The Last Maharajan (Romantic Thriller/Women's Fiction)

by Susan Wingate

  “Enaya. I want to tell you what happened.” She closed the book and held it on her lap. “Do you remember Clive and Sandy?”

  “That’s who that was!”

  “What?”

  “I saw him leaving the hotel.”

  “Oh God.”

  “What was he doing there?”

  Euly paused. Her face changed.

  “What did you do?” Enaya’s question darkened.

  “Oh, Enaya. I’m so ashamed.”

  “Did you have sex with him?” Her voice arced with accusation.

  Euly needed more time, to think, to recover.

  She pressed the button to lift the head of the bed. She adjusted her body into a sitting position and rearranged her sheets. She grabbed her water cup and sipped.

  “Look, I’m not going to lie to you. What I did was wrong…”

  Her sister expelled a long breath of air and scolded her with her eyes.

  “What I did was wrong but I didn’t sleep with Clive. Christ Enaya. Will you give me some credit here?”

  “Okay, then, tell me what happened?” Euly explained why she met Clive that first time at Benny’s. She explained her reasoning for the follow-up meeting. Then, she continued to tell Enaya how she let him believe she might sleep with him, as she put it, for the information she needed to get out of him.

  “But, I didn’t, sleep with him, that is. You have to believe me, Enaya.”

  “So, what happened when you got to your room?” It wasn’t a question but more a command.

  “He was stalling. He wanted to, you know… do it first."

  Euly made a face as if she'd swallowed a fly. "God." She shuddered. "I told him I needed the information first. It went back and forth like that a few times and then he asked me for a drink, you know, from the mini-bar. I poured us a couple drinks and, I’ll tell you Enaya, he was already half in the bag. I mean, even if we had tried to, you know, I don’t think he could’ve gotten it up.”

  “Gag.”

  “Sorry. Anyway, when I handed him his drink he grabbed my arm and pulled me down onto the bed and on top of him. I struggled to get off but he held me in a lock and all the while was pawing at me and groping. Then, he flipped me over onto the bed. He was on top of me! His entire weight pinned me." She rubbed her face with both hands. "It was awful. I thought, oh my god, I'm going to be raped!"

  Euly's eyes plated—a rabbit at a gunshot. Then she went on, "I couldn’t breathe. You know, I don’t know how he did it in his condition either but he locked one arm around my waist and, oh dear Lord..."

  "What?!"

  Euly rolled her eyes, shaking her head as she spoke. "He dry-humped me, Enaya.” She put both hands onto her cheeks and shook her head quickly. "“He had an erection." Her face bent as she spoke. "I think he came in his pants."

  “God. I think I could’ve gone my whole life without hearing that.”

  But, Euly wasn’t amused. She stopped for a second and looked down. "I don't know. I could be wrong but he seized up and everything. God. It makes me sick to think about."

  Euly waited for a second gauging the look on her sister's face. "It got worse."

  “Please. Lord.”

  “He tried to tug my pants off but couldn’t.

  He was so drunk. He was breathing and slobbering all over me and trying to kiss me but I kept turning my head from side-to-side, saying, ‘Clive, get off of me. Get off of me!’ I began to kick and scream. I think I nailed him in the groin. I’m sure I did. He crumbled onto the floor next to the bed.”

  “Then, he left?”

  “Yeah, but not before he told me what I wanted to know, at least, I think I wanted to know. I don’t know now. Maybe he lied. He was pretty pissed at me.”

  Euly paused and looked at Enaya who rolled a hand at Euly intending for her to keep talking. “What did he tell you?”

  “See, that’s just it. Maybe you know and have been keeping it from me.” She watched Enaya’s face to see if she was hiding the truth, if she had been all these years. “Do you?”

  “No! I have no flipping clue. What it is? Tell me.”

  “Oh, Enaya, this is huge.” Euly’s eyes opened wide making her sister’s open wider also but then Enaya’s darkened.

  “Cut the drama, Eu. Just tell me.”

  “Remember, we believed that dad’s indiscretion was with Sandy?”

  “Yeah.”

