by Bowes, K T
Hana put her arms around her son, holding him close. “I’m pleased to hear you say that.”
“It might be the same for you next year, Mum.” he said hopefully. Hana nodded and thought it could be. She made some good decisions the previous day and meant to live her life differently, without craning her neck constantly to view her past mistakes.
Bo got up and fetched Jas another biscuit and the child smirked greedily. “He said I could only have one,” he snickered and Hana shook her head.
Bodie pulled a chair up in front of Hana’s feet and told her to put her legs up. “Fit midwife’s orders,” he told her when she protested.
“Letchy boy!” she admonished him. “What did you do up north?” Hana sipped her tea gratefully and tried to ignore another urge to pee.
“We did in-sti-ga-ting stuff,” Jas piped up, whispering confidentially behind his hand, “like proper defectives!”
Hana smiled brightly at him and then looked at Bodie for help. His eyes narrowed and he wouldn’t look directly at his mother and she knew something was wrong. “Come on, Bo,” Hana sighed. “I know that shifty look. Out with it, please?”
Bodie bit his lip. “I went looking for answers actually, to your little problem.”
Hana’s jaw dropped. “Oh my gosh! Izzie said you did and I didn’t believe her. And you took your baby!”
“No!” said Jas loudly, “No babies. Just me and Daddy!”
“How about,” Bodie said to his son, wiping his face on a tea towel, “you go down to the spare room and find a jigsaw puzzle to do in the living room?”
“Not again!” said Jas crossly, but obeyed.
Hana wanted to laugh at the child’s impertinence. “Tell me!” she demanded once Jas had gone.
Bodie was reluctant, protesting he hadn’t even expected to see anyone at her house, let alone be interrogated. “On the way down from Auckland, Jas recognised the road and wanted to leave his new toy; on your pillow, as usual. I don’t have a key anymore but remembered the gate code. I thought he could leave it on the doorstep.”
Hana closed her eyes and leaned her head back against her seat. “What’s happened to us, Bo?”
“I’m sorry, Mum,” Bodie capitulated eventually. “I’m sorry for everything. You were right about all of it.”
Hana put her fingers over the bridge of her nose. “What a mess.”
“Shall I tell you what I did up north?” Bodie said, concerned by her pale complexion and the resignation in her eyes. He sought to distract her. “Well, when the detectives in Hamilton wouldn’t tell me anything, I went up to Whangarei and saw some diving buddies. I felt sure we searched a few lakes in Northland looking for a woman whose last will and testament is at the centre of all this. Remember when we came down to Hamilton and searched the river at the start of this year? We found eight shopping carts and four bodies, but none of them was hers. I got some info, just on the down low and then Jas and I went to see the family.
“By the way...” he reacted to Hana’s slight opening of her mouth, “I know heaps about the guy Logan took up to the hotel – and yes I know that’s where he still is. In fact, I made out I was a friend of his looking him up and I visited his family.”
Hana’s eyes grew wide and Bodie raised his hand to halt her inevitable interruption. “Turns out it’s all a big mess. Laval dated the old lady, won her over and wanted to get her to change her will so he benefited. Oh, it’s all more complicated than that, I know, but that was the upshot. And he was smooth, really clever. Laval took her to a lawyer mate of his and she signed her life’s work and property away. Then he took her to a cash point and it seems she parted with most of her savings on some pretext of booking a holiday together or some such crap.”
Bodie looked as his mother, who had gone a little white. Hana waved her hand at him, urging him to continue. “It just sounds exactly like what he did to Ethel Bowman,” she said sadly, dwelling on the lonely, overweight matron who lost her home and her faith in human nature. The broken woman left her job of forty years and went to live with her sister, penniless.
Bodie eyed Hana nervously but continued, “The old lady got home and told her son and he went mental. He thinks she actually scared herself realising what she’d handed over to Laval. He called in the rest of the family and there was a big scene. They made her realise she’d been conned and got her to ask for the cruise tickets from Laval. His number was no longer valid and he’d taken the money, a copy of her will and scarpered. No surprises there. The son called in the cops and made a statement, but not before he got her to reassert her original will. He thought it was a precaution because the woman was fighting fit and having the time of her life and not likely to die anytime soon. But she disappeared two days later on a trip to the supermarket and hasn’t been seen since. The cops used different bits of intelligence and ended up searching watercourses and lakes. Found nothing.
