“I’ll carry her inside,” Ben said. “We’ll get a few things and get out of here.”
Ben lifted Meg from Lani’s arms. Lani laid her fingers on the back of his elbow and followed him.
“The living room is this way,” Ben said.
Lani wrinkled her nose. The house smelled stale and shut up with the unpleasant fumes of garbage left too long. Ben stopped, and Lani nearly bumped into him. The muscles in his arm grew rigid. “What’s wrong?” she asked.
“Someone’s been in here,” Ben said in a tight, strained voice. “All the stuff from the end tables and drawers is on the floor. I want you both outside while I check it out.” He led them back to the warmth of the sunshine. He handed Meg to Lani. “Hold her until I get back.”
Lani cuddled the little girl and shuddered. The atmosphere nearly writhed with malice.
“Vandals,” his mother said. “People have no respect anymore. Breaking into the house of the dead.”
Lani didn’t answer. She strained to hear sounds from inside the house. Ben shouldn’t have gone in alone. What if the intruders were still there?
Ben’s voice broke the silence. “This was more than vandals,” he said. “They were looking for something. The TV is still here. Natalie’s rings are on the table.”
He led them inside. Lani wrinkled her nose at the smell. Under the odor of rotting garbage, she smelled stale perspiration.
“Mommy,” Meg said. “Daddy?”
Lani’s heart clenched at the hope in the small voice. “We should have sent her on with Rina and Yoshi,” she said softly. “Want to see your toys?” she asked in a fake, cheerful voice.
“Mommy!” Meg called. “Down.”
She squirmed so hard, Lani almost dropped her. She put Meg down. As soon as her small feet hit the floor, she ran through the house calling for her parents. Her cries echoed down the hall, and Lani’s eyes filled with tears. “Come here, sweetheart.”
Meg’s sobs grew nearer. “Mommy,” she sobbed.
“Mommy’s not here, Meggie.” Lani knelt by the sobbing child and tried to gather her in her arms.
Meg pulled away. “No,” she sobbed. “Mommy.”
“I have gum, Meg,” Lani said with a trace of desperation. She wanted to fix it, to heal her pain, but there wasn’t much she could do.
The sobbing tapered off. “Gum?” Meg asked.
“Right here in my purse. Come here, sweetheart.” She sat on the floor and pulled the little girl onto her lap, then found some gum.
“Bribing a child,” Nancy said. “She’s going to have to know her parents are dead. You should tell her, Ben.”
“She’s too young to understand the concept of death, Mother,” Ben said.
“I know that,” Nancy said, her voice indignant. “But you can tell her they went away and they’re not coming back.”
“That’s just cruel,” Lani burst out. “We told her they went away for a long trip. She can’t even understand that much.”
“It’s cruel to let her go looking for them,” Nancy said.
“She’s too young to understand,” Ben repeated.
Lani tipped her head to the side.“I think someone is at the door.”
“Probably Natalie’s parents.”
The pounding at the door matched the throbbing in Ben’s head. The day could hardly get worse, but he had a feeling something worse hovered on the fringes of it. Sure enough, the Waldens stood on the porch looking smug.
“We’ve come for our granddaughter,” Jessica said.
Ben backed away from the door. “Come in.” He led the way back to the living room. “Mother, you remember Natalie’s parents.” Meg ran to him, and he scooped her up.
“Hello.” His mother shook Steve’s and Jessica’s hands.
“I want to hold Meg,” Jessica said, holding out her arms.
Ben started to hand the child over, but Meg clung to him and started to whine.
“Don’t you know your grandma?” Jessica coaxed. She began to tug on the little girl.
Meg wailed louder, and Ben moved out of reach. “She doesn’t want to go. It’s been a long day for her, and she’s tired.”
Jessica pressed her lips together. “Surely you see the impossibility of raising a little girl by yourself.”
Ben shook his head. “No, I don’t. I love Meg, and she loves me. We’ve been just fine.”
“A little girl needs a woman’s touch,” Steve interrupted. “No judge will award you custody. You tool around on a Harley. That’s not safe.”
