Du Rose Sons

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Du Rose Sons Page 33

by Bowes, K T


  “You did all this?” She sounded astounded as she examined the list of over thirty misdemeanours, including broken windows, sabotaged equipment, fence breaking and leaving gates unlocked and open. Asher had the decency to look ashamed. “I need to call Logan and probably your father.” Hana walked through to the kitchen and lifted her cell phone from next to the sink. She sighed with exasperation at the lack of reception. Lifting the handset on the wall, she pressed zero for the hotel receptionist. A noise behind her startled Hana and Asher squeaked and lurched for the notepad in her hand.

  “Wait!”

  Fear lit Hana’s eyes as their fingers contacted and she released the pad and leapt back. The handset dropped floor-wards, breaking into two parts on the tiled surface. “Damn!” She looked at it with horror, all hope of help gone.

  “Sorry! I just forgot something else I did.” Asher laid the pad on the centre island and stared at Hana. “Please don’t be scared of me. I know I did some awful stuff, but please, don’t be like this with me?”

  Hana couldn’t prevent the sneer which deformed her beautiful face. “Are you for real? You covered me in glass! You were the reason my little girl had to watch cows aborting in our garden! I suppose that’s what you forgot to write down, was it? Item number thirty-one: I let out the cows with the calves that nobody wants and drove them up to Hana’s house!”

  “No, actually, I’ll write that now.” Asher’s hand shook as he detailed the afternoon’s work in a slanting left handed script. Hana picked up the broken phone and tried to fit the two parts of the handset together. Her fingers shook with fury and her breathing came fast and irregular. Asher laid the pen neatly on top of the paper and put his hand out for the handset. “I’ll do it,” he offered.

  Hana ignored the proffered hand and laid it on the bench next to the paper, but curiosity got the better of her and she peered at the second to last item on the list of Asher’s sins.

  I threw a brick through Logan’s bedroom window at the hotel and smashed it.

  Hana pointed a shaking finger at the offending item and stared at Asher in horror. “That was you? About ten days ago?”

  Asher nodded, his shame hanging like a necklace around him, dragging him into a torturous oblivion. “Yeah. I saw the light on and you were moving around in there. I could see you through the window...” He looked at Hana in horror. “Not like that! I wasn’t perving or anything. It was just your silhouette!” Asher smirked at the memory of the fantastic overarm, which made him good at schoolboy cricket. “It was a great shot,” he lavished misplaced praise on himself. “Went right through the middle and you screamed.” His face dropped with an appropriate degree of contrition. “Sorry.”

  “I’m getting Logan.” An urgency crept into Hana’s tone as Asher placed the mended handset on top of the bench. “This is even more serious than I thought.” Hana pressed zero on the handset a couple of times before anything happened and the urgency was still there as she spoke politely to the receptionist down at the hotel. “Hi, love. This is Hana. Please can you get Logan and Nev for me? I need them here quickly.” A female voice issued from the device, garbled and distorted. “I know,” Hana replied, the veneer of calm slipping as misery took over. “But this is urgent, like, really desperate. I want them here within the next ten minutes.”

  Hana bit her lip as she laid the handset down. “That was stupid!”

  “I know,” Asher began and she silenced him with the raising of her hand.

  “Not you. Me. The cops are crawling all over the hotel still. What if Odering gets wind of this and follows Logan up here?”

  “I’m happy to take my punishment,” Asher replied bravely. “Look.” He lifted his sweatshirt to reveal a stunning set of abdominal muscles, honed by years of hard work and riding horses. Hana gasped, but not at the beautifully sculpted masculinity in her kitchen. Asher’s skin was a mass of bruises and purple welts, cutting into his flesh and leaving a trail of destruction.

  “Are you a haemophiliac?” Hana asked and he shook his head.

  “No! Bloody good job too or they would have killed me. After Dad showed me the paperwork and listed the debts, the foreman asked to meet me. He turned up with four other guys and wanted me to put stuff in your water tanks to make you and Logan sick. But you were kind to Wiri and I knew he’d slept here. He likes you.” Asher gave Hana a tight smile. “I told them no.”

