Authors: Jeanne Matthews
Bet Your Bones (27 page)
One of them will kill the other, thought Dinah, and it will be my fault. She peeped out at the darkness. Not seeing Avery was scarier than seeing him. She zipped into one of the windbreakers Eleanor had packed. It was too large, but it didn’t swallow her. It must have belonged to one of Eleanor’s relatives or students.
“Stay down out of sight,” said Eleanor. “I’ll speak loudly. You’ll know when to begin the recording.”
Dinah waited for a few minutes and peeped out again. Eleanor was sitting at the picnic table facing the car. She skipped her light around the empty lot, but there was nothing to see.
Dinah debated whether to end this ruse right now and reveal herself. If Avery was out there watching, he would hightail it when he realized that Eleanor hadn’t come alone and then maybe nobody would get hurt. The mere fact of his coming would be incriminating and Langford could follow up the investigation in a hundred better, more logical ways. On the other hand, Eleanor seemed cool and calm and in control. She wouldn’t haul off and shank Avery with her marlin’s beak before eliciting an admission of some kind. The two of them would talk. They would feel each other out, do some verbal sparring. There would be ample time for Dinah to act if things started to go haywire.
Nothing moved except for Eleanor’s cone of bouncing light and two divergent streams of fire oozing down the mountainside like tongs. They looked far away at the moment, but Pele was as changeful as the wind. She could redirect her streams or create new ones on a whim. Dinah missed the voice on the transistor radio. What was happening on the rest of the island? Had power been restored? Were people petrified and holding hands in the dark or popping popcorn and watching the fireworks on their HDTVs? The world felt alien and incomprehensible and she wished that Jon were here to analyze the situation and tell her whether to take heart or kiss this life good-bye.
After what seemed an eternity, the door of the port-o-potty whanged open and a beam of light emerged. Dinah ducked lower.
“Some night, eh, Eleanor? Don’t go, Kay said. Probably just a humbug. Not to worry, I said. Have to see what Eleanor’s found to fuss about this time.”
“Come and sit, Avery. We have serious matters to discuss.”
Dinah slipped on a dust mask, wriggled under the steering wheel, and eased out of the driver’s side door. A flying cinder stung her neck and she stifled a yip. She brushed the rain of ash out of her face. She’d never felt so exposed. Crouching low, she walked the length of the car and peeped around the tail fin. Avery stood across the table from Eleanor, one foot up and resting on the bench. Dinah turned on Eleanor’s recorder. Was she close enough? Avery had his back to her. If she could creep across the road and hide behind a tree, the reception would be better.
“Did you bring the money?”
“I told you I couldn’t get cash tonight. The banks had already closed when you called. Could write you a check if you need money. Better that way. Would give me a record of the transaction.”
“Something to prove I blackmailed you, you mean.”
“Not the word I’d use. Negative connotation. What’s this about, Eleanor? You short of money to pay your legal fees? You going to sue Jarvis?” He coughed until he began to wheeze. He sounded asthmatic. If he was, this ash must be hell on his airways. Maybe that’s why he’d stayed so long in the port-o-potty. “Let’s go sit in my car and talk.”
“Cover your mouth with your handkerchief, Avery. I won’t keep you long.”
“Get to the point.” He took out a handkerchief, tied it over his nose and mouth, and sat down. “Show me what you have. I’ll decide if it’s worth buying.”
“I’m not like those foolish boys who blackmailed you and ended up dead. I left my box of papers with my attorney. If anything happens to me, he’ll turn it over to the police.”
“Customary to give the victim a whiff of what you’ve got, Eleanor. Show him it’s not just a hoax.”
“The papers prove that you had reason to kill Patrick Varian.”
“Papers not enough. Motive, hearsay, suspicion. Not enough.” His body convulsed with hacking. When the spasm was over, he stood up again. “You’ve got nothing. I’m leaving.”
“Your tires are flat.”
“What?”
Eleanor slapped the marlin’s beak flat on the table, but kept her hand on the haft. “Sit. Hear what I’ve come to say to you.”
Avery sat. “All right. Let’s hear it.”
