Still Waters...

by Crysal V. Rhodes

“Maroons?” Ray had read that word somewhere in the past, but he couldn’t recall what it was about. Dana gave a simple explanation.

  “Maroons were African captives who rebelled against slavery in the Caribbean, Latin America, and the United States. They escaped and survived in mountains, swamps, and other areas where it was hard to find them. Whole societies were formed in some cases. Before the Civil War ended, there were about one hundred people that made up the band that my great-great-grandfather led.

  “His grandfather had been an escaped slave in Cuba and had headed a large Maroon community there, but his teenage son had gotten recaptured when they raided a sugar plantation and he was shipped to the United States to be broken. Usually they disposed of rebel slaves by killing them, but they made a big mistake when they changed tactics with him.”

  “Let me guess. He escaped.” Ray had often wondered where Bev, Darnell, and the woman sitting beside him had gotten their spunk. Dana had just revealed the source.

  “Not only that, but he took a dozen others with him. Over the years even more were freed. People used to say that the Maroons living in the mountains would swoop down on the slave owners’ plantations and steal everything but their water. My great-great-grandfather on my father’s side had a sense of humor, and after the war he decided to have a little fun with that reputation. But the spelling isn’t s-t-e-a-l-w-a-t-e-r-s, because there’s also another reason for the name as well. The family elders felt that since black people had been emancipated and since being enslaved was no longer a fear for our family that we could finally be as at peace as the waters that had carried our ancestors to these shores.” Dana turned to Ray. “So we became the Stillwaters.”

  Ray was fascinated. “And what was the family name before that?”

  “Our family consisted of escaped slaves on both my mother’s and father’s side. The head of the families refused to use the last names of their ex-slave masters, so those names were never spoken. But on my mother’s side of the family they took the last name of Freedom. Grandy’s maiden name was Esther Freedom.”

  “Amazing!” That was the only word that Ray could think of that seemed appropriate. “How long did they live as Maroons?”

  “For generations. Freedom or death were the only two options. There was never another member of our family in chains again.”

  Ray could hear the sense of pride in Dana’s voice as she told him about her family. This was the second time that she had displayed such emotions. He felt pride simply hearing about it.

  “So the Stillwaters clan was sort of like Robin Hood and his band of merry men, huh? You took from the rich to give to the poor.”

  “You could say that. There was quite a reward for the capture of the men and women who led our clan.”

  “There were women leaders, too?”

  “When necessity called for it, the Stillwaters family members have always risen to the occasion.”

  After hearing the family history, that wasn’t difficult for Ray to believe. By the time that Dana had finished giving him a tour of the town, he had no doubts at all about her statement.

  After leaving Stillwaters Road, she had driven him past other well-appointed homes, many of which were built around the tranquil blue water of the huge man-made lake. The homes rivaled those in Malibu, California. Each house that she pointed to belonged to someone prominent— doctors, attorneys, judges, educators, entrepreneurs, the list went on and on. Nearly every name that was mentioned was one that Ray recognized. These were people who had been heralded in newspapers, magazines, and on television. It seemed that the little town of Stillwaters was a cornucopia of the best and brightest that America had to offer, and they were all members of the same family.

  “So Stillwaters is really a family compound, not a town?” Ray couldn’t keep the astonishment out of his voice.

  Dana shook her head. “No, it was incorporated as a town a long time ago, but the only people who can live inside its walls are family members, not outsiders.” She added pointedly, “Future family members can visit. As a matter of fact, it’s strongly encouraged.”

  Ray got the message. “That’s why you had to say that I’m your fiancé.”

  “You wouldn’t have been welcome here if I hadn’t.”

  For some reason the thought of deliberate exclusion rubbed Ray the wrong way. “What about Thad? You’re telling me that he wasn’t welcome here until he was engaged to Darnell? He’s a superstar.”

  Dana shrugged. “Everybody in our family is a superstar in some way, shape, or form.”

