Kala pressed a button on the phone console. “Ask Jay to come to my office. Linda, too.”
Jay bounded into the room, followed by his wife. He grumbled the whole time about Kala’s being retired and still showing up to work and screwing things up. Linda rolled her eyes, until Kala said, “Enough already! Tell me your best recollection as to why we never delved into Audrey Star’s background ten years ago at trial.”
“Because she was the victim. We did go into her background. She was a socialite, spent money like she printed it herself, partied around the globe, slept all day, and partied all night. She was addicted to manicures, pedicures, facials, massages, and loved to be pampered. She was engaged six times, kept the flashy baubles when said engagements were broken. She gave away her globe-trotting stilettos when she met and married Adam Clements. It was a happy union. Then she died by someone’s hand. We said not by Sophie Lee’s. Spenser said yes to Sophie Lee. End of story. And there you have my photographic mind at work.”
“Jay is right. That’s exactly how it happened. In his closing statement, Spenser gave a touching eulogy of Audrey Star, and the jury bought it,” Linda said.
Kala blinked. “Well, then, read this report. Right now! I’ll go get us some fresh coffee.”
When Kala returned to her office fifteen minutes later, Jay was trying to argue with his wife, who was refusing to be baited. Kala set the tray down, poured out three cups of coffee, then took her seat. “Arguing is for fools,” she said pointedly. “We need to have a discussion.”
“I hope you aren’t saying or thinking we screwed up—because we didn’t. Rosenberg wasn’t talking back then. And even if he had been, what difference would it have made? Sophie Lee was on trial, not Audrey Star.” Jay’s tone was so belligerent, Kala reared back.
“Well, it might have given us some more insight into Adam. We might have been more aggressive with him.”
“And the judge would have slapped you down in a nanosecond. I remember the all-nighter we pulled back then, trying to decide how far we would get if we tried something like that. You, Kala, made the decision not to pursue it. We also had a money problem at that time.”
Kala did remember that all-nighter. And Jay was absolutely right. She said so, gently, so as not to irk him even more. “I’ll be out of your hair shortly, so stop complaining. Then you’re going to really miss me, and you’ll start calling me all hours of the day and night just to hear my voice. And guess what, Jay Brighton? I will not take your calls. So there!”
“That’s not it at all, and you know it. You’re forgiven. Did you call Sophie yet to tell her the check was deposited? And when are you going to tell us what happened with Ryan Spenser?”
“How about right now? I’ll call Sophie later. She’s probably still sleeping or just about to get up.”
Linda settled herself more comfortably, and said, “Well, I for one am all ears. Shoot!”
“Yeah, tell us what the Great White Prosecutor had to say that took almost two hours. I can hardly wait to hear this,” Jay said through clenched teeth.
Kala leaned back in the cracked-leather chair and brought the tips of her fingers together to make a steeple. “Remember how I always say nothing is exactly what it seems? Well, this, my dears, is a case in point.”
“Yeah, well, I have one other point to make,” Jay continued to grumble. “We should have all gone to the Star mansion with Patty and Nick. Five sets of eyes are better than two.”
“Then who would run this very busy, thriving office?” Kala snapped back. “Relax, if there’s anything to find there, those two will find it. Trust me on that, partners.”
Two hours later Patty sat down on the floor Indian style. “There’s nothing here, Nick. This place is a nightmare. Any minute now, I’m expecting Merlin the Wizard to pop out and wave his wand. Can you imagine actually living here in this ... this ... ?”
Nick leaned up against a wall. “I think the word you’re looking for is nightmare. And, no, you couldn’t pay me to live in a house whose walls and ceilings are painted dark blue with gold stars. On top of all that, the furniture is covered with sheets. It’s ghostly, to say the least. I guess the staff took care of everything before they closed up the house. I think you said this house is eight thousand square feet, and we’ve covered four thousand feet so far and found nothing. I’m game to continue, but I don’t think we’re going to find anything.”
