by Bowes, K T
Leslie nodded and backed away, turning on the stairs to obey. “Mind your own business,” she said to Caleb who waited at the bottom. “It’s family stuff, nothing to do with youse.” Her voice sounded sharp and Hana cringed. She wanted to rebuke the old lady for her cruelty but something about the young man jarred at her nerves.
Logan held Phoenix’s hand and carried a struggling Mac. He kissed Hana’s forehead. “You okay?” he asked, his voice soft.
Hana nodded. “Yeah. It just hurt at the time and I still panic that the wires might pull out and then where will I be? I don’t even know if the bloody thing works!”
“It works!” Logan sounded exasperated. “They check it every time you go to the hospital, Hana. They’ve told you how to check it on your phone if you’re scared. You still don’t trust it?”
“It’s never gone off by itself!” she snapped, rubbing at the sore spot. Delicate fingers wound their way through the hem of her sweater and she looked down to see Phoenix staring up at her, anxiety in her eyes.
Logan heaved in a breath and set his jaw. “Hana, it does go off, okay. Just trust me.”
“What?” She turned to him, brow knitted in confusion. “You don’t know that.”
“Yes I do.” He gritted his teeth and wrestled with the words forming on his tongue. “It goes off a few times every night. I didn’t want to tell you because I knew you’d freak out, but it works, babe. It works just fine.”
Hana’s fingers caressed the aching bruise on her chest. Logan focussed on it as the blue line grew and Hana put her hand over it to force him to look at her. “What do you mean?” She shaped her words with care and her green eyes blazed in a heady mixture of anger and fear. “How do you know?”
Logan’s shoulders slumped. “The muscle in your chest twitches. I’ve felt it.” He swallowed. “It terrified me the first time it happened. I started taking your pulse at night and it drops real low sometimes. The pacemaker kicks in when it gets too bad.” He shifted on his cowboy boots and Hana heard the floorboards creak beneath him. “I asked the cardiac specialist about it on your second appointment and he took a closer look at you. He said it’s unusual to get muscle movement but not unknown. Once or twice a night is okay but if it’s in quick succession, I need to get you to the hospital.” Logan focussed at a spot on the ceiling. “I know it works, Hana. I thank God every time it does its job because I can’t lose you.” He closed his eyes against emotion he couldn’t deal with and his jaw worked beneath the dark shadow of beard on his skin.
Hana lowered her head, the anger expelled from her soul as she watched her strong husband struggle. She felt torn. “I should be cross you didn’t tell me,” she said. “But I feel an idiot for worrying about it.” Her eyes narrowed in confusion. “When did you speak to my specialist? I sat there with you the whole time.”
Logan shook his head. “You went for a blood test and I didn’t go with you. Now he just sends you to pee in a jar or any excuse he can think of so he can ask me how you’re really doing.”
“So, I don’t need to keep peeing in a jar?” Hana’s jaw hung open in indignation.
“No idea.” Logan shrugged. “Maybe. Maybe not.” He shifted Mac on his hip and winked at Phoenix.
The commotion at the bottom of the stairs made everyone except Mac jump. Leslie’s voice rose from a shout into a screech. “Where is he?” she hollered.
“Where’s who?” Logan leaned over the bannister as horror crept into his expression. He swore, knowing the answer before the old woman spoke.
“I don’t know!” Caleb shouted back and they heard the sound of metal banging on bone. Logan took the stairs two at a time still carrying his son. The baby clung to his neck and grinned at the unexpected rollercoaster ride. Hana hoisted Phoenix onto her hip and followed, rounding the dogleg and gasping at the scene before her.
Logan stood with Mac on his hip and his other arm raised, gripping the crutch against Leslie’s tugging. Caleb was boxed into a corner by the front door, balancing on one leg with his arms protecting his head. “She’s broken my wrist!” he shrieked. “It’s nothing to do with me!” Logan’s biceps bulged beneath the sleeves of his shirt and his vice-like grasp on the crutch turned his knuckles white.
“Wiri’s gone!” Leslie wailed. She let go of the weapon and sank to her knees. “Asher stole him!”
“What?” Hana hurried forward, her heart thudding in her chest. “No!” Panic drained her colour and widened her eyes as the awful sense of loss seeped through her body. “Please, don’t say that. He wouldn’t. Tell her, Logan. Asher knows he can’t take him.”