  She was right. The family members that she had mentioned had been recipients of some of the most prestigious honors America had to bestow on its citizens. It turned out that Dana’s father had been among them.

  She had rarely spoken to him about her parents, although she had mentioned once that her mother was a noted heart surgeon. As they drove around, she revealed to him that her late father had been a biophysicist who had been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. The information reinforced for Ray just how little he really knew about Dana’s life. In addition, it had never dawned on him that there was something that he didn’t know about Thad or his wife until Dana pointed to a luxurious beach home of wood and stone, visible through an array of flowering trees.

  “That house belongs to Thad and Darnell.”

  Ray was speechless. The Stewarts owned a home in Stillwaters! At this point he was shocked that anything else could surprise him. If he hadn’t seen this town for himself and recognized the faces of the renowned, he would never have believed that a place such as this existed.

  “Who doesn’t live here?” Ray was being sarcastic, but it was a legitimate question. “What about the gardeners and the other workers I’ve seen around here, where do they live?”

  “Some of the workers live in the town whose sign we passed before arriving here, and there’s another town about twenty miles past Stillwaters. Other workers live there. Like I said, the main guard lives in the house I pointed out to you, but as you’ll recall, we did go through two gates to get here, so the guard doesn’t actually live inside the community.”

  Ray shook his head at the ingenuity of it all. “Is working in Stillwaters the major industry around here?”

  Dana gave a sardonic chuckle. “No, working for Stillwaters is the major industry around here. In the town north of us there’s a wind farm and a microchip factory that the family owns. Our farm, ranch, dairy, and horse breeding businesses support the town south of us. There’s also a variety of other smaller enterprises around here that we own. There’s not much locally that the Stillwaters family doesn’t have its hand in, and that’s also nationally and internationally.

  “Here in town a lot of the employees that you see are family members. The kids in our family are submerged in entrepreneurship almost as soon as they can walk. The businesses that you see here are more for training than for profit. Kids in our family who live in Stillwaters or come here on vacation must take a job or create their own business. This is ground zero for any member of the Stillwaters family who wants to learn how to add to our wealth and power. All are expected to do so. We also have a family foundation that supports humanitarian and nonprofit endeavors worldwide, and it’s also mandatory for each of us to support that in some way.”

  Ray massaged his temples. “This is mindboggling; I didn’t know that there was a black family on earth with all of this.” He indicated the enormity of it with a sweep of his hand.

  “People who live around here know about it, so do others with power in this country who matter. You aren’t supposed to know about it unless you have Stillwaters blood pumping through your veins, or unless you’re married to one.”

  “Then why did you tell me?”

  “Because I need you to know what you’re up against when I tell you why I brought you here.”

  Ray’s eyes narrowed. She was back to talking in circles. “And why is that?”

  “Justice.”

  “What does that mean?
”

  “Just be patient. I’ll let you know.” Dana pulled into the driveway of the house that belonged to the Stewarts. “Let’s see if the lovebirds are in town yet. I want to test their reaction to our engagement.” She turned the ignition off and looked at Ray. “That is, if you’re willing to go along with this.”

  “I already told you that I wasn’t, but I am curious as to how you think you can pull this off.” What he didn’t say was that he didn’t know whether to strangle Dana or to kiss her for bringing him here. Since passing through the gates of Stillwaters his curiosity wasn’t simply piqued, it was in overdrive. He wanted to know everything there was to know about this place, but not at the expense of being labeled a liar.

  He slid out of the passenger side door and offered her a surprise of his own. “I did tell you that I told Thad that I was coming here with you, didn’t I?”

  Dana leaped from the car. “No, you didn’t! It was supposed to be a surprise. I asked you not to say anything to him.” Her tone was sharp.

  “I know that you don’t have the nerve to be indignant. I don’t feel guilty. I didn’t know that I was coming here under false pretenses.”

  “You’re not going to tell him we’re not engaged, are you?” Dana looked alarmed.

  Ray rounded the car to face her, knowing that he held the power at this point. “I don’t think that you can do this without my cooperation, especially in there.” He nodded toward the house. “Besides, they’re not going to believe it anyway.”

