She tried Susie, but someone else answered the phone and said a few words in Korean before hanging up.
She tried her cousin Dew. “Now that I finally have a brother, I want him to be able to meet my mom. Can you work your computer magic?”
“That’s funny,” Dew said. “I spend every minute trying to avoid my mom and now you’re trying to find yours. I’ll see what I can do over the weekend.”
After she hung up with Dew, Denise took a few deep breaths. She sat in silence for almost an hour until Caliban came out of the courthouse. “What happened?” Denise asked.
“Not allowed to say until it’s filed,” he said, fingering the boomerang lodged under his belt. “See you back at the hotel.”
* * *
Back at the hotel, Caliban was playing a different kind of bailiff. Apparently, the Oklahoma tourists didn’t like California and were heading home. They were bringing some relatives with them and the whole clan was there for dinner. Caliban looked the other way when they brought in a few six-packs but indicated they had to drink out by the empty pool. They were celebrating like it was Thanksgiving, Christmas and the Fourth of July all at once.
Denise and Jane Dark had to share a table.
“Good news,” Jane Dark said.
“You’re dropping the charges?” Denise asked.
“Well good news for me. The grand jury indicted Denny on all counts, plus one count of felony animal endangerment. He’s now facing life in prison. But don’t worry, I won’t hold your brother against you.”
“Thanks,” Denise said.
“By the way, we still haven’t heard from your mom about all she’s doing to supervise your work as a clinical law student. You might want to check into that.”
Alone in the Holiday Comfort that night, she tried all the Korean numbers one more time, but no one answered. She felt a strange tingling in her wallet, the magic card gave her slight shock. It must be static electricity, right?
Chapter 20
Saturday, July 18 and Sunday, July 19
It cooled down a bit on Saturday, so she drove to the City of Rocks State Park about an hour away. Stonehenge on steroids, there were acres and acres of boulders the size of cars. There was even another outcropping of boulders a few hundred yards away (the Suburb of Rocks?). At least she got some fresh air and exercise. She even practiced with her staff, fighting off imaginary enemies coming out of the earth.
On Sunday, the day before Denny’s arraignment, the jail staff allowed her to spend all day in the jail interview room talking to him. After some awkward moments, they each vowed to talk about anything, but the case.
“Do you like Lordsburg?” she asked.
“I call it the City of God sometimes, the Cidade de Deus. That’s from this Brazilian film about this favela in Rio. My Spanish teacher, Ms. Castaneda, showed it to us in class.”
Their cousin, Marley, had a teacher named Yvette Castaneda over in Las Cruces. It could have been a coincidence.
“So, will I get out?” Denny asked.
“I don’t know.”
“Suppose my real mom comes to take custody?”
She didn’t know how to respond. “That would be a nice surprise.”
At dinner that night in the hotel, Jane Dark was nowhere to be found. Had the queen of darkness been taken off the case? The Okies were long gone, and it was even lonelier than usual. Caliban brought her some leftovers as the kitchen was closed. “You’re the only one here,” he said.
* * *
Denise received a call from Dew after she took the leftovers up to the room. “Anything about my mom?” Denise asked. “I’m getting worried for real.”
“I did some digging,” her cousin said. “Your mom has been in and out of hospitals in Asia for the last few years. Even when you lived with us.”
“So, the reason she left me and had Luna take care of me was medical?”
“Again, I’m not a doctor and don’t speak Korean, but it seemed like your mom was dealing with some serious health shit.”
Denise spit out her food into a napkin. “And I thought it was because she didn’t love me.”
“I don’t know what to say when you say things like that,” Dew said.
“I just have a lot of mixed emotions about my mom. Where is she now?”
“She was discharged from the hospital in Seoul. One notation that I could translate with Google said something about a hospice in some place in Japan. Aokigahara.”
Dew spelled it out for her. Denise had heard of that place somewhere. Still on the phone, she Googled “Aokigahara” on her laptop.
“Aokigahara is like the famous suicide forest of Japan.” Denise was really worried now. “Is she dying? Or dead already?”
“I don’t know,” Dew said. While hospitals over there have records in English, hospices don’t. Like I said, I can’t read Korean or Japanese.”
After hanging up, Denise tried to locate her mother via the weak internet connection, searching both Korean and Japan websites based on the info Dew had given her. Her mother had been in hospitals in Korea, Hong Kong and Tokyo but the records were sealed so tightly in English as well as the native languages, she had no way to get to them. The hospice did have an English speaker, but the person didn’t understand Denise’s questions and would neither confirm nor deny whether her mother was there.
Her spark was sensitive to her mother’s distress, and she actually developed a splitting headache. Would her mother stay in the hospice to die, or go out into the forest to save everyone the trouble?
Her phone rang. She jumped. Cordelia had set up a three-way call with Denny.
“They’re finally letting me use the phone! I’m not in Seg anymore. I can call you through Cordelia.”
“That’s good,” Denise said weakly. “Hello Cordelia.”
“Hello,” Cordelia said.
Denny sensed her distress. “What’s wrong Denise?”
