Chapter Thirteen
Ben brought Lani home from the hospital and got her settled in the recliner by the window. He went to get Meg cleaned up and dressed for the day. Restlessness had taken hold of Lani and wouldn’t let go. The birds sang in the trees outside the window, but she barely noticed. Her cell phone lay in her lap, and she toyed with it. The temptation to call CeCe plagued her. What would it hurt to talk to her friend?
So far all she’d done was answer the phone, so it would take some doing to dial out. She turned over the phone and carefully figured out the number pad, then dialed the familiar digits. Her heart beat fast, and something inside told her she shouldn’t be doing this.
CeCe answered right away. “Lani? Tell me you’ve changed your mind and are coming to the party.”
Lani pushed away the guilt. She was entitled to have some fun after the nightmare she’d been living lately. “Can you pick me up?”
“Sure! I’m so glad you saw the light.”
Back out now! Lani ignored the internal voice. “See you Saturday!” She hung up and told herself it would be fine.
She heard Yoshi’s voice at the door, then the screen opened and slammed shut again.
“Where’s Aunt Rina?”
“Getting ready to pick cherries. Why?”
“I need to talk to her.”
“Your tone of voice says it’s serious.” Lani rose. “I think I’ll go to my room.”
“I want you here, Lani. Someone is trying to kill you. You know Aunt Rina better than me, and you can tell if she’s lying.”
Lani sighed and settled back on the couch. “Okay.” Fisher’s fur pressed against Lani’s left foot. The warmth comforted her. She strained to see but could make out nothing past the dark veil. That flash of light had been like a glimpse of paradise.
Her aunt’s voice spoke from behind her. “Yoshi, I didn’t hear you come in. Have you come to help me today?”
Yoshi cleared his throat. “Have a seat, Aunt Rina.”
“What’s this all about?” her aunt asked. “I’ve got cherry picking to do. And the cherries we picked yesterday need to be processed.”
“This won’t take long. We’ll help you when we’re done.” Yoshi’s voice sounded grim.
The front door opened, and Josie’s voice floated inside. “Rina, are you coming?” Her slippers slapped the tile. “What’s going on here?”
“We just have some questions. Rina will be right out,” Yoshi said.
“I’ll wait right here too,” Josie said. The springs on the rocker screeched, then the rhythmic rocking started.
“I’ll be fine, Josie,” Rina said. The rocking didn’t stop, and she sighed. “Let’s get this over with. You’re keeping me from my work.”
Lani wanted to slip her hand over and squeeze her aunt’s fingers, but she kept her hands in her lap. Something was going on here she didn’t understand.
“I talked to my parents again last night,” Yoshi said.
“I love you, Yoshi, but if you’re going to start grilling me again, you can just leave. I told you all I chose to the other night.”
Lani heard her cousin inhale sharply. Chewing on her lip, she waited for Yoshi to explode, but he simply cleared his throat.
“Just tell me straight up,” he said. “I ran a check on you, but I’d rather hear it from you.”
Josie’s rocking stopped. “She was innocent!” Josie said. “She took the rap, but she didn’t do it.”
“Josie,” Rina’s voice held a command. “I’ll handle this.”
“You want to give me your side of it?” Yoshi asked.
The sofa springs rustled. Lani wished she could see Rina’s face. She curled her fingers into her palms and prayed for her aunt to have a good answer. Could it be true? Lani gave a gentle shake of her head. There was no way—she wouldn’t believe it.
“I don’t have to answer this,” Rina said.
“Either here or at the station.” Yoshi’s voice had gone from warm to steely.
“You wouldn’t arrest me!”
“I don’t want to, but it’s your call.”
“I’ll tell you,” Josie said.
“Josie, let me take care of this.” Rina’s voice had gone from confident to weary. “I wasn’t guilty. I suppose you hear that all the time, though.”
“What happened?” Yoshi asked. “My parents said they weren’t surprised there was smuggling going on out here.”
