The River to Glory Land

by Janie DeVos

  Another thing I thought about was how close I’d come to telling everyone about my involvement with Neil. And as I stared out the window, I wondered if it had been divine intervention that had caused Buddy to interrupt me with the revelation that Chick and Laura were siblings. I wondered if it was really necessary to tell my family about the feelings I’d had for Neil. I also wondered if it would cause them more pain than was necessary. For the time being, I decided to just let it be.

  We turned west, paralleling the north side of the Miami River, and I could see the lamppost illuminating the driveway at our house.

  “I never thought this day would end, Granddaddy,” I said, turning to him with a tired smile.

  “All things come to an end, Granddaughter,” he replied, glancing over at me. “Sometimes, it’s a great gift when they do.”

  It was an odd statement to make and I felt that there was an underlying message in it for me.

  “Lily, a young heart is the most fragile thing in the world. And it is also the most easily fooled, though it is not the fault of the one who loves, but the one who stole the innocence away.”

  He knew about Neil.

  “How did you know?” I asked in a stunned whisper.

  “I just finished your sentence for you when Buddy interrupted.” He gently smiled, reaching for my hand as he did.

  “Do you think Daddy knows?”

  “I don’t know, Granddaughter, but I’d say probably not. Your father was too busy thinking murderous thoughts about Chick and the men who beat your sister to be filling in the blanks.” He gently smiled. “But even if he did figure it out, I doubt he’d bring it up unless you want to talk about it.”

  “Do I, Granddaddy? Do I talk about it?”

  “Maybe at some point, Lily. But it’s over, no?” he asked.

  “It really never got started,” I honestly replied. “At least as far as I was concerned.”

  “Well, then, why not let that little sleeping pup lie?” he said gently. “There are bigger dogs to catch at the moment.”

  I leaned over and kissed his cheek. “I’m sure glad Grandma knew a great man when she saw one,” I said as I pulled away.

  “You have her eyes, Granddaughter,” he said, looking directly into mine. “Surely you can see what is right before you, as well.”

  I looked at him quizzically, waiting for him to explain what he meant by that, but, instead, he opened the truck door. “C’mon. We’ve kept your poor mother waiting long enough. Hopefully, she hasn’t pulled out every bit of her hair worrying about where all of us have been. We’ll both tell her what’s happened. First, though, I need to make a phone call before it gets any later.”

  “Does this have something to do with your plans to take care of Chick?”

  My grandfather simply offered a small smile in reply, though there was no mistaking the twinkle in his eye. We both exited the truck and walked up the path toward my mother and sister as they hurried down the porch steps to meet us.

  Chapter 41

  Words

  I reached over and turned off my alarm clock before it could start shrilling. It was 6:45 a.m. I’d hardly slept, and my body knew it. Every part of me was aching and sluggish as though it was protesting my mistreatment of it for days on end. Regardless, my mind was sharp and that was what really mattered. I had an important meeting and I didn’t want to be late.

  When Granddaddy had said he needed to make a call the night before, he wasn’t the only one. He used the phone away from everyone in the privacy of the hallway. When he was through, I stretched the phone cord as long as it would go and called Neil from the solitude of my bedroom. He was still staying at the Flamingo, and the front desk patched me through to his room. It had taken several rings for him to answer, and when he finally did, he sounded as though he’d been asleep.

  “Did I wake you?” I asked.

  “S’okay,” he groggily replied. “I worked a double shift. It was a long twenty hours. What time is it anyway?” He yawned.

  “Eight thirty—in the evening,” I added. Not wanting to talk much over the phone, I asked him if he’d be there in the morning around nine.

  “I have a staff meeting then. Do you want to meet later?”

  “How about if I come by around eight,” I replied.

  “Eight in the evening?” He’d sounded confused.

  “No, no. I mean in the morning. I really want to see you.”

