Presumption Of Death

by Perri O'shaughnessy

  “For the record, I do not disrespect the Court,” Nina said. She left it to Salas to decide if she disrespected him.

  Night fell upon the central coast. Debbie had made a lasagna and put out some red wine, thinking they could have a little talk about some big things on her mind.

  But about ten, after their TV shows were over, just when she turned off the TV and said “Sam, I need to talk to you,” he got a phone call. He might have been expecting it, because he jumped for the phone.

  “Yeah?” he said. Debbie didn’t go into the kitchen. She sat right on the couch and listened.

  “Yeah. Okay. On my way.” He hung up and looked at her. What’s he feeling, she thought, and then, it’s regret, that’s what it is. He’s sorry about something.

  “What’s to talk about? Are the kids okay?” he asked her.

  “They’re fine. Jenny called today from L.A. and she had just talked to Jared. He’s fine too. That’s not what I wanted to talk to you about.”

  “It’ll have to wait.” He went into the bedroom and came out with his shoes on. “George is up at Kasey’s and not feeling too good. He doesn’t want to alarm Jolene so I’m going to go up there.”

  “We should call an ambulance.”

  “He says it’s not that bad. He’s resting out front. I’ll just run up and check on him.”

  You do that, Debbie thought. She heard the car start up.

  In the bedroom, she pulled out the bedstand drawer and she’d known it somehow, but it was still a shock-the Smith & Wesson he kept there was gone. So he had to bring his gun to help poor old George, that clinched it.

  “Jolene?”

  “Hi.” Jolene was washing dishes, judging by the noises on the phone.

  “Where’s George?”

  “He had to go out and get something.”

  “What?”

  “Whadda you mean, what? Razor blades or something.”

  “He make any calls first?”

  “A couple. From the bedroom. I couldn’t hear. What’s up?”

  “I’m calling Tory, then I’ll call you back.” She dialed the Eubankses’ number.

  “Where’s Darryl?”

  “He’s taking David over to Mid-Valley to get some cough syrup. Poor David has the flu, I guess, and he’s such a mess he asked Darryl to drive.”

  “How long ago did they leave?”

  “Why, I can see the car pulling out of David’s driveway right now.”

  “Stay by the phone.”

  Debbie grabbed her purse and ran out to the pickup. The men drove by as she shut the door and pulled herself down in the seat. Then she revved ’er up and headed up Esquiline, their taillights faint in front of her.

  With so little traffic, it was easy. She was kicking herself for not bringing Jolene along, but there hadn’t even been time to think, and Jolene had the little girls. Darryl and David pulled into the Kasey’s parking lot and she saw her pistol-packin’ husband had beat them to it, and there was George’s old sedan too.

  She was very upset. She was mad, mad at everything, mad at being patronized and blown off and kept in the dark by Sam. But she drove right on by like they did in the cop shows, then parked over by the travel agency. She sneaked back over to the convenience store. They were leaning against the wall away from the road and the streetlight: George, Darryl, David, Ted, and her Sam.

  She didn’t round the corner. She heard them talking and she rested behind a flower bush not fifteen feet from them, trying not to breathe. She pushed her hair back behind her ears and cupped a hand behind the left one and listened harder than she had ever listened to anything in her life.

  Finally, after about ten minutes, they broke up. Debbie heard cars start up and leave the lot.

  She was alone, sitting in the flower bed hugging her knees like a little girl. She let out a moan that could be heard from here to San Francisco.

  33

  E ARLY THE NEXT MORNING, DAVID SAT close to Britta’s head in the hospital room, his head in his hands.

  The flowers people had brought the week before drooped in their cheap vases. The neighbors came, and the women Britta worked with at the travel agency. That was it. Britta had no friends in the Valley. The people had come out of duty and the flowers were duty flowers.

  He had taken her away from her whole life in New York, the flying, the laughter, all the things she needed, and made her a prisoner of the luxury he offered.

  She had retaliated. He had known they couldn’t go on living in the Valley, that he had made a mistake.