“I realize that,” Ben said. “I’ll buy a car. And you’re hardly a model father. You’ve been in jail.”
Steve stiffened. “That’s in the past.”
Jessica sniffed. “Meg needs a mother. Who will care for her during the day?”
“I will,” Lani said.
Ben’s head jerked to stare at her. They’d never talked about her watching Meg. A wave of emotion rose in him.
“I don’t mean to be unkind, but you’re blind. You won’t be able to see to keep her out of danger. What if she gets into cleaning supplies under the sink? What if she falls and hurts herself?” Jessica asked, her voice firm.
“My vision is coming back,” Lani said in a no-nonsense voice. “This is just temporary.”
“Well, even so. Meg needs the stability of two parents. We’ll do everything in our power to gain custody.”
“Then get ready for a fight,” Ben said. “I’ll never give her up.”
Steve looked around. “We’d be glad to help pack up the things.”
“I can handle it,” Ben said. Could they be looking for something here? Ethan had to be shipping the smuggled goods somewhere. Could Steve be involved? It would explain why he was so eager to get Meg when they’d made no effort in the past to get to know her. He didn’t like the suspicion, but it wouldn’t go away.
Chapter Sixteen
The car stopped in Rina’s drive, and Lani swung open the rear passenger-side door but stayed in her seat. “Meg’s sleeping,” she said. After the arguments at Meg’s house, she’d been exhausted herself. Meg had refused to interact with her grandparents, and Ben hadn’t forced her. Steve and Jessica would be hard to dissuade. The custody decision would probably have to be made by a judge.
“I’ll try not to awaken her,” Ben said. The front driver’s-side door opened. He whistled, and an answering bark came.
A few moments later, Fisher pressed his wet nose against Lani’s leg. She rubbed her fingers in his soft coat. “I missed you, boy.”
“Hang on, let me get your harness,” Ben said.
Lani heard Ben move off toward the house. His footsteps moved fast.
“How well do you know my son?” Nancy asked. “Years?”
“He’s a good friend,” Lani said. “He’s helped me a lot since I lost my sight. It’s only temporary,” she added hastily.
“Did you know each other before you were blinded?”
“No.” Where was this headed? Lani wasn’t sure she wanted to know. “Ben’s a good man,” she said.
“Then you don’t know him well. He’s hotheaded and impetuous. He’ll never settle down with one woman, if that’s what you have in mind. And he has no patience for illness. When I was sick in bed, he always wanted something. He’s a rolling stone, just like his father.”
The bitterness in the older woman’s voice tipped Lani off that her words might not be the truth. She kept silent, because she didn’t know how to reply.
“I don’t want you to get your heart broken like I did. I saw the way you looked at him.”
The woman was like Fisher with water: she just couldn’t leave the subject alone. “What do you mean? He’s just a friend,” Lani protested. “Besides, I’m blind. I can’t ‘look’ at him.”
“Honey, I saw the way you turned your face toward him and your expression, so don’t try to bandy words. I’ve been in love too many times to count. I know the look.” Nancy laughed.
Lani prayed for Ben to get
back. This conversation felt way too uncomfortable. “I’m not getting hurt,” she said.
“Good, because it looks like you’ve been through enough. Ben’s the type to love them and leave them. Men like him have never been good at sticking around.”
“Ethan had been married five years,” Lani pointed out, quoting what the minister said at the funeral.
“He was more like me,” Nancy said. “Ben’s like his dad, looks just like him and acts just like him. Being around him is like looking at his father.”
“I think you haven’t looked under the surface with your son. You’re getting hung up on his appearance,” Lani said. “I can’t see the outward, but the inward is beautiful.” Admitting her admiration to Nancy, Lani realized how much she was beginning to care about Ben. It hurt to hear his mother tear him down.
“Honey, don’t tell me what he’s like. I raised him.”
“What happened to his dad?”
“Supposedly he drowned. Or the sharks got him.”
Cigarette smoke wafted over Lani’s face. “You doubt that?”
“He was a good swimmer, Olympic ability. I think he bugged out. Just that morning, I told him I was pregnant. It would have been just like him to run off. He didn’t like being tied down.”
