Talons (5 page)

“
You know how Dina can be
sometimes, Vivvie,” Ms. Charlene Weston said with a sigh of
exasperation. “She probably just met a cute boy on the beach. She’s
done this before. If she doesn’t come home by Sunday, call
me.”

Vivvie spent her day off calling all of
Dina’s friends. Mrs. Sayers said Rachel hadn't been seen since she
left work to meet Dina. The girl’s mother was frantic and started
calling the hospitals and police stations. The two girls were
finally reported missing to the police.

Vivvie was interviewed by two Sebastian
River police detectives by Sunday night. Ms. Weston and her pending
ex-husband were both there, as well as Mrs. Sayers. They were all
frantic. Vivvie was the last one to see Dina.

Vivvie thought of Rick and Dean,
recalling the way they both made her skin crawl. She was anxious
her roommate and the other girl be found, willing to tell them
whatever they needed to know.

“
So, you decided you didn’t
like this guy? Somethin’ funny about him? You wanted to go home?”
the detective asked as he made notes; his eyes glued to her face.
“What happened then?”

Vivvie gave them a full accounting of
everything leading up to discovering her roommate was missing. She
was getting really scared when Detective Marks turned her over to
the FBI agent.

Agent Whitlow was in his late-thirties.
He wasn’t bad looking and had nice eyes. The FBI agent drilled her
unmercifully for every detail after his cordial pleasantries were
out of the way.

The police officers were all tramping
through her home, looking in Dina’s room, going through all her
stuff. Even her laptop was taken as evidence.

Vivvie was a nervous wreck, knowing all
the parents were too. Mr. Weston and his wife started arguing
bitterly, blaming one another for their daughter’s situation. The
cops sent Mr. Weston outside to cool off. Rachel’s mother cried
piteously on the couch with a female officer there to comfort
her.

“
These two guys weren’t from
around here; you’re very sure?” Agent Whitlow repeated, listening
to her tell him again how she came to be Rick’s date for dinner.
She told him word for word what Dina told her.

“
No, Dina said they weren’t
from around here,” Vivvie insisted. “She didn’t tell me where they
were from. I wasn’t interested in the guy from the start. He acted
weird; something about him. I wanted to go home. That’s
it.”

“
Anything else about them
you can think of?” the agent pressed with that same look in his
expression. He was grim-faced when the Sebastian River police
questioned the staff at Racine’s. Dina and Rachel never made it
there that night. “Miss Collins, it’s very important you try to
remember anything that can help us. You’re the only one who met
these men. We’re looking at them both as potential
suspects.”

On it went, asking her the same
questions, over and over again. She started to think the cops had
OCD when they all cleared out finally. Agent Whitlow was handling
the case and left his business card with her. She needed to appear
at the police station the following day to sit with a sketch
artist.

When the townhouse was empty; Vivvie
went to Dina’s room. She did what she told herself she would never
do. She cleaned it. Three hours later the bed was made up and the
clothes on the floor were all neatly folded or hung up. Empty
glasses, cans, and trash were cleared away. It smelled of Windex
and Febreeze now. Vivvie found a pack of matches from Racine’s in
Dina’s jewelry box the police overlooked.

She stared at Dean’s cell phone number
written on the inside jacket with unease. She put the matchbook in
her purse, telling herself not to call it and let the police handle
it. Dean and Rick did something to Dina and Rachel. That much was
obvious now.