  “We’ll see.” Dana didn’t look too happy, but it was obvious that she planned to go forward with her charade. She snapped her fingers. “Oh! I forgot.”

  Slipping back into the car, she opened the glove compartment and withdrew a velvet ring box. She opened it to reveal a diamond engagement ring which she slipped on the third finger of her left hand. Tossing the box aside, she exited the car and extended her hand.

  “What do you think?”

  “That you’re crazy.” Ray inspected the marquis diamond. It was a nice size. “But at least you’re not cheap.”

  “Neither is my friend’s husband. A couple of months after their engagement, he bought her a larger ring, with matching earrings. She loaned me her old ring.”

  “That’s a good friend. Now if she had only loaned you some common sense you’d be set.” He shook his head at her actions. “I don’t like this, Dana.”

  She grinned up at him reassuringly. “Don’t worry. I’ll do all of the talking. You don’t have to say a thing.” She gave him a quick kiss on the lips, hoping against hope that she hadn’t made a mistake by bringing Ray along. Taking his hand, she started up the driveway toward the house.

  * * *

  “I don’t believe this!” Darnell Cameron Stewart reported to her husband as she peered from behind the vertical blinds covering the window. The sound of car doors slamming had alerted her to the presence of visitors.

  “What, babe?” Thad asked, preoccupied with the script that he was reading.

  “Aunt Dana just got out of the car with what is supposed to be her new fiancé.”

  “Yeah? How’s he looking?” Thad mumbled.

  “Like Ray.”

  Thad snapped to attention. “Ray? Ray who?”

  “Your Ray!” Darnell sputtered. “Our Ray! Ray Wilson.”

  Thad looked at her in confusion. “He’s not engaged to Dana. They’re just friends.”

  “That’s not what Dana told Grandma,” Darnell said triumphantly. She hadn’t told him about his friend’s deception. Let Ray explain it to Thad.

  “He couldn’t be Dana’s fiancé. He said that he was coming to town with her, but…” Thad’s voice faltered.

  “But what?” Darnell glared at him. “You know the family rule about people who pass through the gates of Stillwaters. How did you think that he was going to get in here?” She returned her attention to the approaching couple. “Oh, my God!” Darnell squealed.

  “What?” Thad dropped the script.

  “She kissed him!”

  It took everything he had not to get up and join his wife at the window, but pride kept him seated. “They’re going to see you spying on them if you don’t come away from the window.”

  “Let them.” There was venom in Darnell’s voice. “Here they come up the driveway, holding hands like teenagers. Oh, I’ve got something to say to them.”

  The door chime rang. Darnell stalked to the door like a woman on a mission. “First he flirts with my mother and now he messes with her sister? I’m getting to the bottom of this.”

  Thad winced. He hoped that Ray had a good explanation for what was going on because he was about to step into the lion’s den. It took exactly ten minutes for Darnell to circle her prey and determine the strength and weaknesses of their story before she attacked.

  “You two must think that I’m a fool.” She glowered at Ray and Dana. “I don’t know about Thad, but I don’t believe for one second that you’re engaged.”

  “Well, here’s the ring.” Dana wiggled her fingers. “Isn’t it beautiful?”

  Darnell wasn’t impressed. “Anybody can buy an engagement ring.”

  “They wish,” Dana gushed, seemingly unaffected by her niece’s skepticism. She played her part to the hilt as she smiled at Ray with adoring eyes.

  Ray didn’t know how she could lie so easily. He was racked with guilt. His integrity as a man had always been something of which he had been proud, and here he was in his best friend’s house going along with a lie. Worst of all, he wasn’t sure of the reason for the deception. He couldn’t blame Darnell for her growing hostility toward him. He shouldn’t be showing up on the couple’s doorstep with Darnell’s aunt as his bogus fiancée, especially when he was enamored with Darnell’s mother.

