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  Rob heard me and said, “Don’t cry, Andi. I’m not doing that. All along, I waited to see how I could get you free. Please believe me. I decided that several days ago once Kathy broke up with me and I knew she wasn’t going to be here with me.”

  Andi forced herself to stop crying and was actually touched by what Rob said. She wasn’t certain, but she thought she saw tears in Rob’s eyes too.

  “Now, here’s the deal, Andi. If you promise me that you won’t tell anyone what I did, that I brought you here to keep you safe, and I promise to let you go free. I plan to testify against Kathy at her trial because she killed Sid all by herself. Do we have a deal?”

  She again couldn’t believe what she was hearing. But, she was in no position to say no. And, Rob’s deal would make things all work out. Andi nodded her head yes seven times.

  Rob said, “Good, now let’s get you out of that trunk and out of those handcuffs. I need to take you to a hiding place, before I go see Kathy. I can’t let her find you or she’d kill you, that’s for sure, especially when she learns I didn’t do it!”

  Ten minutes later Andi was standing at the entrance to a small cave. Rob had lifted Andi out of the trunk, bent her over his shoulder and carried her to this spot off the road. Rob had taken the handcuffs off her wrists and ankles, and the tape off her mouth. Andi now stood awkwardly on her high-heeled feet in the sandy, rocky ground. Rob told Andi that he left her a small blanket, water, some fruit and energy bars inside the big black trash bag at her feet.

  Rob promised to rescue Andi after he spoke to Kathy. He said she should wait in the cave until he came to get her as he wasn’t sure what Kathy would do. When Rob asked, she nodded that she would stay right there.

  Earlier, Rob had showed her the cave’s chambers and told her the area around the pool of water in the back of the cave was the most private.

  Rob said, “OK, whatever you do, stay inside the cave when the sun gets higher because it’ll get real hot out here.”

  Andi asked him, “How are you going to explain to Kathy that I’m missing?”

  “I have an idea and she’s not going to be able to do anything about it.”

  “What’s the idea?”

  “On the ride from L.A. I figured out that I had to set this right. After I tell her off, I’m going to turn myself into the police and confess what I did and have them get Kathy.”

  Andi was weirded out by Rob and the way he was acting and all he did. But, she was grateful that he didn’t kill her or hurt her or cut her hair.

  Andi was glad he was leaving. So, she said, “I think you’re doing the right thing, Rob. But, be careful.”

  “I will.”

  He said goodbye.

  Rob turned the car around carefully, and headed off, slowly, the way he came. Andi didn’t move until his car was almost out of sight. It was windy and the sand and dirt were blowing and stinging as it hit all over her bare, syrup and feather-covered body. Then, she carefully knelt and opened the black plastic bag. She was alone, somewhere in the mountains. As the sun beat down on her, she began to cry and prayed for help.

  solid clues

  We got back to the apartment by 10:40am. I felt weirded out. I had a headache from too much coffee and the stress. I took two of Andi’s Tylenol. Edie and I agreed we’d take a quick shower, quick separate showers, to try to perk up from our limited sleep.

  I took my shower first. I also shaved and brushed my teeth. I started to feel a little better. I came out of the bathroom and got dressed in a polo shirt and shorts.

  On her way into the bathroom, Edie told me that she called and spoke to Troy while I was in the shower. He said he went to a dinner with his mother last night and didn’t get home until after midnight.

  It was almost 11:00. As I was tying my shoes, I heard Bobo meowing. She kept it up and I heard her paws on the living room’s sliding screen door. I looked down at her through the screen. She had eaten most of her cat food. I let her in. Bobo walked through my legs and rubbed against them, showing her appreciation. That’s when I felt something more than fur against my bare legs. It was a rub of stickiness, not fur, that stopped me, caused me to look down. I bent down and held her. I looked close and saw something else; something sticky and tan was on Bobo’s fur. Plus, several small, white feathers. I rubbed some between my right thumb and forefinger, and then smelled it. It was sweet. What happened?

