Forgive the Godfather

4: Linda Labo meets a girl with the gun

Linda Labo drove her silver colored Toyota mini jeep through the gate of the two-story Cida Plaza, down to the basement garage and parked. The time was a few minutes before ten o'clock.

Linda was tall, dark, full bust, with a narrow waist, rounded hips and long tapering legs. She was beautiful without being pretty, between twenty-three and twenty-five.

She was a new graduate student from the State University, about to enroll into the compulsory National Youth Service Corps. As the daughter of a millionaire, it hadn't been difficult to convince her father to buy her a car.

She had a routine of visiting the hairdressers' at least once every week. Her favorite spot was the Exquisite Hairdressers' saloon located on the top floor of the Cida Plaza in the city suburb.

Linda strolled into the building and waited for the elevator, a round glass cage, to come down. The glass door swivelled open and she stepped inside. The elevator went up slowly.

As Linda was stepping out of the transparent glass cage, she caught sight of a fair complexion girl with long bronze braids starring up at her from the ground floor. Linda thought nothing of it as she walked into the Exquisite Hairdressers.

The proprietress, popularly known simply as Madam Tessy was a brown-skinned woman with large breasts. She spotted a few strands of hairs on her bosom, cheeks and chubby chin.

Tessy welcomed Rita with a broad smile. As Rita was one her wealthy clients, Tessy fell over herself giving Linda preferential treatment.

"Good morning, my dear," Tessy said, "you are early today."

Rita returned the smile. "Madam Tessy, good morning. I came early today because I want to get back home early. I have work to do at home."

Linda took the chair that Tessy adjusted for her.

"What are we doing today?" Tessy queried. "But your hair is still in a good shape, you know. Is it not last week that we did it?"

"Yeah, just touch up," Linda said. "There are a few loose strands here and there."

"Yeah, I see it," Tessy said. "This won't take a minute or two." Madam Tessy briskly went to work.

One hour later, Linda left the saloon. She had been one of the first customers in the saloon, and Tessy quickly finished touching up her hair, which cascaded in long brown and gold braids down to her waist. Noticing that the elevator was busy, Linda instead walked down the stairs to the basement garage, to where she'd parked her car.

Linda had parked the mini jeep at the far end of the large parking lot among other expensive looking cars.

It took her several steps to reach her car.

She depressed the button on her car key holder. Two loud beeps briefly flashed twin amber lights simultaneously, as the central lock disengaged all doors.

Linda opened the driver's door and sat behind the wheel, dropped her leather handbag on the passenger's seat beside her. She closed the door and started the engine.

As she was about to reverse the car, a young fair complexion girl about Linda's age peeped through the tinted window glass, her knuckles rapping on the glass.

The girl was looking intently into Linda's eyes with a familiar glint on her face, and for a moment Linda thought the girl looked like someone she'd met before, but she wasn't too certain.

The girl flashed Linda a warm, friendly, fake smile and Linda recalled briefly the girl she had noticed, who was starring at her from the ground floor as she stepped out of the elevator. Linda thought perhaps it was a mere coincidence.

Linda paused, her foot on the brake pedal, wound down the tinted glass window and looked suspiciously at the girl who was standing by the passenger's door. No doubt, she was the same girl who'd been starring at her from the ground floor.

Now, what did she want, perhaps money? Or was the girl looking for a ride? Linda could not recall ever meeting her before. These thoughts went through Linda's mind in flash.

Linda's eyes grew wide suddenly when she saw the gun in the girl's hand. The gun was pointing at her. Linda noticed that the gun looked large in the girl's small hand, and very menacing.

The girl thrust the gun at Linda's side. "Don't move," she hissed fiercely, pulled back her lips and barred her teeth in mirthless sneer.

Linda froze with shock. Her large bright eyes nearly popped out of her head. The animal ferocity that jumped into the girl's hot, evil eyes frightened and unnerved her. Gapping at the girl, as she bared her teeth, reminded Linda of a wild cat she once saw, about to pounce on a hapless prey.

"Don't scream, or I will blast you with hot lead," the girl said in a quiet, deadly voice. "Open the door," she ordered.

Linda sat still, not breathing. For one wild, crazy moment, it flashed through Linda's dazed mind to press her foot down on the accelerator pedal and speed away. But then she realized that she was in a compromised position. Her car was parked too close to the wall. She would have to reverse the car before driving out of the parking lot.

The ferocious look in the girl's eyes, and the dangerous looking gun in her hand warned Linda not make any sudden move.

With trembling fingers, Linda found the button at her side. She pressed down the switch and the lock snapped back with a loud click.

Keeping the gun pointed at Linda, the girl opened the passenger's door and quickly slipped inside, slammed the door shut.

"Now drive," she ordered in a harsh voice.

Shaken, Linda reversed the car and made a U-turn. The uniformed security man who stood by looking in Linda's direction was too far away to notice the gun at her side.

Linda wished that the man was just a little closer. She might have screamed for help, or something. This was crazy as hell, she was thinking, feeling trapped.

As they climbed out of the basement and approached the gate, the girl warned, "Take it nice and easy. Act normal. I'm just a friend, okay? If you try anything smart, I will blow your side into pieces. Understand?" Linda, her throat dry, nodded stiffly. She stopped at the gate. The uniformed security man immediately recognized Linda as one the regular visitors to the Cida Plaza.

The short, uniformed security man retrieved Linda's gate pass, flashed Linda his best smile which he reserved specially for only his favourite customers. "'ttention, Madam," the security man saluted Linda, "anything for the boys?"

On previous occasions, as she was familiar with a few of the guards, Linda had always tipped them generously. But today she barely noticed the little man, whose greedy eyes were focused on Linda's face.

The guard was so carried away by his anticipation of a tip from Linda that he failed to notice the gun concealed in the other girl's hand, very close at Linda's side.

Linda drove through the gate and almost ran into an approaching car that was coming at a high speed.

"Whatch it!" the girl bedside her shouted.

Forcing herself to concentrate, Linda avoided crashing into the on oncoming traffic as she entered the busy street.

Completely overwhelmed by fear, Linda failed to notice the blue van that was parked by the kerb outside the Cida Plaza. As she joined the traffic, the blue colored van followed her.

"Turn right at the junction," the girl with the gun commanded Linda.

"Where - where are we going?" Linda managed to speak, after making the right turn. Her throat was dry and her voice was parched. "Who are you? What do you want with me?"

"Shut up!" the girl snapped. "Just keep driving."

The girl with the gun looked over her shoulder and saw that the blue van was following close behind. She began to relax, growing more confident.

Everything seemed to be going according to plan.