  He had married her quickly and taken her to a place where he would be comfortable. As time went on, she never flagged, but her brashness turned to recklessness and her gaiety took on a bitter edge. It happened gradually and he tried not to notice. He was enjoying wallowing in his depression, feeling sorry for himself, the way he had gotten what he wanted since childhood.

  But now, in this sterile room with its wilted flowers, he had to notice that hardly anyone cared besides him that she was hurt. It made the fact that he had set in motion the attack on her all the more dreadful.

  She hardly seemed to breathe. Her head was wrapped in bandages and under those bandages was the frightful wound that had been inflicted on her. Probably a baseball bat, the doctor said. Her pretty face was drawn and white.

  He hadn’t called her parents in Reykjavik. He would, soon. He just couldn’t stand to talk to them, the guilt in him was so sharp and acrid.

  “… David…”

  Was he dreaming?

  Another small noise from the bed. He lifted his head and saw that her eyes were open.

  “Britta, Britta, my darling…”

  She was trying to whisper something. He put his ear close to her mouth and heard her say “So I’m alive?”

  “Yes, you’re going to be fine, you’ve had a terrible… a terrible…” he jabbered.

  “My God. Alive.” Her chest heaved. She was trying to laugh. “… I remember everything…”

  “Oh, my God, I’m so sorry, I…”

  “… David?”

  He began stroking her forehead, trying to calm her. She still gazed at him with such open eyes, as if she had never seen him before.

  “… Take… me away.”

  “Oh, yes. Where shall we go?”

  “I… don’t know. My wonderful… idiot…” Her eyes fluttered and closed. For a moment he thought she was dead.

  But she had only gone to sleep. She will live, he thought in wonder, and he ran out into the hall, calling for the nurse passing by.

  Debbie was pouring out margaritas for the four of them, her hand shaking so it made the crushed ice rattle in the frosted pitcher. The sun beat down right through the canvas umbrella onto Jolene’s frosted hair and worried expression. Tory had moved under the eave of the house for the shade.

  “Sit down, now,” Megan said. She pulled out a chair with padded blue patio cushions and Debbie sank into it. Under her makeup her face was distraught.

  “You said it was important,” Megan reminded her.

  “Oh, yeah, it’s important.”

  “Well?”

  “Don’t push her, Megan,” Tory said. “You always push too hard. It’s something awful bad, isn’t it, Debs?”

  “Yes,” Debbie said, and tears began to flow.

  “We’re gonna help, whatever it is,” Jolene said. “Is George involved in this trouble?”

  Debbie nodded tearfully.

  “Is Ted part of this?” Megan said sharply, taking her cue from Jolene.

  Another nod. Megan sat back in consternation. Debbie took crushed ice out of her glass and rubbed it into her forehead. “So’s Sam. And David.” She took Tory’s hand. “So’s Darryl.”

  “Well, lay it down for us,” Jolene said in her practical way.

  “They met last night. At Kasey’s parking lot. Around the side, away from the Valley Road. They gave you all some excuse like Sam gave me.”

  “They met? Why didn’t they just get together at
one of our houses?” Tory said.

  “Just wait. I followed them. I wanted to know what they were doing.”

  Jolene said, “Why, you sly thing.” She was holding her glass tightly.

  “And I heard-”

  “Uh huh, uh huh-”

  “Listen.” So she told them what she’d heard from the bushes.

  “… in,” somebody said. Maybe David.

  “We turn him in, we’re turning ourselves in.”

  “I don’t care, Sam. He almost killed my wife. I can’t let him get away with that.” That was David for sure.

  “He’s taking us on one by one,” Sam said. “You guys have that figured out yet? Ted, who you think that fire on Robles Ridge was aimed at?”

  “Megan and me?” Ted said. “Our house site? Really? He could have burned down half of Southbank Road!”

  “He told me forty-eight hours to pay up or he’s gonna do something worse,” Sam said.

  “Well, I’m not paying a thing.” David again.

  “That’s fine, you turn us all in. Then when Britta gets out of the hospital, who’s going to take care of her?” George said. “I got my family, you got Britta: Darryl, he’s got four little ones. Think about that before you go running off-” David made a strangled noise.

  “If we pay him off, will he go away?” Darryl had started talking now.