An explosion of misery erupted from Phoenix as she cast around looking for her small companion. She sobbed and wriggled, begging for release from Hana’s grasp. Her mother set her on the floor and took a step back, her hands covering her mouth and her shoulders heaving.
Logan strode towards Caleb and dragged him from the corner one handed, forcing the teenager to hop on his good leg. “Where is he?” he demanded, his voice cold and threatening. Mac covered Logan’s mouth with his hand, absorbing the tension in his father’s body and deciding he didn’t like it. “Get up!” Logan snapped at Leslie. “Take the kids.”
“No!” Hana wailed, pulling Phoenix against her leg. “Give Macky to me. I’ll keep them safe.” Wiri’s absence caused a void to open up in her soul, threatening her other babies. Her rational mind told her to strap them to her body. “Call the cops, Logan,” she begged.
“Asher left hours ago,” Caleb interjected, his voice wavering. “The kid ran down the stairs and through the door. I couldn’t move fast enough to stop him.”
“Asher took him!” Leslie screeched. “Why else did he drive all the way down here?” Her wizened face paled, her eyes bugging, so the whites glowed around the dark irises. “You rotten boy! How could you?” She lurched for the crutch, surprising Logan into letting go. The old woman jabbed the rubber end into Caleb’s stomach with surprising agility and force. “If you brought trouble here after these good people showed you nothing but kindness, I’ll kill you!” She swiped again with the crutch and Mac let out a wail, not liking the game anymore.
“Hana take Mac!” Logan thrust the child towards her, strengthening his grip on the metal. “Leslie, stop!” He yanked the crutch away from her and rounded on the teenager. “Did Asher come to take Wiri?”
Caleb swallowed and Hana spared him a moment of pity. Logan’s brand of interrogation knew no bounds and she imagined the expression on his face as he leaned in closer to the frightened boy. She noted the square set of his shoulders and the tendons showing in the back of his neck. She knew his grey eyes must be flashing danger signals and she gave the teenager a way out. “Tell him, Caleb. He’ll get it out of you, anyway. I’m calling the cops, so if you’re not honest with us they’ll make you tell the truth.”
“No, not the cops!” Caleb squirmed, pushing his backside as far into the corner as it fitted. “You can’t call the cops.” His cheeks pinked and he slid down the wall until his good leg formed an arch beneath him. “Please don’t.”
“I don’t have time for this!” Leslie screamed and waddled into the kitchen to retrieve her mobile phone. “I’m calling them. My moko’s out there alone in the dark. This boy doesn’t know what truth is.”
Logan’s fingers closed around Caleb’s throat as he lost patience and bodily lifted him to a one-legged standing position. Hana heard the teenager gag and put her fingers over Phoenix’s eyes. “Logan, don’t!” she said, authority in her tone.
“Asher didn’t come for him. He wanted me. He left hours ago after Hana went upstairs. I couldn’t give him what he wanted, so he hit me in the guts and drove away.” Caleb reached under his shirt and displayed his ribcage. A black smudge started under the bottom rib on his skinny frame and curved towards his midsection. “The kid ran out the door crying. I wasn’t quick enough to stop him.”
Logan let go and Caleb sank to the tiled floor, his body shaking. “He can’t have gone too
far,” Logan said, snatching the ute keys from the sideboard. He didn’t look at Caleb again but stepped over him, slamming the front door on his way out.
“Cops is coming,” Leslie announced, emerging from the kitchen with the phone in her hand. “They’ll be here in five minutes.”
“No! No! No!” Caleb screeched. He writhed on the tiles in an effort to get up and seized hold of his crutches. “You bloody stupid old woman! Why did you do that? I asked you not to!”
Hana’s heart quailed and the women exchanged a look. “What have you done, Caleb?” Hana asked, her voice terse. “I asked you that question once before and you assured me you weren’t in trouble.”
“I wasn’t,” he gasped. “But I am now and so are you.”
Chapter 37
Unwanted
“You didn’t bring it here?” Leslie’s shout made Hana jump and her dozing son jerked on her shoulder.
“Bring what?” Hana pressed her daughter closer to her leg as she sensed disaster looming. “Bring what here?”
