by Bowes, K T
Phoenix shot down the hallway in full flight shouting, “Tama, Tama!” and Hana heard a grunt as she evidently flung herself at his legs.
“Well I don’t get many naked women throwing themselves at me,” he joked. “Where’s all your clothes?”
“In a woom,” Phoenix replied seriously.
“Well don’t you pee on me!” Tama attempted to exact a promise from the toddler.
“Pee on me,” she repeated, “Ok.”
Hana heard Tama pass the bathroom door on the way to the kitchen. “No, don’t pee on me,” he said with a nervous edge to his voice.
“I goin’ Mama barf,” Phoenix said conversationally and their voices lowered to a hum as they went out of range.
Hana stood on tiptoe and unlatched the window, feeling the cold breeze nuzzle over her skin and raise goose bumps. It soothed and relieved her after the heat of the bath. The window opened sideways and Hana pushed her face out, gripping her towel tightly against her breasts. A pair of red eyes startled her near ground level in the darkness and she stifled a shriek. The possum stared her out, its unblinking eyes fixed on her, downy ears alert and flicking. “Don’t even think about it,” Hana whispered and the creature stared as the breeze disturbed the fur around its long back. A shuffling emanated from the trees at the far end of the property and Hana froze as the beam of a flash light flicked off so quickly that she doubted her eyes. The possum’s face turned towards the noise and then the animal was gone, responding to danger in a silky fleeting movement. Another pair of red eyes observed Hana from the possum’s back as it fled, the young marsupial clinging to its mother’s back with an expert grip. Hana stared towards the origin of the light, seeing and hearing nothing.
Feeling exposed in her towel, she slammed the window and yanked on the blind, hearing the comforting rumble as it dropped into place. For an instant she wondered if the intruder could be Bobby, his recent behaviour seeming so out of character. Or was it? Perhaps he had simply reverted back to type.
Hana sat on the side of the bath and waited for her blood pressure to return to normal, ignoring the pounding in her head and the dreadful sick feeling. Logan’s gentle knock on the door was a welcome relief. “Han, can you leave the water for Phoe?”
“Ok,” she breathed and ran a hand over her face.
Her husband, astute as ever was through the locked door and over by her side in a second.
“How do you do that?” she complained, pulling her towel firmly around her breasts. “I just feel a bit odd, that’s all.”
“Misspent youth. Want me to get a doctor?” Logan squatted down next to her and his grey eyes darkened with worry.
Hana contemplated the poor doctor who had been summoned to Alfred’s apartment after she fainted and shook her head quickly. “No way! I’m fine. I just need to cool down.” Her incapacitation made Hana irritable and she regretted it instantly. “I’ll get dressed and if I still feel unwell, I’ll make an appointment tomorrow and go...somewhere.”
“What’s wrong with the local doctor?” Logan pushed and Hana paled.
“Last time I saw him, I was a complete raving lunatic. I told him you’d get rid of me by murdering me when I became inconvenient. Don’t you remember the look on his face? I never want to see him again and I’m certain he won’t want to see me!”
Logan smirked and bit his lip. “Yeah that was pretty radical,” he snorted.
“Who’s killing who?” Tama asked from the doorway, holding a naked, wiggling Phoenix in his arms.
“Mama barf for me!” she squawked happily and kicked her chubby legs.
“Come on then, baby,” Hana relented. “And I’ll just sit here and watch you. But no splashing tonight.”
Tama stood the olive skinned bundle up in the bath and she sat down with a plop and a giggle. She rolled onto her stomach in the soapy water with her eyes shut comically and her little legs kicking. “I swimmin’!” she called.
“Any food going?” Tama asked and Logan nodded.
“Yeah, I made roast chicken and veggies. Be about half an hour. That ok?”
“Only if I can grab some bread now,” Tama negotiated and Logan nodded. The young man disappeared into the kitchen and Hana heard the sound of the pantry opening and closing. She eyed her husband and raised an eyebrow and he shrugged.
“Just leave him. He’ll sort it out.”
“I don’t understand though. He made me get the spare room ready for Lucy to visit but now she’s not coming.”