  Euly paused too long for her sister and Enaya huffed out her impatience. Then, Euly's face went slack as she remembered. “Wait. Oh, God. Oh, yeah. I have to back up a minute, sis. Let me first tell you this. Before I left home, mother had told me something. I don’t know why she said it. Maybe it was intended to lead me off the scent or something. Or, I don't know. Maybe, now that I think about it, that’s not it at all. Maybe she wanted to tell me the truth but couldn’t and blurted out something else that seemed more plausible to me. I'm not sure.” By this point, she was sort of talking it out to herself and wasn’t really speaking to Enaya.

  “What are you talking about?” She had become agitated with her sister’s rambling.

  “Sorry. Well, just before I came here. In fact, it’s why I came, really. We found a photo while we were going through her albums.”

  “The one you showed me.”

  “Right. The one I showed Clive too. She reacted, Enaya, to the photo. She reacted as if she’d seen a ghost. I know that sounds silly but it’s true. She wanted to tear it up.”

  “Okay.”

  “Well, she started to tell me something but then stopped. I prodded her on, told her not to worry, that it couldn’t be that bad. You know, the things you say to people so they’ll open up.”

  “Yeah.”

  “Well, she hemmed and hawed until I couldn’t take it any longer and after I’d pressed her, and I pressed her, sis. I just didn’t let up on her. Poor mother.” She faded into a pain that Enaya could only see.

  “Go on, Eu.”

  “Well, she finally caved in and blurted some ridiculous story out about Micaiah.”

  “Micaiah? What about Micaiah?”

  “She told me that he was our brother.” She stopped talking, watching her sister’s expression – to see if she might know. Euly raised her eyebrows in a prompt but Enaya shook her head as if she were clueless. “That dad and Aunt Moon had had sex even after everyone was married and Micaiah was the product of it. Did you know any of this?”

  “Not at all.”

  “I don’t know. Maybe she really believes it but I don’t think so, not after talking with Aunt Moon.”

  “You talked to Aunt Moon about it?”

  “Of course. I had to know.”

  “You had to? Euly, is there anything you don’t have to know? Is everything your business?” Enaya couldn’t believe her sister’s gall.

  “Do you want me to tell you what happened, or not?”

  “Boy, you need therapy.”

  “Who do you think you’re telling?”

  “Go on.” Enaya seemed to give up and slunk back into her chair.

  “She was incensed.”

  “Who?”

  “Aunt Moon. Track, Enaya. Try to follow me here.” Enaya rolled her eyes at Euly. “So. You’re not going to like this next part. I mean, if you didn’t like the part where I broached the subject with Aunt Moon, well, you’re really not going to like this much either.

  “What?”

  “Well, the door was opened. I mean who leaves their doors unlocked like that. In Phoenix, no less.”

  “What are you talking about?”

  She began to raise her hand toward her chin. “I just filed those. If you chew on them, I'll kill you." Euly dropped her hand. "Now, what door was open?”

  “Her garage door. And, well, her kitchen door.”

  Again, Enaya rolled her hands for her to keep talking and sat forward.

  “I went into her house when she wasn’t there.”

  “You did what? Euly. For crying out loud.”

  “…and I f
ound Micaiah’s birth certificate.”

  “What!”

  “I can barely believe it myself. Oh, and boy, was Aunt Moon pissed off.”

  “No kidding, Eu.”

  “Well, needless to say, she threw me out.”

  “Oh my God.”

  “And that’s why I didn’t call Geoff.”

  “That was yesterday?”

  “Yes. So, as you can see, my stay in good old Phoenix has been quite eventful. Plus, after giving it a lot of thought I’ve decided I’m not cut out for detective work.”

  “Euly. You’ve really screwed the pooch.”

  “I don’t need a lecture, Enaya.”

  “You think this is funny?”

  “Of course I don’t. I’m telling you because you’re my sister not my preacher.” Enaya sat back in her chair and raised both arms, sort of surrendering and for Euly to go on. “But, what I’ve just told you fades in comparison to what Clive had in store for me. No sir, sister, his story is quite different from the Micaiah lie. Quite different indeed.”

