Bet Your Bones

by Jeanne Matthews

  “You said to bluff Avery. I bluffed him.”

  Dinah was left floundering. She didn’t know what to believe. The people in her life were never what they seemed. Feeling punked and more than a little fearful, she called Steve and gave him the time and location of the meeting.

  “Are you kidding? Langford will go apeshit. He’s not expecting the meeting until tomorrow.”

  “Tell him we were overtaken by events. I was, anyway. The situation has changed and things are moving fast.”

  “I’ll tell him, but you may need that criminal attorney yet. Even before this balls-up, Langford was talking about charging you with obstruction of justice.”

  Chapter Forty-one

  The earthquake struck at seven-forth-seven. Dinah was eating a ham sandwich. Eleanor was repotting a portulaca molokiniensis. There was an explosion like the Crack of Doom. The furniture danced and the palms swayed. Eleanor looked up and wiped the dirt off her hands and then the lights went out. From far away a siren blared. Dinah stood in the middle of the dark kitchen and listened to glass breaking all around her.

  “Eleanor, where are you? Do you have a lantern or a flashlight?”

  “Ai yah! Blind mullet!”

  “What?”

  “Da fish all buss. Kaiii! Nevahmind. I handles.”

  “Damn it, Eleanor. This isn’t a teaching moment. Speak English. Where you do keep your flashlight?”

  “In the counter drawer next to the stove.”

  Dinah groped her way across the floor.

  “Found it!” cried Eleanor, followed by a startling burst of static and a man’s voice..

  “…at this time, but the epicenter was most likely under the southeast flank of Kilauea. Volcanoes National Park personnel report that Kilauea is erupting in two locations. Fountaining estimated at eighteen hundred feet can be seen from the Observatory. There are also reports of eruptions on Mauna Loa, the first since nineteen-eighty-four.”

  Dinah shivered. The kaula Eleanor claimed to have visited had mentioned a fountain of fire. All of the seer’s visions were coming true. Dinah had been worrying about Marywave’s fever for hours. She had tried calling Claude Ann’s number again and again, but her phone was turned off. Was it psychic incompetence or pure perversity that led seers to reveal their visions without providing any context or clues to the outcome? There ought to be a law.

  “Eruptions of both Mauna Loa and Kilauea are underway.” The civil defense siren shrieked on and on, but the voice on the radio remained inhumanly calm. “For leeward residents, strong to moderate trades are bringing with them a cloud of volcanic gas. Those with heart and respiratory ailments are advised to remain indoors or wear protective masks. Repeat, south Kona residents downwind of the Mauna Loa eruption are advised to take precautions.”

  Dinah bumped into the stove and found the drawer under the counter and the flashlight. She turned it on and the first thing she saw was a little gold fish float past her feet on a stream of water. She looked around for a bowl, but by the time she found one, the fish had washed under a plant stand laden with orchids.

  “Hawaii State Civil Defense urges people to stay off the roads if at all possible as landslides may have caused extensive damage to roads and bridges. As they did following the quake in two thousand six, power plants will shut down automatically. Expect power outages.”

  If the epicenter of the quake was under Kilauea, was Hilo in danger of a tsunami or would Hawaii be sending a mega-wave on to Maui or Oahu? Dinah wished she’d paid more attention in science class.

  “I saved most of them,” said Eleanor, splashing into the kitchen. She carried a flashlight and a water bucket full of fish. “We should leave now for the mountain.”

  “What are you talking about? We’re not going up Mauna Loa. It’s erupting.”

  “Pele will protect us. She’ll make us like kipukas. The fires will go around us.”

  “Is that another of your kaula’s visions?”

  “You are the one who suggested all of this. You had Steve explain it to the detectives and they have agreed to be there. You don’t want to make fools of them.”

  “Listen to those sirens, Eleanor. The police will have their hands full. They’re none too pleased with our taking the law into our own hands as it is. If they don’t come, or if they can’t come because the roads are blocked by landslides, we could be in big pilikia. Avery could kill us, too. If he comes, which he probably won’t.”

  “I’m going up the mountain. I’ll drop you off at Jon’s place if you’re afraid.”

