by Tina Amiri
“I’ve also been giving a lot of thought to your costumes,” Brandt continued. He suddenly began grasping at Night’s shoulders and arms. “You seem to be in good shape, but you’ll really benefit from a personal trainer. After all, you don’t want to be almost perfect when millions of people are viewing your half-naked body.”
Night felt the blood drain from his face.
“I’ll tell you about the video I’ve got planned. It all came to me when I was listening to your demos last night. Even our video producer agrees that, at least for your big song, My Other Side, we should go with a jungle theme…symbolic of the animalistic side of humanity. I’m thinking some chewed up shirt…the material just barely hanging off one shoulder with your hair all wild…”
“No…”
Brandt laughed. “A star for one hour and you’re already refusing advice. Now, are you the expert or am I?”
“I have to go.” Night stood up and grabbed the copy of the contract he’d been told to peruse.
“Morgen, we’re not done yet.”
Brandt’s voice only impelled Night to walk out faster.
“Mister Dahlsi… I realize you got a big break here, but it’ll take a lot more than you to put this star in the sky.”
But the sky seemed more than a bit out of reach at the moment. All the way home, he couldn’t help but imagine the shallow pit in the San Gabriel Mountains as his more likely destination after his brother learned of his objectionable body art and finished calculating his net worth.
****
Andrew peered out of his living room window and sneered when he saw the vehicle outside that brandished the decal of the Newport Sheriff’s Office.
“I understand that you have to ask me these things, but after I told Lila the truth about Night and…his activities, things became civil again. You can certainly verify that with her friends and coworkers. They were all wonderful to me at her funeral. …I still can’t believe that this happened.” Andrew shook his head.
“We already checked with them, Mister Shannien, and the evidence suggests that it was an accident. What finally led our Search and Rescue team to her body was her baseball cap. It appears Ms. Hughes may have used some poor judgment when she tried to climb down on a steep slope to get it after the wind blew it off, I guess. We’re very sorry for your loss, but it is…quite astounding how misfortune keeps showing up for you and the people in your life. We just have to ask you a few more questions, for the record.”
“By all means…”
“Ms. Hughes worked an afternoon shift on Sunday, the 16th, and then didn’t make it into work on the Tuesday when she was scheduled to work graveyard. So, even though her body wasn’t discovered for several days, chances are she went for that fateful run on the Monday. Do you remember what you were doing on Monday, the seventeenth of December?”
“I believe I can tell you….only because I had another appointment with my claims adjuster on a Monday, right before Christmas…you know, because of the restaurant. Let me take a look in my book.”
He left the two deputies in the living room while he retrieved a pocket scheduler from the kitchen. He already knew he would be able to confirm his statement. He’d worked like hell to get Daphne’s car back into its secret location in the bushes on his vast property, before getting cleaned up for his meeting with the adjuster, set for 11 am. Although he hadn’t consciously planned on killing Lila, a part of him must have known it could happen. For that reason, his Mercedes never left the property.
He placed the book, open, on the end table, beside the men. “See, here…”
“Thank you. We will be following up with your insurance company, but this all looks fine. An interesting point… Ms. Hughes’ wristwatch didn’t survive the fall either. The face was cracked and its hands were stuck on five after eleven…” The deputy finished scribbling a note. “Again, this is for our report, do you remember what you did for the rest of the day?”
The truth was, he spent the first couple of hours making sure the path to Daphne’s car, off his main driveway, couldn’t be detected at a glance. He had to pull the fallen tree back across the opening and then make sure the car hadn’t left tread marks at that turn, or near the highway. Luckily, the old Golf didn’t have much tread.
“I probably did some grocery shopping. Should I try to dig up a receipt?” He’d kept one for this very purpose, and when one officer halfheartedly nodded, he fetched his note spike from the kitchen table and made of show of sorting through his stack of punctured receipts. “Here’s one from the seventeenth…and one from the eighteenth.”
“That’s fine, Mister Shannien. I think we’ve covered our bases.” The officer turned toward the entrance and hesitated. “We’re also very sorry about your son, Reade,” he announced in an abrupt but genuine manner. “Your name incidentally turned up information about his suicide.”
“Yes, I suppose it would. Now, I’m sure you can fully grasp why I tried to shelter Night.”
****
The water was only a swimming pool, but Night watched it from the common room window the same way he used to watch the endless waves on the North Pacific cape. He anticipated Morgen’s return any minute, yet he jumped when the door finally swung open.
Beth pranced into the room, modeling a short blue dress with a towel draped across her chest like a sash. She joined him at the window and leaned one elbow on the sill. “Show me your tooth.”
He showed her and then let his expression fall flat again.
“I was just testing myself. I’m going for a swim. Want to join me?”
He shook his head.
“Why not? There’s no one around to see you,” she enticed with a nudge and a grin, but it had no effect. “Boy, are you ever a livewire today.”
“I have a real problem, Beth. I went to the studio and, the truth is, I can’t do the things they want me to do. I can’t even wear the things they want me to wear. What’s going to happen when Morgen realizes that I can’t do it? He won’t want to have anything to do with me then, but…I’ll always have you, right, Beth?” He moved in for a validating kiss, but she just wriggled away.