  I could tell he was smiling. “Come whenever you want to, Lily, but I have to be out of here by eight thirty. Are you sure you wouldn’t rather meet up a—”

  “No,” I said, cutting him off. “I’ll be there by eight. Go back to sleep. I’ll see you then.” I hung up before he had a chance to say anything else, or, more importantly, before I could. I’d felt as though I was on the verge of losing every bit of the self-restraint I’d been able to summon up to make the call.

  Within an hour after dragging myself out of bed, I had downed two cups of coffee, dressed, and was pulling into the Art Deco-style Flamingo Hotel. After passing through the black, white and hot pink lobby of the stylish new hotel, I took the elevator up to the eighth floor and knocked on room eight twenty-three. Opening the door immediately, Neil stood there wiping the remains of shaving soap off his face with a towel. He looked more than a little pleased to see me.

  “’Mornin’,” he said, holding the door open wide with one hand while still wiping his face with his other. “I was nearly ready. I thought I’d timed it so I would be.” He smiled, tossing the towel onto the bathroom sink before closing the door behind me. “You look pretty this morning,” he said before ducking back into the bathroom. I wondered if he thought I’d worn my new drop-waist rose-colored silk dress for him, when I’d actually worn it because of the two dance lessons I had scheduled for that afternoon, not to mention the lunch shift I was working. “There’s coffee on the table by the couch if you’re interested,” he said, poking his head out of the bathroom. He was in the midst of combing his hair. “I’ll just be a minute.”

  “That’s fine,” I said. I was glad for a moment to collect myself. I dropped my small cream-colored reticule on the couch, and foregoing any coffee, walked over to the massive picture window, where, crossing my arms in front of myself, I looked out at Biscayne Bay. It was turning into a pretty day, though the water was choppy. It was the perfect day for sailing. I would have given my last hundred dollars to be challenging the waves in one of Daddy’s fine sailboats, instead of being where I was and having to do what needed to be done. I heard Neil walk up behind me, but I didn’t turn around.

  “Lily? Are you okay?” I could hear the unease in his voice. He was unsure of my mood or my reason for my being there.

  “Why didn’t you tell me, Neil?” I said in a soft, controlled voice as I turned around. “Why didn’t you tell me that Laura was Chick’s sister?” I didn’t want to waste any time with polite but meaningless chit-chat.

  The look on Neil’s face changed from one of confusion to contrition in an instant.

  “I told myself their relationship had nothing to do with ours,” he replied weakly, unable to quite meet my eyes.

  “Why didn’t you tell me, and allow me to decide that?” I spat, anger boiling up inside of me. “Did it never dawn on you, Neil, that I might have some real concerns knowing that your wife is the sister of my grandparents’ biggest adversary?”

  “Lily.” Neil approached me. I neither backed up nor moved away, but held my ground. “Our marriage has been in trouble for some time now. I didn’t tell you because I didn’t think it would matter. I’ve been planning to leave her for some time. God knows I’ve tried to make it work, but…

  “I realized shortly after we were married that there was another side to her,” he continued, walking past me to the large window, where he raised his arms to brace himself against the glass as looked out at the rolling s
ea. “To put it simply, it’s like her mind has a hairline fracture,” he said flatly. “Much of the time, she’s as sane as you or I, but other times…She just goes off the deep end. Apparently, she takes after her father.” He turned around to face me. “According to her, he was committed to the Peoria State Hospital on several occasions while she was growing up. She simply explained it away by saying he was worn out trying to keep their failing farm going. Soon after we married, though, I started seeing small psychotic breaks in her behavior; nothing major at first. But after a while…” He put his hands on his hips and dropped his head, shaking it.

