“I sent you a fucking fruit basket. Knew you weren’t dying.”
Laughter broke out of me. “Jesus. You were really mad, huh? A fucking fruit basket?”
He chuckled. “I thought about going full passive-aggressive and ordering one of those wanker ‘wellness’ kits, but you did just get out of an induced coma, so …”
We both laughed, and the barrier of anger fell. Just like that. That’s what Paige had never understood about my friendship with Kahu. We might be dicks to each other, and Kahu might be a bit backhanded in his compliments, but in the end, we knew no other friend would put up with our shit, so we kept the dick behavior to a certain level.
That’s why he’d been so angry about Daisy.
We spoke for a while, about his new girlfriend, about writing, and about everything but my mother’s bones. Kahu and I, we didn’t do deep and meaningful. The closest he’d ever come to that was to say, “Paige, she actually likes you. You got lucky. Hold on to her.”
My failure at doing that wasn’t a subject we ever discussed.
All the while, as I listened to Kahu, responded, I watched the golden rectangle of Grandma Elei’s window.
27
After hanging up, I found Shanti. She was in the kitchen, overseeing the maid who came in three times a week to help with cooking and kitchen cleanup. We didn’t have live-in staff because my father didn’t want to give off an air of ostentatious wealth that might be used against the mayor.
My father’s friendship with the leader of the city had smoothed out a lot of bumps in the road when it came to his company, and he was protective of that friendship in a mercenary kind of way. However, neither did he want his rich friends judging him for being cheap with his wife. So we had external contractors who came in to clean once a week, then three nights with a single kitchen helper.
Shanti didn’t actually need help in the kitchen, but she put up with it because it was what my father wanted.
“I put aside a plate for you,” she said now, her smile bright.
Realizing I was hungry—and because food was the way to Shanti’s heart—I sat down and ate. The maid, Lovey, was a small, slender Filipino woman with a shy smile who worked for Mary’s company. Lovey, Mary, and two others were the only ones authorized to work in our home.
My father wouldn’t permit any substitutions unless it was to be permanent, and Mary provided a full criminal background check. I agreed with him there. These people were often in the house and around Pari. We had to know they were safe.
Twenty years my senior, Lovey had been part of the house team since Shanti became my father’s bride. She gave me a maternal smile. When I asked for a Coke after Shanti stepped out for a minute, Lovey got it, then said, “It’s a bad habit, Aarav.” Her voice still held a faint accent, and though it was a different one from my mother’s, it had always made me feel comfortable around her.
“I know,” I said, and we smiled conspiratorially.
She shook her head. “I stocked your snack drawer.”
“Thanks.” Unlike at my apartment, I didn’t lock anything here when I went out. It’d be more suspicious if I did. If there was something I wanted to hide, I put it in the closet—everyone knew not to bother going in that pit of mess. “I need to ask Diana for more fudge.” There was something about those sweets, perhaps the taste of childhood.
I’d already emptied the bag Shanti had gotten a couple of days earlier.
Maybe I should mention my candy addiction to Dr. Jitrnicka. No point saving my liver if I was determined to turn my blood to sugar. It made me think of my mother. Not just the drinking, but all the diamonds she’d hoarded, a dragon with her treasure.
Could you inherit an addictive personality?
“Calvin dropped off a jumbo bag today, before you got back.” Lovey’s voice shattered the diamonds into shards. “He was heading off for a run, but he said Diana knew how much you loved her candies and wanted to make sure you had some. Mrs. Rai doesn’t know I already put it in your room.”
“You’re the best, Lovey.” I’d have to make sure I thanked Diana, too—it was a small thing, but it mattered that she’d cared enough to do it.
Seeing that I’d cleared my plate, Lovey said, “Eat some fruit instead of just sweets.”
She returned to work the instant Shanti came back into the kitchen. There was no chitchat between them, my father’s wife very conscious of class lines. As if her own past as a maid would return to haunt her if she became friendly with the staff.
