“Listen Gwen, I know you have had it kind of tough. I know you’ve been the basic caretaker for Nigel and Jeremy and Sandy…”
“And Sandy’s mother, Lulu,” she prompted. “Not to mention Jeremy’s mother Crystal. I was there for all of them.”
“And you know what?” I said a bit wildly, because after all, what did I really know about this? “They all loved you for it. They revere you and put you on a sort of pedestal…”
Gwen swore harshly. “No, they didn’t. They used me for years. I took care of every one of them, helped them every step of the way. And how did they repay me? I waited for Nigel for years, but he made plans to marry that stupid gold digger, Marguerite. I tried to warn him but he laughed at me. Then he found out, too late, I was right. She had him tied up in knots and he couldn’t find a way to get free of her. So I had to step in and take care of things. As usual.”
That spread quick ice through my veins. “So it’s true? You killed Marguerite?”
“Of course I killed her. And I had a perfectly good plan to blame it on Carlo. It would have worked and we could have gone on as we used to before Marguerite came in to mess everything up. Only you came along with your dumb blind luck intuition. It was bad enough when you went down to Malibu to talk to Nigel. Oh yes, I heard about that. I could tell you were getting much too interested. But then when my jacket went missing and Sandy told me she’d seen you wearing it—that’s when I knew I was going to have to do something to keep you from blowing it all to smithereens.”
“Gwen.” I’d turned toward her by now and could see part of her face in the dim light. “I thought it was Nigel. I really thought he was the one who killed her.”
She blinked, then shook her head. “No, you would have come to the right conclusion pretty quickly. Nigel is all big talk. He never does anything he says he’s going to do. He wasn’t even planning to really marry Marguerite until she started blackmailing him. He was just using her to get the land for his beloved restaurant. And then when he tried to back out, she hit him with the news that she had been collecting proof of his double bookkeeping at the Santa Barbara restaurant. And when he didn’t know what to do, he turned to me to fix it, as usual.”
“Are you saying that Nigel put you up to it?”
“Nigel? Are you kidding? He doesn’t have the guts to do anything serious. He just wants to whine about how he’s caught in a trap. I heard him over there at Marguerite’s that night. They were yelling at each other and throwing things. Nigel was telling her he had the financial problems worked out and he wasn’t going to stand for being blackmailed any longer. She was telling him she had other ways of ruining him so he’d better climb down off his high horse.” She laughed bitterly. “What a pair.”
“How do you know all this?”
“I was watching, and ready to go over with a nice aromatic tea to help calm her down once Nigel had stormed off.”
“Oh.” Was she saying what I thought she was saying? “The tea. I found your tea bag in the pocket of the jacket.”
“Yes. Another reason I’m going to have to make sure you don’t live to tell the tale.”
“Why did you save it?”
“I wasn’t saving it. I threw away the two tea bags Nigel and she had used while they ate Carlo’s tiramisu. I put them in my own trash. I always supplied Marguerite with my special brand of tea and I knew the police would be going through all that stuff. I could pretend those bags were mine. Everyone knew that I always supplied everyone in our compound with things like tea bags…and rat poison. But I didn’t want them to find the tea bag with the rat poison. So I took that one and hid it in that ratty old jacket. I figured no one would think to go through the pockets, and once things died down, I’d dispose of it myself.”
She chuckled in a way that was beginning to sound like she was definitely unbalanced.
“I should keep it as a souvenir. After all, I’m pretty proud of how I pulled this off.”
“You didn’t think to flush it down the toilet?”
“Are you kidding? That’s the first place they look.”
I frowned, not sure she was right about that. But what did I know?
“Anyway, I sympathized with her and plied her with tea and she drank it down and went out in no time. It was easy. I washed up all the cups so no one would even think about checking into the tea, and took the tea bags home with me. Then I came back out and sprinkled poison on the tiramisu that was spread all over the place out in the yard so they would blame it on Carlo. That part I didn’t have planned. It was just lucky that Carlo came over earlier that night. I was done with all that by 3 in the morning. Then I went back to my bungalow and went to bed and slept like a baby.”
“So—wait a minute. The tiramisu wasn’t poisoned until after she had swallowed your poisoned tea. The tiramisu was only poisoned after she was already dead in order to frame Carlo. Is that right?”
“You got it.”
I’d been listening to her story all this time, feeling sorry for her and outraged by her in turns. But I’d also been assessing my chances of just turning and running for it. I was remembering those certificates of shooting excellence on her walls. Out here on this crumbling hillside, in the dark, I wasn’t sure I could do anything very effective.
“Alright,” she said, coming toward me. “The time has come. Look back at the restaurant. Do you see something unusual?”
I turned and looked. “Is that…is there a fire starting at the near corner, by the back entrance?” I asked in horror.
She glanced back, then turned to me with a smug smile.
“Yes indeed,” she said. “I set a slow burning fire with some old oily rags. I didn’t know if it would work, but it looks like it has. Right on time. Yeah me.”
Now I was yelling at her. There was just no other way to approach this. A fire for Pete’s sake! In drought conditions!
