by Don Prichard
If the latter, she wasn’t ready. Until Danny Romero was out of her life, there was no room for affection beyond friendship. The empty spaces in her memory seemed matched with empty spaces in her heart—as if people she loved had been obliterated from each. The holes made it difficult to move on.
She sighed. “Have you given any more thought to hiring Rock Giannopoulus?” She couldn’t get sweet Natasa off her mind. Or was it the mysterious girl hovering at the edge of her memory that she yearned for? “There are several things I’d like to do with my case files, and I have no idea how to set them up on my computer. I’d like at least a few tutoring sessions with him.”
“I’ve thought about it, and he’s all yours. Go ahead and schedule him for next week.”
For the first time since Danny Romero’s kidnapping attempt, the prospect of something good glowed like a candle inside her. Natasa wasn’t a missing piece of her memory, but the young girl might fill one of the gaping holes that, more and more, haunted Eve’s heart.
She flashed a grateful smile at Brad and dug into her lobster tail, careful to keep her hand from resting on the table.
***
Crystal’s heart jumped as Jonathan sneaked her hand into his under Miss Lavender’s study table. “I’m really proud of you, Crystal. You’re getting more and more of your test questions right. You deserve a reward.”
Her hand burned in his. Her throat squeezed her vocal cords so hard her question came out a squeak. “Reward?”
“A kiss.” His voice caressed her ears, soft, husky, a prelude to the promise. He inched his face toward hers.
Ohhhh, she was going to faint. Her heartbeat galloped. Her breath pressed like a balloon ready to burst inside her chest.
Miss Lavender entered the office, and Jonathan sat back, dropping Crystal’s hand. “Okay, kids. Time to go.” She waited for Crystal to gather papers and book, and for Jonathan to scribble something on a piece of paper.
“Here’s your next assignment.” He folded the sheet and handed it to Crystal. “She’s doing great,” he said to his aunt.
“So I hear from Crystal’s teacher. I’m proud of you two.”
Jonathan acknowledged his aunt’s praise with a smile, winked at Crystal, and walked away. It was all Crystal could do to follow him into the hallway. She was sure Miss Lavender would stop her and ask why her heart was pounding so loudly.
Jonathan’s note sizzled in fingers still aflame with his touch. She dashed to her dorm room, dropped her book and papers onto her desk, and climbed into her loft. No one else was in the room. With trembling hands, she opened the folded note.
After dinner tomorrow - parking lot - blue Camaro - way at the back.
She inhaled a quick breath and held it. Tomorrow night was chapel. The auditorium would be crowded, and no one would miss her. It was perfect! She stuffed the note under her pillow.
Her breath whooshed back out. No. She was too scared.
But … maybe … for just one quick kiss.
Chapter 33
If only she had someone to share her secret with. All night, Crystal tossed and turned, read the note with her flashlight, decided yes, decided no. Her roommates grumped at her restlessness.
But she didn’t dare confide in them. Miss Lavender said Cassandra was there to help her, Allie, and Beulah, so Cassandra would figure she owed it to Miss Lavender to blab on Crystal. Beulah just plain didn’t like her, and Allie was jealous because Crystal, thanks to Jonathan, now made better grades in pre-algebra than she did.
So, what would Jake do? No, he was a boy. Okay then, what would Eve do? That made her giggle. For sure, Eve wasn’t afraid of boys. She’d tell them to kiss her—or not!
Crystal folded the crumpled sheet into squares and shoved it deep into her pillowcase before getting ready with her roommates for breakfast. Too risky to carry the note around in case she dropped it or someone found it on her.
“Whatcha smilin’ about?” several girls asked throughout the day. It was hard not to answer, “Cuz a guy wants to kiss me tonight.”
Chapel was right after dinner. When she got into the meal line, she still didn’t know what to do. But, just in case, she had stopped at the dorm room to dab a fingertip of Aunt Betty’s gift of White Shoulders on her neck.
At chapel, she sat in an aisle seat at the back of the auditorium so she could leave without anyone noticing. But first, it was best to wait until everyone was wrapped up in singing. Or, well, maybe after that, during the Scripture reading. Or, okay, while the speaker had their attention.