“The weed!” Leslie snorted. She advanced on Caleb. “What did you do with it?” The teenager cowered back into the corner and Phoenix let out a wail.
“Hana!” Logan’s sharp admonishment from the open front door drew her attention back to her distressed daughter and she nodded at him and grabbed Phoenix’s hand. “Take the kids into the kitchen. Wiri’s not out here; I’ve checked. I’ll wait for the cops and then drive around.”
Hana nodded and edged backwards to the kitchen, her gaze never leaving his face. She watched as a vein pulsed in his forehead; part of his early warning system.
“It’s fine, baby, it’s fine.” Hana nursed both children on her lap at the kitchen table, able to hear only raised voices from the hallway.
“Papa’s mad,” Phoenix whimpered. “Wiri’s gone.”
Hana shook her head and kissed the little girl’s downy curls. “Dad will find Wiri. He’s worried, not mad.”
“Papa’s mad,” Phoenix repeated and Hana winced. The pulsing vein told its own tale. She tapped her foot on the tiles, desperate to hear the outcome of what sounded like a heated discussion. Police sirens broke the sound of steady traffic along Maui Street and her whole body tensed.
“Peese can I have biscuit?” Phoenix asked, rubbing the back of her hand across her eyes. Hana opened her mouth to say no but her mind ran ahead of it, welcoming the distraction.
“That’s a great idea, sweetie,” she answered, smiling at her daughter. “Sit up at the table and I’ll get some.” Planting her daughter on a chair, Hana lurched for the pantry and retrieved a packet of chocolate-covered biscuits. Mac’s head shot up in interest and she plonked the pack in front of the little girl. “Take one and give one to Macky.” The baby went into his high chair with ease, slipping beneath the restraints like a knife through butter. His delicate wrists twisted and turned with excitement as his fingers flexed and he made sucking noises with his lips. Phoenix shoved a biscuit across the table and Hana put it into her son’s hand. “I’m just here, Phoe,” she told her child, slipping through the kitchen doorway and waiting, one eye on her babies and the other keeping tabs on the adults in the hallway. “Logan,” she hissed, “I think the cops are here.”
“Ooh, my bro’ Bodie,” Phoenix muttered and Hana’s heart missed a beat. She hoped and prayed her son didn’t get out of the police car whose blue and red lights clambered onto the driveway and reflected through the glass in the front door.
Logan nodded and swore, shoving Caleb aside to intercept the officers on the porch. “Get inside. I’ll deal with you later,” she heard him growl and the skinny teenager hopped sideways out of reach. Leslie gave him a rotten glare and headed towards Hana, shoving her through the doorway.
“Just listen,” she whispered. “One of the reasons I left Alfie was because he paid that stupid boy, Asher to clear the drugs off the roof. I begged him not to because the kid can’t keep his mouth shut, but Alfie said he couldn’t do it himself. Asher cleared it away, hosed it down and disinfected the lot but I saw him through the kitchen window.” Leslie’s fingers writhed on her skirt hem and she hauled it up past the point of decency. During Hana’s moment of extreme distraction, Phoenix took another biscuit and grinned at her brother.
“Saw him do what?” Hana’s urgent tone brought Leslie to her senses.
“Put the bin bags of marijuana into the back of his car,” she whispered, her voice high and squeaky. “I followed him to Caleb’s place and watched him unload it there. I told Alfie, but he said it wasn’t his problem no more. Said his own son called him a junkie for trying to fix his arthritis, so he didn’t care if the kid sold it to all the hotel guests. I got scared. Logan and me don’t like each other, but he’s done right by me over the years. I didn’t want to see his business hurt. I fought with Alfie and he told me to leave, so I did. There was something else, but that’s staying between me and him. It’s private. But that Caleb hung around with Asher from the minute he arrived and I knew they’d be up to no good. Alfie stormed off and I packed my car. I made Lincoln load that kid’s bag in so I could drop him off somewhere along the way. We don’t need his kind making trouble on the mountain.”
“So you brought him here instead?” Hana heard Logan’s cowboy boots moving around on the porch outside and a flashlight drifted past the kitchen window. “How did he get it here?”
“What? The marijuana? No idea.” Leslie’s stage whisper filled Hana’s brain with panic and she clapped a hand over her mother-in-law’s mouth.
“Stop saying that word,” she begged. “The cops are outside!”
