Body Rides (58 page)

‘A gal’s decent long as her nips don’t show,’ Sue explained. ‘Marta’s don’t and mine don’t . . .’

‘Your
ass
shows.’

‘A dang nice ass it is, too,’ she said, and gave one of her bare buttocks a soft slap.

‘A lot of people wear thongs these days,’ Marta explained. ‘I’ve thought about getting one, myself.’

‘Jeez.’ Sighing, Neal shook his head. ‘Don’t get me wrong, okay? You both look . . . great. But can’t you wear some clothes, or something? At least on the way over?’

Smiling at Marta, Sue said, ‘He just don’t want anyone
else
to get an eyeful.’

‘Terribly selfish of him.’

‘I’ll say. Here he gets to have the both of us, and he don’t want nobody else to even look.
Doesn’t want anybody
.’

Keeping a straight face, Neal said, ‘If people start looking, they’ll start crashing. Might even crash into
us
. I’m only concerned about your safety, ladies.’

‘Well, he’s got a point,’ Marta said.

‘I hate to hide my new bikini from the world,’ Sue said.

‘If you don’t put on
some
thing,’ Neal told her, ‘you’ll burn your butt on the car seat.’

Marta and Sue started shaking their heads and laughing. Neal suddenly realized they had intended from the start to wear clothes over their swimsuits. Without a word more, they headed back for the bedroom.

‘Very funny!’ he called.

‘We thought so,’ Marta called back.

At Sue’s request, they used Marta’s Jeep Wrangler. They agreed to let her ride in front, so Neal took the back seat. Which was fine with him, even though the space was so narrow that he had to sit sideways. The car had no top – only a windshield and roll bar – so the rear seat was a great place for catching the late afternoon sunlight and wind.

Neal also had a wonderful view of Marta and Sue. They sat side by side in the bucket seats, their hair blowing behind them, gold in the sunlight. He could see the right side of Marta’s face and neck, the left side of Sue’s. They both wore sunglasses. They both wore sleeveless tops. Marta’s right arm was out, bent slightly at the elbow, her hand on the steering wheel. It gleamed with suntan oil
all the way up to her shoulder. The soft golden hairs were slicked down. Sue’s arm hung by her side, elbow resting on the center console. It gleamed like Marta’s, but didn’t seem to have so much hair.

My God, they’re both so beautiful
.

We oughta be going to the beach, not
. . .

‘Hey,’ he said, speaking loudly to be heard over the road noises and the wind. ‘Why don’t we skip Vince’s place and head for a beach?’

Marta turned her head and called, ‘The beaches are too dangerous. Do you want us to get shot?’

‘You think we’ll be safer dropping in unexpectedly on a murderer?’ Neal asked.

‘You bet.’

Sue turned her head and laughed.

Both women had their heads turned toward the middle and Neal could see the profile of their faces.

They could be sisters, he thought. Marta and her kid sister, Sue. Marta older, larger, with a lush body that Sue probably envied. Marta the more sensible of the two, the better educated, the more refined. But Sue the wilder of the pair. A tomboy to Marta’s woman. A kid, somehow tough and vulnerable at the same time.

But both women very much alike with their fine blonde hair and smooth skin and blue eyes, with their gentleness, with their mischief, with their passion and love for Neal.

How could I be this lucky? he wondered.

Can’t last
.

Sure it can, he told himself. They like each other. Hard to believe, but they do.

The best of all possible worlds
. . .
But somebody could get hurt
.

‘Let’s not do this,’ he called.

‘What’s the matter?’ Marta asked.

‘I don’t care about the money. You know? Not really. Let’s turn back, okay? Before we get ourselves into some kind of a real mess.’

Sue looked over her shoulder at him. ‘It’s half a million buckaroos, hon.’

‘It’s not worth dying for.’

‘Nobody’s gonna die,’ Sue said.

‘How do you know?’

Marta’s head turned. ‘What else
can
we do?’ she asked. ‘If we just go back to my place and forget the whole thing, Glitt’s still going to be looking for you. If he doesn’t get stopped, he’ll
kill
you, sooner or later.’

‘Not if he can’t find me. We could all take off . . . move away. Maybe to Arizona or New Mexico, or . . .’

‘That wouldn’t guarantee anything,’ Marta said. ‘No matter where we might go . . . even if we change our names . . . there would always be a risk of him finding you. Anyway, you still want to write for the movies. You almost
have
to live in L.A. for that . . .’

‘Wouldn’t have to.’

‘The thing is, as long as he’s alive, Glitt’s going to be after you. You shot him full of holes. He isn’t going to forget that. He’s going to keep hunting you. Eventually, he’ll find you.’

‘Not to mention me and Marta, we’ll more than likely be
with
ya when he does. Ya don’t want him gettin
us
, do ya?’

Neal started to remember what Glitt had done to Elise . . . started to see it in bloody color on the screen of his mind. To stop the images, he quickly said, ‘We could go to the police and tell them everything. Then
they
could take care of the whole mess.’

‘They haven’t taken care of much so far,’ Marta pointed out. ‘Glitt’s still in the world. Vince is still a free man. Last I heard, he isn’t even a suspect. And if the cops
do
grab them, who’s to say there won’t be a team of slick attorneys come along and get them both off the hook with a bunch of lies?’

‘I know,’ Neal said. ‘I know.’

‘This
is
Los Angeles.’

‘I know.’

‘You want these guys to get away with murdering Elise?’

‘No, of course not.’

Sue called over her shoulder, ‘We gotta take these assholes down. If we don’t, who’s gonna?’

Marta nodded. ‘We’ll never be safe, the three of us, until they’re both dead.’