“Your nephew double-crossed you. He was holding an auction. Playing you against me. If you killed him, I can understand.”
Dinah didn’t know if Eleanor was deceiving Avery about having contact with Varian or if she was deceiving her? She didn’t know if she had slashed Avery’s tires with her pahoa or whether she intended to slash his throat. What she did know was that one of the streams of fire seemed to be gathering speed down the mountain and veering toward the other stream as if it wanted to form an isosceles triangle. She willed herself not to whimper.
“Tried to help the pipsqueak. Said he needed to do research for a book, advance his career. Asked me if he could go prospecting on the Uwahi site. Have at it, I said. I knew there was nothing there. Had the damn archaeologist’s report. Paid through the nose for it. Damn if Rick didn’t find bones his first day out. Fine, I said. Write about it in your book, but hold your horses for a few weeks before telling anyone. I’ll make it worth your while. At first, he agreed. But then he came back to me wanting money and I flew off the handle. Hit him. Didn’t mean to kill him, but no help for it. Moved the body so no connection with Uwahi.”
Jerusalem. Avery wasn’t holding anything back. He seemed not to care that Eleanor might be recording him. Did that mean…?
“Varian was greedy, “ said Eleanor. “And so was Raiford Reid. He was a kolohe, a deceiver and a scoundrel, deserving only of scorn. Maybe you had no choice but to kill him.”
“None at all. Rick had already shot off his mouth to Raif. When Rick’s body was identified, Raif decided to pick up where Rick left off. I felt snakebit. Blackmailers crawling out of the woodwork.”
“Why did you steal the Kemper girl’s gun to kill him?”
“Can’t say. Overheard her warn the kid to stay away from the gun. Surprised me a girl like Claude Ann would own a gun, but thought it might come in handy.”
“And so it did. You must have worried that Raif had kept damaging information on his smartphone, but why did you unload it in the Pelerin girl’s purse?”
“Thought it was Claude Ann’s. Figured the police would assume Xander had taken it and then hid it in her purse. No matter whose. Confused everybody. I use a BlackBerry, myself. They wipe themselves clean automatically if you enter the wrong password ten times.”
Eleanor picked up the pahoa and spiked it into the table. “Tell me about Leilani.”
“Lani?” His body was wracked by a fit of coughing and his flashlight beam bounced all over the place. When he could speak again, his voice had roughened. “What the hell do I have to do with her?”
“You knew that she was in love with Louis Sykes. That they were having an affair.”
“She didn’t tell you?”
“I found out just today.”
“Common knowledge to all but you and Xander. But then Lani said you weren’t close.”
“Not close like you, Avery. You and my sister must have been very close. You called her from California the day she died.”
“Don’t remember. Sad day all around. Louis was a friend to us all.”
“What did you say to her?”
“Knew she’d be upset. Wanted to give her time to absorb the blow before Xander came home.”
“Did you tell her you’d killed Louis for her? To pay him back for cheating on her.”
“Christ almighty. Your sister was crazy and so are you.” He stood up and reached a hand into his pocket.
The hair on the back of Dinah’s neck stood up. She took a step forward. Eleanor gripped the haft of the pahoa and pushed herself to her feet. Avery pulled something small out of his pocket and shook it. Eleanor shone her light on it. Dinah let out a breath and stepped back. It was an inhaler. She remembered that Avery wheezed a lot when he laughed, but this amount of coughing sounded dangerous. Had Eleanor known that he had asthma?
He pulled the handkerchief away from his mouth, took a hit from the inhaler, and coughed a few more times. “You came prepared, eh, Eleanor? Your talking points, your mask.” He chuckled and, without warning, backhanded her across the mouth so hard that she staggered backward into a tree. He jerked the dagger out of the table and threw it on the ground. “Get up and give me your car keys.”
Eleanor heaved herself off the tree trunk and moved back to the table. She reached into her pocket and handed him the keys. “Lava’s over the road. You won’t make it in my car.”
Dinah’s thoughts went into overdrive. If Avery drove off and left them marooned on the mountain, what would they do? It was eleven miles down to the Belt Road. She could jog it, assuming she weren’t incinerated by lava, but Eleanor wouldn’t be able to hike that distance. Dinah scoured the dark ground around her feet. If she had a big rock or strong piece of wood she could clobber him and get the keys back before he came to.