“I knew nothing about any smuggling ring. Not now and not at Taylor Camp. The six of us were living at the camp in the best tree house on the beach. Life was good.” The words began to pour from Rina in a tide of confession. “I saw a flashlight one night on the beach, over by the church. I couldn’t sleep, so I decided to commiserate with whomever it was.”
“Had you seen any evidence of drugs?” Yoshi asked.
Rina laughed, a wry sound. “I was a hippie and lived among hippies. We had weed, LSD, you name it.”
Yoshi shuffled on his chair. “Any dealing?”
“Sure. That’s how some of the members lived.” She cleared her throat and went on. “I heard a sound, like a car backfiring. When we got to the church, I saw Mary lying in the sand, covered in blood. A gun lay on top of her. I picked it up to move it out of the way so I could try to stop the bleeding.”
“I thought none of you went by your real names,” Lani said. “Who was Mary?”
“Mary wasn’t her real name. We called her Madonna Mary, but most of us just shortened it to Mary.”
“Why didn’t you call for an ambulance?” Yoshi asked.
Rina sighed. “I just wanted to help her. She opened her eyes once, then closed them and died right in my arms.” She drew in a deep breath. “I was stupid and tried to cover it up. I washed off the blood and wiped the gun before I called the fuzz in. They found traces of blood on my hands, and my fingerprints on her belt. And in the bag beside her, the police found marijuana and heroin. When they got a search warrant, they found more. It looked bad. But I knew nothing about it. You have to believe me.” Her voice broke.
“You said ‘we,’” Lani said. “Were you with someone?”
“Yes, another girl.”
“It was all her fault,” Josie said. “That girl was always trouble.”
“Who all were there at the camp?” Yoshi asked.
“The same ones who backed me in the coffee business. Arlo, Harry, Jerry, Josie. Oh, and Willie Kanaho. But he’s not involved in the coffee farm. At the time there were about sixty residents at the camp.”
“The guy you filed an injunction against,” Yoshi said with a sharp note to his voice.
“Yes.”
“What happened that you were on the outs for a while?”
Rina sighed. “He asked me to marry him, and I refused. He took it hard.”
“Why did you turn him down? Did you suspect him?”
“No, of course not. He is . . . rather overpowering. I’ve fought all my life to be my own person, to chart my own course. I cared about him, but I knew if I married him, he’d soon have me jumping to his every command. And there was my lupus.”
“But you’re dating him again,” Lani put in. “Have you decided you were wrong to turn him down?”
“No.” Rina cleared her throat. “Actually, he asked me again the other night. Then he asked me to drop the injunction, and I figured out the real reason he was hanging around.” She sniffled.
The rocking stopped again. “What?” Josie whispered. “You want to marry that dude?”
“I was going to tell you about it, Josie, but I haven’t had the time. But it’s clear he just wants me to drop the injunction.”
“Rina, Rina.” Josie’s voice was soft. “You have the worst judgment about men.” She sighed. “You never seem to learn. At least you found out this time before it was too late.”
“I think I’d better have a talk with him,” Yoshi said. “So you went to prison for murder?”
“Yes.”
“Is there anyt
hing else you can tell me?”
“Nothing. Now please, I need to get to work, or I’m going to lose this crop. Come on, Josie.” The rocker stopped, and slippers slapped against the tile as they left the room. The door banged.
“I believe her,” Lani said. She tried to sense Yoshi’s mood.
“Strangely enough, so do I,” Yoshi said. “One of her friends isn’t a friend at all.”
Lani shuddered. Not only did the people who seemed so friendly to her hide secrets, but she couldn’t even gauge expressions. How was she supposed to figure out who was a friend and who was a foe? The blackness around her was a heavy blanket of menace.
She heard the patter of small feet, then a warm little body climbed into her lap. “Hey, Meg,” she said.
“Eat,” Meg said.
“She always wants to eat,” Ben said, his heavy tread moving across the tile floor. “I just fed her an hour ago.”
“I wouldn’t say no to a peanut-butter sandwich myself.”