  “You can’t go by yourself. It’s too dangerous.”

  She smiled and set her bucket of fish in the sink. “’Den we go awready.”

  ***

  The car’s overhead light didn’t work. Dinah tried to hold a flashlight steady on the map, but Eleanor had shunted them off onto a 4-wheel-drive track and the car was bucking and dipping like a rodeo bull. With each dip came the sound of scraping metal. A 50-year-old Coupe de Ville made outstanding yard décor and it would definitely turn heads cruising along the Bayfront Highway on a Sunday afternoon. It had no business venturing off-road. But the paved road had been severed by a fresh lava flow just past Bird Park. With no room to turn her lilac elephant around, Eleanor had coasted backwards down the road for over a mile, sideswiping trees and knocking over a signpost before being stopped by a mound of broken stones. The kaula’s prophecy again. Undaunted, Eleanor had detoured onto this unmarked track and they were moving forward again through dense forest.

  “Avery will not be able to get to this meeting, Eleanor.”

  “He has four-wheel drive.”

  “The police won’t be able to get there.”

  “Maybe they sent somebody early, before the road was cut off.”

  A rock detonated under the front bumper like an IED. “Your car is taking too much of a beating. This road will destroy it.”

  “Minors. If there are no more lava flows, we can make it to the lookout at sixty-six hundred feet. The road ends there.”

  Kauhiuhi, Pakekake, Mokuoweoweo. Dinah’s flashlight beam bobbed haphazardly over the tongue-twisting names on the map. Dotted lines denoting trails and four-wheel-drive roads crisscrossed the mountain and there were pinkish-tan markings that indicated lava flows over the years. She gave up trying to pinpoint their location. All she knew was they were lugging uphill at a killer gradient. “Does this track go all the way to the summit?”

  “Only if you’re a goat.” Eleanor jerked the gear stick on the steering column down hard. The engine grumbled, but continued to gain ground. “This track dead-ends a mile past a small kipuka. We can rejoin the main road there.”

  Previously, Dinah would not have described a one-lane sliver of asphalt that looped and tilted like a roller coaster as a main road. “Does the main road go to the summit?”

  “No. The summit road starts on the other side of the mountain. Even if we could get to it, which we can’t, I wouldn’t attempt it in this car.”

  Dinah was heartened to learn that Eleanor drew the line somewhere.

  Cinders pinged against the hood and windshield and a confetti of gray ash eddied in the headlights. The smell of burning rubber wafted in through the de Ville’s vents. The tires? And there was a powerful smell of rotten eggs. Sulfur. The stench of hell. Except for an occasional streak of fire rocketing heavenwards, the world had bleared into a dusky, black and white lithograph. Maybe Hank was right. Maybe this really was the Apocalypse prophesied in the Book of Revelations. Dinah sent up a silent prayer. Please, please cork the volcano.

  “That’s the kipuka.” Eleanor slowed nearly to a stop and squinted.

  Dinah strained her eyes. All she saw was a thicket of trees. Eleanor made a hard left and, after a few more dips and scrapes, they were back on pavement curling up the mountain. Three streams of orange
-red magma spread out from the summit like talons, as if the mountain were about to be carried off by some apocalyptic bird of prey. Avery would not come. Only a pair of madwomen would drive up this mountain tonight.

  “Reach into the back seat,” said Eleanor. “There’s a daypack with dust masks and windbreakers. Put your mask on now. It’ll protect you from the volcanic dust and ash.”

  Dinah climbed up on her knees, stretched over the seat, and grabbed the pack. “He won’t come and even if he does, he won’t have brought money. And he’ll expect that you’re recording everything that he says, so he won’t say anything that can be used against him. Even if he did, recording a private conversation without the other person’s knowledge is illegal.”

  “In Hawaii, it’s legal to record a conversation if one party to the conversation consents and I consent. Give me a mask.”

  Dinah handed her a mask. “He could give himself consent to record you and turn the tables on us. Blackmail’s illegal in all fifty states and it’ll be your word against his as to what’s going on in the conversation.”

  “He’s afraid. I heard it in his voice. He will break.”

