I had done a favor for Jim four years ago when his teenage daughter, Sarah, disappeared. He hired me to find her, and I quickly discovered that Sarah had run off with her twenty-one-year-old boyfriend. I tracked them down in Reno, Nevada, and rescued Sarah from her boyfriend, who had turned out not to be the Prince Charming she thought he was.
I dialed his number and got lucky. When he answered the phone, I said, “Hello, Jim. This is Ray. How’s Sarah doing?”
There was a long pause as Jim processed what I said. I knew he remembered me when his breath caught. He said, “Oh, hello, Ray. I wondered when you’d get back to me.” After a brief pause, he continued, “Sarah’s doing fine. She’s off to USC and is on the Dean’s list. I can never thank you enough for what you did. Are you calling for the favor I owe you?”
“Yes, I am, Jim.”
“What do you need?”
“If you still have that guest house, I’d like to use it for about a week.”
“No problem, Ray. Is that all you need?”
“Yes, that’ll be all I need.”
“Okay, Ray. I’m leaving in the morning for the next two weeks on business. I’ll tell Peggy to expect you.”
“Thanks, Jim. Tell Peggy to expect me sometime tomorrow afternoon.” After exchanging “Goodbyes,” I hung up. I briefly wondered who Peggy was but quickly moved on to planning my next move. Another name on my list held promise, so I thought about how I could use that to my advantage if necessary.
Once I had my plan roughed out, I called Jo and told her I would be away on a case and needed a house sitter for the next week or so. She said she’d take care of it and invited herself over for the evening.
As I prepared for Jo’s arrival, I mentally prepared a list of things to pack and how I would proceed. By the time Jo arrived, I had dinner ready, having used the time in the kitchen to finalize my plan for what I would do tomorrow. Dinner was a success, and afterward, we enjoyed each other’s company in the best way possible …
… We were celebrating our combined 18th birthdays. Since our birthdays were only two days apart, we split the difference and celebrated together on the day between them. Since this was the big one, we reserved a room at Lib’s Supper Club downtown for the party. With it being so early in January, the snow covered the ground, so we couldn’t have an outside party.
All of our friends came, and we had a great time. We were both so happy, being in our senior year of high school and our whole lives waiting ahead of us. Despite the knowledge that, in a few months, we would be going our separate ways after graduation, I wasn’t going to let that dampen my spirits today. I looked over at Steph, and my heart clenched at the thought that I had been so lucky to have met her over five years ago. When Steph looked back at me, I could see in her eyes that she felt the same way about me.
It was a week later when everything finally came to a head. We were in Steph’s bedroom, having finished our homework, and were lying on her bed, face-to-face, talking about nothing in particular. As our conversation tailed off, we ended up just staring into each other’s eyes. I looked into Steph’s eyes, wanting to tell her how I felt about her. Suddenly, my heart began beating like a trip hammer as I felt a flush flow throughout my body. At that moment, I realized what I felt for Steph was more than just thinking of her as my best friend. It had been building up for some time, but it was just now that I was conscious of the fact that I loved Steph.
My breath caught in my throat as I slowly leaned in, our eyes still locked, and I saw Steph doing the same. As our lips met, an explosion went off in my chest, and I gasped as my entire body caught on fire. I pressed in, and my heart nearly stopped when Steph pressed back, responding to my advances. We both moaned as our mouths opened simultaneously, and our tongues tentatively explored each other’s mouths. The kiss seemed to last forever but ended with us gasping for breath when we broke. Our gazes locked, and I gasped, “I love you, Steph.”
When Steph responded, “Oh, Ray, I love you, too,” my heart swelled up, and my eyes burned with unshed tears as I realized that Steph felt the same way about me that I felt for her …
… When I woke to the sounds and smells of Jo preparing breakfast, I quickly performed my toilet and joined her at the breakfast table. After enjoying a delightful breakfast, I showered and packed before giving Chris another call.
“Detective Graham.”
“Chris, this is Ray. Do you have anything for me?”
“Yes.” Chris quickly filled me in on what she found out about Jack. As I had surmised, he was staying in a low-rent apartment just south of West Hollywood in the Melrose area and worked in a car repair shop off of N. La Brea Avenue. When I heard that, I realized that my nascent plan for getting Jack to go back home could work. After telling me all that, she added, “Ray, I called around and came up with nothing against him. I even put a call into the Sommillin PD, and they didn’t have anything to report on him either. Apparently, he just up and left six months ago. It goes without saying that our hands are tied, so you’re on your own with this one.”
“Thanks, Chris. I’ll call if I find out anything you can use.”
After ending the call with Chris, I finished packing. Jo was on the phone, arranging for one of her girls to come house-sit while I was gone. When I got ready to leave, I gave Jo a peck on the cheek and headed out, mentally preparing myself to face the traffic.
As expected, the traffic was terrible, especially on Santa Monica Boulevard. However, I was used to it and went with the flow rather than trying to fight it. After turning north onto Crescent Heights Boulevard, I eventually reached Laurel Canyon Boulevard. I wound my way through the canyon until reaching Gould Avenue. I turned off there and soon found myself at the address I was looking for.
I pulled into the driveway and parked in front of the garage. By the time I exited my car with my overnight bag, a woman wearing only a skimpy bikini had opened a gate in the privacy fence and walked out to meet me. “Hello, I’m Peggy. Are you Ray?”
I ran my eyes over her fit body, feeling some heat down below. Once I finished my survey and looked into her green eyes, Peggy smiled. I smiled back, noticing that her eyes had wandered over my body, too. I said, “Hello, Peggy. Yes, I’m Ray, and I’m pleased to meet you. Jim said you’d show me where I was staying?”
“Yes, it’s on the other side of the pool. Follow me.” She turned and entered the gate. I followed, pulling the gate shut behind me after noticing it had a 10-digit combination lock on it. As Peggy led me to the guest house, my eyes snapped to her ass, and I loved how it swayed and bounced as she walked. As we walked, she explained that she was the next-door neighbor who watched over Jim’s house while he was away on his many business trips.
Peggy led me into the guest house, showing me where everything was. It was a lovely one-bedroom cottage with a small but adequate kitchen. I looked around and saw a phone and a TV with a cable box sitting on top. As I sat my bag down, Peggy asked, “Well? What do you think?”