“Maybe you took out your bitterness on Ben since he looked so much like his dad,” Lani said. She probably shouldn’t have said it, but no mother should talk about her son that way.
The car door slammed. “How dare you! You know nothing about me and my son.”
Lani heard her tromp off toward the house without another word. Just as well. She’d been finding it hard to hold on to her temper.
The sound of another car motor growled beside her, and she lifted her head. A familiar voice called her name. Annie! She gasped and stood.
“Lani!” The muffled creak of the car door came, then Annie’s arms encircled Lani, and they hugged fiercely.
All the sorrows and frustrations of the past weeks welled up in Lani’s eyes. She folded herself into Annie’s smaller frame and buried her face in her older sister’s neck just like Meg had done with Lani earlier. Her eyes burned, and tears trickled from them. Everything would be all right now. Annie was here. She’d always taken care of things. She didn’t want to cry, but she couldn’t help herself.
Annie rocked her back and forth a little. “There, there, Lani, it’s going to be okay. God’s in control here. You know that.”
Even though Lani acknowledged the truth of Annie’s words, she rebelled at the thought. If God had things in control, why had he let this happen to her? Couldn’t he see how much she was trying to change? The tears came harder and faster. Her muffled sobs intensified. “I want it to be the way it was a month ago,” she whispered between hiccups. “I can’t see, Annie. Did they tell you that? Nothing. It’s all black.” She strained to see through the darkness, to look at Annie’s face.
“But you’re still alive, Lani.” Her sister pulled away and took her by the shoulders. “What would I do if I ever lost you? You’re alive, and I thank God he spared you.”
Lani’s tears dried. She rubbed at her wet cheeks. “Is Mano here?”
“I’m right here,” a deep voice said. “I wouldn’t let my new baby sister go through this without me.” Her brother-in-law’s beefy arms enveloped her in a hug.
Lani clung to him. Mano always smelled like the sea, like a monk seal. Annie was fire to his water, but they made a perfect couple. She ached to see her sister, to look into Mano’s warm dark eyes. Would she ever see them again? “Sorry for watering your shirt,” she said when she finally pulled away.
“I had a spot on it anyway.” His voice deepened with amusement. “Hey, who’s the kid in the car?”
“Ben’s niece. Her parents were killed.” Lani told them the events that had been happening. “Ben should be back with my halter for Fisher any minute.”
“Here he comes now,” Annie said. “Fawn is with him.”
A moment later, a wet nose touched Lani’s leg while the two women greeted each other. “This is Fisher,” she said when the excited talking had quieted a decibel. The dog barked, and Lani put her hand on his head. “Quiet, boy.” He licked her hand.
“I’ve got your harness,” Ben said.
The harness clanked, and he slipped the handle into her palm. “Thanks,” she said. “I’d like you to meet my sister and her husband. This is Annie and Mano Oana.”
“I’ve heard a lot about you,” Ben said. “Lani has bugged us all to death with wanting to see you.”
Annie’s voice held a smile. “Lani and I are close. Thank you for taking such good care of her.”
“Yoshi has been watching out for her too,” Fawn said.
“Where is Yoshi?” Mano asked.
“In the house. Go ahead, and I’ll get Meg out of the car.”
Lani heard Ben unsnap the buckle of the car seat. “I’ll show you.” She gripped the harness and turned in the direction of the babble of voices. “Forward,” she told Fisher. It felt good to be able to show off her new skills with the dog, to demonstrate she wasn’t totally helpless and dependent. Maybe Annie was right—she could have a full life even if her sight never came back.
Once all the mourners had arrived for the funeral dinner, Ben carried Meg outside behind Lani and her sister. His church had brought in the meal, and the tables set up outside Rina’s house groaned with the weight of the food. Meg slept soundly, her head on his shoulder.
He glanced at the two sisters talking eagerly together. They didn’t look much alike. Annie was even tinier than Lani, and while she wasn’t as drop-dead gorgeous as Lani, Annie had a quiet beauty that caught the eye. Her sweet smile would be enough to light up the room. Mano was a lucky guy.