“Sanich,” Meg agreed. She slid from Lani’s lap, and her steps moved in the direction of the kitchen.
Lani rose from the sofa and grabbed Fisher’s harness. “Forward,” she said. She could picture the room in her mind, the layout of the furniture, the location of the door openings. For an instant, it was as though she could actually see those things. Living in her memories would surely grow easier with time.
“You seem confident with him now.” Ben’s footsteps followed her.
“I trust Fisher,” she told him. She reached the kitchen door. If she remembered right, there was a slight step up from an uneven floor. Navigating carefully, she stepped into the room. The kitchen table and chairs should be to her right.
“You want a drink, Fisher?” She dropped his harness, and a few moments later she heard him slurping. Then water sloshed and several drops hit her feet.
“Fisher, you’re making a mess,” Ben said.
“I think you knew him before you named him,” Lani said, smiling.
“He’s soaked, and the bowl is empty now.” Ben’s voice held resignation. “I’ll fix a snack.”
“I’ll do it. I’m figuring out how to take care of myself.” She felt for the edge of the counter, then followed the line of it to the end cabinet. She opened the overhead cupboard and touched the inside of the door. A rack on the door should hold the peanut butter. Her hand touched a large jar with a plastic lid. “Is this it?”
“You tell me.”
She smiled and unscrewed the lid. The rich aroma of Jif filled her nose. She set it on the counter and trailed her fingers to the bread drawer. She could feel Ben’s gaze on her. “Quit staring,” she said.
“You’re so beautiful.”
He cleared his throat, and she realized he hadn’t meant to say that much. Her cheeks warmed. “I haven’t even been able to put on makeup.” She pushed her hair out of her face. Even caring for her hair was a study in illusion. She had to guess what it looked like from the feel of it.
She held a sandwich down at her side. “Here you go, Meg.” The sandwich was snatched from her hand.
“Tank oo,” Meg said. A thump came from the floor.
Meg must have sat down. Lani carefully maneuvered around her toward where Ben’s voice had come from. “What do you look like, Ben? I don’t even know how old you are.”
“I’m thirtyfive.” He took her hand and guided it to his face. “I’m nothing to write home about, but you can take a look.”
Her fingers pulsed with sensation as she trailed their tips along a strong jawline, across firm lips and chin. His nose had a slight bump on it. Her fingers continued to explore the planes of his face. She dropped her hand. “What color is your hair?”
“It’s red, kind of chestnut. Brown eyes.” His voice sounded distant.
“I like your face,” she said.
“I like yours too.”
The warmth in his voice brought heat to her cheeks. She was flirting with him and enjoying it way too much. “Why aren’t you married?”
“I watched my mother jump in and out of relationships like a flea hopping from dog to dog. It pretty much put me off marriage.”
“You sound a little jaded.”
“You might say that. Last count she’d been married six times.”
“I heard you say you spent your early years at Taylor Camp. What do you remember about it?”
“I was four when we left, so I just have bits and pieces of memory. Like running around in swim trunks day and night. I remember the tree house. It had windows and a door just like a real house. Rugs, furnishings, a roof. I’ve got a couple of pictures from that time with me and Nancy at the dinner table. I swam a lot, dug for clams, picked up seashells.”
“Nancy?”
“My mother. She never liked us to call her Mom. She thought it made her sound too old.”
Lani tried to keep sympathy out of her voice. “Were you there when the woman died that Rina supposedly shot?”
“What woman?”
“Oh, you weren’t in the room. My aunt was in prison. For murder. She was accused of killing a woman she called Madonna Mary.”
He gave a low whistle. “Wow. I’m sure I was there. I remember a day when the beach was crawling with cops. That was probably it.”
“Your mother has to know the rest of them. Is she coming for the funeral?” She wanted to meet the woman.
“I don’t know. She hadn’t decided, according to my lawyer.”
“You haven’t talked to her?” Lani disliked his mother more and more with every new revelation about her.