“Laval must have been responsible because a couple of heavies turned up at the farm and roughed up the son I met, Greg Stanton and his wife and demanded the second will. They resisted, so the guys beat him unconscious in front of his wife and kids and she gave him the copy they had. The guys asked if there were any more copies and they said just the lawyer’s. The guys left, cops came, usual statements, crime scene investigators at the house, no leads. That night, the lawyer’s offices burned down in town, but the will never went to a lawyer. It was handwritten, witnessed by a family friend and a neighbour. The wife just picked a lawyers’ office out of the phonebook. Laval didn’t know that though and must have thought he could safely revert to the will he had. But there is another physical copy, owned by one, Robert Dressler, also known as Flick. He’s a stepson through the woman’s second marriage, so not easily traced to the family. He’s entitled to half of everything. He set off after Laval, a nasty bit of work by all accounts but then he disappeared as well. His copy of the will hasn’t been seen since his brother put it in his hand, but Flick’s ex-wife lived in Huntly and boarded their sons at Waikato Pressy Boys.”
Bodie broke off and took a slug of his cooling tea. Hana shook her head to clear her brain, feeling bombarded by all the information. “So one of this man’s boys might have put the will under my car in that box?” she asked. “After I parked it in the car park?”
Bodie nodded and swallowed. “That’s what I think happened, probably some time before Christmas.”
“Then who were the woman and the boy who tried to mug me that night? That was so frightening! And it was way before any of this stuff started. It doesn’t seem connected.” Hana shuddered visibly, remembering how they attacked her and crumpled baby Elizabeth’s picture.
“The boy was Flick’s son, Mum. It was definitely connected. Gwynne identified him to the cops. He was the older one who attended the school two years earlier. The younger one was still there. It’s possible he put a brick through the windscreen.”
Hana chewed her lip. “Oh my gosh! So...the younger one’s still at school now? Watching me?”
Bodie shook his head and leant forward to reassure Hana, touching her hand as she clutched her mug. “No! I rang Angus from Whangarei, the kid left a few months ago. Some trouble in the boarding house. Angus sent him packing.”
“So why do you think it was put on my car before Christmas?” Hana asked as her brain did somersaults.
“End of last term at the latest. It’s just how all the dates fit. You probably drove around with it stuck there all summer. Did you use the car much over the holidays?”
“No,” Hana shook her head and shrugged. “I just stayed home and did the garden at Achilles Rise. I went to Invercargill with Izzie and Marcus, but we took a taxi to the airport so it was garaged the whole time. That accounts for the three weeks after New Year. Before that, Izzie and Marcus lived with me and if we went anywhere, he used his car not mine, because he got fed up of my nana driving.”
Bodie smirked. “That sounds like Marcus. Laval’s guys probably pulled the town apart looking for you ov
er the summer and got nowhere. Which is why they waited until you went back to school at the start of the year. They went to where the car was last seen, which probably seemed the most logical place to start. Mum, Logan said you were nearly knocked over on the first day of term. Why didn’t you tell me?”
Hana shrugged. “It didn’t seem relevant. I thought it was just someone driving too past dropping their child off. My bag handle caught on the wing mirror and dumped everything all over the car park. Logan reckons he stood and watched me pick it all up.” She sighed, remembering yesterday’s sanitary towel stuck to her phone. “It’s embarrassing.”
Bodie rolled his eyes. “Well that was probably their first attempt at finding you. Logan said it was a woman and I suspect it was Flick’s wife. He’s terrified of her, which is why Logan let him stay at the hotel. Laval was onto him anyway, so he’s probably in a safe place up there, although I’m happy to arrest him for what he did to you, once we’ve got Laval. Flick desperately wanted to find his stepmother. Apparently she was a real stability in his life. When he realised she was dead, he wanted the will back and went along with the search, intending to get it himself and then have some kind of revenge. Laval put a hit out on him and he knew it wasn’t going to go how he wanted.”
