by David Smith
“I got your message and tried to call your phone as we were leaving the Honda Center,” Malaysia said. She had a frown on her face. “When I heard your message, that you were going home early, I assumed you might be here,” Malaysia said. Behind her, Laura walked into the room.
“Blain what happened here?” Laura asked a concerned look filling her face as she scanned the cluttered mess.
“Well, at first I thought it was a robbery,” Blain said, spreading his hand across the room. “However, nothing of value was taken, as far as I can tell. The television, computer, CD’s all weren’t touched. It was almost like someone was looking for something. What scares me the most was my car was broken into at work too.”
“Your car too?” Malaysia asked.
Blain nodded. “I just don’t get it. Nothing was taken from my car either. My tennis gear, my portable CD Player, even my case of CD’s was left behind.” Blain thought back to the parking garage. “The only thing I could tell was that they unzipped all my pockets on my tennis bag, went through the glove box and went through everything in my trunk.”
Feeling the heat of the afternoon as well as his frustration and sense of violation, Blain walked over to the sliding glass door in the living-room area that led to the open grass area that was a commons area for the neighboring apartment units. It was then he noticed the glass door was already unlocked. Blain slid open the door and took a look at aluminum door frame on the outside portion of the door and saw the edge of the frame near the latch was bent back.
“This is how they got in,” Blain said, kneeling down looking at the lock. He thought he better not touch anything more since if there were any fingerprints left behind, he didn’t want to disturb them. However, considering the fact that nothing seemed to be missing, and other than a little damage to the sliding glass door, there was little need to call the police, Blain thought.
The slight breeze, now flowing through the living room and out the open apartment entry, cooled the room down.
“Seems like they were looking for something very specific, Blain,” Malaysia said looking around.
Laura joined Malaysia in looking over the mess in the room. “What would someone be looking for of yours?” Laura asked.
Suddenly Blain and Malaysia looked at each other.
Slowly, Malaysia pulled open her purse. “This,” she said, pulling Nathan Duncan’s notebook out and holding it up.
“What is that?” Laura asked, now very concerned this might somehow have had something to do with her sister.
“It’s a long story,” Malaysia said, looking at her sister, wondering how to explain that story. She looked over at Blain and said, “Blain, no one knows we have this,” she said holding out the old notebook. Suddenly, her shoulders dropped. “You don’t think it was Evelyn? She’s what…almost seventy years old.”
“No way,” Blain said. Then he thought for a moment. “However, she could have hired someone,” he said. “I’m just glad you kept the notebook after we found it. If that’s indeed what someone was looking for, it probably would be long gone if I had kept it here or in my car.”
Laura looked completely confused. “I know you guys have been doing a lot of things together,” she started, her arms spread apart. “But, what have you gotten yourself into?”
“I don’t think we knew until now,” Blain said, looking around the room.
Blain ran through the “cliff-notes” version for Laura. He felt as Malaysia’s older sister, she had a right to know what they had been doing. Blain cleared off the couch and the three sat.
He told her about the wallet, the key, the note, his discovery of Nathan Duncan and his ultimate demise and suspicion by some who think he may have stolen something of Walt Disney’s forty-plus years ago, a suspicion that seems clearly substantiated by the discovered note in the wallet and the written notes in the small notebook. Blain told her about the locker, the other key, and finally about the visit with Nathan’s sister the day before.
“You guys have been busy. Here I was afraid you guys were fooling around with each other,” Laura said, which made Blain and Malaysia look at each other, each with a self-conscious grin.
“So what are you going to do, Blain?” Laura asked.
“Well, first of all, I’m taking the notebook so that you are not involved, Mal,” Blain said, taking the notebook that Malaysia had on her lap. He then thought for a moment and had a slight grin on his face.
“Mal, I know where the money is,” Blain said. “Well, at least where I think it is.”
“I want to look with you,” Malaysia said, putting her hand on his arm.
