Josh turned the book and stared at her entry.
“Palm Desert. That’s where she heard Richter make the homeless deal.”
Kimberly nodded.
“She hated it. I mean, who knew she even gave a damn, but she just came back angry and down. Golf sucked, Grady sucked, everyone sucked. She didn’t even go home. She stayed with me for three days.”
I said, “Was she scared to go home?”
“She was just—”
Josh said, “Dealing.”
“We drank wine and talked about Visalia. Rach never talks about Visalia, but she had this whole maudlin thing on, the shit we did in high school, her family, her mother. Her mom went kinda nuts after Rachel left. She drank a lot. She left Visalia. Rachel wanted to know if she’d driven her mother crazy. It was weird.”
Kimberly shrugged, like she still couldn’t figure out why Rachel wanted to talk about Visalia.
“Then she felt better and went home. I drew fire around it.”
“How long have you been keeping notes?”
Kimberly laughed, but it was rueful and sad.
“I have five more calendars like this.”
“Six years.”
Her eyes reddened again.
“I didn’t do this because I enjoyed it. I hated her being an escort. I was scared something would happen.”
“May I see the others?”
She left without a word and returned with five more planners.
“You can look, but you can’t have them.”
Josh said, “Can I photograph some of the pages?”
“No.”
I said, “Looking’s fine. Thank you.”
Josh bugged his eyes at me.
“Pictures would be better. I could post them on my site.”
“Let’s start with looking.”
Kimberly and I paged through the planners together. Josh looked on, but mostly fidgeted. I searched for specific names and events, made notes, and kept a running tally. Grady Locke hired Rachel thirty-two times, seventeen times as a date for himself, and the remainder for others. I copied their names, dates, and locations. A. O. Castillo’s name appeared three times, including the golf resort, all arranged by Grady Locke. Dick Felt appeared as Rachel’s date twice, which were also paid for by the Sandman’s flunky-in-chief, Grady Locke. I wondered if Locke had charged her services to a city expense account. The city auditors would have a field day.
Rachel had not provided escort services to Sanford Richter or Chow Wan Li, but Richter was present at seven events she attended with others. Chow had been present with Richter and Tarly at three.
I said, “Why did you list people who weren’t her dates?”
“？’Cause she mentioned them. We always talked about her dates. Not the sex part, unless it was funny, but the fun part. Some dude took her to a party once, she got to hang out with these rock stars and actors. They’re in my notes. You’ll see.”
A memory book.
Horton Tarly’s name appeared seven times. At the most recent three, Rachel had been someone else’s date at an event where Tarly was present, like the golf resort. But the first four times his name appeared, Rachel had been his date. Grady Locke arranged their first three dates. Tarly had arranged and paid for their fourth and final date himself. The notes for each date were a curious mix. Nice. Whiny. TTM. Scared. ughGL.
I said, “What’s TTM?”
She scrunched her face, trying to remember.
“Oh, wow. Lemme think.”
I prompted her.
“Horton Tarly. Locke’s brother-in-law.”
“I know, I know. Talks too much. He didn’t like being in business with his brother-in-law. The way they did business made him nervous. All he did was whine about it.”
“Grady Locke.”
“Yeah.”
Rachel had met Horton at the Biltmore Hotel for all four of their dates. They met for the fourth and final time at eight p.m. on a Tuesday night. A tiny flower was drawn in red ink beside the time-and-place details, and three notes were written in blue. Sweet guy. Sad. 2M.
I asked Kimberly about the notes.
“Two-M means too married. He felt guilty for cheating on his wife. He got scared Rachel might say something and his wife would find out, so he wanted to stop seeing her.”
“Rachel.”
“Yeah. So he booked a date to apologize and make sure they were cool.”
“He bought a date to apologize.”
“Rachel thought it was sweet. Kinda pathetic, but sweet. He didn’t want to hurt her feelings. He didn’t want to hurt his wife or his kids. See the flower I drew? He gave her a rose.”