Peggy Holloway - Judith McCain 01 - Blood on White Wicker

by Peggy Holloway

  She had on a beige straight-skirted dress with a wide alligator belt and alligator pumps. She had on one bracelet that was silver and, as she talked to Jean, she waved her hand, and the bracelet caught the light and sent out little shiny lights.

  I had stopped halfway inside the gallery and was standing there watching her when Jean spotted me.

  “Come on over, Vicky.” He said.

  He introduced us, but I didn’t hear a word he said, and I don’t think she did either. It was like looking in a mirror before I had my own hair done.

  Julia said, “You look just like me except for the hair. If I didn’t know better, I would think we were twins. But I know we aren’t because my parents said that I wasn’t adopted. They have always been truthful with me.”

  I knew her parents were lying, but I couldn’t figure out why at this point.

  She said something that surprised me, “My parents want to meet you. Can you come home with me? I live in St. Augustine, Florida.”

  I told her I would let her know. I didn’t understand why her parents would want to meet me if they didn’t think we had any connection. I wanted to talk this over with my new best friend, Rosa.

  CHAPTER 10

  On Sunday, Rosa and I decided to go to the nursing home where Henrietta Hendrix was and see if we could talk to Tom, the nurse. I was hoping he would have some information for me. The nursing home wasn’t very far from where we lived. When we got there we were told that Tom was off that day but would be in the next day, for the three to eleven shift.

  When we left there, I asked Rosa if I could drive. After all, I had a license now. She said that I could since it was just a little ways but she would take me one day farther out in the woods to get some practice. I drove home and she said I was a good driver.

  I was feeling frustrated with things moving so slowly, about getting answers. I was still thinking about going to St. Augustine to visit Julia, and she kept calling to try to talk me into it but I was scared. If Rosa could have gone with me, I would have felt more comfortable, but Frank said that he couldn’t let both of us off at the same time. I was doing well at the club and making lots of money, but I had a lot on my mind. It was no surprise when I had the dream again.

  The unicorn is lying on the floor. The two masked men are trying to get the two little girls down the ladder and out the window. Then the camera lens swings over to the woman that looks like me, and she is lying in a pool of blood. The camera lens swings over to a wicker rocking chair. And in it sits Henrietta Hendrix’s daughter. There’s blood on her forehead and on the wicker rocking chair she’s sitting in. At her feet is a man with light brown hair that looks like he has been shot in the chest. He’s lying half on the rocker of the chair and there’s blood all over the front of his shirt and on the rocker.

  This was farther than the dream had gone and this time when I woke up screaming, it took Rosa awhile to wake me up. When her calling my name finally got through to me I started shaking and crying. She held me and I couldn’t have asked for a better friend.

  It was almost two o’clock on Monday. We had to be at the nursing home before three to, hopefully see Tom before he went in to work. We had to hurry. We both jumped up and threw on a pair of jeans and made such good timing that we were in the parking lot of the nursing home by two thirty, and it wasn’t long before he pulled up right beside us.

  As we were all getting out of the car, he happened to glance over at me and then did a double take,

  “Vicky? Is that you? He said. “Are you all out now? I’d sure like to see Jesse. Did they all move back into Dave’s house?”

  “No, I’m sorry they’re not out as far as I know. Do you have any information for me?”

  “Okay, here’s the thing. Henrietta died about a week and a half ago.”

  “Oh no, another dead end” I said. I was so disappointed.

  “I’m sorry, but she did rant and rave about some things while she was dying. I don’t know if any of it means anything. It didn’t make a lot of sense to me.”

  I held my breath as he stood there thinking, “She said,‘I didn’t tell, I should have…had to protect my girl…what happened to the poor little girls? Where did you take them? Go to police, tell them, please…please…please,’ does that mean anything to you, Vicky?” Rosa and I looked at each other and Rosa gave a tiny shake of her head. I told Tom that it didn’t mean anything to me.

  While we were driving home, Rosa took that thick braid and began flipping it again and I knew she was thinking.

  “Here’s my thinking on this thing, Brandy,” she said. “First of all, I don’t think we should trust anyone. If Henrietta was involved, and her daughter apparently, we don’t know who else was involved in this thing.”

  “But what is this thing?” I said. “I’m beginning to think this dream was something that really happened. I think the two little girls were me and Julia. I think that Henrietta’s daughter was maybe our nanny and she was somehow involved, even though, in the dream, she looked like she was hurt too. But that might have been a put on so she wouldn’t look guilty.

  “I know she is guilty of something because she ran from both Jesse and me and later from Tom. She also gave a false address and phone number to the nursing home even though she knew they would need to get in touch with her in case something happened to her mother.”

  By now Rosa was really flipping her braid, “That’s my take on it. And I’ll tell you something else. I think you need to go to Florida. Those people are lying and I think you can figure a way to get some more information. Snoop around every chance you get. Let’s call Frank when we get home and tell him you have a personal emergency and have to go out of town immediately. In fact, let’s see if we can get you a plane today or tonight and I’ll call Frank for you.”

