Cynic, Surfer, Saint (Scenic Route to Paradise #1)

by Andrea Aarons

  Toni was sitting up. She wore the same black pants and turquoise blouse from their dinner in Wilmington. The bottle of water was on the end table next to a folded wet washcloth. Cushions and pillows were lying about. Hugh was pacing as Mishael approached with another pillow. Hugh took it and threw it. “That one is rough and thick,” he told Mishael. Mishael shrugged and sat on the far armrest at Toni’s feet, poking the offensive pillow under his arm.

  Toni said, “I think I am altogether better.” She swung her bare feet to the floor. There was a single flip-flop on the floor. The other was under the Azalea bush.

  “Drink that water,” Hugh ordered. She took a sip.

  Rifta squatted in front of her. He examined Toni’s face. “Tell us whole thing,” he said. Toni was distracted for a moment by his fat lip. She looked away, first to Mishael and then to Hugh. Hugh’s angry demeanor moved her to look back to Mishael. She told the story of falling asleep on the couch and then awakening to the sound of the apartment door lock being picked. When they asked her about the alarm, she said she rarely set it. Hugh stomped about at this piece of information, glaring first at Toni and then at the other two. She continued her account and even Hugh thought climbing under the Azaleas was genius.

  Rifta asked, “Yes, that good move. How they find you?”

  Toni told them how she had called and when Rifta didn’t pick-up, she dialed Hugh. When he answered, her assailant was walking only inches in front of the bush where she was concealed. Toni was afraid Hugh’s voice would be heard – and that is the reason she hung up.

  “I thought one of you might return my call and so, I turned the ringer off,” Toni said. “The other guy came around the back of the garage. I saw him. When they met, one coming from the front and the other from the back, they stopped and started talking,” Toni explained. Pausing, she took a drink of water. “I couldn’t see them. There was too much shrubbery and it was dark but I could hear them speaking,” she looked at Hugh.

  His eyebrows shot up. “What did you hear?” he asked. Rifta stood up and folded his arms. She put her head back and placed the back of her hand over her eyes.

  “I thought they were after Mishael and I was a secondary target,” she began. She didn’t want to appear dramatic but she was shocked by their words.

  Should I tell them everything? She wondered. Toni said buying for time, “They were cussing a lot.”

  Rifta exclaimed, “Yes, you think they angels? No!” He was shaking his head.

  Toni peered up at him but his puffy face inspired her to look elsewhere.

  “Yes, tell!” Rifta commanded impatiently.

  Hesitating, she said, “I heard them say that they came for me and then my phone alarm went off.” Toni finished by explaining about her phone alarm and then, that the men had dragged her from the bushes. Not remembering anything else until she woke up on the couch.

  Hugh paced about irritably. Finally, he asked Rifta, “Is Toni all right? Does she need a doctor? What do you think?”

  Toni interrupted, “I’m all right! I definitely don’t need a doctor.” When they ignored her, she appealed to Mishael who continued sitting on the armrest. He shrugged and then got up to get a piece of fruit from the bowl on the counter. He wandered away eating a pear.

  Rifta was saying that she was “okay” but she needed to set the garage alarm before she sets her cell alarm.

  Hugh gave Toni an annoyed stare. He said, “You need to be more careful.” Turning, he then marched upstairs.

  Staring at her, Rifta stood with arms still folded. He nodded, “We talk later, no?” His eyes traveled significantly up toward Hugh.

  She bobbed her head in agreement before he left her, disappearing into the gloom of the dark hallway.

  Mishael had gone to examine the surf in the predawn light. He hadn’t figured out about Merry’s part in swell forecasting but Toni had mentioned that she set her alarm to get up early to check out the water. “Toni, it looks perfect... very good!” Mishael told her over his shoulder. Apparently, forgetting about Toni’s brush with disaster, his enunciation was accentuated by his excitement.

  “Well, I am glad someone is pleased with me this morning,” she replied. Gingerly, she got up from the couch. She was going to be stiff and sore. The scratches were not serious but she had put up a fight… Her fingernails were broken or sandy black dirt under the unbroken ones. Toni stretched and moved her arms and legs about. She was going to be sore… and stiff.

