The Trip Ch. 07

"I'm going to love her tonight too, if you know what I mean!" He said laughing just before tumbling to the floor.

"Somehow I don't think so." Brian said picking him up and walking him outside to his truck.

***

Rachael was sitting in front of the television set wondering where Chloe was. She was almost two hours late getting home and three calls to her cell phone went unanswered. Rachael found herself pacing about the living room, waiting for the front door to open any minute so she could kill her for making her worry, when the house phone suddenly rang. Rachael ran and grabbed the cordless phone from the kitchen wall.

"Hello?" Rachael asked expectantly.

"Hello, ma'am. This is Officer Ruiz from the Los Angeles police dept."

Rachael instantly froze.

"Do you know a Chloe Adams? This was the telephone number printed on her DMV records."

"What happened!?" Rachael said bracing her self against the counter behind her.

"Ma'am? Are you related to Chloe?"

"What the fuck happened!?"

"I'm very sorry, but we need someone to come down to the Los Angeles county coroner's to identify what we believe to be the body of Chloe Adams, ma'am."

"Ma'am?" Officer Ruiz said on the other end. The phone had long since fallen from Rachael's hands as she slowly joined it on the floor. Her back slid down the counter cabinets and her eyes flooded with tears. She had warned Chloe to be careful, but even she never thought Ellis would be capable of something like this. Rachael picked the phone up off the floor, pressed the call end button and blindly placed it on the counter behind her.

She quickly dressed and headed to the LA's Coroner's office to identify Chloe's body. The unveiling of Chloe's remains sent a pulse through Rachael like she'd never felt before. She was numb, but at the same time so incensed that Ellis would actually take it this far. To hurt a perfectly innocent person in the pursuit of his crazed obsession with Kim.

"Do you have any idea who would want to do something like this to her?" The officer standing next to Rachael taking notes asked.

Rachael stared blankly into space as the coroner wrapped Chloe's body back up and pushed back into the sliding drawer like a piece of meat.

"No." Rachael said finally looking up at officer Ruiz. "No idea." She said shaking her head. Rachael then turned and ambled to the door. The officer walked Rachael out of the coroner's office and back out to her car.

"If you know of any next of kin for Chloe, would you please have them get in contact with us?" He handed Rachael an LAPD business card with an address and phone number. Rachael grabbed it and blindly stuck it in her jacket pocket.

Officer Ruiz helped Rachael into her car and closed the door behind her. "If you think of anything -- something that might help us figure out who would do this, please let us know."

Rachael nodded and quickly tore out of the coroner's parking lot, her car wheels screeching the whole time.

Officer Ruiz stood in place with his hands on his hips while he watched Rachael tear out into the night. He had a funny feeling something was wrong - that maybe Rachael wasn't telling him everything she knew. He stood there for a moment thinking back to the expression on her face when he'd asked her if she knew who would do something like this. She had the look of a woman with secrets. He lifted his hat off his head, wiped his brow and turned to walk back into the coroner's office.

Officer Ruiz thought maybe he'd do a little investigating on one miss Rachael Erin Brown and see what kind of secrets he could uncover.

***

By the time Rachael made it back home, she was no longer sad. The part of her that wanted to grieve for her precious Chloe was being suppressed by the blind rage that seemed to flood her very core. She stormed back into her apartment and headed straight to her bedroom closet. Her mind vividly seeing the Glock hidden underneath a stack of hat boxes on the top shelf. Her thoughts focused on Kim now more than ever. She grabbed the gun, checked to make sure the clip was full, then stuffed two more full clips in her pant's pocket.

"This ends now!" she said wiping back her tears, grabbing her jacket and keys and racing out the front door.

***

Kim lay quietly in her hotel room thinking intently about what went on between her and Brian that night. She lay there carefully planning out what she was going to say to him tomorrow and how she was going to say it. She thought about what kind of responses she'd get from him and then tried to counter his responses. What if he never wanted to see her again? What would she say? What would she do?

She wanted to tell Brian the truth. She was sick of the lies and deception. She had originally planned to tell Brian tomorrow, but she suddenly felt she needed to do it now. She abruptly sat up from her hotel bed, hastily pushed on a pair of flip flops, grabbed her keys and headed for the door. Just as she opened it, she was surprised to see Brian standing just outside with his hand poised to knock.

He dropped his hand and looked sorrowfully into Kim's eyes.

"Can I come in?" he asked, completely willing to walk away if she said no. Kim dropped her keys and threw her arms around him. He hugged her tightly in response. Brian walked the two of them in and locked the door behind them.