  I spun around and ran to get a towel and wetted it with warm tap water. When I returned Bobo was still sitting on the carpet. I rubbed the syrup off the best I could. I thought that this could be it. Andi had to be close by.

  Another thought I had was that Bobo could lead me to Andi. I was getting frantic again. That feeling like things were rushing, time was speeding up. The sticky stuff on Bobo’s fur made me want to search the garage first.

  I lifted Bobo and opened the screen door. I stepped outside and put her down. I expected her to follow me to the garage. Instead, the cat looked at me, turned and started walking away. Not to the garage steps, but towards the pool area.

  As I got closer to the pool, Bobo ran ahead, past the pool and around the corner of the building. When I turned that corner, Bobo was already ten steps up the fire escape and continuing to climb upward. I followed and two stairs up I noticed tan paw prints going up and down the steps, and the prints became clearer, with more syrup. Clearly, Bobo had come and gone this way several times in the past few hours.

  I continued up the stairs to the roof. The sticky trail led me to the rear of the small laundry building. There I found two pairs of handcuffs, a mess of syrup and feathers, and clear evidence that someone had been held up on the brick wall - against their will. Looking around this area, I saw an empty jug of maple syrup and a torn and empty goose-down pillow.

  On the roof, right next to the brick wall, in addition to the syrup and feathers, I saw footprints - most were of a woman’s high-heeled shoes - with the triangular-shaped fronts and the small round marks of the heels. Against the wall were impressions that a person left from leaning back or pressing against the bricks - just under three feet up were two fairly large oval marks that looked like the marks from someone’s bare behind, and about two feet higher another mark could be where their upper back pressed against the brick.

  It was at this height and slightly higher when I got a chill; in the syrup, besides stuck feathers, were several strands of long, blonde hair. Instinctively, I knew these were Andi’s and that this confirmed that Andi had been here. I could only imagine what other nightmare things happened to her.

  There wasn’t any evidence of a struggle and I didn’t see any blood - thank God. I then walked around the roof and noticed some syrup and feathers trailed from the back of the building, around one side, to the front and over the small fence to the laundry room’s outside deck. My guess was that Andi was dragged or carried this way to the building’s elevator. Where did she go from here?

  I took the elevator from the laundry room down to the garage - guessing that Andi was moved there next - but my careful search around the area didn’t reveal any further clues.

  On my way back to the apartment, up the garage stairs, I ran into Edie, who was coming out of the apartment. She had changed into some of Andi’s clothes; capris, a sleeveless white cotton shirt, and sandals - the two women’s feet were close to the same size. Her hair was slightly damp, parted off-center and pulled back with a head band on her shoulders. I noticed that her long-hair had made the back of her shirt wet. She looked classy, attractive and appealing - the descriptions that always came to my mind whenever I saw her.

  From twenty feet way, Edie asked, “Stevie, where did you go?”

  As I started to explain, Edie guessed I was distressed, because she interrupted me. “God, it looks like you saw a ghost.”

  “I feel like I did. Let me show you.”

  We turned around and I led Edie to the lobby. Inside, we took the elevator to the roof. During the elevator ride I began to tell Edie how I found Bobo. We e
xited and walked through the laundry room out to the wooden deck. I lifted Edie up and over the deck fence and carefully placed her down on the other side. She was lighter than I expected and had a wonderful softness. I climbed over the fence myself.

  I hadn’t finished describing my discovery when the physical evidence made it unnecessary to keep talking.

  Edie said, “Now, I understand. God, who ever did this is truly sick, Stevie.”

  “Yes, they are.”

  “What do we do now?”

  I answered, “I don’t know. Let’s get off this hot roof and start our trip.”

  “Yeah, plus we need to call the detectives, and I want to call my cabin in Tucson. If my dad drove there he should’ve arrived by now.”

  ***

  Edie and I were seated on Andi’s couch and I was finishing my conversations with Detectives Lomita and Savage. I gave them a summary of our roof top findings. Savage said he would come by the apartment that afternoon and would bring Jason Kim, his lab technician. We also spoke about Edie’s conversation with Troy Gabriel. She told me that she believed his story.