Hana put her head back on her chair and closed her eyes. It all seemed too hard. “Why would his sons hide something so precious under my car?”
Bodie looked worried by her pale countenance and slid his chair closer to her. “I don’t think they knew what it was. They took it out of malice and were mucking around. Odering tracked the metal box to a project in the metalwork department. It’s something Year 10’s make. When the ex-wife found out it meant money, she went after it. But it must have fallen off pretty quickly in the garage at home.”
“Did the missing lady’s family know all this? If so, why didn’t they tell the cops?”
Bodie shrugged. “Her family don’t know any of that. They have no idea where Flick is, or what he’s been up to. Logan got most of it out of Flick last time he was at the hotel. We just pieced it all together with what I learned from his family.” Bodie looked at his mother strangely, “Hey, you look terrible, Mum. How about you go for a lie down and me and Jas will make you something to eat for lunch?”
Hana smiled her concession. “That would be nice, but if you have to leave, I understand.” She went to the bedroom after another visit to the toilet. The phone rang as her head hit the pillow and she felt relieved as Bodie answered it. She heard him walking into the kitchen, talking to somebody. Hana drifted off to sleep extremely quickly.
She woke up two hours later, feeling incredibly thirsty. She lay on her back with the baby constricting her chest. There was an ache in her lower back and a peculiar heavy, wetness on her left arm which stuck out uncomfortably sideways. Hana rubbed her eyes with her right hand and looked down at her arm.
Jas’ dark curly head rested on her forearm and he dribbled through the gap between his lips and thumb. An action figure depicting Mr Incredible was clutched in his other hand, the red legs sticking awkwardly into Hana’s side. She shifted slightly, knowing immediately she needed to visit the bathroom again. Jas stirred and turned over onto Logan’s pillow and Hana hauled herself up to a sitting position, trying not to groan out loud. She made it to the bathroom and then down to the kitchen. The wonderful scent of hot stew filled her nose and she felt a gnawing hunger. Bodie wore her pink and white apron and stirred something on the stove. Maihi sat at the table slurping strong tea and gave Hana a beaming smile as she stumbled in.
“Your hubby rang,” Bo informed his mother, “I gave him the low down. He says he’ll be home in a bit. He finishes after period four.”
Hana nodded. Maihi patted the table next to her and took Hana’s hand in hers as she sat. Hana felt foggy. Bodie handed her the bottle of pills and a cup of tea. “You need to start these now. You forgot earlier.”
Hana nodded and tried to swallow a pill with the hot tea. Big mistake. She burned her tongue and the pill stuck to the roof of her mouth. The intercom by the front door abruptly buzzed causing Hana to slop her drink with surprise and Bodie got up and went over to it. Hana heard the sound of conversation before Bodie pressed the release button and went outside. Hana looked afraid and Maihi patted her hand reassuringly. “It’s all fine girl. Nothing to worry about. Youse safe.”
A car grumbled up the driveway and then Bodie greeted someone and chatted quietly on the steps. Footsteps, a muttered, “Thank you,” and then an older man with a black briefcase appeared in the kitchen. “Mrs Du Rose,” he offered his hand to shake and Hana tried to rub more sleep out of her eyes after he let her hand go. “Dr Cassidy.”
Hana looked confused and his brown eyes flickered with self-doubt. “Er...Keely was concerned about you. Your doctor’s away at the moment, obviously I guess as he’s married to your midwife, who’s also away...” He looked at his audience awkwardly and Hana felt sorry for him.
“Would you like some tea?” she asked. He shook his head.
“Unfortunately, I have other house calls to make. Would I be able to examine you? It’s just a precaution. Keely noticed some oddities with your heart rate and blood pressure that she wanted me to check out.”
Hana lay down obligingly on the rug as she had for the midwife. The doctor ran the same checks as Keely, but turned Hana onto her side so he could feel her kidneys and do some doctor-like-tapping. Hana groaned in pain and the man frowned and knitted his brows. He took her blood pressure and listened to her heart rate. He clearly wasn’t happy. Hana looked up and saw a sleepy Jas standing in the doorway looking bemused. She smiled and tried to wave reassuringly at him. He didn’t smile back.
