Red Clover (26 page)

Lee decided to broach the subject with her one evening after dinner when they were enjoying a glass of wine on the front deck. The sun had begun its daily journey down the western sky behind the Red Sunset maple trees that lined his driveway, authenticating their name and giving credence to the fact that Lee was where he needed to be.

“They’re going to break ground on the guesthouse next week,” he said to Shaneta.

“Ahead of schedule then.”

“Almost a month. It could be completed by the end of the year.”

“That’s nice. Will it be another A-frame?”

“No. It’s going to be a small three-bedroom cottage. Dennis created plans for one that fits nicely into the landscape but still blends in with mine.”

“Will we be able to see it from here?”

Lee got up from his chair and walked over to the far end of the deck. He looked toward the back of his property to the intended site for the guesthouse, approximately a quarter mile from where he stood. “Probably.” He paused to gather his thoughts. “We haven’t talked about your plans, Shaneta. What do you want to do?”

“Well, Lee, I had hoped to be outta your hair before Dr. Rad moved in, but he moved in faster than I thought, and here I still am. I registered with an employment agency, but they weren’t hopeful. Sonya said she might know of a family in Lake Geneva lookin’ for a cook, but she hasn’t called me back yet, so...”

“Well, I want you to know you are welcome to stay here as long as it takes. And when the guesthouse is finished, if you’re still here, you can move in there. But I have to ask you, why did you want to be moved out before Dr. Rad moved in?”

She twisted her face as though she had just bitten into a sour grape. “He’s a strange man. Do you know what he said to me the other day?”

“No, what?”

“It was right after he moved in, and I thought I would be nice and bring him a cup of coffee, so I—”

“You walked to his lab?”

“Yes, of course. How else do you think I would get there?”

“Shaneta, it’s almost a mile between here and the lab.”

“You’re tellin’
me
that?”

Lee shook his head. “Anyway, what happened?”

“I put the coffee in a thermos to keep it nice and hot, and when I knocked, he said through the door, ‘I’m single, Miss Shaneta, for good reason, but you can still leave the coffee.'“

“What?”

“That’s what I said. And then he said something ‘bout loco bread. That man is a little loco himself if he thinks I walked all that way ‘cause I was interested in him. I just had extra coffee, and rather than throw it out...”

“Well, I’m not sure that was what he meant. Remember he comes from a country with completely different customs.”

“And so do I. And did you catch how he looked at me at the housewarming party?”

“No, I can’t say I did.”

“Well, he did.”

“I really don’t think—”

She got up. “Anyway, I hope I answered your questions. I’m goin’ to turn in now.”

* * *

Even with all that was going on with his property improvements, Lee found himself constantly thinking about CJ. Following DeRam’s inopportune confession to Wayne, CJ had accepted Lee’s offer to meet with an attorney in Rockford to discuss DeRam’s paternity rights. While DeRam hadn’t made any parental demands, at least CJ was now informed of his rights in case he did.

Lee and CJ had become close friends, but he still struggled with how much he should be involved in her life. She had called him for help this last time, but with CJ, it had to be on her terms, so he knew he had to be cautious.

He felt completely inept when it came to relationships, with men
and
women. He recalled CJ’s comment about there being nothing going on between them. It took that comment to confirm for him that was indeed the case, because he honestly didn’t know. He made a mental note to have this discussion with Bennett the next time they had a brother-to-brother talk, which he hoped would become a regular occurrence.

* * *

A couple of days following his puzzling discussion with Shaneta about Dr. Rad, Lee was sitting on the front deck drinking a cup of coffee, when he saw Dr. Rad walking down the dirt road from his lab, thermos bottle in hand, clothes rumpled, with little beads of sweat glistening on his brow. As he neared Lee, he held the thermos out in front of him.

“Here, I wouldn’t want her to think I was going to keep this.” Expressionless, he set the thermos down on the deck floor. “Tell her the coffee wasn’t half-bad, but I prefer tea,” he mumbled.

Without another word, he turned and started back down the road.

“Hey, wait a minute, Dr. Rad. Can I give you a lift back?”

Dr. Rad shook his head and kept on walking, throwing up his hands every few feet as if having a lively conversation with himself.

Shaneta came out of the house. “What did he want?”

Lee held up the thermos.

“A likely excuse to come see me.”

Lee had spoken to a variety of psychologists over the years about his difficulties developing relationships. Now, sitting on the other side of the therapist’s desk, he realized understanding them wasn’t any less of a challenge.