“You should have left it lay, Eleanor. I’m a family man. Work hard, play by the rules, pay taxes, give to charity, support my wife. I don’t deserve this. Those spoiled whelps tried to hold me up and now you. You push a man to the brink, give him no choice.”
“Before you go, tell me about Leilani.”
“I wanted her once. But Xander had the looks and the money. Understood her choice. But when she went after Louis I got mad. Common as dirt. He didn’t deserve her.”
“And you did?” She picked up her flashlight and aimed it in his face
“Christ. Give me that.” He took it away from her and set it on the bench in front of him.
“Did you murder Louis?”
“If buying a drunk one too many is murder. I told Lani what he was, what she’d degraded herself for. Couldn’t believe she flipped out and threw herself off a cliff. What’s wrong with people nowadays? They act surprised when there’s a price to pay for their shenanigans.” He wheezed again, but recovered and this time, he pulled out a gun. “Let’s you and me take a walk up the mountain.”
Dinah felt the onrush of panic. Should she lunge? Should she scream?
Eleanor showed no sign of fear. “I’m too fat to walk up that mountain and you’re too short of breath. Take my car and leave me here.”
“Too late. You shouldn’t have tried to play vigilante.”
“Another killing will be harder to hide.”
“I’m not going to kill you. Pele is. Now walk.”
They walked toward the trailhead, Eleanor in front, Avery behind with the gun and the light. Dinah looked up at the streams of molten lava sliding down the mountainside. The moon wore a ragged gray cloud over the lower half of its face as if it, too, needed to protect itself from the polluted air. She shut off the recorder, pulled out her cell phone, and dialed Langford. Nothing. She dialed 911. Nothing. The cell phone towers must be out of commission.
She stumbled toward the table, finding it when she bashed her shin against the bench. Eleanor’s flashlight rolled onto the ground and she scrabbled about in the dirt until she found it. She aimed it at the place where Avery and Eleanor had disappeared into the trees. She picked up the pahoa. How in God’s name would she bring down an armed man with a marlin’s beak?
“Geronimo,” she said and started up the mountain.
Dinah was careful not to let her light get too far ahead of her and alert Avery that he was being followed. The first part of the trail climbed through a dark tunnel of trees. At the end of the tunnel, the bald dome of the mountain loomed like the north pole of a dead planet. She was above treeline. From this perspective, she could only see one of the lava streams. She skimmed her light across the horizon.
Eleanor and Avery were walking in full view not forty yards ahead. She doused the light and waited. What was Avery thinking? He didn’t want to shoot Eleanor. He wanted to make this murder seem like an accident. Would he force her to walk close to the lava and push her in? He wouldn’t get too close and risk a push from her.
Dinah focused the light on her feet. This lava wasn’t as jagged as the lava on the way to Ku’s temple of human sacrifice. It had congealed in a circular, braid-like pattern that looked as if it had been sculpted. This must be pahoehoe, the kind of lava Jon had described as smooth and ropy, the kind that burned him. In different circumstances, she might have paused to marvel at the strange curlicues and ridges and blobs. As it was, she concentrated on trying not to turn an ankle.
The mountain sounded like a roaring gas furnace interrupted by sporadic booms that reverberated through her body. Somewhere in the I’ll-look-back-and-laugh-at-this-one-day part of her brain, she wondered how she could have failed to hear the pandemonium when she was only a few hundred feet below in the parking lot. She’d been so intent on listening to Avery and Eleanor talk through their masks that she had tuned out the volcano. If any of their conversation was audible on the recorder, it would be a miracle. From where Dinah stood at the moment, the only miracle that mattered was deliverance from this roaring chaos. Maybe unbeknownst to her, Jon or Steve or Langford flew helicopters in their spare time. Maybe she would soon hear the song of rotor blades overhead and somebody would drop a harness belt and winch her up and away from this unholy mountain.
