Beautiful Dead 02 - Arizona (7 page)

Phoenix got back on his feet, his head raised and chin jutting out, like a condemned man determined to look death in the face. 'It turned out it wasn't her problem, it was mine. I wasn't thinking clearly.'

'I told you - spare me the details.' Hunter had never looked so unforgiving. ' You overrode the order, came up here, lost control of the situation and started a fire that could have brought the whole county fire service down on us. So tel me, Phoenix, what is it about this story that should make me want to keep you on the far side?'

'Don't send him away,' I pleaded. 'If you do, I won't help any of

you!'

There was no reaction, except Hunter turned to me with a look of mild

curiosity. 'You have too high an opinion of your own value, Darina.'

'You need me,' I insisted. 'I'm your link to the far side the only one you can trust.'

'Tel that to Arizona,' he muttered. 'I gather she's stil waiting for your so-cal ed help.'

'That's not fair. Arizona hides things from me.' I changed tactics and now I had Hunter's ful attention. He became extra alert and his eyes stared into mine. 'It's almost like she doesn't want me to succeed.'

Hunter frowned, then told Phoenix to walk down the hil ahead of us. 'Arizona's future is on the line,' he reminded me. 'Her eternal future. So what is she holding back on and why?'

The 'what' I could explain on that dark walk under the stars - namely

Raven Taylor and Kyle Keppler, but not her reasons. 'I don't understand 48

the way her mind works,' I told him.

He stopped short of the old truck parked for ever beside the decaying house. 'You're too simple,' he sighed. 'And Arizona's way too subtle.

That's part of the problem we're dealing with here.'

'So why the big secrets?' Arizona and I were sitting in the cab of the old truck, staring up at the stars when I chal enged her head on.

Hunter had left us there with strict instructions to engage in some plain talking. I felt pretty sure he was now with Phoenix, handing out the punishment for the fire incident. What if he did zap him back into limbo and never saw Phoenix again? Hunter was definitely powerful enough to do it. Focus! I told myself. Listen to Arizona's excuses.

'Which secrets are we talking about here?' As always, she was in

control, pushing the question back at me, testing me out.

'Let's start with Raven. Tel me about him.'

'What's to tel ? He's nine years old. He likes to sketch in a notebook.

Period.'

'Why is he so scared?' I cut through the crap and the winding mind game she was playing.

Arizona drummed the hol ow dashboard with the fingers of her right hand. 'He thinks the world is a dangerous place for people like him.'

'What do you mean people like him?'

'People who don't come out of the womb the same as everyone else, whose brains are wired differently - that's supposing that there is such a thing as a normal brain, which I doubt.'

'Stop. Don't go weird and theoretical on me. We're talking about your brother here. I saw him in your garden. What's he afraid of?'

Arizona turned her head towards me. 'Everything,' she said quietly.

I waited for more.

'Watch me,' she said. I watched.

Arizona narrowed her eyes and frowned deeply. 'What kind of mood am I in right now?'

'Cut it out. Answer my question.'

'I am.' She switched off the frown and replaced it with a smile. 'Now, 49

am I happy or sad?'

'Answer the question!'

'The point is, you know - you can read my face, right? Wel , my brother can't do that. He can't tel you what a smile means, or when you're about to get mad with him, or if you plan to be kind. His brain

can't work it out. So he plays safe and decides to suspect everyone al of the time.'

'That's crazy,' I breathed. The superior, arched-eyebrow look Arizona dealt me made me regret my choice of words. 'I mean, what's that about? Is it an il ness?'

'Only if you don't understand it.' Her tone changed and she was softer. 1 never think of my little brother as sick. He's just the way he is mad at the world, and who can blame him?'

'But your parents they've decided he needs treatment?'

'Yeah. Ever since Raven was little they've taken him to specialist brain doctors in practical y every state. He's been through al the therapies

- conventional, alternative, experimental, cutting edge, plain crazy you name it.'

'And?'

She shrugged. They each stick another label on him and send him back home. Or they keep him in a hospital, or lately they send him to autism school. And al Raven wants is to be able to draw his sketches and be left alone.'

