Goldilocks Forever

Chapter 32

Santa Monica, California

May 2006

On the day before the Anniversary Celebration, Sabian allowed them to sleep in. Work schedules were cut short to allow everyone time to get dressed for the event. Anna used this opportunity to visit Toby in the Security Center.

She found it eerily empty. "Where is everyone? I figured this place would be swarming." Only Toby and Peter occupied seats in front of the rows of monitors on the wall.

"Oh, they'll be back." Toby spun around in his chair to greet her and then kicked himself back from the table. His chair wheeled out and slid in front of Anna. He stopped himself from colliding with a table of monitors and waved a clipboard in the air. "I see one Ms. Anna Bertram on this list." He waggled his eyebrows at her.

"I guess my pseudonym is sticking."

Toby nodded and looked over at Peter, who wore a pair of headphones and was engrossed in whatever he was watching on his screen. Toby jerked his head toward him. "He's probably watching the game."

Anna laughed. "George is watching it. He's going to wait until the last minute to get ready so he doesn't miss any of it."

"Ricardo's probably sitting in some Lakers bar, trying to pick up drunk girls during the commercial breaks."

Anna laughed harder. This image of Ricardo struck her as highly improbable—and hilarious. She sat in a chair opposite Toby.

He tapped the roster on the clipboard. "Poor bastard will be stuck at the party tonight. Do me a favor and slip one of those drunk pills into his drink when he's not looking. He needs to loosen up for once."

Anna's eyes widened. "You heard about that? Can you believe it?"

He laughed. "What I can't believe is that they only take them once a year."

Anna leaned forward and said in a lower voice, "I heard Lydia uses them more often."

"She's a real piece of work," Toby agreed, whistling. "Her place is much different than it is here. Whole different vibe."

"I heard it's like a 24-7 pool party there."

Toby leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms over his chest as he looked at her. "We hear you playing your violin sometimes."

"It's Sabian's violin."

His smile faded. "I wish I could watch you play tonight."

She realized it would be nice to have him in the audience. One friendly face amongst so many strangers. "I wish you could, too."

"You still thinking of leaving when it's all said and done?"

She opened her mouth, closed it, then looked at the floor.

"Oh, shit." He sat up. The chair jostled forward on its wheels. "You're thinking of staying."

"I—I have unfinished business here! Casey---"

"Forget Casey. She's bad news. Trouble with a capital T. I know she's your sister, but—"

"But what? I'm going to find her. I have to. She's caught up in something bad. I have a feeling..."

Toby rolled in his chair to Anna. He gripped the armrests on her chair. "Listen," he near-whispered. "Some chick in the downtown territory just offed herself the other day. Did you hear about that?"

"No. What does this--?"

"Shhh." He put his finger to his mouth and kept his eyes on Peter as he spoke. "Her name was Felippa. I think she was Sabian's backup blood bag. Garrison and Nathan had a conference call with Sabian just this morning about it. They wanted to wait until after the Celebration to tell him, but he found out sooner. He probably wanted to get some fresh cells ahead of the party—wants to run on all cylinders."