Modern Girls Read online

  modern girls

  a stevie garrett beautiful girls mystery

  book one

  GARY S. GRIFFIN

  2010

  ireadiwrite Publishing Edition

  Copyright © 2010 Gary S. Griffin

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission from the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

  This ireadiwrite Publishing edition is published by arrangement with Gary S. Griffin, contact at [email protected]

  ireadiwrite Publishing - www.ireadiwrite.com

  Second electronic edition published by ireadiwrite Publishing

  Modern Girls

  ISBN 978-1-926760-23-0

  Published in Canada with international distribution.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental.

  Cover Design: Michelle Halket

  Cover Photograph: Copyright and courtesy of CanStock Photo

  Also by Gary S. Griffin

  The Stevie Garrett Beautiful Girls Mystery series

  Modern Girls

  Sexy Girls

  Artful Girls

  This novel is dedicated to

  my wonderful, beautiful and talented wife,

  Stefanie Jaye.

  She found me when I was lost,

  gave me a happy new life, and

  inspires me to dream and do my best.

  Thank you, Baby.

  life

  I ride the waves of life.

  I ride through everything;

  through good and bad.

  If I fall, I pick myself up.

  When the waves are too high,

  I dive under them

  avoiding them the best I can.

  If I have enough of life

  I retreat to the beach,

  my little hideaway near the waves.

  I ride the waves of life.

  Christian Griffin

  prologue

  This mystery was unique. It didn’t come my way from a corporate client. It wasn’t the usual hunt for money or a dispute over an investment gone wrong. No, it was totally different. This case involved girls, beautiful girls. The kind of women you never forget. But, these sexy girls had issues, unusual issues. Their issues soon became my problems to deal with. During the case I killed someone in self defense and it took a long time to get over it. I solved the mystery and managed to keep myself alive. Yet, I don’t call this investigation concluded because those ten days started everything.

  These girls came into my life and never left. From then on, I’ve always had one of them in my dreams or in my arms.

  I never fully understood why. And, it tormented me. So, I decided to write the story of the Modern Girls. I reinvestigated everything, including the contributing events before those brief days in Los Angeles. I used my memory and notes, excerpts from Andi’s diary journals, and conversations with many eyewitnesses. Writing this book helped me. Now, eight years later, I realize better what began that summer.

  This is how it happened.

  ***

  Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 16th & Chestnut Streets, Two Liberty Place, 44th Floor, August 25, 1995

  My name is Stephen Garrett. I’m a business investigator who works in Philadelphia and lives in the State of Delaware. I’d just finished my first year at Center City Investigators in The Liberty Place, the great blue sky scrapers of center city Philadelphia. Center City was hired by our clients to solve their frauds and other problems. I was the new kid and the financial man. I was twenty-eight years old and single.

  On a warm morning, I was counting the hours before my day and week would be over and my late summer vacation would begin. I planned to paint the entire outside of my recently purchased home. It was located in Delaware, just south of the Pennsylvania state line, and was a bit of a fixer-upper. It was priced well, and I liked its location - close to the freeway, in my home state, and away from the big city that I lived and breathed during business hours. I counted on some fun too; a few rounds of golf, a day at the beach in Rehoboth, at least one Phillies game, some long rides in my new blue Mazda Miata, and a few dates with my new girlfriend, Dee Dee Cho. Dee Dee was my hair stylist at a shop in the Liberty Place, called Smart Looking Men. All the stylists were young, beautiful women, and Dee Dee was no exception to that rule. I also planned to invite Dee Dee to my home for the first time after my outdoor work was completed. My week off was right before the Labor Day weekend, so I wouldn’t need to be back in the office until the following Tuesday. Plus, no investigations were red hot right, and I would only need to do a little follow up work over the next 10 days. It looked so good, I couldn’t wait.

  Then, my phone rang. It was my friend, Cyndie Myst, who had recently started working at a Philadelphia modeling agency.

  “Stevie, can we meet for lunch today. I need to talk to you, it’s urgent.”

  “What’s the matter?”

  “I need to tell you in person. Can you make lunch?”

  I opened my calendar and saw that my lunch and afternoon were open, and said, “Sure, Cyn, where would you like to meet?”

  “The Devon Grill, I’ll meet you there at 12:30.”

  ***

  So, that’s how this unusual and unexpected mystery began. My fashion model friend and I met three years earlier when we were both living and working in New York City. We never dated, but it crossed my mind, from time to time.

  Cyndie Myst’s one big modeling break was a spread she did in an alternate life-style magazine. It was for a Goth clothing designer and Cyn totally got into the part, from lipstick, to makeup, to hair, to clothes - she went all black. She looked terrific. With her natural dark brown hair, dramatic stares, and well-proportioned body, she was a natural for the Goth look. After her years of struggles in New York, she got an opportunity at the largest modeling agency in Philadelphia and it changed her life. One of the Grayson Agency’s specialties was to provide models for the Goth and Fetish industry. Apparently it was an interest of the modeling agency’s owner, and Cyn fit right in.

