Rudy's playful yelps snapped her back to attention.
"Rudy, get back over here!"
She heard shuffling coming her way and she braced herself in memory of being knocked down the last time.
It was Sage. Her eyes were wide as saucers, her pupils dilated as if she were trying to see in the dark. Her skin was pasty white with pink-blotched cheeks. She looked terrified. Or in shock.
"Sagey, what's wrong?"
Sage just stood there, moving her lips as if trying to tell her something. Freesia crouched down so they could look eye-to-eye. "Sage? Look at me. C'mon, look right in my eyes so I can tell you're hearing me."
Sage shifted her gaze.
"Okay. Now, what's going on? Where's Rudy?"
Sage's face went even paler, her breathing speeding up. She pointed behind her to what seemed like endless overgrowth. There was no path beyond where they stood and Freesia knew she'd walked this same way to climb up the rocks last summer. An ice-cold wave sloshed through Freesia's gut.
She stuck out her hand. "Show me."
Sage grabbed her hand and ran with her through the thick bushes.
"Slow down, Sage. It's hard to see in here."
Freesia wondered how her sister knew where she was going when the branches were almost as tall as she was.
After about five minutes of stumbled speed-walking, they reached a tiny clearing. Freesia leaned over, trying to catch her breath. Sage pointed down. When Freesia stood and followed the direction of her finger, her jaw dropped. She was utterly spellbound.
A small, absolutely glorious pond that looked like something plucked from Fantasy Island and dropped there surprised her. Completely opposite to everything around it, the trees were green and lush, their branches hanging down as if to shield it from unwanted eyes. Steam rose from the water just like the hot springs in Banff. She saw a humungous boulder on the shoreline with a canoe pulled up alongside it. A small grass hut stood a few feet behind the boulder. It was like a tropical paradise right in the middle of West Hawk Lake.
Okay. Is this real? I know this wasn't here before.
She was about to ask where Rudy was when she saw the dog running along the shoreline, stopping to bark at the water from the boulder. She crouched down on her haunches and whined. Not getting a response from whatever it was she was trying to get at, she ran back and forth along the shoreline again.
"Rudy!" Freesia hollered.
The dog's ears stuck up. Something behind Rudy caught Freesia's eye. She drew in a sharp breath when she saw a tall, lanky figure wearing a hooded, buck-skinned poncho come out of the hut, approach Rudy and touch the top of her head. A few seconds later, the dog flopped down on her side.
"Rudy!" Freesia wailed.
The figure looked up at her. Her heart pounding, she grabbed Sage's hand and rushed down the side of the hill, sliding most of the way, to get to Rudy. When she finally reached made it down, hot tears stung her eyes as she let go of Sage's hand and put both of her hands on the dog. Rudy was breathing soundly, like she did when she slept. She scanned the area around them but didn't see the figure who'd done—whatever—to the dog.
Sage stood on the boulder, pointing ahead of them.
Freesia's heart was pounding so fast, she thought she was going to pass out. "Sage, stop fooling around—" A scream was trapped in her throat.
Mizu was lying in the lake, just beyond the boulder, completely underwater. She was naked, her hair floating around her like it was suspended in air, and her eyes were closed.
Freesia moved closer, swallowing hard. Should she get help? Was Mizu okay? Should Freesia drag her out?
The Goth girl snapped her eyes open. Freesia let out a soft cry and jumped back, shoving Sage behind her.
Mizu sat up, adjusting her hair to cover her chest. "Do you mind? I'm trying to take a bath here."
"Who takes baths underwater with their eyes closed?" Freesia tried to calm her racing heart. "You scared the crap out of us. And I think your guardian or whoever he is did something to my dog because she isn't moving."
Mizu frowned, pointing beside Freesia. "Your dog looks okay to me."
Freesia looked back at Rudy, who was sitting up, her mouth open and panting as if nothing had happened.
Mizu continued. "And my guardian isn't even here. Why would I take a bath like this with a grown man around to gawk at me, guardian or not?"