“No, I can’t risk getting you involved.”
“He’s right, Mal,” Laura said, sitting on the other side of Blain. “You have a show, a tour, a reputation. Not to mention from the looks of this room, this is—has gotten—out of hand.” She looked around the room again. “Someone looks mighty desperate,” she added.
“Laura’s absolutely right,” Blain agreed, turning from Laura and looking back at Malaysia. “You need to go to your hotel and do nothing.” Blain paused. “I’m going back to Disneyland, after I clean up this mess, and checking something out. If it’s what I think it is, I think we can all rest a lot easier.”
“You know where to look?” Malaysia asked.
Blain nodded, his grin returned. “Injun Joe, from the book that Nathan and Evelyn would read,” Blain had started to explain. “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. The book talked about a cave that Tom Sawyer and his friend Huck Finn discovered…a cave that had a treasure chest inside hidden under a cross.” Blain looked at Malaysia and then added, “There’s a cave at Disneyland on Tom Sawyer Island called, ‘Injun Joe’s Cave.’ And, you know what’s in that cave?” Blain waited a moment as Malaysia shook her head. “A treasure chest that has been there at least twenty years that I know of…and quite possibly, from what I remember about the chest as a kid, it has been there for much longer than that. I’m betting that the chest in that cave has been a long-forgotten prop. As a landscaper, Duncan would have had access to the Island early in the morning before the park opened. He could have loaded the money in the chest and put his own lock on it, since he couldn’t just walk out of the park with it.”
“Hence his notebook referring to ‘a lock,’” Malaysia offered, remembering the handwritten messages they had read from inside the discovered notebook.
“Right!” Blain said, he too now remembering the reference to the lock.
“I want to be there with you, Blain,” Malaysia said, almost begging.
“No way,” Blain said quickly. “Like Laura said, this thing has really gotten out of hand.”
Malaysia knew she was outnumbered even though she desperately wanted to be with Blain.
“Okay. I get it,” Malaysia said, with resignation. “But you call me tonight. What time are you going to go over to the Park?”
“I’m going at dusk, right when Tom Sawyer Island is closing.” Blain paused. “I believe the money and probably that pendant, whatever it is, is there. I promise I will call you right when I finish my search.”
Malaysia turned to Blain and hugged him tight. “Please be careful, Blain.”
Blain put his hand under her chin. “I promise.” Blain kissed her softly.
CHAPTER 39
Siblings
Thursday, July 1st, 2010
5:10pm
Blain had just finished cleaning up his car down in his carport and was working on cleaning the house when the phone rang at the apartment.
“Hello?” Blain said, while trying to straighten up the counter.
No one said anything in the phone. “Hello???” Blain said again, annoyed.
After another moment of silence, the dial tone came on.
Blain hung up the phone, expecting it to ring again.
He finished straightening up the den so that at least when Sal got home from work, he wouldn’t freak out. There was no need to let him know that anything happened, cons
idering nothing was taken. He then took a small hammer he had in a junk-drawer and repaired the bent-out section on the sliding glass door the best he could. Blain did consider talking to the manager about getting an alarm system put in.
Looking at his watch after dropping the hammer back in the drawer he had gotten it from, he figured he should head over to Disneyland.
Blain had one phone call to make before he left the house. He punched in some numbers on his cell phone. After getting through, Blain asked the operator, “Security office, please.”
After a moment of hold music, a voice came on the phone, “Disneyland Security, Jerry speaking.”
Disneyland Administration Offices
5:15pm
“Mani, you won’t believe the call waiting for you on line two,” Jerry Carmack, the head of Disneyland Security said to Wolf over the phone.
Mani Wolford had a premonition. He felt the thick, black hair on the back of his head standing up when he picked up the phone and pushed the call transfer button.
“Yes, this is Mani Wolford, Disneyland Special Services,” Wolf said into the black phone on his desk.