  “He’s too smart to be taken in. Anybody would be too smart. In retrospect, this was a stupid game plan, totally full of holes. Please, Eleanor, let’s turn around before it’s too late.”

  “If Avery was smart, he would have figured out how to stall Rick Varian and Raif Reid until after the closing without having to resort to murder. No, Avery’s not so akamai. He’s nervous and hasty. Those are his weaknesses. They will bring about his downfall.”

  Dinah had run out of arguments. A fountain of fire leapt into the black sky and she cursed herself for starting the fire in Eleanor’s brain. If Langford’s ugly mug materialized out of this fire-riven darkness and read her her rights, she would jump for joy. “I thought you’d want to help after you learned that Xander wasn’t to blame for Leilani’s death. But you’ve gone off the reservation, Eleanor.”

  She jerked the car hard around a big rock, causing Dinah to fall against the door and smack her elbow. “That’s not an idiom I’d have expected from the mouth of a hapa Seminole.”

  “And pigheaded persistence in the face of an erupting volcano isn’t what I’d have expected from a woman who fancies herself to be so akamai. Why are you doing this? It isn’t to keep Xander or Claude Ann or me out of jail, is it? And it isn’t because you crave justice for the two dead men. Listen to me, Eleanor. If you think you can make Avery feel guilty for the words he may or may not have said to Leilani that drove her to kill herself, forget about it. Maybe all he did was tell the truth. And if he was sadistic, I’m sure he granted himself a pardon years ago.”

  “Pele didn’t grant him a pardon. Neither have I.”

  The road ended. This was the point where, on normal days, hikers began their ascent to the summit. The Caddy’s headlights picked out a covered picnic table, a port-o-potty, and a mall parking area barely wide enough for two cars. A Subaru Outback hogged most of the space. Did it belong to some godforsaken hikers or had Avery taken the bait?

  “It’s his car,” said Eleanor. “Get down and don’t let him see you.”

  Dinah slid down low in the seat. They were a half-hour early. If the car was Avery’s, he must have left before the quake.

  Eleanor wrestled the de Ville into the space next to the Outback and killed the engine. “Give me that flashlight. I’m going to go and sit at the table. When I get out of the car, I won’t close the door completely. Put on a mask and get as close to us as you can with the recorder.” She fitted a mask over her face, opened the glove compartment, and pulled out a dagger.

  “What’s that?” asked Dinah, knowing full well what it was and meaning what the hell do you intend to do with it.

  “It’s a pahoa. My great grandfather carved it from the beak of a marlin.”

  Chapter Forty-two

  One of them will kill the other, thought Dinah, and it will be my fault. She peeped out at the darkness. Not seeing Avery was scarier than seeing him. She zipped into one of the windbreakers Eleanor had packed. It was too large, but it didn’t swallow her. It must have belonged to one of Eleanor’s relatives or students.

  “Stay down out of sight,” said Eleanor. “I’ll speak loudly. You’ll know when to begin the recording.”

  Dinah waited for a few minutes and peeped out again. Eleanor was sitting at the picnic table facing the car. She skipped her light around the empty lot, but there was nothing to see.

  Dinah debated whether to end this ruse right now and reveal herself. If Avery was out there watching, he would hightail it when he realized that Eleanor hadn’t come alone and then maybe nobody would get hurt. The mere fact of his coming would be incriminating and Langford could follow up the investigation in a hundred better, more logical ways. On the other hand, Eleanor seemed cool and calm and in control. She wouldn’t haul off and shank Avery with her marlin’s beak before eliciting an admission of some kind. The two of them would talk. They would feel each other out, do some verbal sparring. There would be ample time for Dinah to act if things started to go haywire.

  Nothing moved except for Eleanor’s cone of bouncing light and two divergent streams of fire oozing down the mountainside like tongs. They looked far away at the moment, but Pele was as changeful as the wind. She could redirect her streams or create new ones on a whim. Dinah missed the voice on the transistor radio. What was happening on the rest of the island? Had power been restored? Were people petrified and holding hands in the dark or popping popcorn and watching the fireworks on their HDTVs? The world felt alien and incomprehensible and she wished that Jon were here to analyze the situation and tell her whether to take heart or kiss this life good-bye.