Tears filled her gaze to think of how
close it came to being her. She sat on the floor of Dina’s room,
crying until she couldn’t anymore. Once she got up and showered,
she tried to sleep. Vivvie was awoken in the night again by the
tomcats growling outside, growing louder now as they prowled the
patio. She covered her head with a pillow to block out the
sound.

~~~~

Vivvie was a mess at work. After a
week; both girls were still missing. The FBI got more intrusive
into her life. Agent Whitlow produced a warrant to search the whole
townhouse.

Vivvie was relieved she left the
matchbook in her car in the unused ashtray compartment. She forgot
to give it to the police and was feeling guilty to admit she was
snooping in Dina’s room. They turned up nothing on Dina’s computer.
Rick and Dean just met the girls. They were never over but they
dusted the townhouse for prints anyway.

Agent Whitlow was annoyed to learn
Vivvie cleaned Dina’s room when she turned over the matchbook. She
was apologetic under his angry look. Dean’s cell phone number was a
dead end. The phone number was from a pre-paid disposable phone
purchased at Walgreens.

“
This is serious business,
Miss Collins,” he informed her testily. “You could have cleaned up
clues in there. No more cleaning or you force me to have you
removed from your residence until the investigation is complete,
are we understood?”

Vivvie didn’t think about that and felt
bad for going on a cleaning tangent. Agent Whitlow was starting to
get on her nerves. His judgment of Dina was rather obvious
too.

Vivvie could see the lack of
compassion in Agent Whitlow’s eyes as he went through Dina’s phone
book, seeing all the guys listed there.
It
was just his job
, she thought but knew he
looked down on her roommate. She cringed to think about what he
learned about Dina’s personal life.

The cops had their hands full tracking
down every one-night stand her roommate had in the last three
months and question them. Vivvie imagined that was a daunting task
in itself.

The scratch on the back of her hand
still itched and looked more infected. Vivvie worried it might be
flesh-eating bacteria and broke down and went to the health
department.

The scratch wasn’t healing, wept
constantly with pus. Vivvie knew she was a nutjob. The nurse at the
health department looked at her like she was. The woman put
ointment on it and a band aid and sent Vivvie on her
way.

Dina’s GPS chip in her Charger was
dismantled. The police were unable to find her car. Mrs. Donaldson
gave her a break on the rent that month, knowing she missed several
days of work due to helping with the police
investigation.

Vivvie finally called Ms. Weston,
feeling miserable for the purpose. It needed to be done. She
couldn’t afford to put it off any longer. Dina was gone three
weeks. Vivvie was faced with not having a roommate now. The rent
was due again. Despite how crappy she felt; she had to address
these issues.

Vivvie felt horrible when she heard the
normally unflappable woman’s cracked voice on the other end of the
receiver. Charlene was obviously a mess.

“
I know you’re worried and
upset Ms. Weston,” Vivvie said. “I know it’s not the best time. I
have to ask what you want me to do with Dina’s stuff. Would you
like me to pack everything up when the police are
finished?”

“
Vivvie, I can’t believe
you’re worried about this now!” the woman snapped irately on the
other end, and Vivvie cringed, feeling like a total loser. “My
daughter hasn’t even been gone a month! Now you want to move her
out?”

“
Ms. Weston, I can’t afford
to not have a roommate. I know it sounds harsh. It wasn’t easy for
me to say it,” Vivvie said defensively. “I’m not being thoughtless.
I don’t think Dina would want me to wind up homeless waiting for
her to be found, do you?”

“
No, of course not,” Dina’s
mom said contritely and sighed. “I don’t have any room at my condo
for her things. Her father is living with his slut girlfriend. Why
don’t you just keep it all, dear? Dina would like that.”

“
You don’t want any of her
personal stuff?” Vivvie asked in surprise.

“
I gave birth to her,
Vivvie. I don’t need stuff to remember my daughter by,” the woman
said nastily and the conversation ended.

Vivvie realized she was now heir
apparent of all that Dina owned. She felt miserable about it. She
kept the door to the room shut at all times, not wanting to see
inside.

The police released the townhouse from
their investigation. Officer’s returned several items they took
from the missing coed’s room. There was a laptop and an address
book dropped off that day. Vivvie put the stuff on Dina’s bed,
unwilling to take possession of her things yet. She faced the
realization she definitely needed another roommate, and
soon.

Mrs. Donaldson wrote off the unpaid
rent in light of the tragedy. Everyone was talking about Dina and
Rachel in past tense. Vivvie couldn’t bring herself to give up hope
on her friends turning up alive. The papers and TV news were filled
with the story. She was bombarded with reporters everywhere she
went for weeks.

Vivvie retrieved Dina’s laptop and
turned it on, navigating to her Yahoo home page. She painfully
posted another add for a roommate on Craigslist and put the laptop
back in Dina’s room.

