Elisa was unraveling before Ginger’s eyes. She had no way of knowing the care Elisa had taken with her appearance in the past, nor the elaborate plans she had put into place at a moment’s notice to conceal and hide herself from friends and acquaintances. All Ginger knew was that her boss of a scant month was coming forth with details of a marriage, drinking, drugs, money, and other problems at the drop of a hat. Ginger also began to suspect that much of what was told to her was “bullshit.” She was watching a show, a performance for her benefit, and while she found it creepily entertaining, at the same time it was increasingly frightening.

  After she came back crying from her three-day party jag, Elisa also told Ginger that she was tired of Larry’s alcoholic ways and that his kids “even hate him for it.”

  Meanwhile, Joe McNabney was happy to hear from Elisa, at least initially, that his father was in rehab again. Joe had seen him drink. “I thought, you know, great! Dad’s getting what he needs.”

  Far from hating his father for his drinking, Joe expressed hope that his father was going to be all right again. The last time Larry checked into rehab, he came out ready to run marathons, so there was initially a good reason to feel hopeful. But Joe’s happiness at hearing his father was in rehab eventually dwindled as Elisa changed the story, and as his father continued to be missing in action.

  Ginger heard the stories Elisa told Joe and just shook her head. Her employer would sound sympathetic to Joe on the telephone and then, as soon as she hung up, would turn around and tell her what a horrible person he was. Elisa also cried to Ginger about Haylei’s relationship with Larry. According to Elisa, he was constantly mean to Haylei. Joe McNabney and Haylei also said Larry wasn’t too fond of Elisa’s daughter, but the accusation brought a shrug from Ginger. She hadn’t seen Haylei’s mother treat her any better, after all. But she held her tongue.

  Then Elisa said she was thinking of divorcing Larry because of the problems she was having with him. His drinking and his womanizing were just too much for her. She needed more stability in her life. She had already told a few other people that she was thinking of divorcing Larry, so it was no surprise to Ginger when Elisa told her the same thing. Then, a few days after being told that she was thinking about divorcing Larry, Elisa changed the story and began to tell everyone she had already divorced him. Ginger thought Elisa just got a good night’s sleep and liked the sound of the last story so much that she began to use it whenever possible.

  So, in the latest episode of Where’s Larry? Larry and Elisa were divorced, but still friends, and naturally Elisa was still helping him out by running his law firm. Obviously, this was a good time for Elisa and Sarah to split for another three-day party, and they did. But for their latest sojourn into decadence and depravity, they had Ginger go down to the bank and cash checks made out to the McNabney law firm and bring several thousand dollars in cash back so they could buy new wardrobes. After all, the last time they went on a party spree, they came back wearing the same clothes they’d left in, and they just couldn’t have that happen again.

  It was no problem getting the checks made out to the firm converted into cash. Elisa signed Larry’s name almost as well, if not better than he did before she killed him. Sarah and Haylei also got into the act of signing Larry’s name on the checks. Haylei did it because her mother told her to, and Sarah did it because she wanted to.

  Sarah became so interested in and dedicated to the art of forgery that she began to practice signing Larry’s name on steno and legal pads. When Ginger saw this, Sarah explained she had to be ready to sign checks because “sometimes Elisa is gone and she has to pay us or the bills.” She never offered a sound explanation as to why Larry couldn’t sign them, but by then Ginger had gotten used to the subterfuge. She hardly even blinked when Sarah told her that the best way to get rid of the evidence of the forgery was to burn the paper on which she had practiced Larry’s signature. However, Ginger did get concerned when she saw Haylei, while practicing Larry’s signature, nearly set the carpet in the office on fire trying to hide the evidence.

  The strange events at the McNabney law firm made Ginger determined to keep a low profile, but even as she tried, she raised the ire of one of her new bosses—Sarah. She and Ginger soon found themselves at odds, ironically, over the pet dog that allegedly cost Larry his life.

