Saving Face (Mount Faith Series: Book 1) (10 page)

"So explain to me why she would try to kill her own husband then?" Taj asked. "And don't forget I was approached to set up a psychiatry center before the whole presidency thing."

Natasha shrugged. "Maybe she wanted to get him out of the way as well. I don't know. We are going to question him soon and when we do, if we don't get some concrete answers your family reunion is going to be taking an ugly turn."

Taj sighed.

They drove in silence to the Mount Faith University campus. Natasha let out a very mentally tired Taj who had kissed her on her forehead.

She headed toward her dorm and sat in the car for a few minutes thinking. She liked Taj a lot more than was professionally acceptable. Indeed, she had passed that stage long ago when she had to convince herself that she didn't have feelings for him. She wished she could help him now and in the process solve her case. Hopefully, life could go back to some semblance of normality.

Chapter Thirteen

Taj woke up Sunday morning and threw his racket and his towel into his gym bag. He would shower at the gym this time. He was looking forward to a particularly hard day of squash where he could unleash his frustration on the court walls.

He had not played with Bancroft since that first game. He entered the squash court and was surprised to see Bancroft on court, especially since it was Sunday and because Bancroft had said that he only played on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Friday. What was he doing here?

Bancroft barely glanced at him. Taj was getting used to Bancroft's ill-mannered ways by now and so Taj barely nodded at him. It seemed as if Bancroft had been at the courts for a while, seeing that he was sweating profusely.

"Bad morning?" Taj asked tongue in cheek as he walked on the court.

Bancroft growled, "I am concerned."

"About what?" Taj asked, surprised that Bancroft would want to confess something to him.

"That Edward Carlisle was murdered." he said shortly. "And all is not what it seems."

He handed the ball to Taj. "You serve."

The ball almost fell out of Taj's nerveless fingers. "What did you say?"

"You heard me," Bancroft said abruptly. "And yes it's a bad morning. Thanks for asking."

Taj smirked. "Why do you think Carlisle was murdered?"

"I wasn't sure," Bancroft swatted the ball on the wall, huffing a little, "but then I heard that Carter was in hospital with a near heart attack and then I got really curious. I also heard that you suggested that the doctors should look into a potassium overdose."

He shook his head. "That was a good call."

He glanced at Taj, a light of respect in his eye as he swerved his arm. "I have a Masters in Bio Chemistry you know."

Taj shrugged. "Good for you."

"Something is just not right," Bancroft said. "I am now concerned that all is not what it seems."

Taj nodded. "I thought you didn't like Carter."

"I don't," Bancroft said. "Didn't much care for Carlisle either."

"Doesn't look good for you," Taj said simply. "Maybe I should be fearful you don't like me either. Maybe I am next."

Bancroft looked over at him in mid swing and the ball fell uselessly at his feet. He was breathing hard.

"I don't dislike you."

"Are you serious?" Taj asked. "You told me I was annoying as a mosquito."

"I don't dislike mosquitoes," Bancroft said. "They are needed to keep the eco system balanced."

Taj raised his brows. "So how am I necessary?"

"That psychiatry center is needed," Bancroft said, "I recognize that."

"What about the presidency?" Taj asked acerbically. "Still don't think I can do it?"

Bancroft looked at him speculatively. "Are you ready to be the chief executive officer of this business? Are you ready to take on the myriad of tasks that this institution comes with?" He shook his head, "I have been doing this for the past five years. I have been carrying Edward Carlisle's load. He was a lousy president. I am aware of all the facets of running an institution. Are you?"

"This is not an interview," Taj said. "The official interview does not begin until November. Six weeks from now."

Bancroft shrugged. "Lets hope Carter is available to conduct this interview."

"Is that why you tried to kill him?" Taj asked.

"For heaven’s sake," Bancroft wiped his brow and headed for his gym bag. "I don't have to answer that question—it's beneath me to!" He hung his head while he fiddled with the top of the water bottle. "As I said I am concerned."

Taj sat beside him. "So what brings you out here on a Sunday?"

