Claire Gulliver #06 - Carnage Goes Coastal Read online

  Karen nodded, putting the three packets of bills in her bag, sweeping the loose hundreds and twenties up in a pile and putting them into her billfold. She had a difficult time closing the billfold stuffed as it was, but she managed. She tried to smile at the woman, but she suspected her face still frozen with shock only further alarmed the supervisor. She escaped out the door, hailed another taxi and headed for Penn Station.

  CHAPTER 5

  As soon as she entered the station she found the ladies’ room and secured herself in a stall to sort out her money. She put one packet of bills in the cosmetic case in her bag along with her lipstick, some Tums, a package of gum and her hairbrush. She then put a packet of strapped bills in each of the deep pockets in her maternity top, which positioned them below her protruding stomach, where she hoped they wouldn’t be obvious. She took the loose hundreds from her wallet, folded them in half and put them in the zippered compartment inside her purse along with her passport. She left the twenties, along with the money left from the weekend in her wallet. When she emerged from the toilet stall she felt more secure and she thought she would be able to get through the security screening at the airport without anyone noticing the money.

  Now she turned her attention to her need to get help. She knew she was in over her head; she needed help and she immediately thought of her father. He would know what she should do.

  She found a row of phones along one wall. She wished for the old-fashioned booths she remembered from her childhood, as she didn’t relish the idea of being overheard, but this seemed her only choice. She didn’t have a cell phone, her barely adequate salary didn’t stretch far enough; a cell phone was a luxury she couldn’t afford. And, she thought, she wouldn’t have dared to use it now if she did own one. She knew from books she read, and films she saw, how easy it was to be traced through a cell phone, and she didn’t dare leave a trail. She found the machine which sold phone cards, slipped in a twenty, and out popped a calling card.

  She pulled out her address book and found the number her father had given her when he had called earlier in the year. Then she inserted the calling card in the phone and punched in the numbers from the book. While she listened to the phone ringing she prayed he would be there. Finally the phone was answered, but it was a woman’s voice on the line.

  “Hello, is Jack there?” she asked hopefully.

  “No, I’m sorry he isn’t. Could I take a message? Or could I help you with something?”

  The voice sounded nice and concerned, but Karen couldn’t contain her disappointment. She had really been counting on his help. “Will he be back soon?”

  “No, I’m sorry, but I don’t expect him soon. He’s away on a business trip.”

  Karen suddenly felt as if she was going to bawl like a baby. “Oh, I see. Well, I’m sorry to have missed him.”

  “Wait!” came sharply out of the phone and Karen stopped with the receiver halfway to the phone.

  “Wait, who is this? Can I help you?”

  She put the receiver back to her ear. “This is Karen, his daughter. I was hoping he could help me with something...”

  “Karen, how nice to talk to you. Oh, Jack will be so sorry he missed your call.” The voice hesitated for a moment. “Karen, if you need help with something, could I help you? I don’t want to interfere, but I know your father would want me to help you in any way I can.

  “Oops, I’m sorry. I just realized you don’t even know who I am. My name is Claire Gulliver. I’m a close friend of your father’s. He’s helped me out several times and, while I don’t mean to be overly dramatic, I owe him my life. So I’d be more than happy to pay it forward to someone else.”

  Karen didn’t say anything, still processing what Claire had said.

  “In fact, Karen, we were just talking about you a couple of weeks ago while we were in Mexico.” The woman’s voice continued, “Jack was planning to come visit you in New York as soon as we got back, but unfortunately, something came up and he had to go away for a few weeks. But I know when he gets back he’s planning to head your way immediately.”

  “Tell him not to bother,” Karen said glumly. “I won’t be here.”

  “You’re leaving?”

  “Yes, immediately in fact.”

  “Where are you going? Do you have an address?” Claire sounded alarmed. Then after a pause she asked, “How can he contact you?”

  Karen couldn’t help herself, her voice broke in a half sob. “I don’t know where I’m going. I just need to get away. Someone is trying to kill me?”