  Ginger didn’t like being recruited as a chauffeur and pet sitter for Munchie, Elisa’s dog. Elisa would put the dog in a kennel for weeks at a time. A Jack Russell terrier that was inherently hyperactive to begin with, he became more so when caged in the kennel or locked up in the law office—and Elisa did both constantly. She tried to counter the problem by giving the dog Prozac. This didn’t endear Elisa to Ginger, but what Sarah did with her dog Ralphie made Ginger angry in the extreme.

  Ralphie was the dog that Sarah cared so much for that the night she was busy killing Larry she had to leave to take care of him. She was so mindful of the dog’s needs that she decided, since Ginger had taken Elisa’s dog to the kennel, Ginger could take Ralphie to her parents’ home in Vacaville, California. It was enough that Ginger had to pamper Elisa, who was the employer; she didn’t feel like she had to pamper Sarah, who supposedly was another secretary like herself.

  The working conditions deteriorated even more for Ginger in the middle of October when a company from the Los Angeles area called up and not only wanted money, but wanted their wheelchair back too. Ginger had no idea what the problem was, but again she saw Elisa go into a snit. Ginger knew that money was tight at the firm, and her first thought was that is why Elisa freaked out. She had no idea of the history behind the wheelchair.

  So, life went on at the McNabney law firm, sans Larry, as the blustery month of October ended. By the first part of November a new wind had blown into town and Ginger was hearing complaints about Larry from everyone in the office. Sarah hated him. Elisa hated him, and she said even his own children hated him.

  As for Haylei’s relationship with Larry, it hadn’t been the best either. Ken Redelsperger liked Haylei and had a much better relationship with her. Where Ken had gone horseback riding with her and Elisa, or taught Haylei to ride Motocross, Larry had extended a cold shoulder. Where Ken included her in most of his planning with Elisa, and even kept Haylei in his home when Larry and Elisa had taken trips alone, Larry shoed Haylei away.

  Naturally, Haylei’s relationship with Larry was strained. She saw him as mean and thought Larry took her away from her mother. She hated him because of that, or so she had said. Part of it was definitely Larry’s fault. He was not fond of Haylei and had voiced his own concerns about her, mostly by describing her as a “spoiled little bitch.”

  But some thought that Elisa cultivated this caustic relationship. Her motivation, as the reasoning goes, was selfish. Though Haylei put a crimp in her partying lifestyle, Elisa loved her daughter and usually liked her being around. And if Larry got upset with and ultimately pushed Haylei away, it enabled Elisa to play good cop to Larry’s bad cop.

  Ginger, for one, thought that Haylei had been misled. She believed Elisa didn’t want Haylei around and used Larry as cover. As for Haylei herself, Ginger found her to be a brat and a blabbermouth. When Elisa had a conflict with Haylei, Ginger watched her toss money at the girl to make her shut up or go away. Ginger found it an interesting mother-daughter dynamic. She thought they were more like friends or sisters who couldn’t always get along than mother and daughter.

  As for Haylei’s relationship with Sarah, Ginger thought Sarah was “ruthless.”

  But then, Sarah was ruthless with most people in her life, not just Haylei, and what Ginger saw made her believe there wasn’t much Sarah wouldn’t do—if it was for her own benefit.

  “She likes to be with married men or men that have girlfriends,” Ginger said. “She just wants to have sex with them because she’s going to marry rich and she’ll have a rich older man for her husband later on.”

  In short, Sarah was the embodiment of the worst fear of every single man in his mid-life. In the search for a trophy wife, men often forget there are heavy strings attached. With Sarah it was more like a rope. “She’s a home wrecker, or a character in an Eagles’ song,” one of the police investigators said.

  Sarah’s contempt for other people reached outside of the McNabney office. Those who saw her at college during the time when she and Elisa were conspiring to hide Larry’s body and conceal the murder said she was distant and aloof. One day at school, a fellow student who had noticed Sarah driving a red BMW said, “Gosh that’s a really nice car for a student.”

  “Thanks, I worked really hard for it,” Sarah replied.