“I think they broke up,” Logan whispered. “It was the distance got too hard for her.”
Hana watched her daughter doing her pretend swimming in the tub, arms and legs flicking like a beached turtle.
“Hana, what’s wrong?” Logan’s voice cut through her attempts to numb her brain and Hana fought an irrational flash of anger.
“Nothing! Stop!”
Logan jumped back as though bitten. “Sorry. I just care.”
Hana looked back towards the window, guilt etched into her knitted brow. “It’s ok. I’m tired and fed up is all. Every time I think my life is settling down, there’s some new disaster. Logan, did you ever find out who the smoker was? The person who lurked up here and left the cigarette ends?”
“Na, sorry. The cows mashed the evidence and there’s no reason for anyone to be doing that.” Logan rested his slim backside on the corner of the sink and folded his arms, crossing his feet over at the ankles. Hana saw a hole in his sock and fixed her gaze on it.
“Do you think it could have been Flick?” she asked, working to keep her tone casual. When Logan didn’t answer, she looked up, sighing as she failed to cover her concern quickly enough and knew he saw. She glanced away again but a hardness made its way across his grey eyes.
“Now that’s a strange question,” he said in a low voice. “And I’d quite like you to qualify it, please?”
Hana squirmed under his glare, her husband’s stance making her feel guilty and frozen out. “I don’t know.” She attempted to fudge her way out of the uncomfortable trap and Logan’s eyes narrowed in response. He kept her pinned to the side of the bath with his eyes while oblivious, Phoenix tumbled around happily in the water like a mermaid.
“Hana!” Logan snapped and the little girl sat up quickly and stared at her father and then her mother. “Tell me why you would think my stockman would be lurking around outside my house?”
“He’s just been behaving weird lately.” Hana’s words came out in a rush as two pairs of penetrating grey eyes watched her halting progress. “Since the hospital appointment. He’s been acting oddly, like...scared. And now he’s gone.” Hana stood up, attempting to display more confidence than she felt. “I don’t know, Logan,” she said. “But if you’re trying to insinuate something inappropriate, you’re hardly in any position to do that. So don’t!”
Hana stalked into the bedroom still in her towel and closed the door behind her. She went quickly to the huge ranch sliders that occupied one whole wall and stared out into the darkness, leaving the light off. The view outside was spectacular as the Milky Way soared overhead like a riotous white stripe of activity. A prickling sensation began at the back of Hana’s neck, creeping up into her hair and causing an involuntary shiver to ransack her sensibility and reduce her to nervousness again. She saw the light over in the trees once more, a cursory flash of yellow artificial glare against the milky moonlight, gone as quickly as it came. Then the red blaze of a cigarette, turning slowly to orange as the smoker drew in the cancerous mix, throwing it carelessly down onto the scrubby ground.
Hana’s breath caught in her chest and she yanked the cord to close the curtains, fumbling in her haste and hearing the weight on the end of it bash against the wooden architrave. The material met in the middle with a comforting hiss and Hana shrieked as she felt strong hands on her shoulders and she whirled round.
The back of her head hit the glass, muffled by the sound of the curtain and her husband hissed. “Geez woman! What’s with you? I onl
y came to say sorry!” Logan reached out one-handed and flicked the light switch next to the window, flooding the room with a comforting yellow glow. With his other hand he kept Hana in place, his fingers pinioning her shoulder as she shivered and shook with the withdrawal of adrenaline. “Have I lost my touch?” He finished with an injection of humour that seemed wasted on his wife, although doubt lurked beneath the surface.
“No, sorry.” Hana sank into his strong arms, gasping with relief and exhaled fear like a noxious poison. Loyalty to Bobby prevented her telling Logan the watcher was back; in case it was him.
Logan’s hand snaked under her jaw and into the hair at the back of her neck, grounding her in his solid confidence. Hana breathed out slowly through pursed lips that were instantly covered by Logan’s softness and seeking tongue. “Phoenix?” she whispered against his skin and he sighed with contentment.
“Tama’s giving her backstroke lessons and playing duckies.”
“What?”