“My mother, our mother is very ill. They think she’s in hospice over in Asia.”
“I know,” Denny said.
“You can reach her? On the phone?”
“In my mind. I felt her reach out to me, in my mind. She was in a forest somewhere.”
“Did she…”
“I don’t know. I was in the forest with her, but everything went black.”
“What do you think that means?”
“I don’t know,” he said.
“Does that mean she might already be dead?” Denise asked.
There was silence on the other end and then a click. “I think they’re back in lockdown,” Cordelia said.
* * *
Just before bedtime, Dew texted a working phone number for Susie Song. On her third attempt, Denise finally got through to an assistant who answered, “Cygnus Moon, special affairs.”
“I’m trying to reach Susie Song,” Denise said. “It’s her cousin Denise, I’m calling about my mother, Jen Song.”
“One moment, please.”
The moment lasted a full five minutes until Denise finally heard the voice of the woman who had once been her idol and role model, the woman who had told the whole world to “Swing for the Stars.”
“Denise?” Susie asked.
“How’s my mom?”
“I don’t know what I’m allowed to say,” Susie said.
“Did she commit suicide in the Aokigahara forest?”
“I don’t know what I’m allowed to say,” Susie said. “There’s a lot going on and the situation is in flux. Don’t call me, I’ll call you.”
Susie abruptly hung up. That sure didn’t sound good. Denise touched the Swan card that night, but it felt ice cold. She looked at the logo again, Korean Swan Bank. Hmmm…Cygnus meant swan, right? Did the Swan bank have a connection to Cygnus Moon? And why would a corporation have special affairs?
Curious, Denise decided to investigate with her laptop. Originally, a company called Cygnus Aerospace merged with her mother’s former employer, Dragon Moon. And then Dragon Moon became Cygnus Moon. Cygnus Moon had entered into massive contracts with various national governments and then started the 24 Grails Contest.
Denise clicked on a link for the Cygnus Moon Corporation website, but the site was “under construction.” She Googled the Greek mythology for Cygnus, thinking it might be a clue.
In the myth, Zeus took the form of a swan, Cygnus, and that swan somehow impregnated a maiden named Leda. She didn’t want to imagine how. Leda then gave birth to the Gemini twins—Castor and Pollux.
Huh?
Was the fact that she had a twin have anything to do with the myth of Cygnus?
Her own father had supposedly been a lawyer; her mother was his legal secretary. He had died before her mother gave birth and his family had essentially disowned Jen. He wasn’t on the birth certificate and that’s why Denise’s last name was Song.
But suppose that the man she had thought was her father wasn’t just a dude, and her father was really ummm…Zeus?
Before she could laugh that off, she thought about Zeus being a metaphor. She had read the Erich Von Daniken book, Chariots of the Gods and seen that stupid show Ancient Aliens with the premise that all mythology was a retelling of alien settlement on the earth.
If that show’s mythology had any basis in fact, perhaps she was part alien. That might explain her powers.
A Korean corporation took a name based on a Greek myth about a god impersonating a swan impregnating a woman. That woman then had twins. According to one version of the myth, Leda died of shame.
So what?
Greek mythology had nothing to do with her or her brother, right? It certainly couldn’t have anything to do with her mom, dead or alive.
Denise touched the credit card again and ran her finger along the sharp metallic edge. She jerked her finger away. The card had given her a slight cut. She sucked on her finger until the bleeding stopped.
She didn’t sleep that night.
Chapter 21
Monday, July 20
The day of the district court arraignment finally came. In the hotel shower, Denise put shampoo in her hair but suddenly the water stopped, and then the bathroom light went out.
The shampoo still in her hair, she carefully stepped out of the shower, wrapped herself in a towel and picked up the room phone to call the front desk. The phone didn’t have a dial tone. Her phone had been hooked to the charger, but the battery display said zero percent. She got dressed and put her hair in a tight bun, hoping no one would notice her accidental dreadlocks.
* * *
Downstairs, Caliban the desk clerk/bailiff frowned. “Ms. Song, I’m sorry, but your card, your mommy’s credit card, has been declined.”
“Declined?”
His boomerang was on the desk so he could grab it if need be. “It’s frozen, retroactively. You now owe us for the one week’s stay, at two hundred a night, over a thousand bucks. If it was up to me, I’d let it go. But…”
“Did you just turn off the power to my room?”
“That’s company policy,” he said. “When there’s evidence of fraud.”
“But you said…” She was sounding like her clients.
“Do you have another credit card?”
“Not with me.” Her purse felt heavier. Why hadn’t she bothered to ever get another credit card, just in case? Maybe that was why Susie couldn’t tell her anything, because of potential litigation against Denise for various felonies.
“Hold on for one moment,” Caliban said. He nodded at a maid. Moments later, the maid came down with all of Denise’s earthly possessions in the unzipped suitcase and the gym and computer bags. Worse the laptop was about to fall out, along with her underwear. She didn’t know which was worse.
“Do we have to call security?” Caliban said.