"I know what I saw," Freesia said.
Mizu gave her a half smile. "Really? And what do you think you saw?"
Freesia snapped her mouth shut. She knew she wasn't going to win an argument with Mizu at that point and it just didn't seem worth it to try.
"Do me a favor if you're going to stand there staring at me." Mizu reached her hand up. "Give me that wrap beside you."
The tan-colored wrap was more like a beautiful buckskin bathrobe accented with intricate beading unlike anything Freesia had seen. It was lying on the rock beside her sister's feet. Sage picked it up and handed it to Freesia, who grabbed it and passed it over to Mizu. As the girl strained forward to take it, Freesia noticed that even though she'd been underwater, her Cleopatra-styled eye makeup and ruby-red lipstick were still on. They hadn't smudged, smeared or even looked like they had faded. She frowned.
Weird. Must be some awesome, space-type, everything-proof makeup.
"Something wrong?" Mizu asked with a bite of sarcasm in her tone. She stood, turned her back to the other two girls and slipped on her wrap.
Freesia shook her head. "Aside from finding you taking a bath in the middle of some man-made tropical paradise? No, nothing's wrong."
Mizu turned back around, adjusting the wrap about her body. She looked like some sort of Native Goth princess. Sage moved behind Freesia, peeking out past her elbow.
Ever since her nightmare the other night, Sage seemed even more introverted than she had been before. She wasn't making any eye contact at all, not even with her family. And forget about trying to communicate with other people. Freesia wasn't sure how much more Sage's heart could take before it shattered completely.
"Is she okay?" Mizu crouched down and looked at Sage.
Freesia put a protective arm around Sage. "I don't know. I guess she's scared too. Do you blame her? She has speech problems, so she doesn't talk. She can sign a little bit and uses a special keyboard to talk."
"Hello there," Mizu said to Sage, smiling. That was the first time she'd seen Mizu smile like that since they'd met. "Don't be scared. There's no one around here who wants to hurt you. I hear your mom was really cool. She'd be proud to know you're trying your best to talk and let people understand what you think and feel and…know."
Freesia's stomach twitched after Mizu's last statement.
Is she trying to probe my sister for information?
She shoved Sage completely behind her. "So, uh, Rick is coming over tonight to go over what we've found. We're trying to decide whether to talk to Detective Cuaco and how to tell him what we've found. Did you want to come over? I mean, you seem to know a lot more than we do, so maybe we could put our heads together and—"
"Do some 'team work?'" Mizu finished. "I'm not really into all that. Besides, you guys seem to be a great team on your own." She waded up to the boulder and then climbed out of the water.
Freesia walked backward, with Sage clutching the back of her sweatshirt, to make room for Mizu to walk by. Instead, she stood right in front of Freesia, their faces a few inches apart. She smelled like fresh water and jasmine.
Why is that so familiar?
"Tell you what," the Goth girl said, her eyes never leaving Freesia's. "I have something to take care of later. For my guardian. I'll come see you guys on my way back. When do you have to go inside at night, like eight or something?"
Freesia felt her face flush. "Closer to ten."
"It wasn't a shot or anything. Just wanted to make sure you'd be there if I could come. You're lucky to have grandparents that give enough of a crap about what you do and where you are. Not
everyone has that. Later."
With that, Mizu walked barefoot up to the grass hut and disappeared inside.
Freesia grabbed Rudy's collar and slipped the leash back on her. "Sorry, girl. It's not that I don't trust you." She stared at the hut as she guided everyone back up the hill. "It's more that I don't trust what happens around here anymore."
When Freesia, Sage and Rudy returned home from their mini-adventure, Freesia saw Len and Bob through the screen door seated in the living room, talking to Granddad. As she was about to open the door, she heard Len speaking. "Well, you're going to have to tell them now, George. The time has come."
"Yeah," Bob agreed. "Plus with Barry's new theory, it's better we come clean with all of this so we can help fight off stupid rumors."