  Joining Mishael at the window, the misty morning surf looked delightful. The flag on the deck before them was fluttering off shore. It would be a while before the sun crested the horizon but the wave was shaping up now. Toni said, “Give me 40-45 minutes, okay?”

  Merry had been correct. It was going to be a banner day.

  Chapter 18

  The increasing rumble of the surf woke Toni early. After making a large mug of tea, she met with Rifta at the counter in the beach house kitchen. He was making a fresh pot of coffee while simultaneously finishing the last cup of his overnight brew.

  “Rifta, what happened to you the other night… Uh, yesterday morning? Hugh sure was mad at all of us and I suppose for sound reasons,” Toni said.

  He sat across from her, and stared into his own cup. “I stupid,” Rifta said. “I leave my cell, my bag – my gun, few minutes and hell come to earth. Stupid!” He repeated. He took a drink of his coffee and looking at her over the rim, Toni saw his eyes light up. He said, “Yes, you tell me what those bad guys say.”

  Toni looked over her shoulder toward the stairs and then back to Rifta. She said, “I suppose we need to compare notes.” He nodded.

  “We learn, no? Never let it happen that way again, no?” Rifta leaned back on the high stool balancing on two legs, like a school kid in third grade. “You first, then me and we learn, no?”

  Toni looked over her shoulder again. She said, “Rifta, I don’t know what to make of this information but I think you and I together might come up with a solution. Can we pray first? I think God will help us.”

  Rifta let his chair drop with a thud. “Yes, we pray! You pray and you get almost died.”

  Toni gave him a severe eye. A look which she had used frequently on her Sunday School students, and specifically when a child was acting up. She said, “Almost dead is not dead!” She reached across the counter for his hand and said a simple prayer. Smiling at Rifta, Toni now felt confident that together they would organize a plan. She worried about the situation and hadn’t slept sound with the increasing surf compounding her insomnia.

  For Rifta’s part, discounting the scab on his upper lip and red bruise on his cheekbone, his faced showed a satisfaction at Toni’s expected prayer. Toni tried to read people but she wasn’t always successful. In this case, Rifta appeared smug. It crossed Toni’s mind that he would have been disappointed somehow if she hadn’t suggested including God at this juncture.

  Toni decided she had better make another cup of tea. She put the water on as she began speaking of the dialog she withheld from the telling of her misadventure in the wee hours of the morning, the day before.

  “After I turned my ringer off,” Toni began. “I saw the other fellow come around from the beachside of the garage. I got a good look at him before he stepped into the shadows and out of my sight. I think I have seen him around – maybe at the Beachcomber.” She sat down again waiting for the water to boil. Rifta had returned to his precarious leaning position. Toni said, “I don’t know how close they were to me. I guess 7 or at the most, 10 feet away. I couldn’t see them. They didn’t seem too worried about being heard. I suppose they thought it was safe out of sight of the house and there aren’t any windows on that side of the garage either. Anyway, both men were cursing like drunken sailors and the one of them says, something about the police coming but the other says, not to worry about it because the old lady would keep them out of trouble like she did before.”

  Rifta perked up at this. Thud. The chair came down again. Toni looked be
hind her at the steps. “You’re going to wake somebody up,” she scolded.

  “So this guy coming around, he no go up to your place. He watch. It the other guy,” Rifta said putting into words Toni’s own deduction. “Yes, tell about the old lady,” he demanded.

  “I’m getting to that,” Toni replied. “I never told you Rifta, but the Nelsons hired me after I rescued their little girl, Mishael’s half sister – Misha Nelson from getting kidnapped. The man was released by the police without explanation. I saw him myself a few days later at the Albuquerque airport. At least, I am 99% sure it was him.” Rifta and Toni looked into each other eyes. Rifta shook his head.

  “Say more,” he said with disgust.