  He looked up at me again. “She wouldn’t get help. I begged her to, but she refused. So, I threatened to leave her if she didn’t. She started seeing a psychiatrist in Ocala, and seemed to be doing better, but then Dr. Jackson called, asking me to come down and help after the hurricane. I thought a fresh start might do us good. She wanted to finish out the semester of a couple of music classes she was teaching at the high school, though, and since she promised to stick to her schedule of seeing the psychiatrist, and seemed so much healthier since she’d been going to him, I came on down to Miami. I was reluctant, but, at the same time, it gave me a much-needed break from her.

  “Then I met you, Lily, and my God! You were like a breath of fresh air. Even though you were so young, you were mature for your age, and you were everything that Laura wasn’t.”

  “Including not being your wife,” I finished for him. I’d been patiently listening, but I’d heard enough. “You’re sure right about one thing, Neil; I was young when I met you. I was a couple of months away from being eighteen, and I was just as naïve as I was young. You played a dangerous game with me, Neil. You wanted me to fill a hole in you, but in return, you created one in me.”

  “But I could fill that hole, Lily,” he said, stepping toward me.

  “I don’t want you to, Neil! I don’t want anything more to do with you! Your wife tried to have my sister killed, did you know that? And did you know that she and Chick masterminded a sting in an effort to bring my entire family down? Did you?”

  Neil stood there with his mouth ajar, looking absolutely stunned. Obviously, he hadn’t known about it, but I realized in that moment that even if he had, it was unlikely he could have done anything to stop her. But he could have warned me. That would have been enough.

  “You disgust me, Neil. You’ve ended up being the antithesis of everything I once thought you were. You’re selfish and you’re a coward, and you blame Laura for being the miserable man that you are. Believe me when I tell you that you and Laura deserve each other. The break in you is far deeper and wider than hers is, Neil. She may have a fractured mind, but you have a fractured soul, and there’s not a doctor in the world who can fix that.”

  I walked over to the couch and picked up my purse. Opening it, I took out a small box with a golden lily inside and set it on the coffee table. “You can tell Laura you returned the brooch. Don’t call me, or try to see me ever again, Neil. Do you understand me? And you give Laura a message for me: If she tries to hurt my sister or any of my family ever again, I’m coming for her. You tell her that for me.”

  I turned around and walked out without another word being said. I didn’t have any left, and he didn’t have enough to make a bit of difference.

  Chapter 42

  Down the Toilet

  Scott called twice by the time I’d finished my dance lessons and the lunch shift following my confrontation with Neil. The second time he called, he left a message saying he was leaving for Cuba, and then possibly Trinidad. On the one hand, I was disappointed that I missed him and wouldn’t be able to talk to him for a while. We hadn’t spoken since leaving Buddy’s, and there was a lot to talk about. But if I were being completely honest with myself, I would have to admit that I’d miss him. Because of that, it was better he’d left. I needed some time to think.

  I remembered Scott telling me while we were walking to Mama Minerva’s that we’d shared a lot of life in just a short amount of time together, and I couldn’t disagree. In that time, I’d started feeling something for him that I never had with Neil, which made no sense to me, so I explained my feelings away by telling myself that he’d been there for me, as well as my family, when I desperately needed someone like him. However, I knew there weren’t many ‘someone’s’ like him. When I asked him to help me, he’d done so willingly and without taking much time to consider what it might cost him. In return, it hadn’t taken me long to realize that he possessed a certain unwavering courage that was born from a deep sense of goodness of what was right and what was wrong. He answered to no one but himself, and lived his life according to his convictions.

  Another thing about Scott was that I felt as if I’d known him all my life; we shared a certain knowing that required no words at all. However, trying to explain that to him so shortly after my involvement with Neil would make me look and sound foolish; like a young schoolgirl who had a different love with each new month.

  I needed time to think, and for the next few days, I did just that. But the answers to my questions only made things more complicated. Simply put, I wanted to be with Scott. I wouldn’t tell him that, though. Our lives had intersected for a short time—a time when emotions ran high, and we reacted to them. It was just a short detour from our own realities, our own lives, lives that we needed to resume. Scott had done so by flying off to Cuba. I realized that it was his way, or perhaps life’s way, of telling me that I needed to do the same.