  After what seemed an eternity, the door of the port-o-potty whanged open and a beam of light emerged. Dinah ducked lower.

  “Some night, eh, Eleanor? Don’t go, Kay said. Probably just a humbug. Not to worry, I said. Have to see what Eleanor’s found to fuss about this time.”

  “Come and sit, Avery. We have serious matters to discuss.”

  Dinah slipped on a dust mask, wriggled under the steering wheel, and eased out of the driver’s side door. A flying cinder stung her neck and she stifled a yip. She brushed the rain of ash out of her face. She’d never felt so exposed. Crouching low, she walked the length of the car and peeped around the tail fin. Avery stood across the table from Eleanor, one foot up and resting on the bench. Dinah turned on Eleanor’s recorder. Was she close enough? Avery had his back to her. If she could creep across the road and hide behind a tree, the reception would be better.

  “Did you bring the money?”

  “I told you I couldn’t get cash tonight. The banks had already closed when you called. Could write you a check if you need money. Better that way. Would give me a record of the transaction.”

  “Something to prove I blackmailed you, you mean.”

  “Not the word I’d use. Negative connotation. What’s this about, Eleanor? You short of money to pay your legal fees? You going to sue Jarvis?” He coughed until he began to wheeze. He sounded asthmatic. If he was, this ash must be hell on his airways. Maybe that’s why he’d stayed so long in the port-o-potty. “Let’s go sit in my car and talk.”

  “Cover your mouth with your handkerchief, Avery. I won’t keep you long.”

  “Get to the point.” He took out a handkerchief, tied it over his nose and mouth, and sat down. “Show me what you have. I’ll decide if it’s worth buying.”

  “I’m not like those foolish boys who blackmailed you and ended up dead. I left my box of papers with my attorney. If anything happens to me, he’ll turn it over to the police.”

  “Customary to give the victim a whiff of what you’ve got, Eleanor. Show him it’s not just a hoax.”

  “The papers prove that you had reason to kill Patrick Varian.�
�

  “Papers not enough. Motive, hearsay, suspicion. Not enough.” His body convulsed with hacking. When the spasm was over, he stood up again. “You’ve got nothing. I’m leaving.”

  “Your tires are flat.”

  “What?”

  Eleanor slapped the marlin’s beak flat on the table, but kept her hand on the haft. “Sit. Hear what I’ve come to say to you.”

  Avery sat. “All right. Let’s hear it.”

  “Your nephew double-crossed you. He was holding an auction. Playing you against me. If you killed him, I can understand.”

  Dinah didn’t know if Eleanor was deceiving Avery about having contact with Varian or if she was deceiving her? She didn’t know if she had slashed Avery’s tires with her pahoa or whether she intended to slash his throat. What she did know was that one of the streams of fire seemed to be gathering speed down the mountain and veering toward the other stream as if it wanted to form an isosceles triangle. She willed herself not to whimper.

  “Tried to help the pipsqueak. Said he needed to do research for a book, advance his career. Asked me if he could go prospecting on the Uwahi site. Have at it, I said. I knew there was nothing there. Had the damn archaeologist’s report. Paid through the nose for it. Damn if Rick didn’t find bones his first day out. Fine, I said. Write about it in your book, but hold your horses for a few weeks before telling anyone. I’ll make it worth your while. At first, he agreed. But then he came back to me wanting money and I flew off the handle. Hit him. Didn’t mean to kill him, but no help for it. Moved the body so no connection with Uwahi.”

  Jerusalem. Avery wasn’t holding anything back. He seemed not to care that Eleanor might be recording him. Did that mean…?

  “Varian was greedy, “ said Eleanor. “And so was Raiford Reid. He was a kolohe, a deceiver and a scoundrel, deserving only of scorn. Maybe you had no choice but to kill him.”

  “None at all. Rick had already shot off his mouth to Raif. When Rick’s body was identified, Raif decided to pick up where Rick left off. I felt snakebit. Blackmailers crawling out of the woodwork.”