The wind had picked up, but there wasn’t as much airborne ash. She threw her light ahead and picked out a pillar of flat stones stacked like scraggly pancakes. The trail curved around it and a second cairn marked the way about twenty feet beyond. Would Avery keep to the trail? If he spotted her coming after him, he might decide that shooting Eleanor was a quicker expedient than staking her out in Pele’s path. But light was necessary or she’d lose them. She strafed the surrounding area with her light. Avery and Eleanor were nowhere in sight. How far ahead could they be? Eleanor was hoofing it across this ripply lava much faster than Dinah would have believed possible. They must be getting close to seven thousand feet by now and the altitude couldn’t be helping Avery’s asthma.
A wire fence stretched across the trail. The sign on the gate read, “Don’t Let the Goats Out.” The goats baaing on the other side of the fence pleaded otherwise. Dinah lifted the latch on the gate with Eleanor’s dagger and stood aside as seven terrified animals stampeded through the opening and fled down the mountain. Dinah had to fight the urge to run after them.
Shit! She rolled her ankle in a crevice. Her hands were full, one holding the flashlight and the other gripping the dagger. She balanced stork-like on one leg and rubbed her throbbing ankle against her supporting leg. A sense of hopelessness swamped her. What was she going to do if she didn’t find them? What would she do if she did? Like a dog chasing a car, the concept of success was problematic in the extreme.
If Eleanor and Avery had gone through the gate, would they have bothered to close it behind them? She shone her light around and saw a scrap of red cloth. Eleanor must have torn her muumuu on the wire. Dinah almost laughed. Eleanor was scattering clues like Hansel and Gretel. She expected Dinah to follow her.
Dinah’s ankle felt mushy, like a rotten mango, and she didn’t think she could make it much farther. Maybe it was that she didn’t want to make it much farther. She passed the third cairn and the fourth. The higher she climbed, the farther apart the cairns had been placed and the air seemed to grow colder cairn by cairn. In spite of a stream of two thousand degree lava cascading in the distance, she was chilled to the bone. Hypothermia. That’s how it would end for her. Not in fire, but in ice.
Her sprained ankle wobbled and almost went over again. She couldn’t do anything to help Eleanor in this condition. She could turn around right now. If all Avery meant to do was leave Eleanor up here without a light and hope she would stumble into a lava flow, he had underestimated the woman. Eleanor was too tough and she was tight with Pele. Pele would cause the lava to go around her. She’d be all right. Dinah should head back toward the Belt Road, flag down help, and send people back to rescue Eleanor.
Voices. She killed her light and froze. From which direction had they come?
A scree of loose pebbles trickled out from under her foot. It couldn’t have been heard above all the other noise, could it? Eleanor’s voice carried above the din, but Dinah couldn’t make out what she was saying. She strained her ears. The roar of the volcano was too loud.
What the hell. Sneaking up on Avery and overpowering him wasn’t going to happen. She may as well announce herself. Avery would either run or he’d shoot and, if he didn’t know how many people were after him…
She turned on the flashlight and shouted at the top of her voice. “Eleanor! We’re over here. Where are you? Jon, you go around that way. I’ll go this way.”
Again, Eleanor’s voice rose, but the words were indistinct. They probably couldn’t hear Dinah either. She walked in what she could only guess was the right direction. A sudden sharp explosion ripped the air. Gunshot or methane gas? Overhead, there was a mad screeching. She aimed her beam up and to the right. Avery stood alone on a flat rock, waving his arms wildly about his head to ward off a pair of large, low-flying birds. They must have been startled by the explosion. Was Eleanor dead?
Dinah hid the pahoa behind her back and shouted. “Avery, hello. Where’s Eleanor?”
“You hear all that foolishness between me and Eleanor down below?” He appeared to be wearing a mask over his face now instead of his handkerchief. Eleanor’s mask.
“What foolishness? Jon and Steve and I just got here. Eleanor said she was driving up here and we came to make sure she didn’t run into trouble. Is she with you?”
The birds swooped and dived around his head like fighter planes. Had Avery shot at them? He bellowed Jon’s name. The birds flew up and Avery bent double in a prolonged coughing spasm. He sounded ready to croak. Dinah edged nearer. She was within three feet of him. The pooch had caught the car and she had no idea what to do next.