“Why on earth would you do that? We have to warn people to get out!”
“No need. They know by now. But I wanted something of a distraction so that when I shoot you, no one will notice the sound. You see, I do plan. And then I follow through.”
She raised the weapon and it gleamed in the distant light cast by the small fire. She was going to shoot.
Shoot me!
I turned blindly and began to run, my feet slipping and sliding on the decomposed hillside. Down below was the half demolished swimming pool. I was going to end up cracking my head open in that thing if I kept going this way—even if I didn’t get shot.
Suddenly I was so angry. How could she do this to me? To any of us? It just wasn’t right and I wasn’t going to stand for it.
I spun around and ran right at her instead of away. That ruined her aim and she cried out and took a step backwards, losing her balance, tottering, though she didn’t go all the way down. I grabbed my netsuke that was hanging around my neck and whispered a phrase that had worked for me before as I ran. I didn’t know if it would help, but I knew I needed magic if I was going to survive this night.
She was trying to right herself and pull the trigger at the same time but her aim was way off and the shot rang against the rocks of the hillside. She swore, trying to set up a solid aim again, but I got to her before she got her skills under control. I body slammed her, then began to struggle for the pistol. She screamed at me, tore away and tried to run. But her directional instincts were off and she was running toward the old swimming pool. I heard her scream again as she lost her footing, and then I heard her body bump at each terraced level until she was gone, head first, into the empty swimming pool.
I stood there for a moment, catching my breath. She didn’t move. I swung around and saw the fire and began to run in that direction. Suddenly, Dante was there. He caught me up and swung me around, holding me tightly.
“I came to help you,” he said, laughing, “but you took care of it yourself.”
I laughed too, but I couldn’t forget about the fire. “Dante, I’ve got to go warn people…”
“You did? How?”
He gave me a smirk. “You think you’re the only one I talk to around here? I’ve got other contacts. Some of them work at the restaurant.”
I shrugged. He was a constant surprise to me. “Good. I’m glad you warned them.”
And sure enough, I heard fire engines coming in the distance.
“You’ve got to tell someone normal about what just happened, though,” he said. “So I will let you go.” He stepped back. “But come and see me. I found Sami.”
I gasped. “Where was he?”
He nodded toward where the spring was—if you could find it.
“I don’t know if I can bring him back, but if you come to me, you can see him.”
“Come to you? Do you mean through the pool at the spring?”
He nodded. “You must dive very deeply, through a cavern in the rocks. A blue light will guide you. I’ll be waiting on the other side.”
He pulled me close and looked hard into my eyes. “You must do it soon. You understand? Sami doesn’t belong in that world. You must come quickly.”
“What will happen to him?”
He gave a lost sort of shrug and turned away. “Just come as soon as you can,” he said, and then he was gone.
I gasped, not ready for that. I had too many questions. But that was no use now. I shook myself, and started running again. People were milling about up ahead. Gwen had been right, the fire had provided a distraction. But it also provided a ready-made audience for what I was going to have to tell them all.
And maybe someone could give me something to eat!
Chapter 19
I thought about telling Jill and Bebe about what I was going to do, but I decided to skip that step. All it would do was upset them and I would have to argue and I didn’t have time. I was already much too late.
So instead, I wrote a note and left it where Bebe could find it if I didn’t come back. And there was actually a pretty good chance that might happen. Or not happen. After all, what I was going to do was rife with dangerous possibilities and diving into the spring had its drawbacks from the start.
In the first place, I might not be able to find the spring. I hadn’t found it the last few times I’d looked. I’d only seen it when Dante was with me and he wasn’t going to be there this time. But I was going to look hard and if I found it—I was going to dive.
The thought of diving into the spring made me breathless, but I was determined I was going to do it. If I wanted to find Sami it was what I had to do. I would dive in very, very deep, and find a cavern to another world. All this was going to take a lot of breath control. I’d been practicing, but not for long enough. If I was going to do this, magic was going to have to help.
It was a warm morning, unusual at this time of year. The sun was shining and the air was clear. The strange thing was, I found the spring right away. There it was, pouring beautiful crystal clear water out into the waterfall. And below that lay the pool I was to dive into.
I didn’t let myself think about it. I shrugged out of my sweatshirt and my sweat pants until all I had on was my swimsuit. I tied my hair back and did a few stretches to make sure I was ready in case the water was cold. Then I looked down into that deep, deep water.
I had to do this. I had said I would and I was desperate to find Sami before it was too late. And now that I was getting a firmer grasp on my magic, there were no more excuses. I looked into the water again, and whispered the words of a Hawaiian song Aunty Jane had taught me. As I chanted, I realized it was all about the magic, and I held my netsuke talisman close to my heart as I sang.
Lastly, I said a short poem of thanks to Aunty Jane, thanking her for giving me my netsuke, thanking her for being a part of my life. “Now I see how lucky I am to have your teachings to help me,” I ended it. Then I closed my eyes, drew breath deep into my lungs, and dove in.