  Toni told him about the nanny job and how the man had climbed up the balcony and came through the motel French doors. She got up to make her tea but first she poured a heater into Rifta’s coffee mug. Letting her tea leaves soak, she sat down again. “Like I said, I could not see their faces – too much shrubbery and it was dark in spite of the moonlight, but I think the other guy is the same one that came for Misha in Santa Fe last month,” she told him as he nodded. Toni glanced again toward the steps. She said, “There is more. Their boss is Rose Cervantes.” Toni twisted in her chair and pulled a tissue from her bag that hung on the back of the stool. Her eyes had teared-up and she blew her nose. Leaning back in his chair again, Rifta said nothing but watched her as he waited. Embarrassed, Toni got up and went to her brewing tea to finish making it up with cream and honey. She said, “I suppose, this sort of thing happens all over the world but I have lived a sheltered life, married to a moral and loyal man… Anyway, those men said that Rose and her old man had plans to make Misha the next monarch of D’Almata.” Toni returned to the counter with her tea.

  “I remembered my training and I fumbled about with my phone recorder to catch what they were saying. At first, I didn’t realize it was Rose Cervantes but I understood only that a girl was to replace Mishael.” She blew her nose again and smiled a cheerless smile at Rifta. His lips forming a tight smile, Rifta nodded for her to continue.

  Next, she retrieved her cell phone and put it up on the counter. “I got it here,” Toni said nodding at the phone. “Well, some of it.”

  Rifta shook his head. “Yes, it clear now. Yes, my phone ring before you call. It say, Neighbor here! I call you because there are bad guys over here. Something like that… Then, ‘do you come over here and check for me?’ Yes, I say no but I look on the camera to see if there somebody at the property line. So. I look but I leave my bag and my phone to go to the camera room, no? But these monsters are coming from the other side. I don’t look there.” Rifta let his chair drop with a loud thud again. “Maybe they set me up, yes? Yes! I don’t know but when I look to my cell – you already call. Then Hugh D’Almata come down and they do a job on me,” Rifta said this and rubbed the back of his head. His lip was no longer huge but still slightly swollen and a red crack where it had been split.

  “Oh… I know. I’m sorry,” said Toni. Then she said, “But Rifta, they said they came to get me… I was in the way of ‘the old lady’s plans’ they said.’”

  Rifta asked, “Yes, you? Not me? They scared of you? Me too!” He was smiling and she knew he was having a joke. “What that phone say,” he asked picking up her cell. She took it from him and after a moment voices were heard. There was intermittent interruption as the surf broke and then the voices again.

  They leaned close to listen as the phone lay between them on the counter.

  “…scout around for few minutes but the old lady said they wouldn’t call the police” The waves disrupted the words here.

  “... the money is good now but when that brat is made queen the big bucks will be rolling in.”

  “She has the Duke wrapped around her little finger. They’ve been together for years…” The surf interrupted here and then, “The old lady, she wants Merriweather packed off and out of the way.” And also, “Yeah, you told me that but you said she carries a gun…” The surf interrupted again. The alarm went off and then there was cursing and scuffling and various static noises. Toni reached over and shut it off.

  She said, “That is all I got. It continued recording for about 10 minutes, though – mostly surf. I found it under the bush yesterday morning when I went looking for my bag, and my missing flip-flop.” She blew her nose. She looked up at Rifta but he was staring past her. She didn’t turn around. Toni knew that Rifta was looking at Hugh. How long had he been standing there as we concentrated on my phone? She wondered.

  Toni was infamous for telling incomplete truths; not lies but partial truth. To this extent, looking at Rifta she said using an unnaturally high tone, “Well, Rifta that is about it. Okay, then. We need to keep our eyes peeled and be more vigilant. You want another cup of coffee?” Toni was positive she sounded less than convincing. Rifta shook his head no, saying, “I’m tired, no? Now, I go to bed. Wake me for lunch.”

  Rifta nodded at Toni and then over her shoulder, he nodded again - at Hugh.

  Hugh came around to the other side of the counter and poured himself a coffee.

  “Oh, good morning,” Toni said trying to sound cheerfully indifferent. “The half and half is over here,” she added when he opened the refrigerator. He didn’t say anything but put out his hand as he approached the counter from the refrigerator. She handed him the half and half.