  “They beat you up?” Hana pursed her lips and her eyes widened.

  Asher nodded. “Yeah. But only on my body, not where other people would notice and ask me about it. They’re clever.”

  “They’re evil!” Hana spat. “How could you get mixed up with men like that?”

  “I’ll go to prison, it’s fine. I know I deserve it.” Asher nodded his head like a toy, his dark curls bobbing comically on his head.

  “You’ll go to prison for murder, you silly boy!” Hana said, shocked at his complacency. “That’s game over for you!”

  “No, not murder.” Asher looked confused. “Just criminal damage for the property and probably actual bodily harm for throwing bricks through windows at you.”

  “Murder!” Hana stressed again, wishing her husband would arrive quickly and take this latest problem off her hands. “You’ll go to prison for murder.”

  “Na, I won’t. I never killed nobody!” Asher’s face betrayed confusion and disbelief. His old scorn at Hana resurfaced as he shook his head at her and pulled a disdainful face. Hana gritted her teeth and blew out an exasperated breath.

  “So how come the woman you threw a brick at, was found dead in the paddock behind your house a few days ago?”

  Asher’s face morphed from disbelief and confusion, through to realisation and terror. “Was that her in Logan’s room then? Not you?”

  Hana nodded. The foolish youth whistled through his teeth and exhaled with a smirk. “So it was true then? Uncle Logan was knocking that bitch off. Well, what-da-ya-know.”

  Hana rolled her eyes and shook her head, washing her hands of the stupid idiot in front of her. Logan could deal with his own family. She was done. “You know what, Asher?” Hana said with a smile. “The developers saw you coming. I hope you get what you deserve.”

  By the time Logan arrived up at the house on his blowing horse, Nev cantering up behind him; Hana was finishing loading a grumpy Phoenix into the ute. Logan hurled himself from the sweating beast and ran over to his wife, his face a mask of confusion. “Babe, what’s happened? I got your message. What’s up?” His fingers were tight on Hana’s upper arms and she wriggled to shake them off. Nev’s face looked strained and full of tiredness. Hana pitied what was ahead for him.

  “Ok,” Hana addressed the Du Rose men with fake confidence. “There’s something in the kitchen you should see. It’s a list, written by the man who’s been doing all the damage to your business and property.” Both men bridled and looked towards the house with naked, righteous anger in their familial faces. Nev flexed his fists, the Du Rose temper obviously only hidden skin deep. “Before you go inside, I would take big, deep breaths, because you’ll need them before you talk to him. He’s an idiot. I’m going out for a while and when I come back, I want him gone. If he’s still here when I get home, I’ll commit a few murders of my own!”

  Hana raised her voice at the startled men to highlight the overt threat and climbed up into the truck. She started the engine with a roar and made the huge wheels hiss on the gravel, at the same time as the men set off for the front door at a run.

  Chapter 44

  At the house, Hana carried Phoenix into the museum. The little girl rubbed her nose on Hana’s shoulder and settled down for a nap.

  “She’s heavy. Give her to me,” Will insisted, grunting as Hana lay the spindly bundle of child on his thighs.

  “I don’t want to hurt you,” Hana worried.

  The old man guffawed. “Nothing left to hurt, kōtiro. And I’m sitting on my nono all day so it makes sense.” He patted Phoenix’s back gently with his arthritic
fingers, the dark hair standing up on each bent finger like fur. Comfortable in his presence, the child snuggled into his lap and lay back like a queen, her thumb finding its way between her lips and her eyes flickering closed. Will patted her chest in a rhythmic pattern and Phoenix sighed with contentment.

  “When she gets bored, please can I get on?” Hana slumped into a nearby chair and the old man snuffed a gentle laugh. “I’m knackered!”

  “You do too much,” Will chided softly.

  “Has Odering had any luck finding the diaries?” Hana asked, her expression confused as she failed to process her feelings about the troublesome manuscripts.

  “No, girlie. You got your wish. We won’t see them again.”

  “That’s not fair, Will. I was perplexed about their content, but I was fine as long as you kept them safe. Which you didn’t!”