Len nodded. "They've gone through enough already, George. And we don't mind."
Rudy barked.
Stupid dog. Bond would totally leave you behind on a secret mission.
Granddad adjusted himself in his chair while the other two men stood up. Rudy lumbered up to Bob, shoving her head under his hand.
"What's the matter, girl?" Bob said. "Not getting enough lovin' around here? Hold still. I'll give ya a nice rubdown."
While Bob rubbed Rudy's face between his meaty palms, Granddad waved at Len to sit back down. "Gran's in the kitchen making a batch of oatmeal cookies. Why don't you go in and see if there are any samples yet?"
Sage didn't need any more prompting after that temptation.
Freesia, on the other hand, was more difficult to distract. She plunked herself down beside Len. "So, what's better for us to hear from you?" She leaned back into the loveseat.
The men all looked at one another. Bob's vigorous doggie rubbing slowed to long strokes. Len ran his fingers over his bald head and leaned on the armrest. Granddad tapped the arms of his chair with his fingertips.
Alrighty. I can be stubborn too.
"What do we need to know?" she repeated, overemphasizing each word. "Look, obviously you found something out and I deserve to know."
Granddad cleared his throat, nodding at the kitchen door. Freesia looked over too, seeing Sage shoving half a cookie in her mouth.
"Bob and Len came over to chat with me and Gran about a couple of things Detective Cucao found out. They also had some questions for us that they thought we could help them sort out."
"Questions about Mom?"
"Yes, and about a few other things." Granddad scratched his stubbly chin. He looked down at Bob, who gave Rudy once last pat. Bob turned around, staying on his knees, leaning closer to Freesia.
"You know that my wife, Mary, runs the motel and cabins up the road, right?" Bob seemed to take Freesia's silence as a cue to continue. "Well, the detective was going through some of our old surveillance videos from around when your mom disappeared. And a couple of days before they think she was gone, she came up on tape."
Freesia shrugged. "So what? She's friends with your wife, right? Maybe she was there visiting."
"No, honey." He shook his head. "She wasn't there to see Mary. And she wasn't alone either."
"I don't understand."
"The night she came in we had one of our assistants watching the place so me and Mary could go to the city for a family reunion. Jessie was his name." Bob kept his voice low. "You remember him, right? He slips Sage those chocolate-covered mints."
She smiled weakly, nodding.
Bob sucked in a deep breath and continued. "Well, Jessie says that your mom checked in for the weekend. And she had a visitor."
Freesia's smile disappeared. She didn't like where the conversation was going. "You aren't saying that you think my mom was screwing around with someone, are you? Because my mom would never do that to my dad."
"Well, honey, your dad woulda been gone by that time…"
Freesia stood up. "It doesn't matter. That would have only been a month or whatever after my dad died. She was totally wrecked—crying all the time, missing him. I'm telling you there's no way she would have been with some other guy that soon. No way."
Her voice was louder than she realized. She shoved her hands in her jeans' pockets to hide how badly they shook.
Granddad finally spoke. "Truth was, Freesy, she and your dad had been having tons of troubles before he left for that last peace mission and she—"
"I don't believe any of this crap," Freesia screeched. "I didn't see any problems. Mom would have told me. And she sure wouldn't have just turned her back on us to go be with someone else."
Suddenly, Sage appeared in the kitchen doorway, chocolate rimming her lips. She had a tray balanced on her hands piled with cookies, Gran right behind her with a carafe of coffee and a tray of mugs. Sage's chin quivered. She dropped the tray and covered her ears, cookies crashing to the floor. She ran to her room and slammed the door so hard, the books on the shelf beside her doorway tumbled down.
"Great," Freesia mumbled, tears trickling down her face. She put her hands on her hips and stared at the ceiling, trying to force the tears to stop.
Freesia stared out the window. The wind stirred up the water, making it choppy. She watched some kids on air mattresses going up and down on the waves, struggling to maneuver their floaties back to the shore.
Were there clues? Had she known that was happening but refused to see? She allowed her memory to take her back.