  “Get on with it.” Enaya just shook her head, allowing her sister to drag out the inevitable build and the final telling of her pronouncement.

  “Okay. So, I told you how I felt that mother had blurted the story about Micaiah because she wanted to put me off the track or something, right?”

  Enaya nodded.

  “Well, after Clive had got off of me…”

  “Please.”

  “He was furious. He said, I’d led him on, which I did sort of and it was wrong but that’s what happened.”

  Enaya flipped her hand again in quicker circles for her sister to continue.

  “So, after he’d gotten off of me he began to scream. He called me a slut which, apparently, he doesn’t understand what the word slut means or else he wouldn’t have called me that. He could’ve however called me a tease or something else but certainly not a slut.”

  Enaya rolled her eyes.

  “Anyway, it wasn’t dad but mother.” She stopped talking abruptly.

  A tall hefty nurse clad in white – white cap, white uniform, white stockings, white thick shoes – walked in. Euly looked up surprised when she entered the room.

  Enaya's eyes squinted. Euly's opened wide as she returned her sister's gaze.

  “How ya’ doin’ sweetie?” The tall nurse asked.

  “A little better, I guess.”

  “Need anything?” She tipped the blue plastic pitcher toward her to look in. “Water’s okay, huh?”

  “I’m fine.”

  “Good. Hungry?”

  The thought of food led Euly off the subject she and her sister had been discussing. “You know, I think I am starting to get a little hungry.”

  “I bet you are. When did you last eat?”

  “Why, I don’t remember. Maybe this morning. Oh, yeah, an apple.”

  “How ‘bout you, miss. Would you like to stay for dinner? Your sister’s paying.” She chortled and grabbed her waist.

  “I don’t care." Enaya's comment sounded rude and she ignored the nurse. "Finish the story.”

  The nurse straightened her back and let her arms hang in surprise.

  “Enaya.” She glared at her sister.

  “Sorry. Sure. Whatever.” She waved the back of her hand at the nurse, not looking at her but instead staring at Euly.

  The nurse held her chin up a little higher. “I’ll be back in about a half-hour.” She walked out and looking hurt.

  “That wasn’t very nice.”

  “I don’t give a damn about her. Get on with it.”

  “Where was I?”

  Her voice sounded as if Enaya was holding back a storm. She rolled her eyes. “You said, ‘It wasn’t dad but mother.’”

  “That’s right.”

  She waited to see if Enaya would get it through all of the diversions and her roundabout way of getting out the information.

  Enaya squinted showing Euly that she wasn’t sure.

  Euly lifted her eyebrows in order for her to think longer on the subject.

  Enaya tilted her head like a dog will when you tell it, “Treat!”

  Euly pressed her eyes open, as if communicating the words telepathically.

  Then, she thought she detected a glimmer of understanding from Enaya.

  It was slow. Like a shadow lifting. As though someone pulled a paper bag from off her head and, finally, allowing her to see.

  “What are you saying?” Enaya pressed.

  “Come on, Enaya. Don’t make me.”

  “It wasn’t dad but mother?”

  Euly nodded twice and lifted one side of her mouth. “Yeah.”

  “The indiscretion?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Mother and…?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Sandy?”

  Euly made a grimace that looked like a zipper stretched across her face. “Yep.”

  She watched her sister go through the steps she’d gone through earlier that day – the same steps that ended up putting her into the hospital where she now lay.

  “Need a nurse?”

  “Not yet.”

  “I have it on tape. I have it all on tape.”

  “What tape?”

  “My recorder.”

  “You have to destroy it.”

  Euly wasn’t sure about that. She lifted her eyebrows and looked to the window.

  “Euly, you have to destroy it.”

  “Maybe. We’ll see.”

  CHAPTER THIRTY SEVEN

  After Enaya left, Euly watched people in the airport some passing her in one direction and others crossing the other way. It was the earliest flight out. Her sister spent the night with her at the hospital and then drove her there.

  She was happy her sister stayed with her.