  ***

  The Devon Grill is a curbside seafood bistro serving the business and up-scale, residential crowd. People go here to be seen and to see others. It’s located on the east side of Rittenhouse Square and is a prime viewing spot of Philadelphia’s beautiful people. The seafood is terrific, but the talk, sights and drinks are the real attraction. The Grill is also a short walk from the modeling agency.

  It was a warm and breezy Friday lunchtime. Cyndie was seated at one of the outside tables when I arrived. She looked great. She was wearing a short black dress, black calf-high boots and a silver necklace with a large cross that rested between her large breasts. Her hair was dyed black and longer than I ever saw it before, going down below her shoulders. Her dramatic make-up included black eye liner that emphasized her large brown eyes. She reminded me of a witch, a hip, sexy, provocative witch. She stood as I approached and gave me a kiss and a tight hug.

  We ordered and exchanged a few comments about our lives, and then Cyndie got right to the point. “Stevie, a friend of ours needs help. It’s truly crazy!”

  At that moment, the waitress arrived and brought our drinks. I asked, “Who needs our help?”

  Twenty minutes later, Cyn had finished the story. I stretched out my legs to the side of the table, closed my eyes, exhaled a long sigh and said, “Poor Andi.”

  Andi Anderson had been accused of murdering her agent. Before I made any commitment, I told Cyndie that this investigati
on would be very hard, because, first, I had never investigated a murder. Second, I didn’t know the area or Andi’s life in Los Angeles. I’d be starting at square one. Plus, my feelings about Andi rushed through my brain. I had always found Andi hard to resist but didn’t know how to act on it. And, it wasn’t just because she was beautiful. No, that doesn’t come close to describing Andi, she was gorgeous! It was something else, too. We always had this connection, this electricity between us. It was that way from the moment we met in New York City. I had true lust for Andi and this feeling we could really hit it off, completely! And, that would be a huge, potentially dangerous distraction in a murder investigation. Cyndie’s next comments heightened my anxiety.

  “Cyndie, I’m not sure I can do this…”

  “Why not?”

  “First, I’m going on vacation.”

  Cyn asked, “Where?”

  “No where, I’m staying home and painting my house and…”

  I stopped talking when Cyn softly said, “Stevie, Andi has always wanted you.”

  “Really? Well, I wanted her too, who wouldn’t? She’s so hot. But, we’re just acquaintances, not real friends.”

  Cyndie answered, “Oh no, please don’t tell her that. You are very special to her.”

  “Come on, Cyn. Why didn’t she tell me?”

  “Stevie, she’s shy about that kind of thing. But, Andi would be very hurt that she didn’t make a big impression on you.”

  I said, “Well, she did - she’s incredibly beautiful, but, God, Cyn, I’m not in her league. She’s a super model and I’m just an investigator.”

  Cyndie was smiling. “That’s funny, that’s what Andi says - she feels so dumb around you because she’s a high school dropout. But, she thinks you’re so handsome, so kind and gentle, but a real man too. As she says, ‘you’re irresistible.’”

  I answered, “Oh, come on, are you sure?”

  “Absolutely!”

  “God, I never guessed that.”

  “Well, it’s true. Stevie, Andi wants you. She asks about you every time we talk. Now, Andi needs you. Please go.”

  “But, what am I going to do?”

  Cyndie simply said, “The police think she did it and aren’t looking for anyone else. We both know she couldn’t, didn’t kill her agent. Find out who did do it. You’re Andi’s only hope. She wants you to help her. She thinks you’re a great private eye, ever since you solved her stolen bikini case.”

  “Oh, Cyn, that case was a farce. You set her up and she fell for it, twice. I didn’t solve anything.”

  “No, you figured out it was a practical joke in minutes. And, you made her laugh, and not feel embarrassed. She’s never forgotten it. Plus, she really opened up to you.”

  I thought about that. I guess it was the unfulfilled lust and the connection I felt with Andi, because I blurted out, “OK, I’ll postpone my vacation and go out for a few days and see what I can do. But, don’t be optimistic.”

  Cyndie said, “Thank you, Stevie.”

  Before I expected, we were done lunch. I paid the bill and stood. Cyn got on her feet too.

  As we strolled back to her office, the Grayson Modeling Agency, I asked her, “Oh man, are you sure you won’t come with me?”

  Cyn answered, “No way, you know I don’t fly - at least not yet. I need to get psyched for that and this is too disturbing.”

  I just nodded.

  Cyndie said, “Call me after you get to L.A.”

  I kissed her and walked back to Two Liberty Place. My mind tried to digest this tragic story.

