Murder and Mayhem (28 page)

Shafts of fading sunlight filtered through the clouds
rimming the edges with pastel shades of purple and pink; and dripped through
the trees like warm maple syrup, creating shadows as it settled on the rim of
the horizon.

They crossed over a bridge, then crossed back further
down the river, the road switching back and forth until finally Danny drove
into the Comfort Inn parking lot, and cut the engine.

                                                                    *
* *

“Simmo, old buddy, how are you doing?” he listened to
the disembodied voice on the other end of the phone, and laughed. “Yeah, man.
It’s me.” Danny grinned as he listened while his friend complained about how
long it has been since he had last seen him.

“Yeah, yeah, I know. Time has a way of getting away
from us all. What about you, you old goat what have you been up to? How’s that
pretty little wife of yours? Has she decided to trade you in on a younger model
yet?” Danny laughed as he listened to the reply.

“My God, Simmo, another kid! You randy old devil how
many is that now, five?” Danny roared with laughter.

“Sweet Jesus in heaven–seven!! Good God, man, don’t
you think it’s time you gave it a rest. I heard a rumor if you overwork it
there’s a chance it might fall off!” As he listened to the retort at the other
end he laughed loudly.

“Me? No. I’ve stopped all that carousing around and
settled down. I think I’ve found the future mother of my children.” He caught
Nicola’s eye as she looked up from the brochure she had been thumbing through,
and grinned.

“As soon as I’ve made an honest woman of her, I’ll
give you a run for your money then we’ll see who comes up with the first
football team.” He ducked as a pillow sailed through the air and hit the wall
above his head.

“Listen old friend, I’d better go before a homicide is
committed in the hotel we’re staying. I’ll see you around ten-thirty, okay?
Yeah, sure I still remember where you live. See you then, buddy.” Danny laughed
as he dropped the handset onto the cradle.

“Seven! The last time I saw Simmo he had four. That
poor woman must be a saint to put up with him.”

“Well, you can get that idea right out of you head.
One or two maybe, but seven! Not a chance!”

“I was thinking maybe an even dozen myself,” Danny
said as he gathered Nicola into his arms. “What say we get started?”

* * *

They drove downtown, parked in a side street off Main
and walked to the restaurant. The hostess handed them menus as they sat down,
and a short time later a young waitress with piercing blue eyes brought glasses
of iced water and took their order.

“Are you enjoying the trip so far?” Danny asked Nicola
when the waitress had gone.

“Every day is a new adventure. I feel like Alice
through the looking glass.”

“I wasn’t sure what to expect when I suggested you
come with me. I didn’t know how you would feel about traveling all over the
countryside with someone you hadn’t met. And I wasn’t sure if you’d be able to
take the time off work. American’s have less vacation time than Australians
do.”

“Oh, that wasn’t a problem. I haven’t had a vacation
since I moved to San Francisco.” Nicola played with the glass of ice water,
running her fingers through the condensation on the outside of the glass.

“I must admit I was a little hesitant at first, but
after all those months of phone calls, and you describing the wonderful places
we would go to, I started to look forward to the whole experience,” Nicola said
as she wiped the condensation from her hands with a napkin. She smiled across
the table at Danny. “What about you, Danny, did you have any reservations?”

“Me? No. None at all. The sound of your voice every
night on the phone put me completely at ease. And, when we met at the airport I
knew I was going to enjoy the trip, even if we only did it as friends.”

Nicola smiled. “And now?”

“And now... I’m having a great time…” His voice
trailed to a whisper as he looked into her eyes and lost track of his thoughts.

Nicola noticed Danny hesitate. “Is something wrong?”

“What? Oh, no. Sorry, I was just daydreaming. Nic,
don’t pay any attention to what I said to Simmo earlier. I was only kidding.”

“I know. So was I.”

* * *

“Why are we stopping?” she asked as he pulled off the
deserted road and cut the engine.

“Something’s wrong with the wheel,” he said as he
walked round the front of the vehicle and crouched down to inspect the front
passenger side tire and wheel. 

She opened the door and came up behind him. The night
was cool and the air smelled of rain, ploughed fields–and fertilizer. She
shivered and wrapped her arms around her body.

“What’s wrong with it?” she asked as she rubbed her
hands up and down her arms in an effort to get warm. She looked around and
tried to make out shadowy shapes on the landscape. She didn’t like being stuck
in the middle of nowhere where there were no lights. Not even a farmhouse in
the distance.

A barn owl swept low overhead in a flash of white and
landed in a tree nearby as a golden sliver of moonlight found its way through a
chink in the clouds and bathed her companion in soft pale light. A trill ran
through her body. With that blond hair and those incredible eyes perhaps being
stuck here for the night wouldn’t be such a bad thing.

He looked up and smiled. She was his creature tied to
him by his eyes.

“I’m not sure,” he said and gave the wheel another tug.
“I think there may be a puncture in the tire.” He stood up and brushed the dirt
from his hands, walked round to the back and opened the trunk. Under the carpet
lay the spare tire, a jack and an assortment of tools. The tall handsome man
reached into the trunk and grabbed what he needed. As he straightened, the moon
came out from behind a cloud and turned his companion’s hair a fiery chestnut.

When she looked up, her face was bathed in the soft
glow of moonlight that traveled down her throat and across the swell of her
breasts. She was so beautiful, his heart caught in his throat.

As he came up behind her, she turned her head and
smiled and noticed a glint of metal as moonlight reflected off the object he’d
raised above his head.