Patty shrugged. “You never know. They say if you want to hide something, hide it in plain view. This is the library, and I say this only because I peeked under the sheets draping the bookshelves and saw all those books. Adam must have been a reader, or else Audrey’s parents were readers. Then again, they could have bought all those books from some vendor just to fill up the shelves. People do that, you know. They want to appear intellectual to their friends. We actually did a human-interest story on that a few years ago when I was at the AJC. The bottom line”—Patty giggled—“was if you gave any of those people a quiz on the books, they couldn’t tell you a thing about them. It was stupid.”
“Journals are books, aren’t they?”
“Damn straight they’re books,” Patty said, leaping to her feet. A second later, the sheets were lying on the floor. “Well now, lookie here! And there’s even a library ladder. I’ll do the climbing, Nick.”
“Don’t worry, I’m not going to fight you for that honor. Are they listed in alphabetical order by author or title?”
“Looks like by author. Lots of first editions here. I see Huckleberry Finn, six different editions. The Great Gatsby, three editions. Gone With the Wind, three editions. Someone must have been a collector. Rare books are worth a fortune. Wonder if Adam read them to Audrey. Forget I said that. It was a stupid comment. The report said Audrey liked Adam to read her political thrillers. The spines haven’t even been broken on most of these books.”
Nick peered up at the top shelf. “If I remember correctly, Huckleberry Finn was written by Mark Twain, which was his pen name. His real name was Samuel L. Clemens. Those editions say Samuel L. Clemens. Don’t you find that a little strange, my little reporter?” Nick grinned. “Think about Adam’s last name. Isn’t it Clemens?”
Patty was already on the ladder. “I think there’s a T in his last name. But I get your point. I’ll drop them one at a time, and you catch them, okay? Wow! Someone paid out a lot of money to have these bound in this luxurious leather, and the letters are all gold embossed. Nothing chintzy going on here, that’s for sure.”
“For sure,” Nick muttered as he opened the first book. “And what we have here are Audrey Star’s missing journals! Are we a team or what? You have to admit, this is pretty damn clever on someone’s part, and my money is on Adam. I bet he did this for his wife as a gift or something. Maybe after her accident to perk her up or something,” Nick said, pointing to the six books on the floor.
Patty nodded, beyond excited. “You take those three, and I’ll take these three. From what I remember of the report, Audrey probably started writing journals around the age of sixteen, maybe earlier, can’t be sure. Let’s just find the earliest date and go on from there. What we’re really looking for, though, is the last one, dated ten years ago, the year of her death.”
They worked in silence, riffling through the pages, and finding a lot of the entries nothing more than chicken scratches. “She really couldn’t write,” Nick blurted. “This is like some pidgin English. But look how beautifully she writes her name. It doesn’t compute.”
“Rosenberg said she could sign her name for everything, which is what she did. I guess she had a lot of practice. I feel terrible pawing through this and talking about her like she was some dummy. She was a real person with limited abilities. This is really sad. What do you suppose was the attraction for Audrey and Adam? And don’t say money.”
“Maybe he wanted to help her, save her from herself. You said yourself there was never any scandal about the two of them until her car accident, and that wasn’t a scandal. It w
as just a tragic accident that had its run of a week in the AJC. Fifteen minutes in the spotlight, then it’s all forgotten by everyone except the parties involved, who are left to pick up the pieces.”
“I guess that makes sense,” Patty said, stacking the leather-bound books into a neat pile. Now what?”
“We keep searching until we see if there’s anything else to uncover. This might just be the tip of the iceberg. Let’s take another look at these books. Adam hid the journals in plain sight, so he might have hidden other things here as well.”
Patty scanned the shelves until she came to the Js, then said, “You know what, Nick? You are an absolute genius. Look at this! Four books, bound in the same leather as the journals and written by someone named J. J. Jewel. Thick books, too, from the size of their spines. Bigger than your traditional hardcover book. More the size of a reference book. And look at this—they’re hollowed out. Jewelry! Oh, this is some really gorgeous stuff! Look at the sparkle on these diamonds! Do we take them or leave them? I don’t know much about costly jewelry since I never had any, but I don’t think we should leave them since the house is empty, alarm system or not. What do you think, Nick?”
