Murder and Mayhem (17 page)

At the time, Peter was staying with us so the family
decided it was best to leave him where he was–less traumatic. And so Peter
became the brother we never had.

Six-foot-three-inches tall with hair as dark as ours
was fair and bronze-colored skin from Spanish genes, by way of Ireland, Peter
had sapphire-blue eyes that were full of mischief, and a disarming smile no
woman could resist.

Rosie took a sip of tea… and then shrugged. “So, what
else is new?”

“She said he’s in Detroit.”

Rosie blanched and spluttered.

“You okay, Hon?” I popped the cap off a bottle of
spring water and handed it to her. One of the side effects from chemotherapy
drugs is dry mouth, so I always keep bottled water handy.

Rosie sipped and nodded while she tried to find her
voice. “Detroit? As in Michigan?” she finally blurted out.

“The very same,” I said with a bob of the head.

“Why would anyone choose to go to Detroit unless they
were searching for Sixto Rodriguez–or some reminder of the Motown Sound?
Detroit is a basket case. Peter was more into the San Francisco sound: Van
Morrison, Janis Joplin, Led Zeppelin, Jefferson Airplane.”

“The Grateful Dead. Yeah, I remember–how could I not!”

“And he loved to surf. I don’t think there’s a lot of
surfing done on the lakes around Michigan. So what he is doing there?”

“You may well ask, my little turtle-dove, but I’m not
sure you’ll want to know the answer.” I grinned. “On the other hand, it is
worth a good laugh.”

“Don’t keep me in suspense, girl, out with it.”

“It appears our wayward Romeo met some woman on the
internet and before you could say, Captain Hook, he was off in hot pursuit of
his lady love.”

My sister rolled her eyes, but I can’t say we were
surprised. We’d been through it before–several times.

“Not again?”

“Yep, again. But the good news is–or maybe it’s the
bad news–depending on which side of the fence you are at. Daisy phoned me the
day before we left, to tell me our over-the-hill Romeo had shown up back home
with his tail between his legs, looking surprisingly contrite. It seems the
woman had misrepresented herself.” I shook my head and tut-tutted.

“Nooo!”

“Yeees!”

We dissolved into laughter.

“Why am I not surprised? So tell
me, what did Daisy have to say?” Rosie asked.

I shot her a small sideways smile.

“It seems our love-struck-Romeo finally confessed in
an effort to cleanse his soul- or so he said. He told Daisy the photo the sweet
young thing had posted on the internet was either a much younger version of
herself–or someone else entirely. Apparently the woman he met lived in a
trailer park, weighed about three hundred and fifty pounds, and had eight
kids–all of dubious parentage.”

Rosie was about to say something, but I held up my
hand.

“But wait… there’s more–and you’re going to love this,
Hon. Apparently in one of her emails the woman asked our love-stuck Romeo for
money, so she could fly to Australia to meet him, because he was–now how did
she put it–because he was the ‘man of her dreams’.”

“Oh,
puh-leeze.”

“But, by now, our brother had his dick in his hands
and decided to surprise her instead. He jumped on the first available flight to
be with…, now let me see if I’ve got this right…, the woman he had been waiting
for all his life.”

Tears of laughter ran down our cheeks.

Rosie wiped her eyes with a Kleenex and said, “I bet
that was a surprise!”

“I’m sure it was–for both of
them.”

“I can’t believe Daisy would even consider taking him
back. Especially when it isn’t the first time he’s done something like that.
That man has had more than his fair share of extracurricular activity.”

“And, who knows what he’s been up to that we don’t
know about.”

“One could only hazard a guess.”

“And, I’m sure it won’t be the last. But, Daisy said
she still loves him.”

“Some people never learn no matter how many times you
hit them over the head with a frying pan.”

“Do you think this will cure our over-the-hill Romeo?”

“I doubt it,” Rosie said. “I don’t think Peter Pan
will ever grow up.”

“Being his third wife you’d think would have been a
clue when she first met him.”

“Apparently not.”

“And, you’d think that while he was in this part of
the world he’d get in touch with his baby sister,” I said.

“You think?”

“You don’t?”

“Not hardly. He didn’t feel the need to contact me
when he spent a couple of months in Hawaii chasing waves and skirts. Then, when
the young guns started calling him, old man, he decided to move on. So, I doubt
that he’d bother now.”

“Then he bummed around Thailand and ended up on some
remote island where living was cheap,” I said.

“That was where he met Daisy,” she reminded me. “Six
months later they were married and moved back to Australia.”

“I always said she was too good for him.” Daisy, a
delightful young woman from Perth, was working at a resort hotel on the island
of Ko Samui when Peter met her. “And now that he makes customized surfboards
for professional surfers around the world you’d think he’d get his act together
and settle down.”

Rosie sighed. “Do you think
Peter Pan will ever grow up?”

I knew it was a rhetorical
question but I answered just the same. “I doubt it. He’ll just keep searching
for Never, Never Land, hoping one day to find his lost childhood where Wendy
would be waiting for him in the guise of a twenty-year-old Elle Macpherson
look-a-like.”

“Can we just get back to the story of true love?”

“As opposed to…?”

“As opposed to Peter Pan’s adventures in Noddy Land
where he thinks fairytales really do come true.”

I bumped her with my shoulder, and grinned. “You just
want to hear all those naughty bits.”