Avery straightened up, put his inhaler in his mouth, and sucked in a rasping breath.
“Jon’s not here,” he said. “You must have ridden up with Eleanor in her Caddy.” He sounded hoarse, but perfectly amiable. The way he’d sounded before he backhanded Eleanor into the tree.
This is it, she thought. He’s going to whip out his gun and shoot me. Her fingers tightened around the dagger, but even at this close range, the odds that she could hit him were astronomical.
Eleanor’s voice rumbled from somewhere behind him. She was alive. Dinah took a step forward and almost dropped the flashlight as the birds swooped in between her and Avery, their wings silent as phantoms. They looked like owls. One of them hovered over Avery’s head while the other dive-bombed him. It was like something out of an Alfred Hitchcock movie. Avery flapped his arms and wheezed.
“You need a doctah,” rumbled Eleanor. “You bettah go wikiwiki. You no got long, Avery Wilhite.”
Dinah had a sudden brain wave that Eleanor had poisoned him, put a twig of the Be-Still tree in his inhaler or impregnated the dust mask she’d given him with deadly nightshade. Avery clutched at his chest, took another one-handed swipe at the owls and, to Dinah’s utter amazement, rushed past her and headed down the mountain. The owls pursued him, circling and swooping and screeching as if he were making off with their chicks.
“Eleanor, he’s gone. Where are you?”
“Can’t tell you. Can’t move.”
Dinah followed the sound of her voice and found her lying on her side on a large boulder. “Can you walk? We have to get down before the lava blocks our way.”
“No can. Broke arm. Broke foot.”
“Maybe I can find something to make a splint or a crutch or a litter.”
“You can’t drag me. We’ll have to stay the night. The pueos will protect us.”
“The birds?”
“They’re the spirits of my ‘aumakua. The spirits inhabit the bodies of owls because owls are skilled in battle.”
“It isn’t that I don’t believe in the skills of your ‘aumakua, Eleanor, but a slumber party with Pele and the pueos doesn’t appeal to me. Show me your hurt foot.”
She stuck out her foot.
“Can you move it?”
She waggled it from side to side.
“It’s only a sprain,” pronounced Dinah, willing it to be so. “I’ve got one, too. If your ancestor Pele doesn’t hem us in with fire, we have to try to get down. Even if Avery’s tires are flat, we can stay warm inside his car until somebody comes to help us.”
Eleanor didn’t argue. She cradled her hurt arm and sat up slowly. She braced her good arm on Dinah’s shoulder, planted her feet firmly on the ground, and heaved herself to a standing position. She grimaced from pain, but indicated that she was ready to try. With Avery’s departure, she seemed to have ceded command.
“Keep your arm on my shoulder and put your feet where I put mine,” said Dinah. “I’ll lead us back down the trail.”
And with the lame leading the lame by the feeble light of a plastic Rayovac flashlight, they shuffled down the mountain. The ash had stopped blowing and, apart from the sulfur smell, breathing had become easier. Dinah pulled off her mask. It wasn’t likely to stop the deadly, microscopic particulates anyway. One of the lava streams was still visible off to their left, but the roaring had quieted. Pele’s rampage was over and the pueos had dissolved away in the darkness along with Avery, leaving Dinah with a feeling of anticlimax. He would probably drive himself to the hospital, get his asthma symptoms under control, and abscond with his share of the Uwahi profits before Dinah and Eleanor could present Langford with their questionable recording. Such was life. People didn’t always get their just deserts.
Eleanor stepped on the back of Dinah’s heels, but it was just one pain among many. Her eyes and throat burned, her ankle throbbed, her shoulders ached, her hands and feet felt numb from the cold, she had a blister under her right big toe, and she couldn’t stop thinking about the kaula’s foreboding about the child with a fever.
They passed through the gate where the goats had gone through and Dinah took extra care to sidestep a deep crevice. She threw her light down the trail to find the next cairn. In the lambent beam of the Rayovac, she found Avery instead. His body lay prostrate across a mound of broken stones. He looked white and still and inexorably dead.