  I was about to pack my own bag of clothes when Edie picked up the phone. She dialed her cabin’s phone number and waited. I stopped and watched her as she sat on the couch.

  I was looking at Edie and she put my hand over the mouthpiece and said, “It’s ringing.”

  Edie motioned to me to sit next to her, and when I did, she positioned the earpiece so I could hear.

  After ten seconds I heard a hello from the handset. Edie said, “Dad, this is Edie. What’s going on? Why are you in Tucson?”

  We shocked Rob. “Princess?”

  “Yes, Dad, I’m here with Mr. Garrett. What are you doing?”

  Rob spoke slower, softer, “I messed up, princess.”

  Edie touched my arm and made eye contact. Edie put her hand over the mouthpiece. She whispered, “He’s drunk.”

  I nodded and whispered, “Find out about Andi first.”

  She nodded.

  I grabbed a pen and a small piece of paper and handed to Edie. Then, I got up close to Edie again so we both could hear Rob’s voice.

  Edie spoke slowly and clearly, “Where is Andi Anderson?”

  “I put her in our hiding place. Where we went when you were a little girl; our special place.”

  “Where, Dad?”

  “The hidden place only we know.”

  Edie looked puzzled and then something clicked in her mind. She asked, “Do you mean Peppersauce Cave?”

  Rob answered, “Yes.”

  “You’ve hidden her in Peppersauce Cave.”

  Rob said again, “Yes.”

  Edie covered the phone’s mouthpiece and said, “I know where that is, near Tucson”.

  I whispered, “How far is that from L.A.?”

  She answered, “Over seven hours.”

  Then, Edie asked, “How long has she been there?”

  Rob said, “Two hours already.”

  Edie asked, “How’s Andi?”

  “That woman did bad things to her. But, she’s safe, princess. She wanted to kill Andi.”

  Edie asked, “Who wanted to kill Andi?”

  “That crazy woman.”

  “Do you mean Kathy Reese?”

  “Yes, she went nuts.”

  “Kathy killed Sid, right?”

  Rob was answering the questions he heard in his head, not exactly what Edie was asking.

  Rob said, “Yes, I was mad at Sid, too. He was making me leave the apartment. He said I wasn’t doing my job right. I told her. She was mad at Andi and Sid. She wanted to get back at both of them.”

  Edie started crying. “Oh, Dad, no.”

  Rob continued his monologue. “I’m meeting her soon at the airport. I’m going to turn us into the police.”

  Edie struggled to get control of her emotions. Rob then said, “Princess, I got to go soon...”

  Edie came back to the moment. “Dad, look, Stevie and I are coming to help.”

  “Good, when?”

  “Right now, but, it will take us until late in the afternoon. Why don’t you take a nap? We’ll be there when you wake up. OK?”

  “OK, princess.”

  Edie then asked, “Are you sure you’re meeting Kathy?”

  “Yes, she wants to see that I did it.”

  “Did what?”

  “That I killed Andi.”

  “Oh, Dad, you can’t do that?”

  “I’m not, princess. I swear. She’s safe in our special place.”

  “Is Kathy coming back to L.A.?”

  “Yes. But, I want the police to get her. Oh, I got to go princess. See you when you get here.”

  Then, he hung up.

  She put the phone down and turned to me and gave me the first hug we ever shared. Tears flowed from her eyes. Edie looked like another piece had broken inside her, a third one, to go with the two that happened with the deaths of her mother and Sid.

  I didn’t speak. I held her tight.

  After five minutes she recovered enough to wipe the tears. We sat back on the couch and sighed.

  “Oh, my God, Stevie! This is so hard.”

  She paused and wiped more tears, then said, “I believe him. I know no one else would. I’m not 100% sure, but I think Andi is alive.”

  “Yeah, I agree. He did sound like he was telling the truth. I don’t know what he did to Andi, but it’s all we’ve got to go on. So, where is this cave?”

  She answered, “Like I said, near Tucson. You need to take the highway up to Mount Lemmon.”

  Edie stopped a moment and thought. “You know, Peppersauce is actually a safe place.”

