Chapter 5
Phoebe was immensely glad to see Sal's face looking for her when she disembarked in Los Angeles. The events of the preceding two days had left her emotionally spent and frankly, rather confused. She deplored the bestiality of the events, the feeling of having been used and abused. She felt empty and angry. It was as though she had gone out into the world seeking expansion and learning and nearly everyone she had met had seen her almost instantly as an object of desire, an object to be used and forgotten.
Sal was family. While they hardly knew each other-he and her sister had been married on the West Coast and had visited New England only once in the intervening five years-he was still kin. Kin was safe. Kin would help you, not use you. With kin you could relax.
"Well, little sister," he said as he approached her, "you sure had one hell of a time getting here!"
She was glad his language was relaxed and that he might call her "Little sister" but he would not treat her like a child.
"You could say that," she responded. "I seem to have met with every conceivable delay...." His mind played back over the words and even uninitiated Phoebe thought that her mind must be expressing something. The coincidence of vocabulary was too frequent.
"I'm tired and very much want to see the inside of something more than ten-feet wide. I feel like I've been traveling for weeks!"
Sal took her hand and led her through the maze of corridors to the luggage area. There they retrieved her knapsack and made their way through the parking lot to his car. The Cadillac was new. Sal was doing well, though Phoebe had little real knowledge of what he did for a living. As they drove toward home, life seemed brighter. Sal was lively and clever. His conversation was filled with fun observations about the people around him, about Los Angeles, Hollywood, about himself too.
They drove up the driveway of a comfortable house in West Hollywood where, Sal explained, he and Alice had been living for several years. Another car was in the driveway. Sal explained that it was just a second car and that he sometimes took it to work when he felt that the job might damage the Caddy, like going into rough country of the desert. Unfortunately the old thing was always breaking down and he might have to have her come and fetch him sometime. He was planning to leave the Cadillac for her to use during her visit.
Phoebe was thrilled. From the pits to this: a comfortable house in a stylish area, a huge beautiful car to use and an understanding and attractive friend. Everything had changed.
The first several weeks went wonderfully. Sal was always entertaining. There were always several attractive men in the house and each of them had the same fascinating New York accent and the same dark attractiveness that Sal had.
Phoebe visited the studios during the day, she saw game shows and learned her way to a beautiful beach that Sal introduced her to. She had met a few people who frequented the same beach but essentially her life was solitary in the daytime and filled with Sal and his friends in the evening.
Often Phoebe would fix dinner if it were just the two of them. Their evenings were intimate, shared only from time to time with Phoebe's mother and sister who would call to say hello and check on their welfare and with the close group of friends that Sal treated almost like brothers.
In mid-June Sal asked Phoebe if she had ever been to the desert. She reminded him that she'd never been west of the Green Mountains before this summer. Apparently one of his friends had a house deep in the desert and wouldn't be using it for several weeks, perhaps a month. He wondered if she might find such an excursion interesting despite the considerable heat.
Phoebe was fascinated. The desert! Cactus and vultures and miles of sand dunes! Of course she'd love it. Sal was pleased to see her so happy about the idea. They left their plans and took in a local movie. Sal would look into the specifics the next day.
Several days passed before final plans could be made. Sal's friend wanted to make sure that everything in the desert cabin was in order before sending them into such forbidding country. Sal also had a few loose ends to tie up before heading away. Phoebe took charge of the packing and acted very much the wife and travel agent. She checked out travel instructions for the general area. For some reason Sal couldn't tell her exactly where the cabin was located.
The morning they were to leave Sal arranged to have Phoebe meet him around eleven o'clock at a gas station in East Los Angeles. The rendezvous seemed a little peculiar to Phoebe but Sal explained that since he had business to take care of before leaving and since she had to pack the car, he would take advantage of their time out of town and leave the old car at a friend's garage for some repairs.
As Phoebe drove up to the gas station in a very remote part of town, there was no one in sight. In a few minutes however, Sal drove up in the old Ford and was out the door before the engine had come to a full halt. From the rear he pulled a large suitcase and threw it into the trunk of the Caddy. Phoebe's head was spinning with the speed of his actions.
"Sal," she exclaimed. "You act like we're going to a fire, not a deserted cabin...."
He ignored her, pulling off his sport coat and throwing it in the garbage container next to the door of the garage.
"Hey, that coat's almost brand new!" Phoebe was totally confused.
Sal jumped in the front seat of the Cadillac pushing Phoebe to the passenger side. He shoved her so hard that she was half-leaning and half-sitting when the Caddy screeched out of the station.
As Phoebe looked behind her she saw a huge semi pull up and one man jump out to open the door at the rear of the truck. As Sal and Phoebe rounded the corner Phoebe could just make out the tail-end of the Ford as it was disappearing into the semi.
Stunned, she turned to Sal. He looked like a totally different man. All the cool and serenity was gone. He was driving fast and thinking faster. As they turned onto the freeway and headed to the desert he slowed to a decidedly less attention-drawing pace.
Neither of them spoke for several minutes. Phoebe was scared. Suddenly she realized that Sal was not scared, that he was in full control of his senses and that what had just happened must have been neatly planned. The car, the meeting, the semi, the suitcase....
"Da you want to tell me what's going on?" said Phoebe. "Or, is it just what it looks like?"
Sal glanced at Phoebe.
"It's just what it looks like, kid. But the less you know, the better."
They drove along for nearly an hour before Sal turned on the radio. The report of a downtown heist of an armoured truck was the news line of the moment. Three men had halted the truck on a busy L.A. street, tear-gassed the driver and guards through the air vents and had forced the door with nitroglycerin. The get-away was clean. Each of the robbers had spun off in separate directions and apparently had left no trace of the cars used for the get-away despite an almost instant dragnet by the police. The m.o. however coincided with a series of similar hold-ups .and the police were hoping to round up the robbers despite their clean get-away.
Sal turned the radio off. He was edgy. Phoebe was terrified. They drove for several hours in silence. When they finally arrived at the cabin, she was exhausted. She headed for the sofa but Sal told her that the kitchen was fully stocked and that there would be others arriving soon. They would all be hungry. The young blonde complained that she was too upset to eat. Sal slapped her across the face and told her to cook. If she wanted to eat, that was up to' her, but she would cook and would cook now! Crying, Phoebe made her way into the kitchen.
Around eight that evening, two of the men Phoebe had known as Sal's "friends" in Los Angeles arrived. About a half-hour later one more man whom she had never seen before showed up. The last guy went into one of the bedrooms with Sal and then left about fifteen minutes after he arrived. When he left he took the suitcase with him.
The three men sat at dinner eating and talking as though the day had been perfectly normal. Phoebe tried to eat but couldn't. She thought of getting away from them, kin or no kin, and it was then she realized that the keys to both cars were in the pockets of their owners. She checked the house thoroughly, there was no phone. There were no other houses for at least forty minutes drive across scorching wilderness. The kitchen was jammed with food and there was a gun case in the living room that was outfitted with enough firearms to supply the Foreign Legion. Apparently they were here to stay.
Around eleven that night when the kitchen was clean and the men were getting tired, Sal told Phoebe that she would be sleeping in the maid's room-a room with ample ventilation but with no windows. She washed and went in. The door locked behind her. Without undressing, she lay down and cried herself to sleep.