Bancroft gazed at him a surprised look in his eye. "You are doing your  psychiatrist thing on me, aren't you?"

"Just a basic question," Taj said.

"Nah," Bancroft said, "this is a defusing of the situation."

"Are you going to answer the question?" Taj asked.

Bancroft shook his head. "You won't believe this but I am a bit apprehensive about this whole presidency thing."

"You are?" Taj asked surprised.

"Yup," Bancroft said getting up. "Presidents are dying around here. I don't want to leave my children fatherless and my wife a widow…one has to be concerned."

Taj looked at him thoughtfully, trying to work out if Bancroft was genuinely concerned or was playing a game with him to scare him.

"Let’s play another one." Bancroft broke eye contact with him.

Taj went home late  that morning. There was a weak sun out and he was feeling famished. Bancroft had a lot of apprehension to beat out and he had taken Taj along with him, game after game. They had finally tied and had declared a rematch in the morning. Taj could feel his muscles protesting. After playing with Bancroft and chit chatting for a while he had wanted to accost him about the whole fatherhood thing but had barely restrained himself from doing so—not without finding out what the story was from Anne Carter.

He walked through his gate gingerly; his leg muscles protesting. It was then that he saw a white hat peeping up from behind some hibiscus bushes. It was Anne Carter. She had a shear in her hand and was just getting up from the dirt where she was clipping some lower branches.

She looked over at him and saw that he had paused and was looking at her and gasped.

"Good mor...morning," She said stuttering.

Taj waved
,
this is my mothe
r
, his head kept saying
—
the woman who gave birth to m
e
. He searched her features for any resemblance to the one he saw in the mirror everyday and came up with nothing much. Maybe something was there in the shape of her mouth but otherwise nothing.

He waved to her briefly and considered walking into his house—he was hungry.

But then he realized that she must be very anxious to say something to him so he walked over to her gate.

She stood up fully. Her slim body was encased in khaki shorts and a green t-shirt. She pulled off her white hat and her wayward curls sprung free. Just like his.

He smiled at her faintly. "Morning."

Anne said. "Taj, I am sorry you had to find out the way you did. Do you want to come inside…have some breakfast?"

"Okay." He needed to talk to her anyway and satisfy his raging curiosity.

Her kitchen was to the back of the house and was spotlessly clean. The whole house was clean to a fault and Taj silently wondered if she had an obsessive-compulsive disorder. Then he tried to think about her without his psychiatrist brain ticking. He glanced at her as she made chocolate tea and shared out breakfast on neatly arranged plates. She sat across from him and smiled nervously.

"Daryl will be home today."

Taj nodded. "Are you looking forward to that?"

"Yes," she nodded shyly, "I...er... I don't know where to start with this whole story of your birth."

Taj sipped the chocolate tea and slowly chewed the eggs and sausage but he barely tasted them. He was looking at Anne, sitting there, fidgeting like a schoolgirl and was wondering—with a sense of incredulity—if she was really his mother.

"Start from when you met Ryan Bancroft."

"We have always known each other. We came from the same community. His family lived up the road from mine."

Taj nodded. "Natasha took me to the community last night. Lovely place."

Anne laughed nervously. "Aesthetically I guess,  in a rustic sort of way. I don't really have many fun memories of there. We had the sea. We lived off the sea. The majority of us were poor, but not poor in the sense that we could not find food. We had a lot of that. My childhood was filled with fish and mangos."

She shook her head and fidgeted with the place mat. "Ryan and I went to the same church. We were in the same youth class with Sister Edna. A formidable woman who wanted us to be an example to the rest of the youth in our society. She gave us chastity bracelets to wear to show that we were set apart from the rest. As she used to say it, we were supposed to be the cream of the crop."

Anne shook her head and looked at Taj sadly. "There were twenty of us in her class. Ryan and I were the first ones to leave the class. It was one stupid reckless experiment we did."

She laughed dryly no humor in it. "I went to his house for my choir book. To think, if back then Sister Edna or our parents had given us just a lecture or two about safe sex. We wouldn't have been so ignorant. We were clueless like lambs to the slaughter about sex."

