Municipal Blondes
22
On the run… again
SO MUCH FOR THE SOLIDARITY OF WOMEN. Girls looking out for each other. The bitch just stood there gloating at me after pushing me in the pool. What kind of a name is Savon anyway? Sounds like a grocery store coupon. She’s just a goon with tits.
Escape
Two men propelled me out on the pier and into a small motor boat, which they launched toward the Helen of Troy. My gut was telling me this captor was even worse than Bradley. Geoff Gilliam was not only a playboy, he was a sadist. God! How did Teri get mixed up with him?
By the time I was ushered into a cabin, I’d had hands all over my body in very ungentlemanly ways. They unfastened the cuffs in the cabin but locked the door behind me. All the while there’d been a running commentary about what they would do to me, ‘when the boss was through.’ Apparently, Geoff had rules about not soiling the merchandise before he got his filthy hands on it. A few moments later, the door opened and a towel was thrown through it. Then it was closed and locked again.
I stripped out of the wet dress and dried with the towel, checking the critical parts of my makeup—eyebrows, eyelashes, and wig. I could do without the jewels, but they seemed pretty stable. I needed clothes now that I was out of the wet dress. Various swimwear for both men and women hung in the closet and I chose a one-piece to cover myself with. I wrapped a terrycloth robe around me and started looking for a way out.
It was an inside cabin with no porthole making the only exit the door I came in through. I rummaged all through the closet and found nothing more than a hanger I could use as a weapon. I paced back and forth for nearly an hour before I heard the rattle of the door being opened again. I prepared myself this time to take out whoever came through the door. The door opened and I grabbed the woman who entered and threw her on the bed locking her arms behind her and looking toward the still-open door.
“Friend! Friend!” she cried. “I came to help.”
“Teri?” I let her up and she turned to look at me.
“It really is you!” she exclaimed. “When I saw you run toward the pool, I suddenly thought ‘She’s just like Deb.’ Then I figured it had to be.”
“Thanks for not blowing my cover,” I said. “But this is dangerous for you. I’ve got to get out of here.”
“There’s no place to go,” Teri said. “There’s only one sentry on board as far as I can tell. He’s up on the bridge. All the rest of the crew and the girls are at the party. They have all the boats with them.”
“How did you get out here?” I asked.
“I was trying to figure out a way all through the first course. I finally poured salt in my water and drank it in a single swallow. Then threw up. I complained it was the shellfish. Geoff swore at me and said it was the alcohol and I was dismissed from the party. There were plenty of other girls who would like to have my place. He told one of his security people to take me to the boat to sleep it off.” Teri paused to breathe.
“But how did you unlock my door?” I asked.
“I picked the guard’s pocket as he was feeling me up, supposedly helping me climb the ladder to the deck.”
“I may have to find a place for you at DH Investigations,” I laughed.
“No thanks. I regretted making this trip from the moment we reached Boeing field. But there were six girls he was taking and I thought safety in numbers, you know? I tried to call you but all I got was voice mail.”
“I haven’t been checking lately. I have so much to fill you in on. But now we need to leave. You should come with me. It’s not safe for you here.” Teri quickly changed into a swimsuit and robe then stopped by another stateroom to grab her purse. We made our way onto deck, staying in the shadows. I couldn’t see the sentry on guard and that made me nervous.
“Okay, tell me what to do,” Teri said.
“Since there’s no boat, we’ll have to swim to shore,” I said. “Come on. It’s not that far.”
“I can’t swim.”
“Teri! You rollerblade, play soccer, play hockey, and run but you can’t swim? You’re kidding!”
“None of those take place in water. I’ve always been afraid of the water,” she answered. “That made sailing down here hell.”
“We’ll take a flotation device then. I’ll pull you to shore.”
“Why don’t you take my boat, instead,” a voice spoke from the shadows. Teri screamed and I went into a defensive crouch as Ray Hawkins stepped out of the shadow. “I came to rescue you but it seems I’m a little late.”
“Why would you want to rescue me?” I asked warily.
“Well, I got you into this mess,” he answered. “Least I could do was get you out.”
“It wasn’t your suggestion that made me decide to go,” I said, not willing to flatter him with having a good idea.
“No, but it was me that planted the transmitter in the flowers. I had to wait until I’d recorded enough of the dinner conversation to make it worth my time to come out here.” He motioned to the ladder on the offshore side of the boat where a little dingy bobbed alongside.
“Can we all fit in that?” Teri asked.
“We’ll have to,” Ray insisted. We dropped quietly down into the boat and he rowed us south before turning toward shore near San Pedro. “You two should get out of here,” he said. “I need to mop some things up here before I go.”
“I need to go back to my room and pack. Teri, you can wear some of my clothes. Do you have your passport?”
“Yes, in my bag. Never travel without your passport, my mother always said.”
“Your mother never said that,” I laughed.
“All right, I made it up.”