“I know.” Leslie patted Hana’s upper arm with an expression of sympathy. “I called them, remember kōtiro?”
Hana gritted her teeth, watching her mother-in-law view her with forced compassion, like someone who’d walked into a room full of laughing people having missed two thirds of the joke. “I know you called them.” She forced the words out. “Wiri’s missing.”
“No, isn’t.” Phoenix giggled and swung her feet, reaching for another biscuit. Mac beamed and licked the chocolate off his and Hana halted, her mouth half open. Her son coughed on an abundance of coloured sprinkles and she stared in confusion.
“How did Mac get that one? He’s not allowed the ones with bits on.”
Phoenix giggled again. “Wiri done it.”
Leslie shook her head. “Moko’s talkin’ rubbish.”
“Phoe!” Hana’s voice turned her daughter’s head. “How did Mac get another biscuit? Did you give it to him?”
The front door opened and Logan’s voice drifted down the hallway. “Hana? Can I borrow your phone so I can grab a recent photo of Wiri? I’ll email it to these officers so they can circulate it.”
Hana stuck her head through the kitchen door and nodded, noting the strain on her husband’s face. The back of Caleb’s head showed through the bannister railings where he’d slumped onto the bottom step. “Come out, Wiri.”
Leslie looked at her like she’d crossed the line into crazy, but Hana persisted. “Come out, Wiri, or I’ll get cross.” A snuffle sounded from somewhere in the pantry and Hana narrowed her eyes. “I mean it!” she said, trying and failing to keep her voice level. “I’ll count to three and I want you standing right in front of me. One.”
“You called the cops on me,” Wiri wailed from beneath the bottom shelf and Hana saw the outline of a bare foot in the gloom.
“Told youse,” Phoenix chirped and reached for another biscuit. Hana ignored Leslie’s open mouth and leaned forward, sliding the packet out of her daughter’s reach.
“Two,” she said.
“I’ll go call them off,” Leslie muttered, stamping out to the hallway. Hana heard low voices at the front door.
“Do I need to use three?”
“No.” Wiri’s voice sounded muffled. “Are you gonna let the cops rest me?”
“Arrest you? No.” Hana sighed.
Wiremu Du Rose slipped from his hiding place and emerged, d
usty but unharmed. His feet made no sound on the floorboards as he handed over a jam flavoured biscuit to Mac. The baby boy screwed up his face and head butted the gift, shattering it onto the high chair tray. Phoenix giggled again and her tiny brother set about putting the broken pieces into the slot in his face. Wiri watched, refusing to get eye contact with Hana.
“I ran away because you don’t want me no more.” His voice sounded heavy with sadness and rejection. “It’s ‘cause I called you Hana instead of Ma when Asher came. I hurted your feelings so you don’t want me.” He swallowed back tears, the weight of the world pressing down on his slender shoulders. “And I was naughty and moved the nasty boy’s gear.”
“Do you want a cuddle,” Hana asked and watched as the dark curls bobbed up and down. “Come here then.” She held out her arms and Wiri marched across, his little body stiff with anticipation of more rejection. Hana collapsed onto the seat next to Phoenix and pulled him into her lap. “I felt surprised when you called me Hana, but I understand why. You’ve got a mummy and Asher probably wouldn’t like it. You overheard what Logan said but not all of it; just the ending. He didn’t mean you. You’re family.” Hana stroked the dusty fringe back from Wiri’s face. “Nothing will change that.”
Logan’s tread sounded heavy as he led the concerned police officers along the hallway, Leslie following close behind. Hana recognised neither of them and relief flooded her soul. They insisted on speaking to Wiri alone to ascertain his reasons for disappearing, without adult coercion. Logan rolled his eyes at Hana and leaned his backside against the counter, reaching for a pre-licked biscuit and then changing his mind.
“Logan,” Hana began and he shook his head at her, placing a slender index finger over his lips.
“Not yet,” he whispered.
The police officers returned Wiri to Hana’s knee and accepted the apology for wasting their time. “Not at all,” the youngest of the two said with a smile. “We’re never sorry about happy endings.”
The older one jerked his head towards Logan and he followed them down the hallway. Hana waited until the front door closed and her husband’s imposing figure returned to the kitchen, running a hand through his dark hair. “Bloody hell!” he exclaimed.