  They had time to talk and laugh, to think and reflect on the past – to reminisce and sort out lies from the truths – but end the end they really weren’t sure.

  Euly looked at her watch. It was five-thirty and the sun was beginning its crest far off over a raised mesa that looked as if it were being held up on a cake stand. The desert had a charm. Wisps of clouds trailed red along a perimeter of sky and reminded Euly of one of Belle’s paintings. Toward the north, she could make out the slightest form of the praying monk on Camelback Mountain.

  An aroma of coffee filled the morning. She swirled her cup and watched an eddy bursting with cream build in its chocolate-colored center.

  She looked up and watched a 747 taxi up to the accordion gate outside the window. This town was too familiar, too close, and all she wanted was to get home.

  CHAPTER THIRTY EIGHT

  She walked into the house. A bouncing barking, belly-aching dog ran straight into her leg, his way to greet her. When she bent down to pet him he began his pogo-stick-routine. How can you beat that kind of love but, then, she imagined Geoff acting that way and thought, I’d have to buy a gun.

  “Calmly, Jonathan.”

  “He knows you’re here when the birds start chirping.” Geoff called from the couch in the living room. When she walked into the room, he looked over his shoulder at her and away from the golf tournament he was watching. She watched the control display shrink as he turned the volume down. The TV droned like background noise. She couldn’t help feel a pang of disgust pool out of her and onto the floor. It seemed nothing had changed in the week she was gone.

  “The birds chirp all day long and the dog barks all day long.” She shuffled through some mail and saw she had another obit request.

  “Jonathan, mommy’s in a bad mood.” Geoff channeled his comment through the dog which irritated her more. Then, he turned back to the TV and began to talk about Tiger Woods’ performance that day. Nothing seemed different from the day she left. He went on about golf as if she gave one shit. She’d managed to carry in all of her luggage in one trip but now was paying the price. Plus, the dog was still jumping for attention and pulling at her purse and bags adding extra weight and stress on her spine.


  “Get down.” She barked at the dog. “Jeez, Jonathan. Give mommy a break.”

  “How do you feel?” Geoff didn’t move from his spot.

  “Okay. Want dinner?” By now she was hungry and inspecting the cupboards for a quick fix to quell her churning gut.

  “What do you have?” He didn’t hear how his question handed over accountability to her.

  “What do I have? I haven’t been here in a week.” They danced around the problem but still spiraled toward it.

  “All right. Stop. You just got home. Can’t this be pleasant?”

  Euly stopped pulling food out of cupboards and stood stiff with her back turned to him.

  “Salmon, chicken breasts, and filet mignon.”

  “Is that all?”

  “Those are the entrees, which do you want?”

  “Well, what’s with them?”

  “Vegetables, salad, rice – the usual.”

  “No potatoes?”

  “No, Geoff. You’re diet doesn’t include them. Remember?”

  “But, I want them.”

  “Too bad.”

  “You’re nice.” He smiled and turned his attention from the commercial. He got up and came into the kitchen. He put his hand on her shoulder. “I missed you.”

  “I can’t do this right now. Let me get my bearings.” They’d managed to hit an uncomfortable snag and it wasn’t smoothing out anytime soon. It was one of those things you hear people talking about how marriage isn’t easy and you’ll have times when you wished you weren’t married at all. She wanted to be left alone. She’d only just gotten home and she wanted to be alone.

  “What’s this?” He pointed to the form for a new obit.

  “New dead person needs text.” She opened the package of salmon and placed it in a glass dish.

  “Nice.”

  “Yeah, it pays the bills.”

  “No, I mean the “new dead person” comment.”

  “Oh. Sorry. The newly deceased human being needs me to write a glowing obituary for him.”

  “Good lord, Euly.”

  “What? Do you want me to get emotionally involved with each person who needs an obit?”

  “I guess I just expect a little more compassion, that’s all.”

  “Compassion is for friends and family members.” She didn’t really mean any of it but was saying it nonetheless. “Look, I treat the surviving family with the utmost respect and concern. You’d think you’d know that by now since this is the way I’ve been making my living since before I met you.” And, just like that, they were back into the snag.