“Ladies, please,” Ray interrupted. “Let’s get Miss Finn packed and get out of here. I’ll arrange a boat to the mainland.”
Teri and I ran to my room and started throwing things into my bag. I tossed her a pair of beach pants and pulled on my khaki shorts over the swimsuit.
“I’m sorry I don’t have more clothes for you. You can pick some up at the airport.”
“Deb, most of these clothes are men’s clothes. What’s going on?”
“Let’s just say that you were the last one on my list I had to fool with a disguise. And it worked until I got shoved into the pool.” I crawled up on the toilet and removed the panel in the ceiling where I pulled down my makeup kits, padding, and extra passports.
Teri just shook her head in disbelief. Ray knocked and I fastened the suitcase closed.
“I have a few contacts down here and a friend who will take us across the channel. I’m going with you as far as the airport. Friend or not, I don’t trust what would happen to two young women traveling in the dark.”
“I don’t want to leave from Belize,” I said without thinking. “Teri can fly home from Belize City but I don’t want to be tracked from here.”
“And what do you suggest?” Ray asked sarcastically. “Sprouting your own wings?”
“I’ll get a car and drive up to Mexico. I’ll leave from there.”
“Oh, just great,” he responded. I had the feeling he was regretting helping us.
We argued about it most of the way from Ambergris Caye to Belize City. We argued about it some more on the way to the airport. Teri was scared but I assured her she would be fine and to look up Cinnamon when she got to my office. But I was determined to rent a car and head north.
I got Teri out into the boarding area for a plane to Houston a few hours away from takeoff and headed out to rent a car. Ray informed me there weren’t any.
“What do you mean? I can’t rent a car in Belize?”
“No.”
“Why not?”
“Because I rented the last one.”
“You?”
“I can’t let you drive alone through Belize and the Yucatan. I told you I don’t trust what would happen to a woman traveling alone down here. Together, we’re another couple touring the Mayan ruins. Alone, you’d just be prey.”
We argued about that most of the way from Belize City to the Mexican border. Now I’m sleepy and have no idea how I’m going to get from Mexico to Croatia. I’ve got to warn Angel that Brenda knows where she is.
Ray dropped me at the Holiday Inn in Chetumal about 3:00 a.m. and then took off like a bat out of hell. Apparently, he wanted to be back on the island before people stirred this morning. I slept till about eight and then made travel arrangements to fly from here to Mexico City and from there to Croatia.
Now you see me…
I needed to clean up my act and become Deb Riley before I made another move. I was glad Ray had gone back to San Pedro without having penetrated my disguise. I’d had to warn Teri not to call me Deb and she seemed to get along okay with Riley.
It suddenly soaked into me that I’d been taking incredible risks. I fled to the airport in Seattle disguised as James Whitcomb. Making it through security and customs was nothing short of a miracle. Fool’s luck. I changed identities on Ambergris Caye and ended up fleeing for my life as Riley Finn with a strange, if not unattractive man. I entered Mexico under false identity. But now I’m headed for Croatia. I’ll connect in Mexico City and in Paris on my way to Zagreb. I’m not going to risk getting snagged by some European police department in disguise. It’s time to become Deb Riley and hope no one checks for a Mexican visa in that name. I stripped off all the jewels still plastered to my face and my red wig. The shower was awesome.
The clothes in my suitcases are totally inappropriate for the chilly weather of Croatia. According to the web, temperatures have been in the thirties and forties through most of that region. So much for the balmy seventies and eighties of Belize. I thought the Dalmatian coast was supposed to be a sunny Mediterranean port!
I went shopping for warm girl-clothes. It’s hard to find regular clothes in a Mexican resort town. Looking at myself in a mirror, I saw the face of a blonde I hardly recognized. I hadn’t seen her in two weeks! I bought a huipil, a kind of shapeless native poncho blouse, and a print skirt. I also picked up slacks, some underwear, and a wool serape. I don’t want to get caught in the cold with nothing to keep me warm. I pulled a rebozo scarf that covered my head and shoulders and ended up looking like another crazy Yanqui girl who had to dress native in order to go home. I went to the airport and checked my luggage through all the way to Croatia.
I suppose being dressed in these exotic clothes made me think more about my disguise. I was Deb Riley and didn’t think anyone was tracking me, but I don’t know Ray that well. He saved our bacon in San Pedro but sometimes he looked at me in a way that made me very uncomfortable. I watched the Mexican women who were boarding planes. There weren’t that many who were traveling by air. It was mostly men. As a result, they acted… small. That’s the only way I can describe it. They drew in on themselves. I, in my typical stand-tall American body, stuck out among them in spite of being dressed similarly. I started thinking differently. I drew inward and shrank. Head bowed. Hands grasping a carry-on bag I’d just purchased in front of me. Careful not to look furtive. Just blend in with the other women. Look small. Don’t make eye contact.
Gotta board the plane.
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