Only once Lovey was done and had left for the night did I say, “Shanti, you talk to Alice’s mother, don’t you?”
Shanti’s eyelashes flickered, her smile fading, but she nodded. “Why?”
“I just wanted to ask her if she saw anything the night my mother disappeared.” No reason to lie on this point. People felt sorry for me right now and I was fully capable of taking advantage of that.
Wide eyes from Shanti. “Do you want me to ask?”
“Can I come with you?” The last of the Coke was bubbles on my tongue. “I won’t know exactly how to ask my questions until we’re talking.”
“Do you really think Elei saw anything?”
“You know she stays up late.” That golden window flickering with light and shadow, I was sure I’d seen it that night from my balcony.
“Watching her dramas.” Shanti repositioned a dish towel an inch to the right. “I tried to get her to watch mine, but the English subtitles are too fast for her.”
“Isn’t yours starting now?”
She waved a hand. “I can catch up. I’ll ask Elei if she’s free.” Taking out her cellphone, she sent a text.
For some reason, I hadn’t thought Alice’s mother would have a phone. Blind spot there. Had to be careful not to get those.
“She’ll reply when she checks.” Shanti slipped the phone back into her pocket. “Did you hear about Brett and Veda’s dog?”
“Yes. Did Dad blow up at you?”
“No, he laughed.” Shanti bit down on her lower lip. “He said whoever had done it had done us all a favor.” No glance toward the side of the house that held the office. Ah, my father must be out. That explained why she was being so free with conversation.
“The Fitzpatricks were yelling that he must’ve done it,” I said, nudging her along.
“Yes, he said the police asked him about it, and after that he sent a letter to the partners of the Fitzpatricks’ firm telling them their workers were slandering—is that the word?—neighbors without cause.”
Senior associates weren’t exactly average employees. Still, they weren’t partners. And no law firm or lawyer with aspirations wanted to be linked to headlines about neighbors battling it out. My father was a very smart operator.
The footprints I’d rubbed out on the outside path surfaced against my irises.
Broken foot, I reminded myself. No access to poison. Lots of weird mushrooms around. Even Anastasia, who’d seen me out at night, agreed the dog must’ve eaten something bad.
Shanti slid her phone out of her pocket. “Come, Elei’s free to talk.”
We went to walk outside together, my leg feeling totally fucked. If it remained like this, I’d need to see the doctor. For now, I said, “Shanti, I’m sorry, but do you think you could get a couple of my pain pills?”
“Of course.” A gentle pat on my arm. “You’re hurting. I’ll go now. Is it on the table beside your bed like before?”
I nodded. I wasn’t worried she’d nose around. In fact, she returned so quickly that she was a little puffed. Her eyes were dark with worry. “I just brought down the whole bottle.” She opened it in front of me.
Popping two of the pills in my mouth, I swallowed them down with the water Shanti passed over. Then I put the pill bottle on top of the fridge where I’d see it when I returned to the house.
“I felt something else on the fridge,” I commented as we headed to the back door. “I think I pushed it back when I put
my pills up there. Seemed to be wrapped up in a plastic bag.”
“Oh, silly me.” She slapped her forehead. “It’s the rat poison I got after you saw one of them in the house. I meant to put the unused poison in the garden shed. I’ll do it tomorrow.”
My guts churned, all the food I’d just eaten wanting to disgorge itself. “Yeah. When was that?” Keep it casual, Aarav, don’t freak the fuck out. “Time’s running together since I’ve been sick.”
“Hmm, three weeks ago?” She opened the back door.
Soon after my release from the hospital, while my brain was still bruised from the accident. Could I have planned to poison the dog? Had I had the capacity? Or had I truly seen a rodent? It wasn’t impossible this close to the bush. Even if that was true … I could’ve still spotted the poison at some point after I was more mobile, and stored the information in my subconscious.