“Hello Mr. Wolford. My name is Blain Walters. I work at Disneyland on the Davey Crockett Explorer Canoes.”
“Yes, Mr. Walters. What can I do for you?” Wolf said, waiting.
“Well, let me just say that I might have some information about some missing money and a lost pendant.”
Wolf listened intently. “Go on. You have my attention.”
5:35pm
“Blain Walters?” a voice came from the living room.
“Excuse me?” Blain said coming out of his bedroom, wondering who would just come in without knocking.
Suddenly, Blain understood.
“Sorry to startle you,” Evelyn Duncan said, standing inside the open door. Seeing her inside his apartment didn’t surprise him as much as what he saw next.
“Yes, we apologize for the mess we made,” Lynette Collins said, coming in from behind Evelyn through the open door. She stopped and stood next to Evelyn. “You’re very fast about cleaning.”
Blain didn’t follow her gaze around the room. His eyes were on the small, but obviously lethal, Colt 38 caliber pistol held in Lynette’s hand.
Blain was trying to put two and two together. The two older women could see the wheels turning.
“Mr. Walters, I believe you know why we are here,” Evelyn said. “When my sister Lynette called,” Evelyn paused, seeing Blain’s surprised look appear on his face, “Oh. Don’t worry; you couldn’t possibly have known we were sisters. Well, half-sisters, actually,” Evelyn said.
Blain’s mind was working fast.
“Our father was Paul Duncan,” Lynette offered before Blain could ask the question. “Different mothers. Same father.”
“Nathan knew, didn’t he?” Blain figured. “That’s why Rita said she saw him around you a lot at the Tiki room,” he directed the comment to Lynette.
“Yes, but we were afraid that someone would figure that we were indeed related,” Lynette said. “So I made it look like he had a thing for me and that I eventually blew him off.”
“So how is it, that Paul Duncan was father to you both?” Blain asked. He was as much curious as he was trying to buy some time to figure out his next move...if he had a next move.
Lynette answered. “My mother worked in the Sunkist Packing house with Paul. He didn’t get fired for drinking, as was the official reason you might have read about in your research,” Lynette said. “Although, he should have. However, he was fired for having an affair with my mother, Peggy Forrest. Peggy Collins Forrest. Robert Forrest, who for years I had thought was my father, was Paul’s boss at Sunkist. When my mother finally admitted her affair, he went ballistic. His first course of revenge was to fire our father,” Lynette said, glancing at Evelyn for a moment before training her eyes back on Blain.
Lynette then added, “And when my mother discovered Robert fired Paul… well, she went ballistic too…but for different reasons, obviously. It was then she told Robert that I was not his legitimate daughter, and he left us that night. For good.”
Evelyn took it from there. “Lynette’s mother told her who her father really was later.” Lynette nodded, agreeing. “In fact, Lynette was going to meet both Paul and Nathan at the worksite the day that Paul was electrocuted. After our mother left dad, and after Robert left Lynette’s mother, Paul and Peggy were going to get married, I later found out. I found notes that Peggy had sent our dad for years that described their love for each other. But, of course, Paul died,” Evelyn said with a slight frown.
“It wasn’t Nathan that found Paul dead, was it?” Blain asked. It really wasn’t a question. “Which is why the police report had identified the call in to the ambulance was done probably before Paul’s body was discovered by Nathan.”
“You have done a lot of research, Mr. Walters. You are correct. I called for the ambulance,” Lynette said. “I had found out where Paul was working that day and I was going to try and have dinner with him and Nathan that night…to break the ice—or the news, as the case may be. It was my mother’s idea.” Lynette said, gathering her thoughts. “I was in shock when I saw Paul’s truck and then literally stumbled upon Paul lying not far from it.” She shook her head, trying to empty something stuck in her mind. “I was devastated. I never got to know him. I didn’t want to meet Nathan like that…under those circumstances. So, I drove to the nearest gas station and phoned the ambulance and the police.”