  We found out that there was a plane flying out of New Orleans at six thirty seven and arriving in Jacksonville, Florida two hours later due to the one hour time difference. I called Julia and asked her if it was too short a notice and she said of course not and that she and her parents would pick me up at the airport in Jacksonville. She said it was only about thirty miles from St. Augustine. I was used to packing really fast by now and, on Rosa’s advice, I took everything except my costumes.

  CHAPTER 11

  As far as I knew, this was my first flight. I was a little nervous, but not as nervous as meeting Julia’s parents. In fact, I was terrified of meeting them. If they were lying to her, then it made no sense that they would want to meet me. I couldn’t figure it out.

  The flight seemed to take forever. I had let Rosa talk me into buying a first class ticket, so the seats were very comfortable and the drinks were free. I had two bourbon and cokes to try to relax.

  When I got off the plane, Julia and her parents were waiting for me. I was shocked when I saw how old they were. They looked to be in their seventies. Julia gave me a warm hug, but her parents made me feel unwelcome. They were almost hostile. When they caught Julia looking at them, they smiled at me.

  They told me they were glad I had come and they had been looking forward to meeting me. Their words didn’t seem to match up with the vibes I was picking up from them. I felt very uncomfortable.

  After getting my luggage from baggage claim, we got into a limousine waiting at the curb. We headed down I-75 and crossed several bridges before we got out of Jacksonville. We exited off the freeway onto state road sixteen and went left.

  Julia was talking a hundred miles an hour. “…and this is state road sixteen. We’re heading towards the beach. You’re going to love the beach. And it’s only a couple of blocks from our house, right dad?”

  He gave a fake smile and she didn’t seem to notice. In fact, she hardly paused to breathe.

  “The beach we live at is called Vilano beach. The other beach is called St. Augustine beach, but the locals call it Yankee Beach. It’s crowded, our beach isn’t crowded.”

  I was trying to listen to her and think. Her parents looked to be in their
seventies. If her mom was, say seventy three now, then when Julia was born, she would have been fifty seven. Could a woman that old have a baby? Did I do the math right?

  “And then there’s the cook and housekeeper.” Julia continued, “Her name is Joyce. Oh, this is where we turn. This street is called San Marco. There’s the park over there and the library. And this is where we turn toward the beach. We’ll go across another bridge and then we’re practically there. Hopefully we won’t have to wait for the draw bridge. Sometimes it gets stuck.”

  She finally shut up. She was beginning to get on my last nerve. A couple of blocks after we went over the bridge, we turned left then the next left. We pulled up in front of a large house that was on stilts. The house looked like it was covered in small shells and I asked what it was. I was told by Julia’s mother, who hadn’t said a word before, that it was called coquina.

  I noticed that there was parking under the house and what looked like an apartment under there too. The house was sitting on a canal and there was a large boat tied to a dock.

  When Julia saw me looking at the boat, she said, “This canal leads directly into the Atlantic. We’ll go out on the boat while you’re here, which I hope will be a long time.”

  I noticed that neither of her parents said anything. I was sitting there thinking about their attitude when Julia said, “Well, come on Vicky.”

  I noticed that everyone was out of the car and climbing the stairs on the outside of the house. The chauffer had my suitcase.

  We walked up the stairs together and she put her arm around me. There was a deck that ran all the way around the house on the second floor, and the whole house was mostly glass.

  “Come on Vicky,” Julia said, “Down this hall.”

  Just seeing the back of this house where we had come in, I hadn’t realized how big it was. What she had referred to as a hall was like a walkway with doors on one side and sliding glass doors on the other that opened onto one long deck. You could see both the canal and the ocean from there. She opened one of the doors and said “Ta da!”

  The room was beautiful. It was done in turquoise and watermelon colors. The spread on the king-sized bed looked like it was painted to look like a tropical island.

  “Did you paint this?” I asked Julia. She was smiling her beautiful smile.

  “I painted it and the walls and picked out everything in here and also in my room. Come look.”

  We went next door and her room was decorated in black lacquer furniture with lime green spread, curtains and carpet.

  “This is beautiful,” I said but then I gasped. She followed my gaze to a painting over the bed.

  “Oh, I painted that a couple of years ago. You like it?”

  It was a field of daisies and a unicorn running in the background. The unicorn’s horn was slightly curved. If I had had any doubts about her being my twin and that the dream was real, I most definitely didn’t now.

  “Julia, did you ever have any dreams…”

  Just then her mom walked in and I noticed that Julia was several inches taller, a lot thinner, and her coloring was altogether different, from her mothers.

  “You girls ready to come in for a light supper? Since it’s getting so late, I thought we would have a nice seafood salad. Since it’s a special night, I’m going to allow both of you to have a small glass of wine. And for dessert, Joyce has made Bananas Foster as a tribute to you, Vicky.” She said all this without looking at me. Then she patted Julia’s arm and left.

  “We’ll be right there, mom,” Julia called after her. Then, she asked, “Do you want to freshen up?”

  I said that I did and she followed me into my room and sat down on the bed.

  While I was in the bathroom freshening up, I was thinking about all that I had discovered and decided to wear the unicorn to dinner and see if I could stir things up a little. Julia was talking the whole time, telling me about her school and also the special art classes she took.