  The old man’s jaw snapped open, making him look like a stunned mullet. “Did you take them?” His question shocked Hana in return and hurt radiated across her pretty face.

  “No!” She screwed her face up and narrowed her green eyes. “I don’t know the combination to the safe, remember? You wouldn’t give it to me!”

  “For valid reasons, woman; not that it did me much good. I’ve been wondering if I should resign. What good is an archivist who can’t protect the artifacts? Probably about as much use as a man with no legs.” Will’s face dropped and his facade of geniality was replaced by the man underneath, vulnerable and sensitive.

  “Idiot!” Hana slid forward on her seat and clasped the old man around the neck in a crushing embrace. “Don’t you dare leave me! You’re more to me than just the keeper of all the damaging Du Rose secrets. I need you here. You’re my confidante and my friend and the closest thing I have to a dad on this side of the world.”

  Will snaked his spare arm around the woman’s back and pushed his face into the hair at her neck. Hana heard him sniff and squeezed him harder. Phoenix grunted in the small space between their bodies and turned on her side, wedging her button nose into Will’s armpit. “Matua kēkē squishin’ Phoe-Phoe!” she grumbled.

  “Grumpy baby,” Hana chided her daughter and used the edge of her sleeve to wipe the rolling tears from Will’s crinkled cheeks. “What did she call you?” she asked him.

  “Uncle.” Will’s tears rolled more readily and Hana smiled down at her child, whose eyelashes fluttered in irritation.

  “Well, you can’t leave then! You’re obviously family,” Hana chided the old man. “We just have to sort this out ourselves.”

  Hana made tea in the kitchenette at the back of the long workroom and Will rocked the toddler in his arms with tenderness. He smoothed a dark curl from Phoenix’s forehead and included her in the blanket covering his ruined legs. She slept deeply, emitting only the sound of an occasional suck on the peachy-pink thumb. Hana put the tea down on the table and Will pushed himself across, resting his hands over the tyres of his chair and rolling it forwards. Hana knew better than to humiliate him by taking over. She sat down on an office chair and subconsciously rubbed a hand over her son, feeling the knotty bones of his spine and the back of a firm head pushing up into her ribs. “This baby’s so long,” she mused to herself and Will smiled.

  “Lookin’ to me like someone got their dates wrong.” He sniffed and sipped his dark coloured drink - builder’s tea - he called it.

  “Nope, definitely not. This boy’s French, a little gift from Paris.” Hana’s face took on a wistfulness and her cheeks pinked at the thought of just one of her nights of passion in Europe with her randy husband. Muscle memory caused her fingers to twitch as she recalled the feel of her palms moving over Logan’s strong, muscular back and the whiteness of her skin against his olive tones. Her lips remembered his deep kisses and the way he maintained eye contact with her as he...

  “Earth to Hana Du Rose! Am I in this conversation by myself?” Will’s face held a knowing that made Hana squirm in her seat with embarrassment. “Dirty girl!” he chided her and Hana bit her lip, badly stifling a smirk. Will saw it anyway and shook his head. “I asked you what we can do to sort this out. You said we should sort it ourselves.”

  Hana sat up straighter and banished the image of her naked husband with difficulty. Contact with Logan left an inner glow in Hana’s soul that radiated out as a disgusting satisfaction with life. She forced her mind back to the moment and wrangled it into submission. “If we write a list of what we know, then maybe we can work some things out and hurry up the investigation. You know what this family’s like; the cops won’t know anything helpful.” Hana thought of her persistent son and cringed. “It must be like trying to floss a shark’s teeth.” Guilt lit her green eyes as she imagined the Du Rose shark snapping off her son’s dark-skinned fingers. Conflict danced in her heart, leaving muddy footprints in her sobriety.

  “What’s with you and lists, woman?” Will groaned. Hana’s mind strayed back to Asher’s handwritten confession and she shuddered.

  “I’ll tell you later. That’s a whole other story but it works for me and we’ve nothing to lose.” She reached behind her and snagged a pad of notepaper with the hotel logo printed on the top. Hana’s search for a pen was futile as Will had banned such offensive-leakers-of-acid in the museum and she settled for a 2B pencil, which she had to sharpen first. Then she sat poised, looking at Will with expectation.