“Night…” she began awkwardly, “you told me about your past, and maybe you don’t understand certain things, like that people from the same family don’t do what we were doing with each other that one time.”
He considered this for a moment. “But we’re not really from the same family.”
“True, but everybody else thinks that we are, and since nobody even knows you exist, we have to keep what happened between us a secret. What would happen if someone found out, like Mom or Dad? Even if they didn’t kill me, or both of us, we would have to tell them about you, and why you’ve been hiding. Then, they would find out about Morgen being sick. It would ruin everything you’ve both worked for.”
He stepped back, confused and frustrated. Daphne had been a secret and now Beth too? But he had bigger problems. “We’ll just be careful,” he decided, nodding to himself. “Now, where is Morgen?” His glare seared across the room. “I need to talk to him.”
“It’ll work out, Night. All I know is, you’ll never go back to Oregon.” She left quietly as his thoughts alternated between Morgen and Beth. He paced around the room before he returned to the window and witnessed Beth standing before the shimmering expanse of enhanced blue. Her shoulders tipped back as she twirled her hair into a tawny wreath that she secured with a gold barrette, and his stare intensified when she dropped her dress to reveal a neon-pink, ruffled bikini, before she dove into the water.
He felt something that he wanted to classify as “love”—but the word taunted him. One person in his life had claimed to love him but rarely showed it, another had proved she loved him through her selfless actions, but never declared it, another showed him love, but now condemned it—and the one person whom he felt should love him in every sense of the word, didn’t seem to like him at all.
His attention returned to Beth as she climbed to the top rung of
the ladder. He swayed out of view when he saw her chin start to lift, but he didn’t hesitate to look back. By then, she’d planted her feet on the edge of the pool, her back to the window as she pulled off her bikini top and tossed on the nearby deck chair. It occurred to him, then, that Beth could, in fact, love him twofold since she valued him as family, as well as someone who wasn’t related.
With the sun caressing her front, she toweled her body from behind her knees, all the way up to her shoulders. She spread her towel like a set of wings that she folded across her chest and used to wipe away all droplets from under and over her full young breasts.
“Hey,” Morgen greeted, rather cheerfully, closing the door behind him. “How did it go today?” But as he came closer and took in the view beyond the window, his eyes turned dark gray. “She’s your sister you twisted freak! She’s my sister!”
Night drew a breath.
“Don’t say anything!”
Morgen stormed over to his private bar where he scrambled for a vial of his white powder and then clumsily sniffed some into his head. Night waited for a safe moment to try again, but Morgen still looked explosive as he opened a liquor bottle and filled a short water glass.
“Morgen…”
“I can’t take this. You’re finishing me off and I have no idea if this is really worth it.” He took a swig from his glass and slammed it back down.
Night thought he saw an opportunity when his brother let out a sigh. “Morgen—”
“Hopeless! That’s what you are. Did you sign the fucking contract yet…because if you didn’t, don’t bother!”
“Morgen, I didn’t know anyone would ever have to see me without my clothes on.”
Morgen’s head shot up. “What are you talking about? I’m pretty sure Detonic Records isn’t fronting for the porn industry. I mean, you might have to take off your shirt at some point…”
“That’s what—”
“And since when do you have a problem with nudity? You looked quite comfortable with it a moment ago when you were about to jack off—”
“Morgen, just shut-up and look!” Some buttons went flying as Night forced the shirt off his back.
The liquor bottle in Morgen’s hand followed suit and crashed on the clay tiles surrounding his bar.
With a triumphant air, Night swept his top off the floor and pulled it on as he headed for the couch.
His brother followed him with frantic eyes. “What the hell happened? Who did this? A-Andrew?”
Night had begun nodding after the word “Who”.
Morgen stamped his foot and turned away. “This is a fucking disaster. Why’d you wait so long to tell me about this?”
“You never wanted to know. And I really didn’t think it was going to matter.”
“You didn’t think it would matter? Come on! How could you be such a moron?”
“Because I just am! It’s not like you didn’t know it!”
“Morgen sat himself beside Night and crossed his arms tightly. “I’m going to kill him,” he pledged. “Believe me, Night…you won’t see me dead before I make that asshole sorry for causing this mess.” He stood up and stamped again.
Night couldn’t decide if Morgen was serious or a wee bit delirious.
“Your makeup person can hide it,” Morgen proposed. “It’ll just be a little more embarrassing for me, but don’t worry, it can be done, and it’ll be fine.”
The room fell silent as their minds took off on different trains of thought.
“Night… Keep your eyes off Beth from now on. I’ve only ever known her as a sister and now she’s your sister.”
“I know.” He didn’t need to hear it all again. “She just makes me think of Daphne…and I miss her.” He gauged Morgen’s expression to see if he should go on and, for once, he saw all green lights. “I think he buried her somewhere so no one would ever know, the same way you want to be buried so no one will ever know.”
Morgen rattled his head, briefly. “So, now Gramps is also a killer? What else should I know about our dear granddaddy?”