Her stomach ached as if she’d swallowed a cement block—and suddenly she knew there was no way she was going. Relief washed over her. Kissing wasn’t meant to be a game. It was meant to be special. Special enough to be done in private, but not in secret—not when you were afraid to tell anyone, or, even worse, when you were ashamed to tell them.
She felt scrubbed clean. Free.
Chapel was almost over when she felt a sharp tap on her shoulder. She turned and found Miss Lavender standing behind her. In her hand was Crystal’s crumpled note from Jonathan. In back of Miss Lavender stood Jonathan, a fierce scowl on his face.
***
Betty came better prepared for a visit with Jake this time. Instead of stuffing what she could into her pockets, she carried a large handbag crammed with goodies. At the prison gate, she gave each of the three guards a soda, then handed one to Jake through the bars and opened the last one for herself.
She did the same with plastic-wrapped packages of cheese and crackers and peanut butter and crackers. One per guard and one each for her and Jake. They had a jolly good picnic together, the five of them, and polished off the meal with a candy bar apiece. It wasn’t difficult to have a private conversation with Jake after that. The guards stood at a distance and smoked homemade cigarettes. The odor of cheap, reused tobacco burning was almost as bad as the human sewage stink.
“I hate that you’re in this place, Jake.” He looked worse than he ever had on the island. Mosquito bites covered every inch of exposed skin. His hair and beard were greasy with sweat. The amount of dirt from head to toe, not to mention the magnitude of his body odor, left no doubt that bathing was not available. “I’m going to complain about it to the authorities.”
“Focus instead on getting me out of here.”
Her shoulders slumped. “I’m sorry I took two weeks to come back. Everything moves so slowly here. And before that I had trouble with my passport. The last two digits of my birth year got messed up, and when I applied for a passport for Crystal, I discovered she had no birth certificate.”
“Because her mother died in childbirth?”
“Because she died in a hippy commune. Evidently they didn’t bother with birth certificates for their offspring, and neither did Crystal’s grandfather when he got her. I tell you, I detest that man!”
Jake all but spat on the ground. “Forget Neal Oakleigh. Did you find a lawyer here?”
“Snyder gave me a name. It’s a partnership of two, but competent—”
“Snyder? Isn’t that Oakleigh’s law partner?”
“Leroy Snyder was my husband’s partner long before he was Neal’s. Snyder is completely trustworthy. I told him I didn’t want Neal connected in any way to me or my business matters.”
Jake’s left cheek twitched.
“Honestly, Jake, I think these guys here are good. I spent several days with them going over information. They said you have a defensible case but the problem is bringing it to trial. If you pay the judge—”
“I won’t bribe him.”
Betty bit her bottom lip. Such a simple solution and he wouldn’t even consider it? “The payment is only to move the date forward, not to sway his decision—”
“No.”
“Otherwise it’s two to five years.”
Jake’s face was stony. She wanted to shake him. “There is another way. They said you could settle out of court.”
Jake’s eyebrows shot up. “Now that sounds
like an honorable possibility. How do I do that?”
“It would take a lot of money.” Not that she couldn’t cover it … if Jake would let her.
“In other words, more people than the family would get compensated.”
“To make it official, the lawyers and judge would have to—”
“Receive bribes?”
“Get paid, Jake. For mercy’s sake, stop being so suspicious!”
“All right, Betty. Find out how much. Will the cost be a reasonable wage for the lawyers and judge? Or enough to buy a yacht—apiece?”
Betty huffed. Why did he have to be so stubborn! Why not just pay it and be done? “Okay, I will,” she snapped.
“And put it in writing. A contract. With everyone’s signature who gets paid—and how much they get paid.”
The three guards trotted to the gate, their rifles bobbing with their pace. Was it because Jake’s and her voices had gotten noticeably louder, or because a longer stay required more goodies from her handbag? She didn’t want to yield to them. Nor to Jake.