~~~~

Dina and Rachel were gone almost two
months. Vivvie interviewed ten people over the phone; two in
person. She couldn’t seem to bring herself to rent out Dina’s room.
Mrs. Donaldson cut her enough slack on rent. She had to find a
roommate or be evicted. She kept finding something wrong with those
who came to inquire; her weirdo magnet on high alert.

Vivvie finally rented the room to
another college girl. This one was as bookish as they came. She was
in a nursing program and appeared quite responsible. Sybil was her
name. She didn’t bat an eyelash when she handed Vivvie six hundred
dollars, first, last, and her half of the security
deposit.

Vivvie realized she couldn't put off
cleaning out Dina’s room. Since Dina’s bedroom set was so much
nicer than hers; Salem and Jim helped her move the bedroom
furniture up to her room. They carted away her old stuff to the
dumpster.

Vivvie kept Dina’s 36’ inch flat screen
TV guiltily, as well as the laptop, Ipod, and stereo in the room.
She cleaned out her roommate’s bathroom and sorted through the
stuff there. Dina enough makeup and hair products you would think a
nuclear war was coming.

Vivvie felt like an intruder, picking
through Dina’s things. Deciding what she would keep, and what could
go to Goodwill upset her. Tears streamed down her face as she found
the blue shirt she wore the night at Red Lobster.

Salem helped her brush a coat of flat
white on the walls for Sybil, who was moving in on the weekend.
Vivvie was disgusted to know the cats were back in the patio with a
vengeance. The odor was getting worse on the deck. A rail on the
deck finally collapsed, rotted from the urine. The new screen door
was destroyed like the last. Worse, there were scratches in the
sliding glass door itself.

Sybil was the perfect roommate. She
paid her rent on time, was hardly ever home, chipped in for food,
and she was clean. Vivvie went to a memorial for Rachel and Dina
that week given by their parents. The candle-held service made
Vivvie resentful, knowing they wrote the girls off now.

Dina’s car was found. It was hidden at
the airport garage in Melbourne in plain sight. The dismantled GPS
chip in the car delayed the police from finding it. They recovered
some blood evidence from both girls in the car as far as the papers
said.

The girls were gone three months. Even
though they’d not recovered their bodies and still investigated the
case; everyone felt they were dead. The parents needed some sort of
closure. Vivvie didn’t agree with it. Nobody asked her. She was
just the roommate. She thought it was way too soon to start writing
off Dina and Rachel.

Sybil suffered with bad allergies. She
had red puffy eyes and her nose ran constantly the minute she moved
in. She confronted Vivvie a month later, looking
miserable.

“
I can’t take it anymore,
Viv,” Sybil said apologetically. “I’m sorry but I’m going to have
to move out. I’m severely allergic to cats. I haven’t been able to
breathe since I moved in.”

Vivvie argued that she didn’t have a
cat, and remembered her late-night visitors. The furry creeps who
pissed all over the patio were back once more.

“
The landlord is getting the
deck sprayed,” Vivvie promised her, starting to panic. “I have
never had an animal in this house. I swear to you.”

“
Vivvie, I feel like shit
about it but I’m dying here,” Sybil said and sneezed into a tissue,
wiping her nose. “There has definitely been a cat in this house.
Outside stuff wouldn’t be bothering me like this.” She sneezed over
and over again. “Are you sure your old roommate didn’t hide an
animal in there? I only react this violently with direct
contact.”

“
I don’t understand,” Vivvie
said and frowned.

“
Cat hair, dander; it’s all
over my room,” Sybil said and gestured for her to follow her. She
took a lint brush and rolled it on the carpet. They both saw the
fine black hairs on the wand.