Chapter 23
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
To Do:
- Resist the urge to strangle Brad
- Call Mom back
- Maybe just a low-level Google search of Olivia
“Have you heard from Bri?” Mindy asked as they swung into the parking lot of Solar Flare, the restaurant in East Malibu where Brad and Karen had their first date.
“Not today.” Claire climbed out of the car and stepped onto the parking lot, which was made out of crushed seashells. “She’s been doing night shoots for her next movie. It’s a drama based on a true crime story.”
“Don’t try to distract me with true crime,” Mindy said as she locked her car door. She was obsessed with the show Mysterious Murders . “Aren’t you supposed to have lunch with her tomorrow? And Charlie?”
“Charlie doesn’t exactly know that it’s the three of us.” The only way to get the three Hartley sisters together was to ambush Charlie. Claire stepped up to the fence that lined the parking lot. “Oh, wow.”
To their right, a stamped concrete patio littered with tables had flawless ocean views. A steep cliff dropped off not far from the last tables. Weird choice for a restaurant that served alcohol.
“Hell of a place for a first date.” Mindy leaned on the fence. Her dark hair shone in the afternoon sun. “So, lunch here at noon.”
“The whole patio is reserved for them. Nicole will get some candids while we’re here. We’ll give them an hour, hour and fifteen at most to eat.”
“We should probably have lunch here one day. You know, to make sure that timeline is doable.”
Claire nodded and took a deep breath. The salt spray misted her face. She closed her eyes. “You’re absolutely right. A business lunch. It would be the most responsible thing to do.”
“Okay,” Mindy said, turning away from the view. “Next stop. Santa Monica Pier. You have the stopwatch?”
“Just another second.” The beach was Claire’s favorite place, and she rarely had an opportunity to visit.
Mindy nodded. “Fair enough.”
They stood next to each other in silence. The sun beat down above, warming Claire’s skin. Waves crashed somewhere below them and a seagull cawed a few yards away. For a moment, she allowed herself to get lost in the present, to enjoy the tickle of salt spray on her face and inhale the earthy spice of basil drifting from the restaurant. Dr. Goulding would have been proud.
“Okay,” she said after a minute of silence. “I’m ready.” She pulled a stopwatch from her purse. Sure, she could have just used the app on her phone. But this was so much more official.
They climbed back into the car, and Mindy backed out of her parking spot. “And…go!”
Claire hit the stopwatch as they pulled back out onto the Pacific Coast Highway. California may have entirely too many vegan restaurants and more expensive gas than she’d ever seen in her life, but there was no denying it was beautiful.
“This is not an excuse for you to drive like a maniac, by the way.” Claire held onto the oh shit bar as Mindy took a turn way too fast.
“I’m not.” Mindy shot her a dirty look. “Out of the two people in this car, who owns a vehicle that exploded in the last year?”
“Not because I crashed it off a cliff into the ocean.” Claire threw her hands up. “Also, I made a minor addendum to the schedule.”
Mindy raised her eyebrows.
“Mandatory three-minute excursion to the beach once we’re done. I can’t come that close to a new ocean and not put my toes in.”
“I’ll allow it,” Mindy said. They drove in silence for a few minutes.
Claire glanced in the rearview mirror. “That car’s been following us for a couple miles.”
“It’s the Pacific Coast Highway, Claire. Unless they’re headed to Tuna Canyon,” Mindy said, gesturing at a sign with one hand, “there’s literally nowhere else to go.”
“I’m sure you’re right.” Still, she couldn’t peel her eyes off the black sedan with tinted windows behind them. Surely lots of people in California had tinted windows. Maybe there was a movie star behind them. Or an FBI agent. Or even a new PI hired by her overbearing mother. It wasn’t necessarily a member of ESA.
“Oh yay, we’re here,” Mindy said, turning off the highway and into a beach parking lot. The pier rose in front of them. Hundreds of people were enjoying the beach, sunbathing, playing Frisbee, even surfing.
Claire glanced in the mirror again. The car was still behind them. Maybe they were just headed to the beach too. She hammered the stop button on the stopwatch. Just short of twenty minutes. Not awful, even with moderate traffic. She made a notation on her clipboard and set it at her feet.
The black sedan disappeared into a back corner of the lot. Claire shook her head and set her eyes on the pier. All the different smells and sounds hit her as soon as she exited the car. People screamed on the nearby roller coaster. The smell of fried fish drifted out of one of the restaurants, mingling with the cloying sweetness of funnel cakes. Dozens of people crisscrossed the pier—families, teenagers, obvious tourists.
The crashing waves drew her eyes, but the back of her neck prickled. If they were being followed, it would be hard to spot a tail on such a crowded boardwalk. She glanced behind her, but there were too many faces to catalog. There were easily a dozen men within ten feet of her, and a tail would probably keep his distance. A place like this must be Sawyer’s nightmare.
“What’s wrong?” Mindy asked. “You look weird.”
“It’s probably just me being paranoid, but I feel like we’re being followed,” Claire said, surveying the pier again. Was that teenage boy looking at them because he wanted to murder them, or just because Mindy was wearing a low-cut top?
“Let’s get lost then.” Mindy grabbed Claire’s hand and dove into Pacific Park. Children screamed on the nearby rollercoaster. Claire ducked behind a cotton candy cart and watched. Mindy crouched next to her. No one looked in their direction.
“Bathroom,” Mindy said. They wound through several rides, dodging strollers and tiny dogs, and sidled into a bathroom.
Mindy dug through her purse until she found a scrap of fabric and a black wig. “Here.” She passed them over.
“You went through my suitcase?” Claire frowned. She had tossed half a dozen wigs and disguises in her suitcase before leaving for California. It was impossible to be too careful now that ESA activity had ramped back up.