“I say we take them. Do you think Sophie will wear all this stuff?” Nick asked anxiously.
Patty glared at Nick. “Never in a million years. Sophie had a string of fake pearls and a bracelet she bought herself and, of course, her most treasured necklace, the locket you gave her. She never took it off until she was arrested. I have it to give back to her, and I bet that’s the first thing she asks about.”
Patty tried to hide her smile at Nick’s sigh of relief.
“I think we can leave now. We found pretty much what we were looking for, the diaries and the jewelry. If Kala wants us to, we can always come back. I hate this place,” Patty said, looking around. “I wonder why Adam never redid it after his wife died. Hey, wait a minute, I want to see the room where Audrey died before we leave, and no, I am not being morbid. I just need to see the layout. You want to come with me or wait here with our loot?”
Nick looked out the door at the stairway and shook his head. “I’ll wait here. I can start taking all this out to the car if you like.”
“Okay, good idea. Be back in a flash.”
Upstairs, Patty walked down the hallway till she came to a suite of rooms that obviously belonged to Audrey. Minus the dark blue walls and all the stars, it would have been a beautiful luxurious suite. Patty thought she could probably fit her entire little house into just those two rooms.
Patty stood in the doorway and winced at the sight of the hospital bed. Adam had left it just as it was, right down to the rumpled sheets and light blanket on the bed. It looked to her like he had just closed the door and walked away. There was dust everywhere, the sheer curtains were gray and limp looking. A vase of what had once been flowers, which had petrified, sat on one of the night tables. She’d seen pictures of this very room at the trial, but seeing it in person was altogether different somehow. The pictures in court were of the furnishings and didn’t show the bizarre walls and ceilings, with all the gilt stars of all shapes and sizes.
Was this room a shrine? Did Adam come in here and ... do what? Stare at the bed? Did he close his eyes and see his wife propped up on the pillows wearing a pretty nightgown? Sophie had told her once that she had to change Audrey three times a day so that when her husband came to visit, she always had on a gown that was freshly ironed and scented with her favorite perfume.
Patty turned to look around the huge room. An ugly wheelchair sat in one corner. An artificial tree or plant of some kind partially hid the chair. The plant was thick with dust, almost obliterating the green color of the silk leaves.
A tear formed in the corner of Patty’s eye. How sad all this was.
Patty walked around one more time, into the sitting room, the dressing room, the giant bathroom that was bigger than most people’s living rooms, hoping to see something that would be of significance. There was nothing to see. Her shoulders slumped.
“Rest in peace, Audrey Star,” Patty murmured as she closed the door behind her.
Out in the hallway Patty called Kala to report in. “Depending on traffic, we’ll be back at the office in thirty minutes, forty-five if we hit the wrong lights. Have Bobby meet us in the garage with a dolly. The books are really heavy, and Nick can’t lift them except one at a time. Saves us a bunch of trips if he can meet us.”
Kala said she was excited with the news, and Bobby would be waiting in the parking garage. As always, she warned Patty, or in this case, Nick, to drive carefully.
Chapter 24
IT WAS SHORTLY PAST THE NOON HOUR IN HAWAII. THE GOLDEN sun was high in the cloudless blue of the sky. The brilliant sapphire ocean was calm as the tide rushed out. Even the sand glistened from the glorious golden sun as Sophie and Sula made their way back to the little house they shared. The warm breeze that caressed Sophie’s body felt like a mother’s gentle touch.
It took only minutes to make a sandwich and pour a tall glass of pineapple juice and carry it out to the lanai, her favorite place. She set down a small bowl of food for Sula to reward her for the ten-mile hike across the sand. The big dog ate daintily, then moved to a shady spot near where Sophie was sitting. They talked then, or at least Sophie did, and Sula listened.