'Wow.' The picture she'd painted was pretty painful. What must 'home' be like with a problem like that going on? 'How about your parents?

What do they want?'

Arizona's fingers tapped more slowly against the dash. 'For it not to have happened,' she murmured. Then tap-tap upped the tempo. 'Which is why they send him away to school.'

'Raven - is he ... lonely?' I tried to get my head around the situation, remembering the dark-haired, dark-eyed, good-looking, terrified kid in the Taylors' summer house.

Her sigh went on for a long time. 'Sure,' she admitted. 'Now that I'm

gone, Raven has no one in the world to root for him.

'So now you know.' Arizona's defences were back up and we were out of 50

the truck and walking on to the porch, looking up at the dark sky. There was stil no sign of Hunter or of Phoenix. 'That's why I came back to the far side. I need Raven to know I would never - never do what they said I did at Hartmann Lake.'

'You mean, you wouldn't deliberately leave him.' I understood this

much at least.

She nodded. 'Especial y not now.'

I waited on the porch for her to explain. 'Why not now?' I had to prompt.

'Now that Dad's final y filing for divorce.'

The new information slammed into my brain. 'So when they split, who wil get Raven? - Is that what you mean?'

Another nod and the longest of sighs. 'Who wil even care?' she

added, disappearing into the house and closing the door behind her.

Hunter found me alone on the porch.

'I had no idea what kind of problems she was dealing with,' I told him.

'What - Arizona doesn't come across as a victim?' he asked, smiling without any humour in his eyes. ' But with her family history I guess she is.

'Her parents seemed so together. Her dad teaches music in col ege, her mom works as a broadcaster in TV.'

'Did you ever meet them?'

'Not before yesterday. And I only saw Al yson Taylor for a couple of

seconds - she was on her way to work. Her dad is way older than I thought. They don't go together as a couple.'

So your job is to help her brother come through this,' Hunter reminded me. You have to get some truth into the situation and find a way of communicating it to the boy.'

Then wil Arizona be able to rest?'

'Maybe. Anyway, her job here wil be done. Raven wil know that she loved him and didn't want to leave.'

I could see how this might work, but in my opinion it wasn't a whole lot of comfort. The boy would stil be wired up wrong. He would stil be total y alone.

Don't question it, Darina,' Hunter read my mind. 'Just do it. Find out

how Arizona died. And don't come back here until you do.'

51

'News emerged earlier today that parents at El erton High School, Bishop County, are petitioning for improved security within their school. This comes after tragic events of the past year, in which four of their senior-high students lost their lives.'

This is what they mean when they talk about shutting the stable door after the horse bolted, I thought as I sat in my room watching Al yson Taylor read the evening bulletin. Our principal, Guantanamo commandant Dr Valenti, announced on camera that he had plans to boost the CCTV system around the perimeter and to carry out stop-and-search inspections on students suspected of carrying knives or guns into school.

Achtung!

This was despite the fact that none of the four victims died on school premises. Not that this seemed to matter - like I said, most parents were sliding towards mass hysteria, afraid that every day would be their kid's last.

' Darina, are you going to eat tonight, or not?' Laura cal ed up the stairs.

'Not,' I replied.

Come on down. I already cooked pasta.'

So I don't have a choice?'

'Eat!' she insisted.

Down I went, admiring Arizona's mom for the professional way she'd presented her own family tragedy on air but glad for once that I had Laura. Al yson Taylor might be wel groomed, slick and classy, she might be fabulously successful and wealthy, but she was headed for divorce and she'd never been there at mealtimes to nag her kids to eat.

'Why are you smiling?' Laura asked, pushing my plate across the kitchen counter.

Sorry, I didn't know it was against the rules.'

In the corner with his plate of pasta on one knee and his laptop on the other, Jim grunted. He meant, Show your mom more respect, or else.

I raised an eyebrow in his direction, meaning, How about you show enough respect to log off and come eat at the table?

Luckily neither of us thought it was worth open confrontation.