“He’s throwing bread to her.” Logan’s laugh rumbled gently inside his chest and Hana smirked at the image of Tama sitting on the side of the bath eating a sandwich. She let her husband release her twisted fingers from the towel between her breasts and drop it gently to the floor.
Logan’s expert thumbs roamed across her hips in a downward spiral and his stubble on her neck distracted Hana temporarily from the threat outside in the darkness, as the man watched the entangled silhouette. The watcher raged inwardly. “Bitch!” he mouthed to the night and used the fleeting light of the torch between his teeth to light another cigarette.
Chapter 32
Hana walked into the police station, her heart pounding with the effort of remaining calm. She gave her name at the front desk and endured a short wait.
“Mrs Du Rose, thanks for coming in,” the officer smiled at her as he shook her hand. His manner was gentle and his dark Māori features added to the official uniform, giving him a handsome quality to rival her husband’s. “You’re a hard lady to reach.”
“Is Detective Inspector Odering here?” Hana asked, looking around the south Auckland station. The furnishings and paint work smacked of government institution. “He left a message for me earlier. I came as soon as I could but I’ve left my daughter with my in-laws, so I can’t be long.”
“No, ma’am. He asked me to show you.” The officer stepped back smartly, holding the heavy door open with a long-armed reach so that she could proceed ahead of him. “Through here.”
Five minutes later, Hana stood in a small darkened room with a huge glass window in one wall. Six blonde men lined up on the other side of the pane underneath a number spray painted on the wall. As a group, the men were dressed casually with blue jeans and chequered shirts, a light growth of stubble adorning the lower part of their faces. Tears pricked behind Hana’s eyelids and nausea gripped her stomach as she watched Flick stare straight ahead, his gaze fixed on the glass. It was as though he saw her there, the intensity of his blue eyes superheating the window between them so that it trembled with the power of him.
“They can’t see you, Ma’am,” the officer reminded Hana, touching her lightly on the forearm. “Are you ok? Can I get you a drink of water? You can sit here for a moment. There’s a chair behind you if you step back.”
“I’m fine,” Hana gasped. “I built it up in my mind and it’s just an anti-climax.”
The officer’s head whipped round so fast that Hana’s eyes widened in fear. “So the guy who attacked you isn’t here?” His face registered a heady mix of irritation and fear. “But Detective Inspector Odering said...” He changed position, shuffling his smart work shoes on the tiled floor. “I have your statement here. I know it was a few years ago now but if you want to have a read of it, I can give you a moment. You identified Robert Dressler from a photo identikit. So did another witness...” he reached for his clipboard and shuffled through the sheaves of paper fixed to it. “Your husband was the other witness I believe? We should get him in. I wonder why Odering didn’t...” He stared at Hana again, warm brown eyes channelling confusion. Hana made a show of looking down the line as the men on the other side of the glass struggled to maintain their wooden pose.
Hana turned to face the policeman, who flicked his paperwork and let the sheaves shudder to rest beneath his fingers. “I wasn’t married to Logan back then and his identification wasn’t as certain,” Hana lied. “Officer, the man who attacked me was wicked. He had a hard face and I’ll never forget the hatred in his eyes.” She looked back at Bobby’s tortured face, his forehead lined by resignation. His eye had healed to a light green hue underneath and the cut on his eyelid had left a pink scar. Hana breathed in, breathed out. “I don’t see that awful man here.” Hana smiled, comfortable with her level of honesty. “May I go now? I have to drive home - I promised my daughter I’d do baking with her.”
The cop nodded. “Yes, Ma’am. Thanks for coming, we appreciate it. I’m sorry you’ve had a wasted trip.”
“It’s fine. I’m sorry I can’t tell you what you need to hear.”
In the car park, Hana maintained her casual stance and waved at the perplexed face of the officer as he watched through the glass fronted station. She drove away feeling sick and at the first opportunity, pulled over and used her cell phone to dial an unfamiliar number. “Hi, please can I speak to Judge Liza Du Rose?”
Within a few short minutes, her sister-in-law’s clipped voice came across the line. “How did you get this number?”