  Back at the law firm, Ginger couldn’t help but notice that despite all of the activity in the office, there was still no Larry around. There was plenty of talk about him, but the man who owned the firm was conspicuous in his absence, especially when three different women forged his name on every check deposited. The rats were not only taking over the ship, but eating it.

  Ginger’s concern for the firm’s owner soon graduated to outright worry. She already suspected the Addams Family would make better bosses than Elisa and Sarah, but now, though she’d never met him—never even set eyes on him—she feared for Larry’s safety. Nothing seemed to make sense. She was working in a bizarre environment that wasn’t getting any better.

  At the time, Sarah and Elisa were still living inside the McNabney home, while Larry continued to reside in the refrigerator. And they still went to horse shows and sold off or gave away Larry’s worldly possessions. Haylei and Ginger lived on the fringes of this dark whirlwind and were deceived by the constant motion, if by nothing else. Every aspect of Sarah’s and Elisa’s lives became a giant shell game. Only there was no pearl under the shell. Just Larry, and he was still dead.

  As the weeks passed, Sarah and Elisa, already deemed inseparable from each other by those closest to them, became even more so. Without each other, Ginger said, there would have been no social life for the two women. “They’re snobs and no one wants to be their friends,” she explained.

  Apparently, few wanted to have anything to do with them at work either. The office was only populated by Sara, Elisa, Ginger, and Haylei, and by the end of October the firm was in serious financial trouble, despite Elisa telling Haylei and others that they could run the business perfectly without an attorney. Soon, she had to bring in an outside attorney to keep the cash spigots turned on. The wolves were beginning to circle as they got all kinds of calls from bill collectors demanding money. The landlord was even threatening eviction. It was an ugly situation.

  Making a surprise visit to the offices one day, the landlord spotted a bit of marijuana on the desk. When queried, Elisa didn’t try to hide the fact that it was indeed the evil weed, she just quickly apologized for it, said it must belong to an employee, and promised to fire the offending employee immediately.

  But the dope did belong to her, and at the end of October, when the landlord finally decided to kick her out of the office, she blew out of the office taking her dope with her.

  Prior to the inevitable eviction, there was also another horse show Elisa had to visit, and before that she brought Ginger the latest installment of Where’s Larry?

  In this episode of the exciting adventure, Larry decided to chuck his worldly cares and join a cult with guys he’d known all of his life. He was happy in his new cult environment and was so blissful that he probably would never return.

  Ginger shook her head.

  Elisa seemed briefly happy at that point, but that ended abruptly a few days later when she struggled with Haylei and they ended up throwing things at each other. No one could seem to remember why.

  Office life then eventually settled back to what was considered normal in the McNabney firm after each explosive incident played itself out. For Ginger, each day working there seemed more like something culled from television shows than reality.

  When Elisa went to the horse show that month, she left Sarah and Haylei behind, and Sarah decided it was time to treat Ginger to her own television show staring Larry. In her edition of Where’s Larry? she had just talked to Larry on the telephone and he was at the horse show with Elisa, having a grand old time.

  By then Ginger was tired and not particularly interested in a job and a show anymore. Fed up with all of the lies, all she wanted was to get a paycheck. But by November, just six weeks into working for Elisa and Sarah, she was told that the firm was running out of money and she couldn’t be paid. Then things got interesting. Ginger went for a week and a half without a paycheck while her bills piled up. Her anger and displeasure with Elisa and Sarah escalated as she watched the two women continue to “live large.” She noticed that they certainly weren’t short of cash. So she called Haylei, looking for Elisa, who was still out on the road.

  Haylei said she didn’t know where her mother was but she would try to call her. When Haylei didn’t call her back, Ginger called again and left a message stressing that she had been unable to get hold of Elisa for a week and she needed a paycheck. It seemed like only moments later that she got a call from a very irate and agitated Elisa, who was offering her a variety of threats.