‘I know you’re probably right,’ Neal said. ‘I’m just scared, that’s all.’

‘Tell ya what,’ Sue said to him. ‘Quit lookin on the dark side of
stuff and start thinkin about half a million smackeroos.’

‘I’ll try,’ he said.

He realized they were now rushing along San Vicente and bearing down on Greenhaven, the road to Vince Conrad’s house.

If we just don’t make the turn, we’ll be at the beach in a few minutes
. . .

With no instructions from Neal, Marta made the turn.

‘I’m surprised the place isn’t crawling with reporters and gawkers,’ Marta said as she drove slowly up Greenhaven.

From here, they could see a fair distance ahead. There were no news vans, no crowds.

‘This guy ain’t exactly O.J.,’ Sue pointed out.

‘Still . . . he
is
an actor and Elise was an Olympic star.’

‘What kind of coverage
has
it been getting?’ Neal asked. ‘We’ve mostly tried to avoid it.’

‘Fairly big. A day doesn’t go by that it doesn’t get some kind of coverage. Elise’s funeral was yesterday. That was one of the top stories.’

‘Vince attended?’ Neal asked.

‘Oh, sure. How would he look if he didn’t?’

‘Has there been anything about my letter to the cops?’

‘Nary a word.’

‘It obviously didn’t do much good, since . . . here we are. This is it on the right.’

Though Neal had never seen the place in daylight, he recognized the heavy foliage bordering the road, the small entrance gate and the larger gate at the driveway. Through its iron bars, he glimpsed the garage door.

‘No car in the driveway,’ Marta mentioned.

‘Maybe he’s not home,’ Neal said.

‘Easy way to find out,’ Sue said.

A few feet past the driveway gate, Neal said, ‘This’ll be a good place to park.’

‘Shouldn’t we go farther away?’ Marta asked.

‘Just so we can’t be seen from the house. I want to be
near enough to get inside fast if there’s trouble.’

Nodding, she slowed the Jeep and eased it to the right. The side tires dropped slightly. They made crackly sounds crunching the leafy ground-cover. Then bushes squeaked against the door.

Marta stopped and shut off the engine. She and Sue both turned to look back at Neal.

‘I guess we’re really going ahead with it,’ he said.

Marta nodded. ‘How long will it take you to go in and scout around?’

‘With the bracelet? A minute or two.’

‘And you’ll come back right away if there’s a problem?’

‘Yeah.’

‘If there isn’t a problem,’ she said, ‘just go ahead and . . . enter him, or whatever you do with that thing. We’ll get ready. If you aren’t back in four or five minutes, we’ll assume everything is okay and we’ll go to the door.’

Neal took a deep, trembling breath. He blew it out slowly. He shook his head. He muttered, ‘Oh, man.’

‘Relax,’ Sue told him. ‘Yer makin
me
nervous.’

‘Everything’ll be fine,’ Marta assured him.

‘Okay,’ Neal muttered. ‘Okay.’ He settled back in the seat, leaning to the side and stretching out his legs.

‘Maybe you should get lower,’ Marta suggested.

‘I don’t want to seem like I’m trying to hide. You know, if someone comes by. This way, I’ll look like I’m taking a little snooze while I wait for my friends to come back.’

‘Better not stay out for very long at a time,’ Sue told him. ‘Check on yerself every so often.’

‘We’ll see. With any luck, Vince won’t even be home.’

‘Don’t say that,’ Sue said. Thrusting her arm though the gap between the seatbacks, she gave his leg a gentle slap.

‘Be careful,’ Marta told him.

‘You, too. Both of you. Just remember, I’ll be inside him. If he decides to pull anything, I’ll bail out and come after you as fast as I can.’

He could feel the pistol against his thigh, and patted it through his pocket.

‘Hope it’s loaded,’ Sue said.

‘It’s always loaded,’ Neal told her. He sighed again. ‘Guess that’s it, unless . . .’

‘If everything goes all right,’ Marta said, ‘just give the horn a couple of toots when you’re ready to leave. We’ll try to make a graceful exit so we don’t arouse his suspicion.’

‘It’ll get aroused damn fast when he finds out that his money’s gone. So use fake names. Try not to give him
any
way of figuring out who you are.’

‘We’ll be amazingly cagey,’ Marta said.

‘Just watch and see.’

‘I will. One more thing . . . While you’re busy being so cagey, see if you can bring up a subject that’ll make him
think
about the payoff. But be subtle about it.’

‘Will do,’ Marta said. ‘Ready?’

‘Not really.’

‘Let’s get this show on the
road
.’

‘All right. Good luck. So long. Be careful.’ He took another deep breath, then raised his arm and kissed the serpent’s head.

He felt himself rise weightless.

Looking down, he saw his body sprawled in the rear of the Jeep.

Marta and Sue unfastened their seatbelts, swung the straps out of the way, and pulled off their shirts. Then, staying seated, they started to remove their shorts.

Neal wanted to stay and watch – a very strange and wonderful view from up here, looking straight down at them as they struggled with their clothes – but he felt guilty. He had a job to do. If he wasted time here, the gals might end up walking into trouble.

Better get a move on
.

The mere wish was enough to send him speeding off. He rushed over the top of the brick wall, through the branches of a tree, across the driveway and over the front lawn, then through the front door of the house.

Before he even had a chance to start his search, he spotted a man through a sliding glass door at the other end of the living room.

It has to be him!

The way the man sat, however, Neal could only see his bare legs stretched out on the green pad of a poolside lounge.

Take it easy. Don’t rush in. Wait till you’re sure it’s him
.

Wary of entering the man by accident, Neal veered off to the
right and passed through the glass wall a good distance away from him. Then he drifted out over the swimming pool and turned around.