  “Don’t you look at me like that!” he bit at her. “You want to solve this, not me. I just want the taonga back safe. I don’t care about the rest of it. And stop chewing my pencils! I knew it was you.”

  Hana removed the end from her mouth and dried it on her trouser leg. “The first question is whether or not you think the missing diaries are anything to do with Sylvia’s death or something separate?”

  “How would they link to her death?” Will scoffed. “She won’t be in them. Nobody except your husband knew she existed until recently.”

  “Logan didn’t sleep with her,” Hana informed him with a snip in her voice. “She lied. His brother is Ryan’s father.”

  “Well, he should be more careful where he...it don’t matter. He’s a kaumatua. He should know better.”

  Hana’s brow furrowed and the pencil strayed to her lips again, before a bug-eyed glare from Will halted its progress. “I think it’s all connected. So let’s start with Sylvia’s death. I’ll list all the people who could have done it and then we’ll work from there.”

  Will shrugged and grumbled, “I just want the diaries back. Don’t care about no nasty dead wahine kairau.”

  “Om, did you just say a rude thing?” Hana leaned forward in her chair with her eyes wide. Will pulled a face.

  “Get on with it, woman. My bloody knees are goin’ to sleep!”

  Hana’s jaw dropped in confusion. Will’s knees were long gone, victims of diabetes and the surgeon’s operating table. She opened her mouth to speak and he glared at her, making her think better of it. Hana stared at the pad. “The list of possible suspects is too long,” she moaned.

  “Then start with yourself and your tāne then!”

  Reluctantly, Hana wrote her own name at the top next to a number one and added Logan’s. She wrote it small and faint, as though it wasn’t properly there and Will rolled his eyes and shook his head. Phoenix snored and farted, belying the seriousness of the adults’ deliberations. Will looked disgusted and shifted the little girl so that he could examine his pant leg through squinting eyes.

  “Tama,” the old man suggested and when Hana shook her head, he lost his temper. “If you’re just goin’ to challenge every name, then this is pointless, girlie! Just leave it to the cops.”

  “Sorry, sorry.” Hana scribbled Tama’s name on the pad under Logan’s.

  By the time Phoenix woke up, fluffy haired, pink-cheeked and smiling, Hana had produced a list of some twenty five names. “Do you think I need Jack and the stable workers on here?” Hana’s pencil hovered over the list, ready to strike through some of the names.

  “I reckon
so,” Will nodded, amusing Phoenix with the soft toy on his key fob.

  “Even ranking them in importance leaves me and Logan at the top,” Hana groaned.

  “Well, move the older employees up there with ya,” Will suggested. “Especially them what’s been ‘ere years, bro.”

  “Right, here goes. We’ve got me and Logan, Alfred and Leslie, maybe Nev, although he has no motive...”

  “He does for wantin’ the diaries though,” Will stated. “If you think the two things are linked then you have to leave him up there.”

  “I suppose he might know that Caroline is his half-sister. If he really loves Kane, then it’s worth keeping it secret that they’re half-brother and sister too. And if he doesn’t love Kane, then lighting a fire under him will only bring him home. That will cause more trouble than you could imagine, especially if he wanted to live on the property. Logan won’t allow it.”

  “So if it’s both things - diary and murder - well, I was scared of the diaries and wanted Sylvia gone. Logan didn’t know what the diaries contained and honestly doesn’t care about them, but he wanted Sylvia gone. Nobody else knew what was in the diaries but pretty much everyone was sick of Sylvia. Oh no!” Hana wailed. “I’m the only one who knew about the diaries and wanted Sylvia to leave!”

  “Prime suspect then. Arrest that woman!”

  “You’re not helping!” Hana complained. Will snorted.

  “Lists are like the Bible. You can make them say anything.”

  “You can’t make the Bible say anything!” Hana was affronted. “It’s the Word of God. People misquote it, that’s all.”

  “Say bye bye to Mama,” Will told Phoenix, their heads bowed over a stain on the battered looking dog dangling from his keys. “I think that might be pickle.”

 

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