“I took it out of Logan’s phone.”
“Why?”
“I need your help.”
“Ask your husband.”
“I can’t,” Hana sighed. “It’s complicated and I’d like you to trust me.” Hana explained her predicament to the judge, pausing to plug her ailing phone into the dashboard charger. “Logan saved Bobby once and although I suspect they had a fall out recently, I want to honour what he started. I’d like to engage a lawyer on his behalf, anonymously and pay for it.”
“But he’ll get Legal Aid.”
“I want him to have a proper lawyer, who’ll put his best interests at heart, not someone who’ll get dragged out of bed and arrive not knowing who he is or giving a damn!”
Liza laughed. “Nice, well, thanks for that glowing appraisal of my colleagues. I’ll be sure to pass it on. I’m guessing you want to stand bail for him too?”
“Yes please,” Hana conceded. “I have money put away from my late husband’s estate and the sale of my houses. I’ll use that.”
“It won’t be millions!” Liza snorted. “He’s a low grade criminal, who I suspect they now have no reason to hold, seeing as you just removed their justification. Odering must love you!”
“I don’t care! Will you do it for me? And make sure the lawyer you engage can’t be traced back to me or the Du Roses. It’s important.”
A silence greeted Hana and she peered at the phone and then shook it slightly. But it hadn’t cut out. Liza’s voice came out of it, as bold and forceful as ever. “Respect, Hana Du Rose.”
“Pardon?”
“Respect! You have mine. You sound more like a Du Rose every time I speak to you. I have to admit that I wrote you off initially. But maybe my stupid brother knew what he was doing after all.”
“Thanks?” Hana was unsure about the compliment but didn’t have time to weigh it against her conscience. “So you’ll sort it out for me?”
“Leave it with me. I’ll call you on this number when I know something.”
Hana made the journey back to the hotel, taking it slowly around the sharp turns. She called into Alex’s restaurant on a whim and purchased a number of his specialty chocolate snails for Logan. The cousins were thrilled by the impromptu visit and delayed her further, so that she was already on the long drive down to the hotel when her phone rang. “Hello?” Hana kept her voice level, not recognising the private number showing on the screen.
“It’s me,” Liza said. “The cops let him go. There’s nothing to
pay. You said it wasn’t him so they had no reason to keep him. He’s gone on his way apparently.”
“How did you find that out?” Hana risked asking.
Liza gave a hollow laugh. “Best you don’t know. Cheers.” The phone clicked and then disconnected. Hana heaved a sigh of relief and allowed herself a few tears.
“I didn’t lie, God,” she justified her actions, seeking to placate her own screaming conscience. “I told the truth when I said the man who attacked me wasn’t there. That man doesn’t exist anymore. Bobby’s changed. He’s different now. I would trust him with my life and I owe it to him to return the favour.”
Hana mopped up her tears and reapplied her eye makeup, returning home to deliver the snails to her husband. “That was a long drive just for some chocolate,” he commented, eying her with curiosity.
“I know you like them and you’re worth it.” She smiled, the strain in her face thinly disguised.
“Thanks. Chef’s improved them since last time.” He bit ruthlessly into a shell.
“Yum!” Phoenix squealed as hers slithered out of her warm fingers and slid across the plate. “He ‘scapin’ me!”
“Catch him quick!” Logan laughed and helped her retrieve the slimy object from next to the fruit bowl. “Want one?” He held out a white chocolate snail with mottled brown markings and Hana’s eyes watered.
“No, thanks. I really thought I would, but now I’ve got them, I actually feel quite sick.” She pulled a face and left the room, fighting down the tide of guilt, but knowing her husband would eventually hone in on it like a heat seeking missile. For now Bobby was safe. And that was something Logan didn’t need to know.
Chapter 33
“Wiri, Mama. Look, Wiri!” Phoenix skipped on the spot and with great concentration attempted to leave planet Earth altogether. “Oof!”
“Oh dear, never mind.” Hana retrieved her daughter from the concrete with a smile, hauling her up one-handed. “You’re nearly there. Jumping’s hard isn’t it?”