“I have to say, Sula, I have never been more content than I am right now. However, I’m itching to get out and about. To see people, to say hello or smile at a stranger. I want to walk into a store, buy something even if it’s just a trinket. Mostly, though, I want to buy a tube of lipstick. You probably don’t know this, Sula, but girls need lipstick. Bright cherry red to go with my suntan. I never really had a suntan before I came here. I’d like to buy some mangoes on my own. I don’t exactly have cabin fever, but I’m getting close to it. I’m starting to feel a bit like a prisoner. I know it was important for me to come here because I couldn’t have handled the media circus back in Atlanta. I could now, though. I’m sure of it.”
Sophie slid off her chair and sat cross-legged on the floor next to Sula. She stroked the big dog’s head as she continued to prattle on. “Look at all the progress I’ve made since coming here. I can swim like a fish now, and I’m what they call toned. I learned how to do the hula. Even Kiki isn’t laughing at me now. He said I’m just as good at it as all the cousins. I took that as a real compliment. And the leis I make are just as good as the ones the natives make. Of course, that’s my opinion. I think, and again, this is just my opinion, but I’ve become something of an expert on Hawaii. I’ve read everything there is to read about this beautiful place. I know all about the flora and fauna. I know about the traditions. I could probably give a lecture on Hawaii if anyone were interested enough to listen.
“What all that means, Sula, is this. I’m ready to take my place in the world. My feet are more than ready to step forward. I miss people. Being alone is okay for a while, but now it’s time to get on with life. I want to see Patty and Nick and Kala. I want to talk all this through one last time, so I can put it behind me.”
Sophie leaned back against the chair and felt her eyes start to close. Only there in that island paradise did she nap or doze off in the middle of the day. She’d never taken a nap in her whole life.
That was when the cell phone on the table rang. Sophie blinked, got up, and flipped it open. She heard Kala wishing her a good afternoon. Sophie smiled because Kala sounded upbeat, and there was a smile in her voice. She hoped it was good news. She listened. A long time later, her face wreathed in a wide grin, she managed to say, “Are you telling me right this moment, I can hang up the phone and walk to town and actually go into a store? Okayyyy. And I can make arrangements to fly back to Atlanta tomorrow if I want to? I can even call Patty and Nick and talk for hours or until the battery on the cell phone goes dead? I can do all those things if I want to? What does ten million look like?” Sophie laughed when Kala said it was just a blue slip of paper with numbers on it.
&nb
sp; Sophie continued to listen as Kala brought her up to date. They talked for another fifteen minutes before Sophie closed the phone and placed it back on the charger. She was so excited, she thought she was going to explode. She danced around the lanai, then ran out to the beach, threw her hands high in the air, and shouted to the world that she was free and alive and could do what she wanted from this moment on. She thanked God, the heavens, the universe, then sat down on the sand and cried like a baby. Sula was there in an instant, trying to lick away her tears.
Sophie wrapped her arms around the big dog as she continued to cry into the thick fur of her neck. “I can’t leave you, Sula. What will I do without you? But would you be happy back in Atlanta?” Sula licked at Sophie’s tears, then barked. “Does that mean you want to go with me?” The big dog barked again. “Maybe the cousin who owns you will sell you to me. I’m rich now, Sula. I’d give it all up if they let me keep you. Oh my God, oh my God! What day is today?”
Quicker than lightning, Sophie ran into the house to the kitchen, where a calendar hung on the wall by the back door. “Please, please, please,” she said under her breath as her finger traced the days. What day was it? She didn’t know. One day was just like the day before here, and it was hard to keep track of the days even if she tried. And she hadn’t. She turned on the little television sitting on the counter. She clicked on the Fox network to see the time and date. She ran back to the calendar, her fingers marking off the days. “Yessssss!” she screamed at the top of her lungs. “Yes, yes, yes, a million times yes.” She bent over to kiss the calendar. “I am Tuesday’s child!” she continued to scream. When she was exhausted, Sophie walked back to the lanai and reached for her cell phone.
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