  “Look, you fucking bitch,” Elisa shouted. “I want you to fucking know. Don’t you ever call my fucking daughter again and ever fucking talk to her about money again, because if you do, I’m going to kick your little fucking ass, you stupid bitch!”

  Ginger was taken aback. She’d never seen the infamous Florida temper flare up this high, even when Elisa fought with her daughter. Ginger wasn’t sure where the anger came from. All she knew was that she needed to get paid and, as she said later, that “no one has ever spoken to me like that in my entire life.”

  But whatever else was going to happen, Ginger was determined not to back down. She told Elisa that she didn’t have to give her the paycheck if she didn’t want to, but that she could go to the police and talk about some of the more interesting forgery activities going on at the McNabney law firm.

  This had the effect of a cattle prod on Elisa. She was still living with a stiff in the refrigerator, after all, and had no desire for police to come calling.

  “You fucking bitch! You mind your own business,” Elisa shouted back. “I’ll talk to you when I get back, and you know what, I’m going to listen to my fucking daughter’s machine and if I think you’re being rude, you’re out. I’m going to fuck you up!”

  After doing her Scarface impersonation, Elisa hung up. Five minutes later, according to Ginger, Sarah called her playing good cop. She was conciliatory and offered a loan to Ginger, who said that it was okay, she could borrow twenty dollars from her aunt to hold her over—she just wanted her paycheck.

  A few days later Elisa returned and apologized for her behavior, but Ginger had reached the point of no return. “From that moment on, I never had a friendship with anybody in that office,” she says. It was all strictly business. She wanted her money, and Elisa put her off as Ginger had seen Elisa do to every other person to whom she was in debt.

  The problems at the firm troubled Ginger, who did not initially have bad feelings toward Sarah or Elisa. She wanted to like them. “I was so deeply mad inside because I did love them at first,” she says of Elisa. “I considered them my friends. I couldn’t believe that she would talk to me that way.”

  Elisa tried several excuses for her behavior on the phone and for not returning Ginger’s telephone call. “Her cell phone was broken,” Ginger recalls her saying. “She was busy, and she had been up all night talking to Larry because they had so many things to talk about when Elisa got to the horse show.”

  Again, Sarah offered to loan her money. But Ginger was in no mood and countered with an ominous threat of her own, telling Sarah, “A hungry mouth talks…”

  While Sarah and Elisa tried to decide what to do with Ginger’s veiled threat, something else occurred during mid-November that got them jumping. Cheryl Jensen, the landlord for the Woodbridge home, came by the home to adjust the property’s sprinklers. The sprinkler controls, it happened, were just behind the refrigerator in the garage.

  As she casually tweaked the controls, Cheryl Jensen asked Elisa where Larry was. He was less than a foot away, inside the refrigerator, but as calmly as she could, Elisa told Cheryl he was away visiting family. Cheryl smiled, finished adjusting the sprinklers, and left shortly afterward.

  Cheryl never knew how close she was to discovering the truth.

  On the other hand, Ginger thought she was getting closer to a truth she didn’t want to know. All of the lies, the games, and the arguments over pay had convinced her that she might be in danger herself from Elisa and Sarah, who certainly didn’t need a mouthy secretary running around telling police about malfeasance and forgery at the McNabney law firm.

  Ginger came to fear so much for her life that she began leaving notes for relatives about where she was and what she was doing, in case she ever turned up missing. “When I was still working there after that time, if she had me go anywhere,” Ginger later told police, “I would leave the time that I left and where I was going and tell my family because she could have me knocked off somewhere.”

  She was stressed out. She’d had to deal with an increasingly strange atmosphere in a work environment she felt was caustic and eventually came to see as an ongoing criminal enterprise. She wasn’t paid in a timely fashion, had been threatened, and began to believe those threats.

  So, at the end of November, after working, nominally for Larry McNabney for about ten weeks, Ginger made the move that broke the case open: She called the police and reported Larry, the boss she never met, missing. It was November 30, 2001. Larry had been dead more than two and a half months and was still in the refrigerator of his own home.

 

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