  I tried to keep busy over the next few days. Considering that it was only mid-July, and too early for our busy season, I was grateful that I had a full schedule of dance lessons to keep me occupied, as well as an outing on the Full House.

  In the early afternoon on the fourth day after our meeting at Buddy’s, Granddaddy sent an urgent message to me in the Hibiscus Room, right in the middle of a busy lunch shift, telling me that he needed me in his office immediately. Concerned, I turned the dining room over to Peter, and hurried to his office.

  Granddaddy’s door was closed, and Lenora wasn’t in her usual place at her desk in the outer office when I arrived, so rapping sharply, I entered before he even had the chance to say, “Come in.”

  Both of my grandparents were in the room, but instead of sitting, they were standing by the window behind his desk looking out at something. They both turned to me, grinning madly, and told me to come over and watch what was just beginning to unfold. Coming up between them, I looked out at the Belvedere. The massive Mediterranean-style hotel looked as busy as usual, but there was a different kind of business going on. Though we only had a partial view of the porte cochere, we could see law enforcement cars parked there, including one from the Federal Bureau of Investigations, and two from the sheriff’s office. As I watched, I saw a man in a dark suit and fedora hat place a large box of some kind into the trunk of the FBI car.

  “What’s goin’ on?” I turned to Granddaddy.

  “Sweet retribution, Granddaughter. Sweet retribution.” He smiled smugly and drew on his thin black cigar.

  “Judith Iverson is coming back to work for us,” Grandma said, which caught me off-guard. Her comment didn’t seem to have a thing to do with what we were watching.

  “Chick’s secretary is—? Why?”

  “Because, dear one, she’s out of a job at the Belvedere,” Grandma said as she walked over to a cabinet on the opposite side of the room, opened one of the doors and pulled out a bottle of good scotch. She removed three tumblers from one of the shelves and poured a hefty shot into each one. Carrying them back to us, she continued. “Seems like the FBI got hold of a little ol’ book that Chick liked keepin’ all to himself.” She feigned a pout. “He’s none too pleased, I hear.”

  “Uh huh.” I nodded, smiling. I was starting to get the picture. “And would you have any idea how the FBI happened to come upon that little book, and what makes it so darn interesting t
o them?”

  “As a matter of fact we do,” my grandfather replied, smiling like a kid who had just whupped the schoolyard bully in front of the entire class. “I figured that since Chick runs his businesses on the not so up-‘n-up side, it only made sense that he had one set of books with the numbers he reported to the government, and another set that showed what he actually made. If there’s one thing I’ve learned in the many years I’ve lived, it’s that a wife knows exactly what’s her husband’s doing—before he’s even done it sometimes,” he said wryly to Grandma, who, in turn, winked at me. “And a secretary,” he continued, “knows just about as damn much.

  “So, when I dropped you back home last week after being at Buddy’s,” he continued, “I called Judith, and told her I’d give her back her old job, plus a two thousand dollar bonus if she’d tell me where Chick kept his accounting books—the real ones. She told me they were in the base of the toilet in his office; the one she’d never seen him use since she started working there. Judith asked Chick on more than one occasion if there was a problem with the toilet and did he want her to call a plumber, but he always told her it wasn’t necessary.

  “Judith said she’d had to come back to the office one evening for a pair of eyeglasses she’d left on her desk—the girl is blinder ’n a bat without ’em—and she saw Chick and his accountant, Parks Dolan, pourin’ over some books at Chick’s desk, and a panel in the base of that never-used-toilet was open. She never asked him about callin’ a plumber again,” Granddaddy chuckled as he turned to look out the window to continue watching the goings on. “I called the chief of police, Burl Ambrose, and told him where the books were. He’d been after Chick for a long time and had actually served a search warrant on him a couple of times but to no avail. This time, however, he hit pay dirt.”