  Why did this murder happen? How did Andi get involved? I prayed for answers.

  part one

  andi - september 1983

  She wasn’t always a fashion model and a celebrity. She didn’t always have a refined, feminine personality. She didn’t always have men running to her on first sight or sending her flowers or buying her drinks at bars or hitting on her everywhere she went. She wasn’t always the supermodel with a racy lifestyle and major league baseball boyfriends. She didn’t wear the latest fashions and didn’t strut around all day in four-inch heels and thong panties and no bra. She didn’t always have a hot body; that was perfected by money and very good surgeons. Her hair wasn’t always very long, very blonde and very full.

  Yet, at a young age she started thinking about men and how she looked to them. She knew she had a lot of the body proportions they liked; long legs, slim waist, flat butt, long neck, a beautiful face with wide-spaced eyes, and hair that grew long easily and had a glossy look to it. She was taught how to dress and use make-up for every situation to emphasize all her positives - she truly felt clothes were made for her body. Plus, she had that ability to turn men on with her giggle and her sexiness and her interest in all that they do. She liked men and liked being with them and they knew it.

  Her understanding became fully known when she was seventeen-years-old.

  She always had a soft spot for children and animals. She always wanted to have a sister or brother and friends. She dreamed of growing up and getting married to a kind, tall, healthy man and having four or five children and living on her parents’ big farm and going barefoot all the time in summer and wearing cut-off shorts and a t-shirt over her flat chest, and letting her hair grow and grow and not worrying about her looks.

  But, at 17 her daddy died and the farm was sold and she moved with her momma to a small southern New Jersey town.

  ***

  She was born as Andrea Anderson in southern New Jersey and grew up on a dairy farm near the small town of Woodstown, about ten miles from the Delaware River. She had a fairly normal middle class childhood. She was an only child and a total surprise baby, born when her mother was 45 and her father was 48. Her parents had wanted children for over twenty years and had given up trying several years earlier. They had been told that her mother, Alice, was barren. Then, her mother had a minor traffic accident driving the family’s pick-up truck. A few nights later, Alice became pregnant. Alice liked to say that it took the bump by the other car’s fender to pop her egg out from hiding. He father had always wanted a son, so that’s why her nickname became Andi.

  Then, the day before her seventeenth birthday, her father died suddenly in the fields. The doctor said it was a heart attack. He was only 65.

  Andi cried for days and days. She knew he had some health problems, but it was still unbelievable. Andi was crushed! She knew Daddy had loved her with his whole heart. He was always so positive and upbeat. He always had a smile for Andi and she knew he loved to see her and hear of her days at school or play.

  On summer nights they would go to Richman’s, the local ice cream company, and Daddy would buy her a double dip of her favorite flavor, mint chocolate chip, in a big sugar cone and they would sit in the truck and listen to the Phillies on the radio. Andi didn’t really follow what was happening in the game, but she could see Daddy listening carefully, with a faraway look in his eyes, and he’d get mad or excited when Bowa and Schmidt and Luzinski and Boone were batting - depending on how they did at the plate. She just liked being with Daddy.

  In winter they cut firewood in the woods and would go together to find their Christmas tree. In spring Daddy would bring her to the barn to see the birthing of new calves. She’d sit on the big tractor and watch Daddy plant corn and wheat. In fall, they’d harvest and she remembered seeing the silos bursting with that corn. Now, these wonderful things would never happen again. They were only memories.

  ***

  Life changed quickly. Her mother had to go to work to make ends meet. She was 62 and had never worked outside of her home before. She got a job as a maid. It was very hard for Alice. Andi heard her mother cry every night in bed. Andi comforted Alice as best she could every morning, but each night she heard the crying again.

  She asked her mother how she could help and Alice only said, “I don’t know, Andi. Anything would be a help. There is so much to do.”

  Soon, they sold their dairy farm. It was clear neit
her Andi nor her mother could run it. Unfortunately for them, the farm was heavily mortgaged as business had taken a downturn ten years earlier and never recovered.

  Both women were surprised how little they cleared from the sale of the house and barn and land and cows and equipment; only $150,000 as they had a mountain of debt and the best offer for everything was $750,000. They were desperate as the whole farm was out of control, so they had to settle for that amount.

  The money bought them a small two-bedroom cottage in Woodstown, near the high school, and near a lot of the houses that her mother cleaned. This way they were so centrally located that both women could walk to work and school. The pick-up truck was used sparingly by her mother. There, they began a humble life that they both thought would last a long time. In reality, life changed dramatically within a year.

  So, in September 1983, they had moved to the place where Andi became aware and saw the one path that could make her career and rescue Alice from this late-life living-hell. Andi would use her looks to find a job that paid well. Andi knew that future would be away from Woodstown, a long way from Woodstown. But, she would always remember her mother and would help her.

  The new home was a small cottage with four rooms downstairs; living room, dining room, kitchen and her mother’s bedroom, along with a bathroom. Andi’s bedroom was on the second floor; the only finished space upstairs. She had two dormer windows and two side windows that provided good ventilation on hot nights. The room had good views of the downtown area. It also had a full bathroom, all for Andi’s use, which she loved.