The water was like silk and I streaked through it as though I was propelled by some sort of enchantment. I went deeper and deeper, going from turquoise waters to green, and then an area so black I couldn’t see a thing. I needed breath. I was out of air and feeling like I was going to burst if I didn’t get oxygen. There was nothing ahead, nothing I could see but blackness, and I was sure it was over. I didn’t have the strength or the breathing ability to make it. I was done.
And just as I saw the blue light that was supposed to guide me, I lost consciousness. I was out.
When I woke, I was in a tropical lagoon, floating on my back, feeling as though I’d just woken from a bad dream that quickly faded. Joy filled me. I had made it after all. I shook off the bad feelings from the dream and swam to the side, climbing out among water lilies and orchids.
As I emerged from the water, somehow I managed to acquire a long, drapey lilac gown made of light gossamer-like lace. I was dry immediately, my hair falling in gentle waves around my shoulders and I felt like a princess.
“I’ve been waiting for you.”
I turned to see Dante and his arm slid around my shoulders. He pulled me close and I lifted my face to his, wondering if he would kiss me. But he just smiled.
“I knew you could do it,” he said. “And now you’re here.”
I sighed. My emotions seemed to be running wild after that swim. My gaze took him in and a sense of urgency made me want to hold him to me. He looked so tanned and crisp in his clinging t-shirt and long surfer shorts, so much a part of the island. Maybe that was what I was yearning for.
I looked around, amazed at the lush tropical foliage and shimmering sunshine
“It’s beautiful. Like heaven should be.”
He laughed. “It’s not heaven,” he said. “It’s more like the flip side of your world. And this is the flip side of Hawaii.”
I closed my eyes and luxuriated in the soft, perfumed air. I could hear soft music playing somewhere in the distance. I felt like I was floating, drifting, and it was wonderful.
“The flip side of Hawaii,” I said. “That’s why it feels so right.”
“Probably. Come over here and sit with me. We don’t have much time.”
I looked at him in surprise. “Why?”
“You can’t stay long.”
That shocked me. “You mean…ever?”
“No,” he laughed softly and pulled me close again. “Not this time. You’ll be able to come again, for longer each time, but you’ll have to work up to it.”
“Ah.”
We sat in a small meadow with tiny flowers everywhere.
“The spring was easy to find this time,” I told him. “Isn’t that dangerous to leave it open like that?”
He shook his head. “Not really.”
“Can I tell people about it?” I said curiously.
“You can tell people all you want, it’s no use. They can’t find it.”
I frowned, puzzled as to its nature. “Is it really there?”
“Didn’t you dive right through it into your island dream?”
“Yes, but…”
“Just leave it at that. It’s there, but it’s not visible to regular people. Anyone who wants to come into this world from that spring has to go through me.”
“Oh.” I sat back and felt myself relax. “It’s so wonderful here. Why would you ever leave?”
“Many reasons. But I’m sorry I wasn’t able to be there to help you this week. We had some problems of our own right here I had to handle.”
“Really?” I actually was surprised. “I thought everything would be wonderful here. No strife, no pain. What makes those things happen?”
“Just like with regular humans, there are good people and there are bad people and there are people in between. We have the same thing in the spiritual world. Some of those bad actors constantly push for power, and in doing so, they mess up the lives of others around them. We all have to watch our step, take care and guard ourselves.”
I can’t tell
you how disappointed I was to hear that. Somehow I’d come up with the idea that this was an ideal place. To hear that it had its problems too was a downer. I didn’t want to think about it.
We talked for a few more minutes, and then he rose and walked over to a heavily planted area, almost jungle-thick. He parted some branches, making a pathway.
“Mele, quickly, come through here. There’s something you have to see.”
I went through the place he’d made and looked at a residential area with island-style houses on a quiet street. Looking down, I could see a yard filled with flowers and fruit. A young woman and a small girl, probably just under a year old, were sitting in the grass. The young woman was singing and the little girl was trying to sing along too, but she didn’t quite know the words.
I gasped and grabbed Dante’s hand. “Is that…?”
“Yes. You and your mother.”
“But how…?”
“Just enjoy it, Mele. It won’t last long.”
My heart was full and I fought back tears. I didn’t want anything to keep me from taking in every second I could. My mother was so beautiful and the little girl…me…was looking at her with such love.
But they were starting to fade. I stood on my toes, straining to keep that vision as long as I could.
“Mele, look at this.”
I turned and there was a sleek black cat sashaying in our direction.
“Sami!”
I turned back to catch the last hint of the vision I’d been watching, but it was already gone. And Sami needed attention. He was telling me that loud and clear.
I laughed and reached for him.
“No happy reunion, huh?” I teased him. “Just ‘why don’t you feed me now’?”
He gave me another meow in agreement and then he began to purr.
“Oh Sami, you are so gorgeous. I’m so glad you’re okay. Will you come back with me?”
He licked a place on his own fur that was obviously filthy, though you wouldn’t know it, then turned his golden eyes up and gave me a blink. I laughed and hugged him, then turned to Dante.
“Can I take him back? Is it possible?”
Murder and the Secret Spring Page 16