After bringing out a new liquor bottle from his bedroom, Morgen never interrupted as he listened to some of Night’s random experiences. He refilled Night’s glass for the fourth time while his gaze hung heavy, like the last drop of tequila, at the tip of the inverted bottle.
“Enough,” Night declared, sweeping up the drink that he planned to pour down the drain before taking his shower. He expected Morgen to pass out as soon as he left, but a minute later his brother appeared in the bathroom doorway.
“You’ve got marks right down to your knees.”
“Yes. I know.”
“My body used to be just like yours,” Morgen persisted, now offering his appraisal of Night’s general physique, but something along that thought suddenly sparked an avalanche of panic. “Oh, shit!”
“What?”
“Just turn around for a second—and don’t put your hands there!”
Night had only completed a quarter turn before Morgen exhaled in relief.
“Good for you,” he said as though he’d never been concerned. “At least you won’t have to spend your first paycheck on surgery.”
“I don’t understand.”
“Two-for-one day at the hospital, maybe. I don’t know, but it got done…”
His brother gesticulated a clear slice or a chop, but that didn’t make any sense. Morgen was so wasted that Night didn’t bother to press him for a coherent explanation. But Morgen did offer something intelligible before he shambled away.
“I don’t believe I visited you in your sleep, but I promise you, Night… Andrew Shannien is soon going to find out what happens when I show up in one of his nightmares.”
Chapter Seventeen
The piece of paper crinkled in Andrew’s grip as he stared at his ex-wife’s new surname and telephone number. A fire from his core surged into his brain and blazed through his eyes at the thought of Aileen Coleman delivering herself of all liability after devastating everyone else’s life. The idea that Brigitte might have made it all possible stirred his fire to its last glowing ember.
In a short time, he would find out how far Brigitte’s charity could go. If it had once extended to Morgen, would she dish it out again for Night? Andrew straightened Lila’s note and dialed. A dispassionate-sounding male eventually answered the call.
“Hello. Dahlsi residence and campaign headquarters.”
“Campaign headquarters?” Andrew paused. “That’s great because I have some information I’d like to send to campaign headquarters. If you could, please give me your mailing address.”
****
Morgen stopped working the styling product into his hair when Night barged into the bathroom, one evening, without knocking.
“You’ve been in here forever. I thought you passed out again.”
“Hardly,” Morgen replied. “I’m going to my beach tonight…to say goodbye to Doris. Leave me alone, Night.”
“Are you going to tell her?”
“Of course not,” he scoffed. “I shouldn’t need to say this, but stay out of her pants when I’m gone. I know you think you’ve outperformed me in the studio, but don’t think you can do the same with Doris. Got that?” He glanced at Night and rolled his eyes. “Oh, never mind. You probably don’t even know what I’m talking about.”
“I know what you’re talking about.”
“Oh yeah?” He peered at Night in the mirror. “From what you told me, it doesn’t sound like you ever got to know about it.”
Night returned an indignant blink and crossed his arms.
“Anyway… I actually feel good today, and I’m not going to waste it.”
“Can I go with you, later? I’ll stay back, but I want to watch what you do with Doris.”
Morgen turned around to find that Night didn’t look any less serious than his reflection. “Holy shit… If you really need to know more about sex, then buy yourself a goddamn book.”
“You’re just like And
rew. You expect me to do everything the way you imagine, but you won’t show me.”
“A book…” Morgen flared, “will tell you everything!”
Night pleaded with him now. “Why don’t you just show me? I’m your brother. We even look the same, so you should love me more than anybody else—more than Beth or your friends, or any of these fans you keep talking about—and definitely more than Doris.”
“You don’t even know what you’re saying,” Morgen articulated, tripping as he stepped back. “People don’t fuck their own family members—or they’re not supposed to. Please don’t tell me that Gramps fucked around with you…”
Night was already shaking his head. “But he didn’t really love me.”
Morgen closed his eyes for a moment. “What I mean is, Grandpa isn’t supposed to love you in that way. Neither am I. You’re a goddamn freak, Night, and I hope you realize that if I hadn’t let you stay here, they probably would have locked you up by now, wherever they put crazy people who burn down buildings.”
Night held his tongue, but rays of contempt beamed between the wisps of hair in front of his eyes.
Morgen softened his demeanor as he returned to his preening. “Well, he certainly fucked you up, if nothing else, and I’m telling you…one of my lasts is going to feel exceptionally good, and I’m not talking about Doris.”
“You’re not doing anything to Andrew,” Night asserted. “He has to see me on television, and I want him to know that it’s me. And if anyone does anything, I’ll be the one who does it.”
****
After sunset, Morgen skipped out of the house and into Doris’s car. From his brother’s window, Night watched them leave before he grabbed Morgen’s car keys and slinked into the garage.
The car’s gleaming white finish cut through the stratum of sapphire that had formed over the coast. He knew where Morgen’s beach was since Morgen had labeled it as such on one of their tours. He spotted Doris’s car parked on the side of the road, but he drove past it and only pulled over when could no longer see it in the rearview mirror.