“When did your mother tell you that you had a half sister and brother?” Blain asked Lynette.
“My mother told me when I was twenty,” Lynette said. Evelyn and Nathan found out a little after Paul’s death. When I came to the funeral, we took one look at each other and we just knew,” Lynette said, smiling for a moment at Evelyn.
“Eventually the truth came out right after Paul died, and Nathan and I felt a compulsion to learn more about our blood sibling,” Evelyn added.
Lynette nodded. Obviously it was more like a reunion than any sort of conflict, Blain was thinking.
As if reading his mind, Evelyn said, “Nate and I always had wanted a sister. We only had each other and for a long time, we didn’t have any friends. Nathan and I were very close, but I began getting more attention from boys when I got to be a teen. Nate, on the other hand,” Evelyn paused, shrugging her shoulders. “Well, Nathan never blossomed.”
“So, did Nathan enjoy knowing he had a half-sister?” Blain asked.
“Yes,” Lynette said. “In fact, he was actually infatuated with me for quite some time. So a lot of the time he was seen with me at Disneyland, it looked a lot like he was courting me…which in a sort of strange way, he was. He doted on both me and Evelyn, wanting to, quote, ‘take us away to some tropical paradise,’” Lynette added.
“So, he got you both hired into the Park?” Blain asked.
“No, not quite,” Lynette said. “I was already working there and since I had a different last name, Forrest, I was able to recommend him as a referral.”
“You got hired to work Cash Control, so you could make it possible to steal the money,” Blain figured, speaking to Evelyn.
“Almost right,” Evelyn said. “With two referrals, me using a fake name, and my experience in helping keep books for mom at the furniture store, I was hired to do accounting. I moved to Cash Control within a few weeks. That is when Nathan told me about a plan,” Evelyn said.
“So Nathan didn’t know you would be working Cash Control?” Blain asked.
“Not at all. He kept telling us about a pendant, something Walt Disney had,” Evelyn said. “We didn’t really believe him; he kept going on about some ‘power’ the pendant possessed, that he was determined to get it. Then Nathan said he had some vision, some dream, about taking the bags of money.”
“But, he didn’t want to have us involved in case something went wrong,” Lynette said and then added, “Which we all now know, something did go wrong. Of course,
when Nate died, no one was able to find any clue, any note or diary or anything that alluded to his stealing the money or the pendant.”
“Which, by sheer luck, fate, whatever you want to call it, you somehow found the rest of his note and the key that Nathan left,” Evelyn said.
“A key and a note left for US,” Lynette emphasized.
“I don’t know what you are talking about,” Blain lied. “I only looked up on the Internet and found out about how Nathan died.”
“No, you and that little girlfriend of yours were asking all the right questions, to both of us,” Evelyn said, nodding to Lynette. “You know where the money is hiding. You have the key that Nathan had mentioned.”
“Which explains my car and apartment,” Blain said, matter-of-factly.
“Yes, we are sorry. We wanted what we knew you must have found, the rest of the note,” Evelyn said.
“And the key,” Lynette added.
“But you never found them here,” Blain said. “Because at the time, they weren’t here.”
“We could only assume you had it with you or very well hidden. We wouldn’t have guessed your little girlfriend had it with her,” Lynette said this time. “But now, we know you not only have the clue, but more importantly, you literally have the missing key to that clue.”
Blain looked a little dumbfounded as he couldn’t fathom how they knew that he and Malaysia had found the notebook and subsequent key in the back. The two women sensed his confusion.
“We overheard you talking to the two girls in here an hour ago. We were right out there,” Evelyn said, pointing to the open sliding glass door that went out to a communal grass area between the different apartment units. “We now have all the parts of the puzzle that Nathan left us,” Evelyn continued.
Blain just looked at the two women. He shrugged. “So, what if I don’t feel like giving you the key? What, are you going to shoot me? If I die, so dies Nathan’s secret.”