  I said, “Safe place! In a cave? I don’t understand.”

  “Yeah, believe me, if you don’t know where it is, you’d never find it.”

  I must have had an odd expression on my face because Edie added, “Yes, it’s weird, but he believes he’s saved Andi. Maybe he did prevent Kathy from killing Andi.”

  “Where is Mount Lemmon?”

  Edie answered, “Near Tucson, in the mountains, right outside town. The cabin is up there. The cave is on the other side of Mount Lemmon.”

  I said, “We need to go - Andi needs us.”

  Edie looked at the clock. It was 11:54. “Stevie, with the seven hour ride we won’t get there until after 7. I agree; we need to go now.”

  Edie made a quick call to Bambi and gave her an update. She told Bambi we’d call here when we had more news.

  ***

  We were on the road within a half hour. Before we left, we got Shayna and asked her to stay in Andi’s apartment. I quickly told her Andi’s story and she was floored by the news. Shayna could only hang out in the apartment until 6:30 because she was performing with her band again that night. We promised to call her as soon as we arrived in Tucson - and found Andi - we hoped. Edie wrote down her cabin’s address and gave it to Shayna.

  “If Lieutenant Lomita calls, tell him what were doing in Tucson. I’ll call and explain everything to him once we get there. OK?”

  Shayna answered, “Sure, Stevie.”

  As we were saying goodbye to Shayna, the phone rang. I picked it up, said hello, and the caller asked for Andrea. I said she was out at the moment, but asked if I could take a message.

  The female caller said, “Yes, could you please. I’m Julia Fremont, with Creative Entertainment. I’m calling in regards to her audition for Liar, Liar. Can you have Andrea call me back at 969-1025 after the holiday weekend? I won’t be in the office tomorrow, but will be in Tuesday after Labor Day.”

  I said, “Hold on one second, Julia. Let me get a pen and paper.”

  Edie handed me the pen and paper.

  “Go ahead, Julia. I’m ready.”

  She said, “OK. My number is 969-1025 and tell her I’ll be back in the office next Tuesday.”

  “I will Julia.”

  She said, “OK. Thanks, good bye.”

  “Right, good bye.”

  I hung up a
nd Edie asked, “Who was that, Stevie?”

  “It was the talent agency where Andi auditioned for a real movie. You know the audition Sid got her. They called back and want to speak to Andi.”

  Shayna screamed, “I bet she got the part. Oh my God!”

  I looked at her and said, “Do you really think so?”

  Edie jumped in and said, “Sure, they only call you back if you got the job.”

  Shayna started crying. It was ironic and difficult; likely the best news of Andi’s acting career arrives when she can’t get it.

  I hugged Shayna and thanked her for her help. She said, “Go save Andi and bring her home.”

  I promised we would. I then said to Edie, “Let’s get going.”

  We said our goodbyes to Shayna, and Edie grabbed the clothes and toiletries she brought for Andi.

  ***

  Edie and I were on our way in the BMW. We stopped at a roadside Mexican food stand and bought burritos, diet cokes and water. It was 12:49 when we entered the Harbor Freeway and headed north to I-10. Edie helped me find the way to I-10 east when we got to downtown.

  We ate as we drove and settled in for the long ride. Traffic was light on this last day of August. Until the talent agent mentioned Labor Day, I didn’t realize the next day would be a new month and the start of a holiday weekend. Soon we were flying along at a steady 73 miles per hour thanks to cruise control.

  Edie kicked off her sandals and said she’d take a nap but first wondered how I was doing. I answered that I was conflicted and confused by all that happened and Andi’s behavior.

  “Edie, I do really care for Andi – but this whole week has been a crazy rush of actions and emotions and deceptions. My head is spinning.”

  “I bet it is. Andi can do that.”

  I looked at Edie and blushed and smiled.

  Edie continued, “Look, don’t worry. I won’t tell any one else. But, Andi loves you. I mean, she really cares about you and thinks you’re terrific.”

  I said, “I think, deep down, that she’s an incredible sweetheart, too.”

  Edie said, “I think she is a little intimidated by you, though.”