  “If we’d paid him way back after the second fire we wouldn’t be in this fix,” George said.

  “We all agreed,” Sam said. “He had no right. All he was supposed to do was set a little brushfire, scorch up the model home a little-he could have hurt somebody burnin’ down the café. That was right in the heart of town! We couldn’t pay him after that!”

  “We can’t pay him now either,” David said. “It’s just piling another crime on all of us.”

  “But he’ll go away if we do,” Darryl said.

  “He’s only hanging around out there waiting to collect. He doesn’t want to be here, he’s hot. We’re keeping him here,” Ted said.

  “We have another problem,” Darryl said. “Tory asked me why I withdrew the first twelve-fifty.” The other men groaned. “She knows something.”

  George said, “So that’s what Jolene’s been up to! I thought the kids were playing with my desk. It’s her. I’ll be damned.”

  “Look. We have to pay him,” Sam said. “You should have heard him on the phone. He’s not reasonable. He said forty-eight hours and that’s it.”

  “But, Jolene-”

  “Be quiet a second, George. I want to ask David here a question. Now, David. You could pay out the twenty thousand balance we still owe him right now, end all this, save us all. It’s the simplest way, right?”

  “That’s good. That’s good,” Darryl said.

  David said in a tight voice, “He hurts my wife like that and I’m supposed to pay for all of you? No. No.”

  “David, listen-”

  “Hey, don’t go-”

  “David!”

  Debbie heard a car door slam and the car peeled out of the lot.

  There was a long silence. Then Darryl said in a disbelieving voice, “He had my car keys. That was my car he drove off in.”

  “Great. Now we’re totally in the crapper,” Ted said.

  “Ted-”

  “Don’t look at me, man, Megan knows all our finances and most of it’s her money and she’d figure it out in ten seconds.”

  Darryl said, “Sam, what are we gonna do?” He sounded desperate.

  “Keep your shirt on, Darryl, I’ll think of something. I’ll call him and tell him we need more time to get the money together.”

  “He’ll do something else to us.”

  “I said, I’ll take care of it. Now listen, all of you. The women can’t know about this. Don’t say anything or we’re all going to prison. Darryl, you hear me? Huh? Darryl?”

  “What’d you bring that gun for anyway, Sam?”

  Sam said, “I don’t know. I just feel like killing somebody.” Debbie had forgotten about the gun. She held on to a branch and closed her eyes and said a little prayer.

  “Don’t scare him, you jerk,” Ted said. “I have to get home.”

  “I’ll call you. Stay cool,” Sam said.

  Megan said, “Is that everything, Debbie? All you can remember?” Maybe she spoke too sharply, because Debbie put the pitcher down and propped herself against the table and started blubbering again.

  “Now, honey,” Jolene told her, “stitch yourself back together, because we need your help. Not a one of us can afford to have a nervous breakdown right now.”

  “I’ll start,” Megan said. “They’re a bunch of selfish little boys. I checked our books. Twelve hundred fifty dollars withdrawn by Ted two months ago.”

  Jolene said, “Mmm-hmm. George did the same. Tory?”

  “Yes. He told me it was for something else.”

  “Debbie?”

  “Yeah.” A big tear fell into Debbie’s salt-rimmed glass. Her mascara was streaked all the way down to her lips.

  “I think we can figure that David paid too. Serve ’em right to go to jail,” Jolene said. She looked around the table. “I know, I know. Now, George, he’ll die in jail. He’s sick.”

  “I don’t know where to start. All the harm they’ve caused,” Tory said. “I decided to have the baby after all, and now this. Who’s going to buy the food for five kids?”

  “None of us wants to turn them in, but what else can we do? There’s a man killing people left and right out there, it’s all their fault, and-”

  “We could urge them to turn themselves in,” Tory said.

  “I am not able to raise this with Sam, not alone,” Debbie said, still sniffling. “He won’t listen.”

  “We could all meet with all of them-” Tory was still trying.

  “They’ve already made up their minds what they want to do,” Megan said. “But they’re going to fart around until somebody else gets hurt. I could just pay the money.”

  “After how he hurt Britta? How he-he sneaked up on poor Ruthie-”

  The women were silent. Debbie poured them all another round.