  When he first met Bev Cameron he hadn’t been coy about his interest in her, and she hadn’t been shy about rejecting his attention. He was a younger man and she wasn’t interested. Over the years, as he and Bev were forced to see each other in social settings, he had become more discreet about his feelings. He tried hard to suppress them, but he knew that they were still there and he was troubled about what Bev would think about all of this. As for her daughter, he liked her a lot. He respected her intelligence and talent and liked the way that she loved and treated his friend. As he sat there and endured Darnell’s assessment as Dana’s intended, Ray was beginning to regret that he hadn’t turned around and left town at the guard’s gate.

  He chanced a glance at Thad, who seemed amused by the present scenario. His friend hadn’t said much since their arrival, not that Darnell had given him a chance to express his opinion; she had plenty to say.

  “You need to come up with a better lie,” she told her aunt pointedly. She sat back and crossed her arms tightly to emphasize her point. With every second that ticked by, her aunt was putting their good relationship in jeopardy. “None of this makes sense, Dana. You had a three year relationship with Mitch. It’s been nine months since he died…”

  “Which was of no concern to anyone in this family,” Dana countered. “Everyone hated him.”

  Ray had heard Dana say that her family didn’t like Mitch, but this was the first time the word hate had been used. Once again he glanced at Thad, who gave him a roll of the eyes, indicating that there was more to the story. Ray refocused on the unfolding drama.

  “Nobody hated him,” Darnell shot back. “Mama, Grandma, and I just didn’t like him; nobody else got to meet him. But the point is if you were so madly in love with the man, then why would you be so open to finding a new one so soon, and to keeping that a secret?”

  Her hostile glare turned on Ray. “I don’t know why you’re going along with this. I, personally, don’t appreciate it.” She turned back to her aunt, and said, “And if it’s a joke I don’t think that it’s funny.”

  Dana didn’t falter. “I’ve got the right to be loved, Darnell, and I don’t need your permission or anybody’s approval. We’re engaged, and that’s that.”
r />   Rising, she headed toward the door. “Come on, Ray.” It was a command, not a request.

  Ray followed. “I’ll see you later, man,” he tossed over his shoulder at Thad.

  Darnell was undaunted as she stalked her aunt to the door. “Does Ray’s being here have anything to do with the power struggle everybody thinks that Aunt Tessa’s family is going to wage? Is that why you brought another attorney here? You’re trying to pull some sort of legal maneuver, aren’t you?”

  Having reached the door, Dana looked back at her niece contemptuously, “Oh, please! I don’t give a damn about that bunch of breeders. If they want to outvote the rest of us about who will head this family, then let them.” She snatched the door open and headed toward the car with Ray on her heels.

  Darnell had a parting shot for them both. “It’s a lie and you know it, Dana! And I’m disappointed in you, Ray.” The front door slammed behind them.

  Outside, Dana and Ray sat in the car in silence for a moment and then he quipped, “That went well.”

  Dana chuckled. “You think?” She started the car and pulled out of the driveway.

  Ray’s next comment held no humor. “I sat there in silence and let you lie to my best friend. His wife hates me, and I’m in danger of being tarred and feathered by your family and run out of town on a rail when they find out that I don’t belong here. So I think that now is the time for you to tell me why we’re here.”

  Dana gave a deep sigh. “You’re right.”

  She turned off the paved road on which they had been riding and onto a gravel one that faced the lake. They parked. The crystal clear water was tranquil, but it was apparent that Dana was in turmoil. She turned toward Ray.

  “I brought you here to help me investigate a murder.”

  Ray started. “A murder in this town? Who?”

  Dana’s face hardened. “There’s a criminal living in Stillwaters. Somebody in my family murdered Mitch Clayton, and I want you to help me find out who did it.”

  CHAPTER 4

  It was hard for Bev to believe that Dana and Ray were engaged. The whole idea of the two of them together was ridiculous. She couldn’t think of a more unlikely pair. Ray was a player, and, as smart as her baby sister might be, the reality was that the woman was a flake, especially when it came to men.