His gaze went to Lani as she stood with her head tipped to one side listening to Annie greet their aunt. Her perfect cheekbones and rich brown eyes caught the eye and kept it. The more time he spent with her, the more he craved her company.
Meg stirred. “Gum,” she said sleepily.
“Later,” he told her. She felt wet. She closed her eyes again, and he carried her into the house and down the hall to her room. When he stepped into the room, he smelled something unpleasant, like stale perspiration. Maybe he’d left a dirty diaper in here, but a quick glance around showed the room in perfect order.
His gaze went to the dresser with Meg’s things. A white piece of cloth stuck out of one drawer. He laid her on the bed and opened the drawer. Her tiny clothes were no longer in neat stacks but had been jumbled around. Ethan’s house had been searched. Could someone have come here when they didn’t find what they were looking for at Ethan’s?
He quickly changed Meg’s diaper, then slipped his arms under her and lifted her. Grabbing a blanket, he walked back outside and made his way through the crowd to a tree just past the food table. He dropped the blanket on the ground, kicked it around until it lay halfway flat on the ground, then placed Meg on top of it. He could stand guard here while she slept and still mingle with the mourners who wanted to offer their condolences.
“Hey, buddy.” Yoshi hailed him from the food table. He approached with a plate loaded with kalua pork and macaroni salad. “Did you get some pupus?”
“Not yet. I will. Did you see Annie? She’s here.”
“Yep. She looks a little tired. That trip was grueling. One of us needs to talk to her and have her get Lani to confide in her. If Lani will tell anyone what really happened that day, it would be Annie. You get anything out of her yet?”
“You need to give this up, Yoshi. I don’t think she remembers anything. In fact, I’m sure of it.”
“I’m thinking about asking her if she’d undergo hypnosis.”
“I don’t know that I believe in that stuff. I’ve heard too much about people who recover childhood memories that end up being false. Any clue on who trashed my brother’s house?”
“Detectives are over there now.”
“I think someone searched Meg’s thing
s here.”
Yoshi’s eyes widened. “Here? Ethan must have had something someone wanted.”
Something valuable enough to kill for? Thankfully, Meg could pose no real danger to anyone. “What about the orchid smuggling?”
Yoshi shook his head. “I’ve had a surveillance team keeping an eye on them, but no luck so far. I don’t know, Ben. Maybe there’s nothing to that theory of yours. You see anything suspicious going on down there?”
“I haven’t been back down,” Ben said. “We’ve been involved in the coffee harvest here, and Ethan’s funeral, and there’s been no time.”
“I’d better check out the room. Which one?”
“Down the hall, last room on the left.”
Yoshi nodded and went inside. Ben filled a plate and ate while he kept watch over his niece.
Soon Yoshi came back, his lips pressed together and a scowl wrinkling his forehead. “I called for a fingerprinting team, but I’m betting he was too smart to leave any prints.”
While Yoshi talked, Ben’s gaze went over Yoshi’s shoulder. Arlo came into view. He started toward Rina and broke into a run. His expression was sober. He said something to Rina, and her mouth gaped.
“No!” she said, loudly enough for it to carry over the crowd. She put down her plate and ran in the direction of the milling barn. Arlo and Jerry followed.
“Something’s wrong,” Ben said. He glanced at Meg. He couldn’t leave her alone. His gaze scanned the crowd. Lani stood talking with her sister and Fawn at the other end of the table. He called to her, and she grabbed Fisher’s harness and hurried to him. “Can you girls stay with Meg a few minutes?”
“What’s wrong?”
“I don’t know. Just stay with her. I’ll be right back.”
Insects buzzed a lazy melody where they sat under the tree. Lani’s fingers trailed through the softness of Meg’s hair, then lingered on the curved cheeks of the sleeping child. Lani knew the picture she carried in her head of Meg might not even be accurate. “I wish I could see her.”
“She’s so pretty,” Annie said. “And her uncle seems caring. He’s very good looking.”
Midnight Sea (Aloha Reef Series) Page 17