Her mom had gone away several weekends while her dad had been on a peace tour, even during the winter months. She remembered that they'd been fighting a lot more before he'd accepted his assignment.
"You don't have to accept all of these missions, you know," her mother had told him. "At your rank, you can refuse them and have one of the lower-ranked guys in your unit go."
"Tam," he had replied. "You know they need every rank on these things. I can refuse, but after a while, there's no choice."
"There's always a choice," she'd said. "You can't just keep accepting these assignments. It won't change anything."
It always escalated from there. During the last fight, just before Dad had to go away, she even threw a glass at him. After Dad left, Freesia remembered a few phone calls she was ushered out of the room for. She'd just assumed it was her dad. There had also been the cell calls and texts.
Bob and Len both looked at Granddad. "Please, Freesy. Just listen. That's why these two are here to chat with us. To try putting our heads together so we have more to go on."
Freesia hugged herself. "So, what exactly is on this video?"
"I haven't seen it." Bob looked over at Len. "But from what I understand, it shows her checking in. After about an hour, three different men came within two hours apart."
Bile swirled in her stomach. "So? How does he know those guys where there to see my mom?"
"Because the first two guys were heard asking for her and she was seen meeting each of them at the front desk. And Jessie remembers them."
She paused before asking her next question, not sure if she really wanted to know the answer. "What are you trying to suggest here? That my mom was seeing different guys?"
Len shook his head, waving his hands frantically. "Oh, God no! That's not what we're saying at all. But that's the theory the detective is working on right now. At least the one he's trying to eliminate. And I wanted—I needed—to tell you that I know it can't be true. "
Bob shifted his weight from one foot to the other.
Gran sniffed.
Freesia swallowed hard. "I totally appreciate your support, Len, but how do you know for sure?"
"Because," he bowed his head. "I was one of the guys from the video. I saw her that weekend."
Chapter Seventeen
Gran burst into tears and perched on Granddad's stool. Granddad reached over and rubbed her back, handing her a tissue.
Freesia's mouth hung open in disbelief. "Len, I appreciate your honesty, but why are you telling me this?"
He looked up at her, his cheeks glistening with tears. "It was important to me that you hear it from me. There are some n
asty rumors going around and—"
Freesia put a hand up. "I know. I've heard some of them."
"But it wasn't like that. Ever. She was helping me through some tough times, but she and I—we never—"
"Freesia," Granddad said, "what Len wants you to know is that your mom's job meant the world to her, only second to you and Sagey. She went above and beyond her job description to help people who needed her the most. She met them in their homes or at the hospital."
"Or at a motel," Freesia said.
Len nodded, wiping his face on his sleeve. "Right. Well, she met with me that weekend to say she could close my file. She said that I was doing well enough that we didn't need regular sessions anymore. It was a relief, but sad too, in a way. I was sort of used to seeing her every week, you know?" He released a nervous laugh.
"Again, I appreciate you telling me all of this. I just don't understand why you're telling me this now."
"Because it's important for you to hear the good your mom was doing—from those she was doing it all for—before it gets all twisted around by the police or the papers or some idiots just wanting to start trouble," Gran said, wringing her Kleenex.
"Okay." Freesia blew out sharply. "Who were the other two guys in the video?"
Len and Bob looked at Granddad. "Frank Oakley," Len said without looking at Freesia. "He had his back to the camera, but he was wearing the same blue sweatshirt at both times, so it was assumed that it was him both times."
Frank was seeing my mom too? Things are just getting more and more interesting around here.
"I saw her too," Bob said. "But not that weekend. My file had been closed a while back. Without her help, I wouldn't be here. Straight out."
"But I don't remember seeing your files," Freesia said, her voice barely above a whisper. "I worked on almost all of her files at least once."
Granddad shrugged. "Don't know. Guess she thought since you knew Bob, Frank and Len that it would be too hard for you. You know, maybe it would have hit too close to home. Plus, you and Rick are friends and all."
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