“At least we’re having more fun than he is.”

*****

“What’s the matter, Nic?”

“Do you think that car is following us?”

“What car?” Danny glanced in the rear-view mirror and
saw nothing but empty bitumen behind them. He was about to say something when
he noticed a dark green sedan come over the rise.

Danny nodded at the image in the mirror, and said, “Is
that the car?”

Nicola turned around and looked out the back window.

“Yes, that looks like the one.”

“What makes you think it’s following us?”

“I noticed it just after we left New Hope. I tried several
times to get a look at the driver, but, it never got close enough.”

Danny watched the car in the mirror. “Have you seen it
before?”

“No. But it could have been following us for some time
and I hadn’t noticed.”

“…And, nothing before this…?”

Nicola shook her head.

“No. Well… no. Not a green car.”

Danny looked at her. “What do you mean–not a green
car?”

“A couple of times I thought we were being followed
but there was nothing I could put my finger on. It was more an impression than
anything else.” Nicola began to feel foolish.

Danny’s radar went up. “What cars?”

“Well… different cars. For a couple of days I thought
we were being followed by a dark gray SUV. Then there was a little blue Honda
that kept popping up. Everywhere we went it seemed to be there. But neither of
them got close enough for me to check the plates or see the driver.” Nicola
shrugged. “I’m probably just being foolish.”

Danny rubbed his hand over his chin and checked the
mirror, again.

“Let’s pull off the road and see what happens.” He
eased his foot off the accelerator and pulled onto a gravel verge locals used
as a turn-out, picked up the road map and pretended to study it. As the green
Toyota sailed past Danny looked up and saw a blond-haired man wearing dark
glasses staring straight ahead taking no notice of them whatsoever. The driver
made no attempt to slow down or stop. They watched until the green sedan
disappeared around a bend a mile further on.

Danny shrugged. “It was probably just one of the
locals.”

“I’m sorry, Danny you must think I’m being silly,
again.”

He leaned over and kissed her on the cheek. “More like
a case of an overactive imagination.”

The evening shadows crept over the land as the dying
sun threw off golden rays like glittering swords. Danny pulled the SUV into the
parking lot of the Easton Inn on South 3
^rd
Street, and cut the
engine. 

* * *

“Sara!”

He watched as she ran down the beach and disappeared
in the mist that swirled along the shore, her laughter taunting him to follow.
He wanted to go to her but knew that he couldn’t, so he stood on the headland
hoping for one last glimpse before the tide came to claim her.

“Sara! Don’t leave me,” he cried.

Danny’s eyes flew open. His heart was pounding. His
hands were clenched in fists so tight the nails dug deep into the flesh. The
colors in the picture on the wall seemed to merge together…, and move…, like a
giant wave in a sea of purple.

He closed his eyes. God, make it stop.

He slipped out of bed to the large open window and
tried to shake off the feeling of dread as he stared out at the black starless
sky, and searched for shadows in the deserted streets below.

Desolation dug deep into his soul as he leaned his
head against the cool pane of glass and tried to convince himself the dream was
in the past–part of a decaying nightmare he mustn’t give power to. He wrapped
his arms around his chest, closed his eyes, and tried to block out the sound of
carrion birds he knew were out there, somewhere, waiting for him.

As the soft gray dawn crept over the landscape a harsh
wind came up and brought storm clouds in from the west. Suddenly a loud clap of
thunder resonated across the valley as jagged streaks of white lightning forged
cracks in the sky. In the distance the lonely sound of a freight train whistle
could be heard as it wound its way through the once thriving industrial towns
and crossed over the river...

*****

“Who’s Sara?”

“Huh?”

“Sara? Who is she?”

I waved my hand dismissively
without looking up. “Just an old girlfriend of Danny’s.”

“Well, there must be something about her that’s
upsetting Danny is he’s having these nightmares.”

I sighed, loudly, hoping she would take the hint and
quit with the questions. “I haven’t decided yet.

Rosie harrumphed. “Is she another one of those
coincidental characters you keep slipping in like that man in the park?”

“Something like that.”

“Well, when are you going to let me in on the secret?”

“You’ll just have to wait until the book comes out in
hardcover.”

“Hardcover! I could never afford that.”

“Then I guess you’ll just have to wait until the
paperback version appears on the shelves of bookstores across the land.

*****

He woke to the sound of large raindrop hitting the
window. His was heart hammering hard in his chest. His breath was coming in
short sharp gasps, as though he’d been running. He stared at the ceiling and
tried to figure out where he was. Then he slipped out of bed and wandered over
to the window. When he drew back the drapes he saw the sky was the color of
gunmetal–all gray and splotchy and uninviting. He looked at Nicola curled up in
bed, the sheet molded to her hip, her thigh, her eyes shut tight against the
glare of early morning light, the tops of her breasts exposed.

He crawled back into bed and wrapped his arms around
her, drawing her near.

“Looks like the bad weather has set in for the day,”
he said and kissed her. He could feel the flutter of her heart in her throat,
her feathery breath on his face, the warm invitation of her lips, her welcoming
thighs as she molded her body into his.

“Oh, Nicci,” he whispered, “I never dreamt I could
feel like this again.”

When she looked in his eyes she saw a sadness she had
never seen there before.

“Who was she, Danny? Who broke your heart?”

“We were going to be married.”