  “Wait! Karen, don’t hang up!” Claire said sharply. “Tell me, how do you know someone is trying to kill you?”

  “I just came home from a weekend in Connecticut and found my apartment building is only charred rubble. The whole third floor where my apartment was located is gone. It’s missing. I don’t know what has happened to my neighbors. The article in the paper said six were killed.” Now she couldn’t contain her sobs.

  The sharp intake of breath came clearly over the receiver. “Oh, my God, that’s terrible. No wonder you’re frightened. But Karen, are you sure it’s not just a tragic accident? Maybe it’s not about you,” Claire offered in a soothing tone.

  “No, it is about me! And all those people were killed because of me. That’s not the whole story. On Thursday night while waiting on the subway platform someone tried to push me in front of the arriving train. A man standing beside me managed to grab me and pull me back to safety just as the train sped past. He thought I stumbled, but I was pushed. I felt the hands on my back.”

  “Have you talked to the police?”

  “Why? I don’t know who did it. I don’t have any proof. I can’t see how that would help me in any way. I need to hide. I’m just going to disappear.”

  “Karen, listen to me a minute. Strange as it sounds I’ve had some experience running away from someone who wanted to kill me. At least they wanted to kill the friend I was with. It’s not easy to escape and you have to be very careful not to leave clues. And then you have to be lucky. I survived because I was lucky and I had help. Maybe I could help you? Will you let me help you?”

  Karen thought for a minute. She knew nothing about Claire. She didn’t know if she really had any experience or if she was the kind of person who always thought she knew best. It would be pretty dangerous to trust her life to someone she didn’t even know. But then she remembered this woman was a friend of her father. That made her think she could trust her. After all, she knew her father didn’t suffer fools easily.

  “Okay, tell me how you escaped,” she said reluctantly, concerned about the amount of time this call was taking when she needed to get out of the city as soon as possible.

  “Karen, it will take too long to tell you about it, I’ll tell you when we meet. Look, your father trusts me, won’t you?” Then before Karen could reply, “What we need to do right now is to get you to somewhere you’ll be safe. Where are you right now?”

  “I’m in Penn Station.”

  “Are you using a cell phone or a pay phone?”

  “Pay phone, in the station.”

  “That’s good. Give me the number you’re calling from in case we get disconnected.”

  After Karen recited the numbers, Claire asked, “Now do you have cash with you?”

  Karen told her she did, so Claire then said, “Do you have any idea who would want to see you dead?”

  “Maybe,” Karen admitted reluctantly, “but it’s all so crazy and I have no proof.”

  “Okay, you were out of town when the fire occurred, so perhaps whoever set the fire doesn’t know you’re still alive, right? Does anyone know your father has been out on the West Coast?”

  “No. No one here knows anything about my father.”

  “Okay, so your best bet is to get as far away as possible and leave no trail to where you’re going. If you took a plane to Los Angeles, I could drive down and pick you up and drive you up here to wait until your father gets home. I’m sure he can hel
p you solve this problem. What do you think?”

  “Maybe...” Karen was thinking fast, afraid to trust the feeling of hope spreading over her. “Maybe that would work.”

  “Okay, but don’t leave from a local airport. It’s too easy for someone to be there watching for you. Can you get to Boston, or Washington, or even Philadelphia?”

  At Karen’s yes, she went on. “And pay cash. Don’t use your credit card for anything. And if you have a cell phone, get rid of it. Don’t carry it with you. Okay, just a minute, I’ve logged onto the computer and I’m looking for flight information.”

  “Try Philadelphia, I think that would be best,” Karen offered.

  “Okay, let’s see. Yes, here’s a flight on American to LAX leaving at two-thirty. No, that wouldn’t give you enough time to get there. Wait, here’s one from US Air, leaving at three-forty-three. What about that? Or, wait a minute. United has one leaving at five and another at six-thirty-four. They get into LAX at eight-fifteen and nine-forty-five. Either of those would be perfect. Those arrival times would give me enough time to drive there to meet you. Okay, did you write those down, United, five and six-thirtyish?