  “No way,” Tory said, and they all nodded.

  “But-the kids? What about them?” Tory said. “What if-”

  Jolene looked at her watch and said, “The girls get off that bus at two-thirty, and I’m going to be right there to meet them. So we better make a decision.”

  “He gave the men until tomorrow,” Debbie said fearfully. “I think.”

  “And then you know what he threatened to do. Take the children. I’m sure as hell not taking any chances. Now I have two more minutes, girls. Callie’s got her soccer practice after this and I’ll be right there on the field. Here’s what I think. I’m as mad at the men as anybody. But I’m not calling the police. I won’t do it to George.”

  “We can’t trust the men to handle this,” Tory said.

  “Call me,” Jolene said. She patted her hair and picked up her purse. “I’m so damn mad I can’t think.”

  When Jolene had gone, the women kicked back for a couple of minutes. Finally, Megan said, “We need a lawyer. To advise us.”

  She was thinking about the business she had built up, the clients, what would happen if Green River got a judgment against her and Ted’s community assets. She was feeling humiliated about the night before. Ted had wanted to be punished-if she had it to do all over again, she’d have punished him for real when she tied him to the bed, she’d have beat the shit out of him.

  She had never felt so wounded. “My boon companion,” she said, choking up, and put her hand over her eyes.

  “Not you too, Megan, we need you to stay strong,” Tory said. “I think you have a good idea. If we could get somebody right away. Because our children are in danger.”

  “How about the lawyer who’s defending Danny’s friend?” Debbie said. “She’s a criminal lawyer. I liked her.”

  “But-wouldn’t she have a conflict of interest? She already has
a client-”

  “Maybe not,” Megan said. “She could consult with us confidentially, and if she can’t help us, she’d at least have to keep her mouth shut about the consultation.”

  Tory said, “I vote we call her.”

  “Me too,” Debbie said. “She’s probably in court right now.”

  “We’ll leave an urgent message,” Megan said. “Now, meantime, if any of us talks to the men, it’ll all blow up even worse. Capisce, Debbie?”

  “I’ll just watch TV and go to bed. I can do it.”

  “I’ll pretend I’m sick. I am sick. Sick of Darryl not growing up,” Tory said. “Do you want me to talk to Jolene?”

  “Yeah. I’ll call the lawyer,” Megan said.

  The medical examiner, Dr. Rittenhauer, took the stand after lunch on the second day of the prelim. She was young, with a pleasant face and a practical haircut, and a recent medical degree from Columbia. She gave Wish a curious look and then turned to her papers. A very well-prepared lady, Nina thought. Nina hadn’t found much wrong with the autopsy report either, but she did have a couple of subjects she couldn’t wait to explore.

  After the preliminaries, Jaime asked, “Did you perform the autopsy on the decedent later identified as Daniel Cervantes?”

  “I did.” Nina pulled out her copy of the autopsy report, and Dr. Rittenhauer kept a hand on her own copy.

  “Please summarize the autopsy findings for the court.”

  “Certainly. The most conspicuous feature presenting externally was massive flame burns over about eighty percent of the skin. The burns penetrated very deeply into underlying musculature and internal organs in places. As I noted, this made it impossible at first to determine ethnicity, weight, nourishment, or age. We were able to tell that the body was that of a male over six feet in height. Almost all the clothing was burned away. However, we had an immediate break. As we turned over the body I noted that the posterior side had not been burned.”

  “Go on.”

  “The body, when I first saw it, was on its left side with the arms drawn up in a pugilistic attitude, common in burn victims. However, Monterey County sheriffs reported that when found on the mountain, the decedent lay on his back in that position. There had been a fire that had passed over him, but it didn’t burn the body so severely that it could get to the back. Therefore, when we turned it over, we saw clothing and skin. I was then able to identify the decedent as a young male, probably Hispanic, no particular identifying marks on the skin. He wore the remains of an army camouflage jacket, a white T-shirt, and jeans. Also the remains of a pair of steel-shanked boots were still on the feet. Around the waist, under the jacket, we found the remains of a black leather belt with silver conchos attached.”