  She continued to talk as I came out and put my suitcase on the bed, opened it and took out the unicorn and fastened it around my neck

  Julia got up and took it in her hand. She studied it intensely.

  “Would you look at this? She said. “This unicorn has a curved horn just like the one in my painting. This is very beautiful. Where did you get it?”

  My temper snapped, “Is that all you want to know? You want to know where I got it?”

  “Have I done something to offend you? If I did, I’m sorry.”

  “No, I’m the one who’s sorry. Can we talk about this after dinner? I guess I’m just tired from the flight. I’m sorry. After I explain everything, I think you’ll understand.”

  The food was fabulous, but the cook was a surprise. She was beautiful, with black hair, fair skin and icy blue eyes. And there was no way she could have hidden her perfect figure under the uniform she was wearing. She smiled brightly at me as we were introduced.

  “Isn’t she beautiful, Vicky?” Julia said, “I think she should be a model instead of a housekeeper and cook.” Joyce smiled and shook her head like she had heard it all before.

  “What do you girls have planned for tomorrow?” asked Mr. Reynolds, Julia’s dad, while looking only at Julia.

  Julia set down her wine glass. “Let’s go to the beach, okay, Vicky?”

  I thought this would be the perfect place to talk so I agreed. Then I thought of something. “Don’t you have school?”

  “Oh, I’m taking the whole week off so we can be together.”

  “Julia is so smart, she can do that from time to time,” Mr. Reynolds said, again not looking at me but at Julia.

  She might be book smart but she sure is stupid when it comes to real life, I was thinking. I knew I needed to give her a break. She had obviously led a very sheltered life. But I think that at that point, at least a small part of Julia was beginning to put some things together.

  For her, when the truth came out, it was going to be devastating. It was different for me. I was used to a hard life and this was something good. For her she would have to admit that her parents had been lying to her all this time. Part of me wanted to protect her because I already loved her very much.

  Then there was the selfish part of me that wanted to get all the answers. I wanted for Julia and me and any family members we may still have out there somewhere to be together.

  After dinner, Julia and I went up to my room and talked. She wanted to know all about me and I told her all I could remember about all the foster homes I had lived in. I had to avoid some of the things because she was obviously still a virgin.

  “So, you don’t have any clue as to who your real parent are? Wouldn’t it be fun if we investigated it kind of like Nancy Drew? Let’s do it, Vicky, dad will help us. He has a lot of influence. He’s a very powerful man and can get things done like you wouldn’t believe. And he has the money to accomplish anything. He’s amazing! Let’s ask him.”

  This almost sent me into a panic. The last thing I wanted was Mr. Reynolds to nose into my past and I’m sure he would pay anything to hinder any investigation. I was afraid she would talk to him about it and knew I had to put a stop to this right now.

  “Julia, I appreciate it but I’d rather just spend our time we have together doing some fun things, okay?” She reluctantly agreed.

  By midnight her eyes kept closing and she said she was going to bed. There was no way I could go to sleep this early, so I went out and sat on the bank of the canal. I wasn’t there long before Mr. Reynolds came and sat down beside me.

  He started talking as soon as he sat down, “What do you want and why are you here?”

  “Why, Mr. Reynolds, You invited me, remember?”

  “I had to find out, to meet you, to find out what you wanted. Okay you look a little like Julia. So what, everyone had a double out there somewhere. You think you can exploit this somehow to your advantage? I must warn you, I have a lot of influence that isn’t limited to this town.”

  “Yeah, Julia t
old me how rich and powerful you are and suggested that we asked you to help find my real parents. If I’m not mistaken, you would do anything to stop me from finding my real parents, if they’re still alive.”

  He moved so fast I thought he was going to hit me and I drew back, but he was standing up reaching for his checkbook in his back pocket. He pulled it out and got a pen out of his shirt pocket.

  “All right, how much do you want? Name you price.”

  “I don’t want your filthy money!”

  He put his checkbook away, “I want you out of my house tomorrow. Find some reason, some excuse for going home. And if you tell Julia about any of this conversation, you won’t live to regret it.”

  “Are you threatening me?”

  He looked me straight in the eye and said, “Yes, I am.”

  I felt a cold chill rundown my backbone.

  After he walked away, I sat there with my knees drawn up and my arms wrapped around my knees trying to control the shakes, when I heard someone approaching. I was afraid it was Mr. Reynolds again but it was Joyce.

  She was wearing tight jeans and a longed sleeved black sweater. She looked beautiful.

  “Kind of chilly out here tonight isn’t it?” she asked as she sat down next to me. I knew also that she wasn’t who she pretended to be. And this scared me more than anything.

  I got up and started to the house, but turned back when she said, “I’m on your side, Judith I mean Vicky.”

  I came and sat back down, “Why did you call me Judith? You’re not a cook and housekeeper, are you?”

  “Look, Vicky, I screwed up just now, after seeing how scared you were. You can’t give me away, or I could get killed. You’ve got to promise me.”

  “I do promise you. I’m scared of these people, so why would I give you up to them if you’re on my side? But you’ve got to tell me what you know.”