The air was chilly outside, but with my leg pulsing with heat and my mind racing, I welcomed the icy bite of it. Shanti, in contrast, wrapped her thick navy cardigan coat more firmly around herself and led me past the pool, and through the back garden.
I’d almost forgotten the door in the fence at the very back corner that connected my father’s property to Alice and Cora’s. I had a vague memory of my father saying the landscaper had thought it a cute feature in case the next-door neighbors ended up being a family with children and we wanted to play together.
It hadn’t worked out that way.
But when Shanti pulled at the gate, it swung open with liquid smoothness.
Only a few more steps until I could speak to Grandma Elei—no, just Elei. Elei who had a friendship with Shanti and who wore an expensive scent and who liked to pretend she didn’t speak that much English. A three-dimensional person, not the benign grandmotherly type I’d always seen her as.
She was already seated on a little wooden bench under a spreading pōhutukawa tree that someone had decorated with twinkling fairy lights, the sight of fallen starlight I’d appreciated more than once from my balcony. No red splashed the dark green of the tree today, the flowers dormant for the winter. It was Alice’s mother who was wearing red—a big puffy jacket that all but encompassed her.
“Elei.” Shanti laughed. “It’s not that cold!” She hurried over to the bench to take a seat next to the other woman.
At Elei’s feet sat a pristine white poodle. Princess, Alice’s pampered pooch. She was probably more groomed and polished than most people you’d meet, and had a sweet nature. No guard dog was Princess. Neither did she bark much.
She must’ve been at doggie daycare that time I went over to Alice’s.
The dog came over to nuzzle at me after I sat down in a wooden chair facing the two women. The chair was old and weathered but clean of moss. A small side table in a similar condition sat beside the bench seat occupied by Elei and Shanti; on it rested a mug of something. Coffee, maybe. I thought I could catch the faint hint of a rich scent.
“Hello, Princess.” I petted the curious poodle as she examined my moon boot. Alice’s dog liked me—I’d met her several times when Cora took her out for her evening walk on the days Alice was working the late shift.
Princess didn’t like Cora, but you’d have to be a dog person to pick that up. I’d never been allowed a dog as a child, but I’d get one after this was all done. Sell the apartment and buy a place with a lawn and be a normal guy with a dog.
Princess settled her warmth at my feet as I settled more deeply into my chair.
The tree was a dark spray of leaves and sparkling lights above me, but I could still see the stars off to the left, shards of diamonds in the blue-black. Cora, tall and thin, moved inside the house’s kitchen, but it was peaceful here. No car noise, nothing but the singing of the odd cicada who’d fallen out of rhythm with the seasons.
I’d sat with my mother in our own garden on a night like this once. She’d made us cocoa using pure, rich cocoa powder, dried milk, and sugar. “It’s better from scratch,” she’d said. “Isn’t it nicer than the hot chocolate mix?”
“Yeah.” Because she’d made it, and because we were sitting in the garden side by side looking at the stars. I’d pointed out constellations I’d learned about in school, and she’d smiled, asked me questions.
It had been a perfect quiet night.
“Elei.” Shanti’s voice murmuring in the night. “Aarav wants to ask you some questions.”
The older lady stared at me, her eyes dark and knowing and her steel-colored hair pushed back by a black headband. The darkness gave shadows to her cheeks, a whispered illusion of the young woman she’d once been. “About her.” She waved in the direction of the Cul-de-Sac drive … where my mother’s Jaguar had been parked that night.
28
“My mother. Yes.”
Elei drank a little of her coffee before digging into her pocket and coming up with a packet of sweets, which she offered first to Shanti, then to me. I took a piece of the sugared jelly candy, allowing the flavor of limes to burst on my tongue.
“What you want know?” Elei said afterward, her broken English heavily accented but understandable.
“Did you see my mother the night she vanished?”
Lines furrowing her forehead. “Gone night?”
“Yes. The night she left.”
“Big rain,” she said. “Light.” She pointed up.