“I guess our time is up.” She gazed at Jake, who’d rather surrender to mosquitoes, filth, and starvation than wrong God or man. She sighed. “You’re a good man, Jake. Give me a week, and I’ll be back, with or without the contract.”
Chapter 34
Every day, the guards dragged corpses out of the prison courtyard. Every day, the rain and mist of the monsoon multiplied mosquitoes and sent shivering men to their final destination. Every day, Jake stuffed men into the shelter of his group’s maze and pulled an equal number out for the guards to cart away.
“I’m going to demand the other two groups take some of these in,” he growled to Puno. “There’d be room for everyone then.”
Puno flinched as if Jake had held a lit match to his cheek. “First group is criminals so bad other prisons don’t want them. Compassion does not mark their souls. Second group is Muslims. They protect their customs and admit no outsiders.”
So his group was the only one with pity in their souls? Jake helped Puno lay a corpse by two others at the gate. He wiped the chill of dead skin onto his shorts, his stomach bucking a spurt of vomit into his throat. “How would you identify our group?” For the most part, the men were reclusive and mild-mannered. Not your typical lawbreakers. Why were they here?
“Mostly we are political prisoners of President Marcos.”
“That many of you? There must be over two hundred.”
“Marcos has ruled for seventeen years. Until he dies, we die.”
Jake swallowed. “You make it sound as if no one gets out of here.”
“We are here to be forgotten and die.”
Flames leaped from Jake’s soul. Not if he could help it! Betty was here now; he was far from forgotten. And certainly his children would intervene. “Is that why the guards let inmates rule inside the prison?”
“To hasten death, yes.”
“The warden allows this?”
“The warden is as forgotten as the prisoners.”
In a flash, a calm as bright as sunshine on steel settled over Jake. “Then we have hope, Puno.”
“Hope?” Puno snorted. “Hope was the first prisoner to die here.”
“No, don’t you see? If inmates are allowed to rule, then let us rule well. We can transform this place from the inside out.”
Puno grimaced. “No, you don’t see. Reading your Bible to prisoners will not change hard hearts. Few have attended your morning devotions this week. The rest scoff.”
Jake smiled. “I read only to feed souls that are hungry, Puno. Hard hearts I leave to God. I’m talking about changing the prison.”
At this, Puno chuckled. “Now I join the scoffers.”
“You said the purpose set out for these men is to die. So that is what we change first.” His mind raced. In less than a week, Betty would return. She would help initiate the first step. Smiley was next in line. And somewhere in there, the warden.
But a week went by and Betty didn’t come. Two weeks passed. Three weeks.
In the meantime, Captain Emilio disappeared from the courtyard. Did his former group take him in? Or did the guards take him out? All the unrest that had settled at the anticipation of Emilio’s death rose up and stalked Jake like a relentless zombie.
***
Every morning, Crystal awoke as steamed as a crab in a chef’s pot. None of her roomies would tell who blabbed on her. It had to be one of them. Allie or Beulah or Cassandra—which one had heard her folding and unfolding Jonathan’s note that night and dug it out of her pillowcase the next day? Ohhhh, she was so going to find out who and make her pay!
Even worse was how all three acted super friendly and innocent right afterward. “Tell us what happened—did you kiss him?” They gaped at her, all moony-eyed, shoulders scrunched and wiggling, giggles gushing like bubbles at the beginning of the Lawrence Welk Show.
And then what did they do with her trust? Blabbed the whole story to everyone in the school. She couldn’t go anywhere without the mockery of K-I-S-S-I-N-G in a Tree hummed just loud enough for her ears. Just enough to make her chin quiver so she had to turn her face away.
Betrayal was a monster. She prayed to forgive and forget, but the forgetting part kept getting jabbed awake.
Jake would tell her the Bible said to love your neighbor as yourself. But what she needed to love herself was for her roomies to love her—and they weren’t doing it. The whole thing was like riding a merry-go-round. Love me … so I can love myself … so I can love you … so you can love me … so I can love myself … so I can love you. Gah!