  Hesitating, he took it. “Thank you,” Hugh said but his eyes seem to say something else to Toni. He glanced at her phone and then looked away. Casually she looked at her phone, checking the time before dropping it into her bag.

  “Oh, my tea got cold,” she said as she got up and went to the microwave. The microwave sounded as her tea was warmed and she retrieved it.

  Finally Hugh spoke. “We are at a strange crossroads. Would you not agree?” He was seated where Rifta had sat some minutes before. Toni wanted to leave but she knew it would be rash if not, rude. She came back to the counter but didn’t sit.

  “Cousin Huram, explain what you mean because I do not want to presume to know what you truly mean,” Toni said with eyes averted as she blew into her teacup.

  He reached across the counter and gently pulled her chin up to direct her look at him. Toni did not like this. Men don’t touch a woman’s face unless he is her dentist, her hairdresser or her husband. Even so, she didn’t pull away but wondered if her eyes were red from the few tears she recently shed.

  Hugh said, “Why do you call me Cousin? I’m not your cousin. Certainly call me anything you like – Hugh is fine.” And then he said, letting go of her chin and with a wave of his hand, “Agendas. That is what I mean. I am talking about agendas. Your agenda is one thing and mine, apparently is something altogether different than what you ‘presumed.’” He drank from his coffee cup but his eyes remained on her.

  Toni said, “I suppose. And yet, I think we are in agreement on more important matters than what we are in disagreement about.”

  Hugh’s eyebrows shot up and he replied, “Yes, I hope so. Now stay true to your promise and tell what your agenda is and then, I can tell you mine.”

  Toni remembered their discussion from weeks ago about agendas and how she had promised herself to evade this conversation indefinitely. “Well, now…” she began as she tried to sort out what to reveal but not say anything that would prolong this uncomfortable conversation.

  Hugh had heard her “well, now’s” aplenty since they met and now, he interrupted. “Why don’t you start with money, and proceed from there?” He suggested.

  Money is an odd subject and I don’t think I would start here, she thought. It was true. Money was the least of her concerns at the moment but she saw it as an easy way to dilute the full truth.

  “According to my God - the God of the whole universe, ‘the love of money’ is the heart and soul of evil. I do not ‘love’ money but I took this job because I must pay my bills… My finances are upside down,” she said but was startled to see Hugh’s eyebrows
shoot up again. His expression confused Toni and yet, she hurried forward wanting to finish this discussion as soon as possible. She walked away, turning to face him again as she leaned against one of the couches several feet from the counter. “I had hoped to secure another job with the Nelsons after Mishael returns to D’Almata but I’ve decided to take another position at that time,” she said this knowing it was true. Again it was a partial truth as she hadn’t decided what job she would be taking – only she wouldn’t be hired by the Nelson’s after overhearing her attackers’ disclosure. Hugh got up and walked past her to the window.

  “Yes, of course. What position are you taking after Mishael and I leave, if I may ask?” But he didn’t sound as self-assured as he had moments before.

  “Well… it’s confidential at this time. Are we still speaking about agendas? The rest of my agenda includes keeping your cousin, Mishael safe and teaching him how to surf,” Toni concluded. She was done with this conversation and Hugh’s agenda seemed too complicated at this point. She was sure he wouldn’t tell her the full truth anyway... I didn’t tell, she reminded herself.

  “Come, see this surf,” Hugh suggested although his tone was a demand. The sun was up now behind the hurricane clouds on the horizon and there was a resplendent sunrise. The huge waves were rolling and crashing high up on the beach. She put her cup down and came over to the picture window. Toni hadn’t checked the tides but it looked like the tide was still coming in.

  Hugh appeared to forget about their conversation as he spoke. “The waves can get like this off D’Almata… not too often but sometimes. Most of our shoreline is rocky or bluffs – cliffs... Beautifully scenic but difficult for the small fishing families.” He straightened and put his hands behind his back clasping them. He said, “I ask about your new position because I had thought to offer you a teaching post on D’Almata.” Glancing quickly at Toni, he looked back to the surf. Toni looked to him and caught his eye before he turned back. She felt her gut leap.