  “Now, I have to warn you again. Don’t use your credit card! Just go up to the ticket window and buy the ticket for cash. If there are no seats available, take the next flight. When you have your ticket, call me on my cell phone and leave the flight number you’re on, and the time it is arriving at LAX. If I’m out of reach of cell coverage, I’ll check my messages when I get close to a tower. Some places on the Interstate Five are out of range.” Claire carefully gave Karen her cell phone number.

  “Don’t check luggage, carry everything onboard. Now, when you arrive at LAX just follow the signs to the stop for the hotel buses. The sign is red and it’s outside the baggage claim area. You’ll want to take one of the blue buses marked for the Crown Plaza Hotel. They are free, just get on one and when you get to the hotel, find a place in the lobby to sit. I’ll find you there.” She paused. “Do you have all that?”

  “Yes, yes I think so.”

  Claire had her read back the phone number and the flight information and then, satisfied, she cautioned once more, “Okay, it’s a good plan. Keep alert, but don’t make yourself noticeable. I’ll be leaving here soon, so if you call back to this number, I won’t answer. Use the cell phone number I gave you. I’ll see you in about eight or ten hours, okay? And Karen, be brave. Stay focused. We’re going to make sure you survive this. There is no way I’m going to tell your father I lost you. Trust me on that!”

  “Okay,” Karen said tentatively. “And Claire, thanks.”

  CHAPTER 6

  It took Claire less than an hour to throw a few things in a duffle bag, grab Tuffy-Two, his food and bowl, and lock up the house. Mrs. B, the assistant manager at Gulliver’s Travel Bookshop, was more than willing to keep Tuffy-Two as well as care for Theroux, the bookstore cat, and the bookstore, until Claire got back.

  Soon Claire was pointing her old SUV toward the San Mateo Bridge in order to reach the Interstate Five, which ran down the long central valley of California. She thanked God Karen’s call came today, on a Monday, the day her bookstore was closed. As usual she had a long list of things she planned to do today, but none of them was more important than rescuing Jack’s daughter. All those other chores would wait.

  She was very nervous about her advice to Karen. She mentally went over everything she told her to do, hoping she hadn’t overlooked anything. This situation was very scary. Of course, it was hard to properly assess the danger. She had never met Karen and so she had no idea if she was a level-headed individual, or if she was a person who panicked at the least provocation. But, she reasoned, Karen was Jack’s daughter. So, with half of his genes she imagined Karen would most likely be a sensible person. She shook her head, thinking how a young girl on her own in New York could be easy prey for all kinds of villains. She wondered how Karen’s mother could sleep knowing her daughter was so exposed.

  On the other side of the San Mateo bridge, where she merged with Interstate Eighty, the traffic was dense with all the trucks and cars backing up to make the connection on the Five-eighty in order to eventually connect with the Five. It took all her attention to avoid the big semi-trucks forcing their way into the stop-and-go traffic at the last moment so they could make the turnoff. And she asked herself, why did everyone want to change lanes? It was nerve-wracking. Finally out of the jam of traffic, she was on the Five-eighty and could press down on the accelerator and speed east through the hills, making reasonable time.

  This route was easy for her. She had made this trip at least three times in as many years, because she participated in an annual travelers’ convention at the Crown Plaza Hotel near the Los Angeles Airport. It meant carting boxes of books down, setting up a shop in the exhibit hall, and then carting the leftovers home again. It was a lot of work. She went the first time with her friend Lucy Springer, the travel book writer, and they promoted Lucy’s books especially. Lucy was a lecturer at the conference that year and so they sold a load of her books about traveling in Great Britain. Each subsequent year Claire attended she sold more books, but the real benefit of attending was the increase in the number of customers using her online bookstore to order their travel books. That was a part of her business which was growing rapidly. And this particular conference was a help.

