face.
“Okay, here’s the deal. You are not going anyplace by yourself tomorrow. There is some weird shit going down and we are going to find out what, but not alone. There is nothing more we can do tonight since we have no idea where Laurie is so I think we should get really drunk, have some fun and forget all this crap until tomorrow,” declared Stacie with a smile. “We will meet up tomorrow for lunch and figure out how we are going to deal this whole library thing, okay?” She wrapped her arms around Caryss’s neck, hugging her tightly and then kissing her on the cheek. “Don’t worry Car-bear, everything will okay. If anything else, we’ll just ask Nick for help. He’s got so many connections that we won’t have to worry about anything.”
“You’re right, I just can’t help but feel like everything is going to come crashing down on me. I mean obviously I’m a huge part it whatever is going on, and I don’t think it’s going to turn out well at all,” said Caryss before she let out a frustrated sigh.
“Come one, let’s go get ready, go to the club, dance our asses off, get really drunk, have great kinky sex with whomever and forget about all of this for now,” coaxed Liz, trying to get Caryss out of her funk. “I know this doesn’t look good, but Stacie’s right, everything will be okay.”
Caryss nodded her head in agreement and the girls walked arm and arm out of Laurie’s condo and back out to the waiting car. They were going to stop at Stacie’s apartment so she and Liz could get some sexy club clothes and then head to Caryss’s hotel to get ready. They were so busy talking about what they were going to wear and how much fun they were going to have that they didn’t notice the familiar face watching their every move from inside a car parked a row behind them.