“There were blood and protein in your urine. You definitely have an infection. Your blood pressure is too high and your temperature and heart rate are elevated. Given your age and the stage of your pregnancy, none of those things is good.” Hana looked down at her hands, but he wasn’t finished. “I should send you to the hospital but it’s not a nice place to be at the weekend. If you promise to stay home, take it easy and not have any excitement, I’ll let you stay here.” Hana nodded with enthusiasm and the doctor raised his hand in warning. “Any sign of problems and you must go straight to the hospital. Don’t even come to the surgery, we’ll just send you there. And Mrs Du Rose...” Hana looked up again, “you may find this is the way it’ll go from here on in. Don’t be surprised; it’s sometimes like that for older mums. Take care and we’ll see what happens.”
The doctor packed up his gear and handed Hana another pill bottle from his bag. “Iron tablets, your blood was deficient. I sent a sample to the lab. Should be back Monday. I’m confident we’ve given you the right antibiotics to fight this. Hopefully there should be some improvement by tomorrow. If not...” The doctor strode over to the doorway quickly, leaving the rest of the sentence unsaid. He paused abruptly and turned on his heel. “Er, just one other question. Has anyone ever mentioned an odd heartbeat to you before?”
Hana shook her head. “Never. Do I have one then?”
“I’m not sure,” he replied. “It might be the pregnancy, the infection, or a combination of both. Let’s just get those two factors out of the way and then perhaps some tests might be in order.”
Bodie waved the doctor off while Hana stayed on the floor and Jas came to sit down beside her. “Sick Hanny?” he asked, his brown eyes wide and concerned. Hana shook her head feeling tearful. She had come so very far and now this. She struggled to compose herself, trying not to alarm the boy.
Maihi came in to say goodbye. “Aw, none of that my love, none of that.” She wiped away Hana’s tears with her wizened fingers and told her not to worry. “I’ll do all your cooking and cleaning for the next few days. I’m here for you.”
“Thank you.” The words stumbled from Hana’s lips but she felt numb, feeling guilty as the older woman clicked the front door shut behind her.
Hana clambered up eventually, vertigo making the gr
ound lurch up to meet her. She sat down in the kitchen and Jas climbed onto her knee with his doll. Hana exhaled, feeling fear radiating through her body. It felt like too great a burden to bear and she tried to distract herself. “So if Laval can get the second copy of the will from the cops and destroy it, does he think that validates his own?” she asked.
Bodie looked torn. He wanted to discuss it with her but the doctor was clear about stressing her. He nodded with reluctance. “If he can destroy it, it’s as though it never existed. Inheritance reverts to the previous will unless the family contest it and they were pretty shaken up to be honest.”
“How did Laval know about the second copy and that I had possession of it?” Hana asked.
Bodie shrugged. That part had him beat. “Probably because Flick led him straight to it, to get it for himself. But I suppose he needed Laval’s resources to track you,” Bodie mused.
Hana exhaled at the same moment Jas asked for another biscuit. Bodie shook his head. “Mrs Maihi made stew. How about you eat properly instead?”
Jas looked happy and tucked into the food with gusto. Hana to her surprise also managed a decent bowlful. Hana came across a black flake in the bottom of her bowl and poked at it with her spoon. “Bo, did you heat this up on a really high setting?” she asked.
“Yeah, sorry. I burned the bottom. The lumps of potato stuck to the pan.”
“May I ‘ave your burndy bits pees Hanny?” Jas balanced precariously on Hana’s knees and spoke to her with his mouth still chewing, pointing to the crusty black layers of stew at the bottom of her bowl. She looked at him curiously. “Mmmm!” he said with delight. Hana pushed her bowl towards him and he dug in. Bodie hadn’t noticed, still trying to serve up his first helping.
“So, what’s so great about this piece of land then?” Hana asked. “Is it really huge, or does it do something special? Why would Laval would go to such trouble? Or is he just out to grab anything he can get?”