As if in slow motion, her mind unable to process what
it was seeing, she stood transfixed as he brought the metal bar down on her
head.

The sickening thud of the impact echoed around them.
Then the look of surprise on her face was obliterated as her skull cracked open
and her eyes froze in a look of disbelief–and horror.

She collapsed onto the cold hard ground where the
blood ran into her eyes and her open mouth, down the side of her face and
turned her hair a deep vermillion as it pooled on the grass and soaked into the
hard-packed earth around her, and the crimson top she was wearing.

The man leant down and slit her throat with such
force, he almost severed her head from her body.

As the young woman lay on the ground with her blood
pooling around her, the killer, taking care not to get blood on his sneakers,
reached down and grabbed the pendant that lay atop a heart that no longer beat…
and brutally ripped it from her neck.

*****

“Wow that was a shock! I certainly wasn’t expecting
that to happen.”

“Twists and turns, Hon–twists and turns. Keeping the
reader interested is the name of the game.”

“What’s going on?”

“What do you mean, what’s going on? She’s dead. He
killed her. Could I have been any plainer than that?” I shut down the laptop
and put it to one side.
“Come on kiddo,
it’s time we hit the road.”

Rosie sighed. “Funny how this seems to be the
highlight of our day, Bubbie. Who would have thought it would have come to
this?” she said with a slight catch in her voice.

I put my arm around her and gave her gentle a hug,
ever mindful of the constant pain that coursed through her body.

“I know babe, but there’s nothing we can do but fight
it every step of the way. We’ll get it beat.” I kissed the top of her head, and
said, “Come on, let’s go and see our friend, Mr. Takamura, and find out what
the girls have been up to.”

We crossed the Golden Gate Bridge with the sun
sparkling on the water. The sky was a brilliant shade of blue while the
ever-present wind tugged at the hair and clothes of pedestrians. I exited
One-Oh-One onto Lombard Street, driving through the busy tourist district lined
with motels and restaurants and hawkers on street corners, turned onto Van Ness
and headed up the hill.

As I pulled into the hospital parking garage and cut
the engine, I looked at my sister sitting quietly beside me and noticed her
face was paler than usual, her hands trembling. I wanted to take her in my arms
and tell her not to worry. Tell her everything would be all right; but I
daren’t give voice to the fear that haunted us all.

I gently placed my hand on hers and forced a smile on
my lips. “You all right, Hon?”

She nodded and did her best to smile. “I’ve just got
to get myself psyched up for the next round.”

“Take your time–there’s no hurry,” I said as I
unscrewed the cap on a bottle of water and passed it to her. “Whenever you’re
ready?”

Rosie took a couple of sips and handed the bottle
back, took a deep breath–and let it out slowly. “Okay. Let’s do it,” she said
as she opened the door and stepped onto the concrete.

                                                                    .
. .

Whenever my sister walked into a room it was like a
ray of sunshine coming in through the door. No one would guess, by looking at
her, how bad she was really feeling. Rosie always had a kind word for everyone.

I looked around the room and saw Louanna and Chartreuse
sitting next to a middle-aged man who was playing computer games with a younger
version of himself, and headed in their direction.

Rosie hissed me a warning as she listened to one of
the patients talk about her grandchildren, aged six and four, but I chose to
ignore it. It’s not my fault I was born under the sign of the bull–you’d have
to take that up with my parents.

“Hi girls, how are you doing? We missed you yesterday.
Did they move your time again, Chartreuse?”

Louanna shook her head. But before she had a chance to
explain, Chartreuse waded in with the details.

“We’s been busy with du big kids ‘n’ du little ‘ens,”
she started to tell me, but Louanna cut her off.

“It was Duella, my youngest’s birthday, so we had a
party for her.”

“Oh how wonderful. How old was she, Louanna?”

“Five.” When Louanna held up her hand indicating five
fingers like a small child would do I couldn’t help notice the new coat of duco
on her nails, but decided not to go there.

“She my baby,” Louanna added, the pride in her voice,
unmistakable.

Rosie came up behind me and laid
a cautioning hand on my back.

“They grow up so quickly don’t
they? One minute the
y
’re babies and before you know it the
y
’re out of diapers and heading for college,” she
said.

Chartreuse nodded. “Hain’t dat du truth, Hon.”

“And next thing you know they’re pregnant and having
babies of their own,” I added nostalgically. I’m still waiting for my first
grandchild to appear, but Little Sweetie’s biological clock was ticking close
to midnight, with no sign of a bump.

We all nodded our heads lost in our own thoughts when
suddenly Louanna interrupted our nostalgic reverie.

“Bee you didn’t notice our nails.” The poor woman
sounded hurt.

“Sorry, Louanna, I had my mind on other things–you
know, babies and all. Let me have a look?”

When Louanna held out her hands I saw flashing lights
and figured I must have been having another one of those ‘flashing light’
migraines I’m sometimes prone to. But then I realized each nail had a colored
gemstone, larger than the diamond in my ring, glued to gold background, and the
overhead light was glinting off them.

“They sure do look good, Louanna,” I said, and then
added, “that Korean girl sure knows what she’s doing.”

Rosie curled her fingers through the belt-loop on my
jeans, and gave a sharp tug.

Chartreuse smiled. “I think you is right, Bee,” she
said. “I think that little-bitty girl is Ko-re-han.”

“Yeah, Bee, You sure is one smart cookie,” Louanna
said, smiling.