“No, and I’m not eager to see her. You still don’t get what kind of mother she was, Lani. She’s a drunkard who never cared if I had enough food to eat.”
She heard his feet shuffle, and she realized the subject made him uncomfortable. Still, it often helped to talk about something. “I’m sorry. Another instance of what we talked about the other day. God let you grow up in a house like that, and I don’t understand why.”
“It made me stronger,” he said.
“But why? Why would God let innocent children go through things like that? Why doesn’t he intervene?”
“I don’t know, but I trust him to work it all out for my good.”
“That’s easy to say, but harder to do,” she pointed out. “With your history, I’m surprised you have that much trust.”
“If I didn’t, I couldn’t handle my life.”
Why did he find it so easy to trust, while she, who had lived with a loving mother, found it so difficult? She laced her fingers together to keep herself from touching his face again. “You’re a good man, Ben Mahoney.”
“If you’re done eating that sandwich, we’ll go help with the harvest.”
She hadn’t taken a bite yet, but suddenly she wasn’t hungry. She heard a tap. “What’s that?”
“Someone’s at the kitchen door.”
His steps moved across the tile, then the door squeaked open. “Hi, Willie. If you’re looking for Rina, she’s out picking cherries. We’re about to head out there ourselves.”
“Come on in, Willie,” Lani called.
“You okay, Lani?” Willie asked. “Rina told me about your accident.” The scent of the outdoors wafted in with him.
His voice grim, Ben answered for her. “It wasn’t an accident. Someone tried to kill her.”
“You’d better stay close to her then,” Willie said. “She’s important to Rina. To all of us,” he added.
“I hear you popped the question,” Lani said. She forced her lips into a smile.
“Yep.” He shuffled his feet. “I’ve loved her since we lived together at Taylor Camp. Now she’s turned me down again.”
Everything seemed to funnel back to Taylor Camp. “Were you there when the police arrested Aunt Rina for murder?” Lani asked.
“Yeah.” The laughter faded from Willie’s voice. “I tried to tell the cops she didn’t do it, but they seemed sure they had their perp.”
“Do y
ou know what really happened?” Ben asked.
“I got my suspicions. I told the cops to talk to Peekaboo, but she talked her way out of it.”
“Peekaboo?” Ben’s voice sounded strained.
“I don’t know her real name. She and Rina found the body together, but then Peekaboo refused to tell the cops she was there. I personally think she had someone kill Mary for her.”
“Why would she kill the girl?” Ben asked. His voice sounded upset, and Lani wondered why it seemed to matter to him.
“Peekaboo didn’t like her. Said she gave her the creeps. Mary quoted the Bible constantly.”
Lani raised her brows. “Yet she lived at a commune. That seems like strange behavior for a Christian.”
“Mary was different,” Willie agreed. “She camped on the beach in a tent that blew down in the summer and got flooded out in the winter storms. She carried her rosary everywhere. She didn’t drink or do drugs. No sleeping around. I think she saw herself as a missionary among heathens. And I guess we were pretty heathenish. I was pretty bummed someone killed her.”
“So was Taylor Camp a drug-smuggling operation?” Lani asked.
He laughed. “Oh, there were drug sales around, but I don’t know that I’d call it smuggling. Smuggling implies something going on in secret, and this was right out in the open.”
“How did they convict Rina?” Ben asked.
“Paranoia ruled the climate in those days. Woodstock had hit the news, and the Manson family had killed Sharon Tate and the others. The country was in a frenzy about the dangers of people like us. The cops were all too ready to believe anything.”
“You’re a staunch defender of my aunt,” Lani said. Willie had a pretty level head. This was the first time she’d had a conversation with him. She was beginning to wonder if she’d been wrong about him.
“I’d better go defend her from the coffee cherries,” he said. Moments later the door banged.
“Uh-oh,” Meg said.
“That doesn’t sound good,” Lani said. She slid her hand down the front of the cabinet and knelt on the floor, then trailed her hand out to find the toddler. “What’d you do, Meg?”