And that verse, “Love your enemies and do good to them”? Really? At night, lying sleepless in bed, all she could think about were ways to get even. Which roomie was her enemy? Did it matter? More and more, she hated all three of them equally.
So each morning, she awoke as steamed as a crab in a chef’s pot. Waiting. Waiting for payback.
***
Floppy discs, MS-DOS, PC-DOS … Eve’s head spun at the computer lingo and acronyms Rock spouted. Why had the Justice Department insisted on buying the new-fangled gadgets anyway? They’d just keep getting more and more complicated until only experts like Rock could use them. She heaved a sigh and poured herself a second cup from the office coffee pot. At least the computers were serving the purpose of getting her and Rock together.
Marianne joined her, wrinkling her nose at the pot’s scorched dregs. “Isn’t Rocky gorgeous?” she gushed. Although Marianne had more computer expertise than anyone in the office, she’d found every excuse possible to have him help her. “Has he asked you out?” The quiver in her voice betrayed her hope-against-hope that he hadn’t.
“I asked him out.” Eve suppressed a giggle as Marianne’s eyes widened and the corners of her generous mouth plunged down. “His niece is in town next weekend, so I invited him and Natasa to the zoo. I’d like you to come too.”
Another widening of Marianne’s eyes, followed by a swift upward swoop of her lips. “Honest? Are you sure? Yes, I’d love to come!” Her eyelashes fluttered, then halted in a glare at Eve. “Wait. Are you inviting me to be a chaperone?”
Eve grinned. “Natasa and I will be a chaperone for you and Rock. He’s all yours, girl! When you meet Natasa, you’ll discover who the real charmer is.”
Whew. She’d sidestepped that well enough. Natasa was the one she wanted time with, not Rock. Still, it didn’t hurt to put eye candy in someone else’s hands. Her two dinners with her boss, while not exactly “dates,” had grabbed her by the shoulders and shook her hard. Watch out, the not-exactly-dates had screamed, you’re fooling yourself thinking you’re not hungry for love!
Chapter 35
“Prisoner Jacob Chalmers to the front gate.” Jake’s heart jolted at the blaring announcement. He’d never heard a prisoner summoned over the loudspeaker before. From the looks of the other inmates, neither had they. They stared at him as if his shirt were a black-and-white target with a red bull’s eye over his hea
rt.
Betty. Something had happened to her. Three weeks had passed and she’d never returned, never contacted him. He ran, pushing prisoners aside.
Four men stood at the gate. No Betty. The three guards huddled to one side as if cornered by a wolf. The fourth man, taller than the guards, slender, wearing a suit and tie in spite of the heat, stood with arms akimbo, staring through the bars into the courtyard. The warden?
It took a moment for Jake to recognize who he was. Disgust and anger distorted the man’s face. His expression changed to surprise at Jake’s approach, then returned to barely suppressed rage. Jake called out his name. “Detective Lee.”
“Colonel Chalmers. This is an outrage!” Lee gestured to the guards to open the gate and let Jake out. Jake’s knees wobbled as he stepped through. Was he free? His heart beat faster and faster like a staircase mounting higher and higher to the heavens.
But no, the guards, not once looking at Detective Lee, clapped chains onto Jake’s wrists and ankles. Speaking in Tagalog, the detective berated them with words that had to slice their souls, leaving them cringing, hands trembling. Even the hairs on the back of Jake’s neck tingled at his fury.
“Get into my car, out of this filth,” Lee snapped. He waved at a police van parked a short distance away.
“I’m afraid I’m part of the filth.” Jake looked down at his ragged shirt and shorts, stained with blood from his fight with Emilio, soaked daily with copious sweat, caked with dirt not easily brushed off. His arms, face, and hair fared only slightly better from splashes of the prison’s fetid drinking water. “You don’t want me in your car.”
Lee opened the passenger door. “Get in. I am ashamed of these officials, of this prison. I would take you away if I could.”
Jake’s shoulders slumped. So Lee was not here to free him.
He slid onto the front seat, and Lee joined him on the driver’s side. Lee turned on the ignition, and cool air from the air conditioner enveloped them. Jake closed his eyes.