The lightning had cracked the sky that night, flashing against my irises and making the water on the street in front of me glow. The rain had hit with hard, slicing bites that turned my skin to ice and the road had been so slick, so difficult to—
“Aarav.”
Jerking my attention to Elei, I knew I’d missed something. “I’m sorry.”
Her face softened and she leaned forward to pat my knee. “You love pretty mama.”
My hand clenched on the top of the cane. “Did you see her leave that night?”
“Green car.” She pointed to the street, then frowned. “I no see. I …” She tapped her ear.
“You heard something?”
“Door of car.” She held up two fingers.
I forgot the throbbing pain in my foot, ignored the random mishmash of memories my brain was throwing at me. “You heard two car doors shut.”
A firm nod. “Two. Yes. Fast fast. Close, then close.”
That eliminated the theory that my mother had picked up someone along the way; she’d left the Cul-de-Sac with the person who’d killed her. It’d be pushing things far beyond the bounds of probability that she’d left with one person and been killed by a second. No, it had to have been the same person.
My father? The lover with whom she’d taunted my father? Hemi? Brett? An unknown party?
“You didn’t see anything?”
The slightest flicker in her eyes before she shook her head. “No. Rain bad.”
Either she was lying, or she was nervous about something else connected to that night. Covering for Alice? Yet Alice had no reason to have hurt my mother. She’d been happy to tag along with the Nina/Diana duo.
I’d also never seen my mother be mean to Alice.
“I don’t kick puppies and kittens, sweetheart.” Husky laughter drifting up from below my balcony.
I’d been lying in the sun while messaging a school friend who was now a lecturer specializing in chemistry, while my mother and Alice sat below, chatting over a cup of tea.
“You don’t have to hide yourself from me, little Alice.”
“You’re out of my league.” Alice’s soprano tones. “I feel like I’m playing with a shark each time we have drinks.”
My mother had laughed then, unfettered and joyous, and I’d grinned before going back inside my room. At fifteen, I’d had no desire to listen to my mother talking with her neighbor friend. But I’d known her well enough to know the affection in her tone had been real; she’d liked her “little Alice,” had treated her well.
But there was something there.
The thought spun around and around in my head as I headed back into the house, leaving Shanti still talking with Elei. Grabbing my pain meds off the top of the fridge and studiously ignoring the rat poison, I started for my room.
The last thing I expected was for my father to come down the hallway.
“Where’s Shanti?” he asked, but then rolled his eyes. “Gossiping with that old lady, I’m guessing.”
Now that I thought about it, it was unsurprising that he didn’t have a problem with the Elei-Shanti friendship; neither woman had any obvious power. In my father’s mind, Elei, sheltered and apparently confined by her lack of connections in this country, was unlikely to teach Shanti of rebellion. I wasn’t so certain. “Do I look like her keeper?”
Instead of responding to my irritated tone, my father said, “Did you hear about that dog?” Laughter filled the hallway. “Assholes deserved it.”
“Did you do it?”
His nostrils flared. “How the hell you’re even my son, I don’t know.” Swiveling on his foot, he headed back toward his office.
But he hadn’t denied my accusation.
It took serious and painful effort to get up the stairs. But at last I was inside my room with the door firmly shut. Dumping the pill bottle in among the others on the bedside table, I sat down on the bed. I wasn’t going to be moving anywhere else anytime soon.
I peeled off my shirt and chucked it on the floor. Then, teeth gritted, I somehow managed to get off my jeans. When I undid the boot to check what was going on with my foot, I found the appendage red and swollen and generally fucked. Dropping my head in my hands, I just sat there for a long moment, until fatigue began to lick at me.
Despite the temptation to leave it off, I clipped the boot back on.
Then I got on the computer and made my way into the house’s security system. I erased the relevant recording without looking at it. I knew I hadn’t done anything wrong. This recording would just muddy the waters if it ever surfaced.
Quiet in Her Bones Page 15