Denise grabbed the laptop before it fell out, and then packed her underwear quickly. She then shuffled out of the lobby, hoping to beat Jane Dark out the door. The coast clear, she hit another obstacle—her fob didn’t work on the Lexus. Thankfully she was able to open the door manually with a spare key.
Once connected to the car charger, her phone jumped to life in mid-ring. She picked it up before it rang again. Sure enough, the car rental company from the airport was sending her an automated message that the card had been declined. She needed to return the car or face possible criminal charges.
Denise had a disturbing thought. Each transaction made with the Swan bank card could be considered a separate count of fraud. She had used the card every single day for the last year. Even if the allegedly fraudulent card charges were considered mere misdemeanors because the amounts were under the two-hundred and fifty-dollar felony threshold, she knew she faced at least 365 years in prison and would certainly never be admitted to the bar to be a real lawyer.
In addition, her mother’s lawyers could potentially argue that since the Korean Swan bank card was from an overseas bank, the fraud was international. Korea was not known for having nice jails, especially for Americans.
Hell, Denny could sue her as well for stealing money that he would potentially inherit. She really wished that she had taken a banking law class so she would know for sure.
She jerked the Lexus out of the parking lot. Should she go hide somewhere? Aokigahara? It wasn’t that bad yet, maybe she should go west to California or run to Mexico? What was that resort on the gulf Rayne had mentioned? Puerto Penasco? It couldn’t be that far from here; she was so close to the border.
At the entrance to the freeway, sheriff’s department vehicles blocked the east bound and west bound entrances. Denise turned around and parked by the courthouse on the west side of Shakespeare street, trying to figure out what to do next.
There in the car, she jumped to the worst conclusion. Perhaps her mother had really died or had been declared incompetent. Why couldn’t Susie tell her? The executor or conservator was tying up all the loose ends. The Swan bank card was one of those loose ends.
Denise was one of those loose ends. She wouldn’t be able to afford to go to her mother’s funeral if it was overseas, not that the family would want her. She would be too humiliated to go to any ceremony if it was here in New Mexico. Poor Denny would meet his mother right before she was dropped six feet under.
Still on Shakespeare Street, she tried to concentrate on happy memories of her mom, but still couldn’t see her mother’s face.
Another car, a white state car, pulled alongside her, it was Jane Dark. They both opened their windows. “See you in court, counselor.” Jane Dark said.
Denise didn’t reply as she looked at Jane Dark in the other vehicle. If there was a DMZ, it did not extend to this side of Shakespeare Street. “By the way, we’re flying Professor Kang out to testify that you failed out of law school and are not really a law student. She’s on our witness list for Denny’s case and yours.”
Jane Dark did an illegal U-turn and found an open space right in front of the courthouse.
Still in the car, scared to leave, Denise checked for her own name on the court website on her phone. Sure enough, there was a “Mis hearing” with her name on it this morning, and worse, her nemesis the dreaded Professor Kang was indeed on the witness list as an expert witness in mental health law.
Mis hearing? Did that stand for miscellaneous or mistake? Or Misdemeanor?
Denise thought of trying Korea one more time, the land of the morning calm. But what was the point?
Denise got out of the car and saw a crowd pouring into the courthouse from Shakespeare Street. The whole town was here to see the show in this Globe Theater from Hell. Denise was playing Ophelia, Juliet, and Desdemona. All of them dead girls.
What did Ophelia say before she died? “The
re’s rue for you and some for me.”
She waited outside for another moment. A man who could pass for a Hispanic James Bond in a stylish black suit and black tie approached her. He flashed a badge for the U.S. Marshals.
“Ms. Song, the judge needs you in the courtroom right now!”
“Am I in trouble?” she asked.
“I don’t know yet.”
Chapter 22
The tiny courtroom was even more crowded for arraignment day. Judges usually only came once a week so all legal business for the county would be done over the next few hours. There were criminals, ranchers, traffic cops, a few people getting divorced and even a couple getting married by the judge.
The windows let in that hot dusty breeze. Denny sat in the front row, next to the three other inmates. He wore orange. They wore yellow. Four jail guards sat behind them, one for each inmate. A half-dozen lawyers sat one row behind the guards. They wore black suits despite the desert heat, like the hit men in Reservoir Dogs but with laptops.
The rest of the courtroom presumably held family members of the usual suspects on the docket. Fally and three of the Groundlings were in the back. They were in their courthouse best at least, but their tattoos were brighter, fresher in this light. Fally’s snake tattoo hissed at her.
She hoped that was only her imagination. She avoided eye contact with the back of the court room and focused on the inmates instead.
One inmate looked like Gollum from Lord of the Rings. She was sure she’d seen him before. He kept muttering something about aliens and flying saucers as he talked with Denny. They were arguing about Alpha Centuri versus Cygnus X-1 and flying saucers versus flying spheres.
She recognized the two young Asian men who had been picked up on the Amtrak train. Denise figured them to be Chinese. They were stupid enough to be talking out loud about how they shouldn’t have transported the suitcase from Colorado for one of their uncles in California.
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