  Because of those past trips Claire was aware it would take her from five to eight hours to get to the Crown Plaza, depending on the time of day and the road conditions. The Los Angeles area was so densely populated it could add hours to the drive just getting from the top of the mountain pass to the heart of the city. She purposefully relaxed, slipped the SUV into cruise control, turned on some lively jazz music and prepared herself for hours on this boring stretch of highway.

  She wondered what kind of trouble Karen could have gotten into which could put her life in danger. She remembered her friend Kristen. Kristen had put her life in jeopardy by merely being in the wrong place at the wrong time and being a witness to a crime. She had then compounded the situation by subsequently agreeing to testify for the prosecution. That had been a nasty piece of business which Claire had become involved in during her trip to Italy a while back.

  Perhaps, she thought, Karen was a victim of a stalker who had gone amok. That seemed to be happening more and more these days and it was a very frightening situation. Well whatever had happened to cause this, Claire had taken her at her word, believing her life was in danger. She reasoned if the situation wasn’t as dire as Karen thought, no harm would be done by dropping everything to respond. But conversely, if Claire hadn’t treated it seriously and it was serious, it could cost Karen her life. And Claire certainly knew how scary a situation like that was.

  Poor Karen, she just wanted her daddy. Unfortunately, Jack wasn’t there. He and Claire had stumbled into a scary situation themselves while on vacation in Mexico only the month before. The villain had escaped, but since Jack was on the scene, his leave was abruptly cancelled and he was sent after the suspect.

  She couldn’t prevent the smile from stretching across her face, as any thought of Jack was apt to cause, while she negotiated the ramp merging onto Interstate Five and came out heading south. She felt warm and happy as she thought about Jack. She had met him a few years ago, in the spring of two thousand and one. She had been on her first trip across the seas, as had every other member of that tour. It had been a wonderful trip, albeit confusing. When the tour ended she had never expected to see Jack again, but life sometimes is full of surprises.

  At the end of the summer that same year she had been invited to Washington D.C. and who else was there? Jack. Thank God he was, as he saved her life when she was attacked on the Washington Mall. So when she returned to her travel bookstore in Bayside after that trip, she was pretty sure she would see Jack again. And now two years later, when they were vacationing in San Miguel de Allende he had asked her to marry him. That thought still gave her a thrill. A
nd every time she thought of Jack, a silly smile seemed to creep over her face.

  She couldn’t help it. She was in love. And that came with all the excitement and warm feelings inherent with that condition. Now she seldom felt foolish about having those giddy feelings at her age, the way she did when she first realized she loved him. Now she was just pleased to have found the right guy for her before she checked into the old folks’ home.

  She chuckled out loud. Actually, mid forties wasn’t so old. Look at all the glamorous movie stars who were in their forties and fifties. No one thought of them as old.

  Then she started thinking about how her life would change when she and Jack married. He was planning to take a job with the San Francisco Bureau of the Homeland Security office as the CIA liaison. It was a new position established after Nine-Eleven and it would be perfect for him, because he said he had enough of the crazy life of being an agent. After the serious injuries he was recovering from when he arrived in January, they both knew he was lucky to be alive. Sometimes it’s important to know when it’s time to make a change. These thoughts and memories occupied her mind as she navigated through the fast moving traffic for endless miles until she saw the sign for a rest stop and pulled off to use the facilities.

  CHAPTER 7

  The plane landed in Los Angeles fifteen minutes early. Karen had managed to sleep during the flight, thus avoiding conversation with the woman in the aisle seat, who wanted to talk about the grandchildren she was visiting. Karen didn’t want to participate in idle conversation when she needed to review every step she took to escape from New York City. By the time the plane had taken off, she had calmed down, but she was exhausted from the emotional roller coaster she had been on. She curled onto her seat with the blanket and pillow the airlines provided and closed her eyes.