“I was looking for a phone charger. And then naturally I stole these and shoved them in my purse in case we needed them. I will never doubt your instincts again. Put them on.” Mindy pulled another wig out of her purse and swirled her hair into a bun.
Claire stepped into a truly disgusting bathroom stall and hung her purse on the hook. She kept her elbows glued to her sides as she struggled into the hot pink dress that Mindy had offered her. With one look, Claire’s late grandmother would have said she could see what Claire had for breakfast. But maybe that was a good thing. She bumped the door open with her foot and stepped back to the sinks. Between the black wig and the bodycon dress, she was unrecognizable.
“Second thing.” Mindy turned around, wearing a new top. “Let’s split up and meet back at the wheel. If there’s someone watching us, they’re going to expect there to be two of us. Take ten minutes to make sure we lost them.”
“Has Sawyer been giving you lessons?” Claire asked as she adjusted the wig a final time.
“Maybe.” Mindy snapped her compact shut. “Okay, you first. Remember, take a meandering route, don’t stop to talk to anyone, and scream the code word if someone comes up to you with a chloroform rag. Be. Careful.” She punctuated her sentence with a finger jab.
“Platypus. Got it.” Claire slung her purse back over her shoulder. “See you at the wheel.”
She emerged into the sunlight and slid on a pair of sunglasses. A quick scan of the immediate area didn’t reveal any looky-loos. A father and son pulled pieces off a hunk of cotton candy. A toddler screamed at her mother and pointed at an ice cream stand.
She went out the opposite park entrance and kept her head down as she walked. A small clump of people was clustered at the far end of the pier. It would give her a chance to put her back to the ocean and watch all incoming foot traffic. If someone was being shady, she stood a better chance of seeing them from the edge of the pier.
Her Jimmy Choos clattered over the boardwalk. She probably could have picked more low-key footwear for this adventure, but her ballet flats that folded into a bag were in the car.
She rounded the corner of the pier and nearly came screeching to a halt. There, leaning against the railing, was a white male, mid-twenties, arms casually folded. The breath caught in her throat as though someone was squeezing it. There wasn’t any reason to suspect him. He was dressed in black from head to toe, which didn’t exactly match the attire of the people around him but didn’t necessarily make him stick out. He wore sunglasses, but she could feel his eyes on her. Something about him made her skin crawl. Was this guy just a run-of-the-mill creeper, or was this a member of ESA?
Claire’s phone beeped, and she risked a glance at it. Was Mindy all right?
Alice: Are you okay, Clairebear? I just have a bad feeling about this California trip. I said a prayer of protection for you.
Claire pursed her lips. The last thing she needed was another infamous prediction from her psychic mother.
But still…the base of her spine tingled. Something wasn’t right. Claire swung her phone up and pretended to take a selfie. Instead, she snapped a picture of the man on the boardwalk and sent it to Mindy and Luke with the caption “probably nothing, but in case I disappear: bad vibes from this guy.”
She walked past the man with her head held high. Every cell in her body screamed for her to turn around. Were those footsteps behind her? Of course it was, there were three hundred other people on this nightmare pier. She quickened her pace, passing men, women, and children, not bothering to search their faces. Her heart rate ticked up like she was jogging a 5k.
She was only twenty yards or so from the railing overlooking the Pacific. At least from there, no one would be able to approach her from behind like a coward. She could get her bearings, decide whether or not she needed to bail on the Ferris wheel, and maybe uppercut a creepy asshole into the Pacific. She pulled her keys from her purse and clutched them between her knuckles. Maybe moving toward the end of the pier that had only one entrance and exit was not the best idea. But it was too late now.
It was foolish to think that moving cross-country would solve anything. At least in West Haven, she had cleared out the ESA sect. Who knew how large the one in California was? There could be a dozen people here right now, waiting to grab her.
Her pulse beat in her eyes as she beelined for the railing. The keys in her hand cut into her fingers because she was holding them too tightly. Her phone beeped again, but she ignored it. If she could just reach the railing, everything would be fine. Everything would be?—
Suddenly, something heavy and hard collided with her left side. Claire shrieked like she had been stabbed.
“PLATYPUS,” she screamed to the crowd. She tumbled to the ground, falling hard on the planks. A splinter bit into her right palm. Her wig slipped off, exposing her blond tresses to the world.
“Whoa, sorry, dude,” someone said. A scarred hand with a wrist guard slipped into view. “I lost control of my board. Did you say platypus?”
She backed away from the offered hand. Sure, it could have been an innocent skateboarder. But it could have just as easily been a murderer in training waiting to drag her into a windowless kidnapping van.
At that moment, Mindy sprinted down the pier hoisting a metal trashcan lid. A security guard trailed behind her.
“I thought you were fucking dead.” Mindy chucked the lid onto the boardwalk and pulled Claire into a rib-crushing hug. “Did your thumbs fall off? They must have since you didn’t text me back.” She pulled away and inspected Claire’s hands.
“I’m sorry, I just got bad vibes from that guy?—”
Wait. Shit. Where had he gone?
She scanned the boardwalk. A handful of people were still staring at them after Mindy’s dramatic trash can release, but none of them were the lurker in the black hoodie.
“Everything okay here?” The bored-looking security guard with a nightstick and sun-bleached surfer hair popped a chewing gum bubble in their faces.
“I think so. Thank you.” Claire scanned the crowd again. No creeper. She blew out a long breath and straightened the hem of her absurd dress. The three-minute beach excursion no longer felt like a safe idea. “We better get on track with checking the route.”
Mindy grunted and started back toward the car, her head on a swivel. Claire trailed behind her, probing the crowd.
She couldn’t live this way for the rest of her life. ESA wouldn’t stop until they were taken down. It was time to topple the first domino—Professor Taylor.