Taj raised his eyebrows. "Really?"

Anne grimaced. "Our days were not as liberal as they are now. Anyway, we had sex. Then went to choir practice feeling like sinners."

She shook her head and looked at Taj. "Four months later my father died. I thought it was my fault because I had had sex. Can you believe that?"

Taj smirked and nodded. "What I can't believe is that I am talking about sex with my mother."

Tears sprang to Anne's eyes. "I know I shouldn't feel this way, after all I gave you up but I feel so happy when you call me that."

Taj steeled himself against her tears. "You were saying about your father?"

"Oh yes, he got washed away at sea. His body has never been found. I was four months pregnant and didn't know. I just graduated from high school. Ryan had gotten a scholarship to a university in America and his parents and his brother Oswald were migrating.

I found out I was pregnant the night before he left. My mother had just found out that her husbands boat was found washed up at sea…she was somewhat unhinged that night, I think. She dragged me by the hair and carried me up the road in the night to the respectable Bancrofts.

I was wailing like a banshee, I can tell you that. My mother called Ryan out of the house and thrust me at him, and left me at the mercy of the Bancrofts. He was scared, I was scared. God, that was a night."

"So what happened?" Taj asked.

"His parents allowed me to sleep in the guest room. His mother called a friend of hers in Hill Top who was supposed to help me to get rid of you."

Taj stopped eating. "Get rid of me how?"

"Abortion, Adoption…any thing that would make the pregnant girl problem go away." Anne heaved a sigh. "They smuggled me out in the early morning. I was crying, Ryan was crying. We had no choice. Fortunately, the lady who was supposed to help the Bancrofts, declared that she was no murderer, and that is how the adoption was arranged."

"That's the lady who arranged with Harriet to have me adopted by the Jacksons?"

Anne nodded.

"So when did you see Ryan Bancroft again?"

"Here," Anne said. "Do you want some juice?"

"No thanks," Taj said politely.

"Weren't you shocked to see him?"

"Not really," Anne said. "I knew that he was coming. I had just started working for Edward Carlisle at the time. I remember that he was actively trying to recruit a Dr. Ryan Bancroft. When he came into the office and saw me, face-to-face he was shocked—speechless. There was his one little mistake in the office."

"So what did you do?" Taj asked eagerly.

"I didn't do a thing," Anne said. "He avoided me like the plague, and I avoided him as well. We had both gotten on with our lives."

"He didn't want to know about your child?" Taj asked incredulously.

Anne laughed. "No, I guess not. He thought it had all been taken care of and he seemed uncomfortable talking about that secret with me. I think he can't stand the sight of me."

She cupped her chin. "I told Daryl the whole story about my teenage pregnancy long before Bancroft began to work here. So he hates Bancroft because of it, and Bancroft is not sure what Daryl knows, so he distrusts and dislikes Daryl."

"So that's where the animosity between the two of them stemmed from?" Taj breathed.

Anne nodded. "I also told Daryl to recruit you for the presidency. I have been keeping track of you for years now, ever since you won the gold medal for your 200 meter at Champs. I was so happy for you."

Anne sighed. "I saw your little face on television and I saw a lovely combination of Ryan and me. I am happy I didn't have that abortion."

Taj nodded. "I am happy you didn't too. I had a happy childhood. What you are saying now makes a lot of sense to me. Before this, I had no idea why I was being recruited for the presidency of Mount Faith. It is also uncanny that Edward Carlisle wanted a psychiatry center and approached my university and suggested that I should head it."

Anne's eyes skittered away from his. "I may have suggested it. I wanted you around, to get to know you better."

"Oh Anne," Taj said, a dark thought entered his mind. How badly had she wanted him to be at Mount Faith?

"Did you kill Edward Carlisle?"

"No," Anne said emphatically. "I couldn't kill anybody. I had no reason to kill him." She looked away guiltily. "The truth is I am not unhappy that he's dead and I feel a bit bad about that."