'Did you know Arizona Taylor had a brother with autism?' I asked 52

Laura, as casual y as I could. I'd spent a long time during classes today planning my course of action and come up with the fol owing bul et points:

•check out autism on the internet

•ask Logan to drive with me to the car repair place behind the mal

•poke around and discover more about the Taylor family reputation.

I'd done my autism research before I switched on the TV to watch

Al yson read the news. I had a visit to Logan scheduled in straight after pasta. Meanwhile, maybe Laura could dish some Taylor dirt.

She paused with her fork in mid-air. 'No - I believe Arizona was an only child.'

'He would be about nine years old,' I prompted.

'When did the Taylors arrive in El erton? That would be eight or nine years back actual y. But there was no baby that I remember.'

Wow, was Raven a wel -kept secret!

Laura chewed her pasta. 'You know Arizona was Frank Taylor's daughter by his first wife? Al yson was not her birth mother.'

I shook my head. 'I didn't even know Frank was married before.'

'Yeah also to a much younger woman. He and Al yson only married after they settled in that big new house out at Westra.' Laura was on a reminiscing rol . 'The Madisons were acquainted with them more than

most at that time, so they got an invite to the wedding. Jon Madison designed their house.'

At last I thought I spotted a way through the brick wal keeping me from answers about Arizona's situation. 'So are the Madisons stil friendly with the Taylors?' If so, I could cal in on Summer's parents and carry out a little more investigatory activity.

Laura shook her head. 'There's a story going around that the Taylors didn't pay Jon al they owed him for his professional work so the friendship soured. And you know, Jon and Heather didn't real y have too much in common with the Taylors - especial y with Al yson. She runs with the media pack, and it's dog eat dog in that world.'

'So definitely no baby brother for Arizona,' I murmured. And the brick wal stil stood solid.

'Al yson did take a career break around the time they were building

the house,' Laura recal ed. 'She switched news channels and wasn't in front of the camera for a while - my friend Kristina swore it was so she could have her face fixed, you know. When she came back on screen, I thought that Kristina was right.'

'Why? How old is Al yson Taylor?' I wanted to know.

'She's forty-seven,' Laura shot back. 'That's what I mean - she's definitely had work!'

'Not now, Darina, I'm busy.' Logan turned me down flat.

I'd walked to his place to get him to drive me to the mal , figuring that he would know his way around a car repair garage better than me.

Also, he wouldn't look so out of place. Maybe he could talk to the guy in the workshop, order some parts for a car engine while I took a look around the place Arizona last recal ed visiting.

But Logan said no. This was my second shock of the evening. The first had been when Jim had dropped me a comment just as I was leaving the house, right between tel ing me the technical y correct way to load the dishwasher and heading to the fridge for a beer. 'Actual y Al yson and Frank Taylor did have a baby boy,' he'd told me. 'Back then I drove a cab, for the extra income. I remember I picked Al yson and the baby up from the hospital and drove them to their new home in Westra.'

Thanks, Jim, for this smal , surprise nugget. 'So how come Laura didn't know?'

He'd shrugged and pul ed the tab on the can. 'I heard the baby wasn't healthy,' he'd said over the hiss of gas. 'Maybe the Taylors didn't want to talk about it with strangers.'

Busy how?' I chal enged Logan from the porch, having stored Jim's

information. I couldn't see any schoolwork spread out on the kitchen table, he didn't have his head under the hood of his car.

'I have to meet someone,' he said, picking up his car keys and swinging by.

'Someone - who?' Logan Lavel e never turned me down. He was 54

fixated on me, close to becoming my own personal stalker.

'Just a guy,' he said, turning on the engine of his neat white Honda and driving off down the street.

So I had to wait until Wednesday afternoon for Logan to be free.

Sure, I know the workshop,' he told me as we drove into town. 'Mike's Motors. My dad is a drinking buddy of Mike Hamil 's.'

He didn't ask me why I wanted to visit, which was another change of routine for Logan.

'Don't you want to know why we're headed there?'

He signal ed at the lights, taking a left down the side of the mal . 'Would I get a straight answer?'