Date With the Devil Read Free Page A

lie within a few steps of waterside homes, and a luxurious golf course is nearby. The quiet, spacious ambience lured numerous celebrities from the world of sports, entertainment, and business. Legendary football star Joe Montana, Los Angeles Dodgers’ announcer Vin Scully, and former wrestler Hulk Hogan bought homes there, as did film stars Robert Young, Martin Lawrence, George C. Scott, and Mariel Hemingway, among many others.
    The new two-story, five-bedroom house acquired by Means occupied the Ventura County side. Diagonally across the street lived a girl born just a few weeks sooner than Kristin. Jennifer Gootsan, a native and lifelong resident of Westlake Village, would eventually become almost like another sister to Kristi, but not at first. Recalling their shared childhood, Jennifer said, “When Kristin and I first met, we actually didn’t get along at all. It’s weird how we became the-best-of-the-best of friends, and extended it later on in our lives. At first she and I clashed over silly, girly things, just teenage stuff. It wasn’t about boys. They were not really an issue. It was more about whose hair looked better that day or who had the cuter clothes.”
    In the upscale neighborhood, the children reveled in their newfound lifestyle. “There were lots of big families. Lots of block parties. At Christmas, we had a piñata,” Robin described. “All the neighborhood kids came to our garage. Most of the families in the surrounding area were there, not just one or two kids. Jennifer was friends with Kristin, and her younger brother was friends with my youngest sister. Same with several other families, lots of friends. Several of us ran track and played softball together, and everything was always about the neighbors.”
    Looking back fondly at those years, Peter Means smiled as he told of Kristin’s debut as a “singer.” “We went down to San Diego for a vacation and stayed on Harbor Island. In the hotel, they had a karaoke-like event, which turned out to be more of an impromptu talent show. Kristin was about eleven or twelve and decided she wanted to go up and show off her skills. She sang ‘Tomorrow,’ the big song from the Broadway show Annie, and she did it in a very animated way. She brought the house down. I don’t know that she was a particularly natural singer, like some of those remarkable people who show up on American Idol. She did well, but it was her animation that wowed the audience. And she won the contest. She liked belting out that song. That event followed her around from then on.”
    In the summer during school holidays, the kids spent as much time as possible at Malibu or Zuma Beach. Kristin fell in love with the ocean and became a dedicated beach bunny. A deep tan became her trademark, and she gradually mastered surfboard skills in the crashing Pacific waves.
    Several summers included visits to a relative’s farm in Vermont, where Kristin and her siblings learned to ride horses. Always athletic, Kristin adapted to the saddle as easily as she did to skis and a surfboard.
    While Robin and her twin, Rick, entered Westlake High School, Kristi and her friend Jennifer enrolled at nearby Triunfo Elementary School. “Jennifer lived close to us,” Rick said, “and I used to mow her lawn. I mowed everybody’s lawn on that street because I was a real entrepreneur.”
    With misty eyes, Jennifer recalled, “Kristin and I were classmates and could walk to the school together along paved, tree-shaded paths. I remember her in the fourth, fifth, and sixth grades, and then later in seventh and eighth grades at Colina Middle School, in Thousand Oaks. It’s a blue-ribbon school. And then we moved over to Westlake High. By this time, we were great friends. She spent a lot of time with my family too. Like, if Kristi and her mom would get in a little fight or something, she would come over and stay in our guest room. My