* * *

Three weeks after Dr. Rad had moved in, he presented Lee with a fifteen-page handwritten proposal on what he needed to restart his research, complete with crude aerial drawings for the various growing fields. In the back of the greenhouses, he proposed two three-acre, two two-acre, and five one-acre fields, each one for a separate fruit or vegetable. The entire front fifteen acres was designated for red clover. After leafing through the proposal, Lee turned to the last page where Dr. Rad estimated the start-up cost. If Stonebugger didn’t approve it through the trust account, he would have to sell off a few more coins in order to fund it, something he was prepared to do.

Figuring interest from Johns Hopkins and Penn State was enough ratification for him, Lee accepted his proposal and asked Dr. Rad if there was anything he could do to help him at this time.

“You can help by getting Miss Shaneta some sort of transportation to and from my lab.”

“What? Why?”

“She’s complaining about the long walk. You know how she is...complains about everything.”

“The long walk for what?”

“She insists on bringing me things—coffee, sweets, and occasionally leftovers from dinner.”

“Really.”

“I don’t ask for it, I assure you...” His face flushed. “She just...”

“She just what?”

“I’ll be going now,” he said halfway across the room. “Thank you, my good friend. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.”

Coffee, sweets, and dinner? Lee had thought Shaneta couldn’t stand Dr. Rad. And he had assumed the feeling was mutual.

Forget it. I’d need a degree in psychology to figure this out.

The opportunity to consider transportation for Shaneta to get around the property came the following week.

“Mista Lee, if I was able to get mi hands on a car, could you teach me how to drive?”

“I didn’t realize you didn’t know how to drive.”

“Never learned. Didn’t need to in Jamaica, and I always relied on others to drive me around here. But now...well, now I think if I’m goin’ to start bein’ more independent, I need to know how to drive.”

Lee waited for the next sunny day to give Shaneta her first driving lesson in his Datsun. It didn’t go well.

First, Shaneta wanted to jump in behind the wheel and start driving before having received any preliminary instructions. Then, as Lee painstakingly walked her through what all the levers, pedals, and knobs were, she seemed more interested in turning on the radio. When he finally allowed her to sit behind the wheel, instead of using the gear shift to put it in drive, she pulled down so hard on the windshield wiper lever, he thought it was going to break off.

After Lee went through the drill for the third time, Shaneta threw the car in Drive and stepped on the gas...hard.

“Stop! Put your foot on the brake!” he yelled at her.

“I’m drivin’, Mista Lee. Look at me, I’m drivin’.”

“Brake! Put your foot on the brake! The one on the left!” He reached for the wheel, but Shaneta had a tight grip on it. “Let me steer! Take your foot off the gas!”

By the time Shaneta found the wherewithal to take her foot off the gas, they were twenty feet into the knee-high grasses that lined the driveway. Then she stomped on the brake so hard, it caused Lee to fly into the dashboard and hit his head on the windshield.

“Put the gear in Park,” he croaked.

“Would that be P then?”

“Yes, that would be P.”

Shaneta got out of the car and proceeded to walk toward the house. “It’s obvious you’re not the right person to teach me how to drive,” she said loud enough for him to hear.

You got that right.

The subject of teaching Shaneta how to drive never resurfaced, and her now-daily walks to Dr. Rad’s lab made Lee feel guilty. Because Dr. Rad had told him he appreciated the meals and other things she brought him, he wanted to accommodate her in some way. Thinking there had to be a solution to her transportation issue that didn’t involve driving a one-and-a-half-ton potentially lethal weapon, he made a visit to his family’s golf club in Lake Geneva and purchased a golf cart whose top speed was fifteen miles per hour. The driving lesson on this vehicle proceeded significantly better. Key in ignition. Turn key. Two pedals. Two gears. Done.

* * *

“Looks awfully barren right now,” Shaneta said. “I miss the pretty wild onions.”

It was a balmy day in mid-October, and she and Lee were drinking their morning coffee on the front deck. Preparation for the red clover fields had begun a few weeks earlier—the land had been cleared and tilled.

“Just wait. Come late spring, the red clover will be blooming with so much color it will take your breath away.”

After hundreds of trays of the clover seeds had been soaked in liquid nitrogen fertilizer, Lee had hired a commercial farmer out of Rockford to plant them with an industrial-size seed drill.

Lee stood up and gestured toward the field. “Fifteen acres of solid red blossoms, two feet tall or so, no two alike. Individually, they’re not much to look at, but in a field this big, they’ll form a continuous blanket of blooms, and in the morning when they’re wet with dew, the sun will glisten off of them like nothing you’ve ever seen before. And when there’s a gentle breeze, they’ll all sway in synchrony, creating silent ripples across the field. Their smell is so sweet, Shaneta...sweet, like honey.”

“Mmm...sounds beautiful, peaceful.”

“It is. You’ll see.”

They sat in silence for a few minutes, sipping their coffee.

“Look…over there…peeking through the tall grasses,” Shaneta said, pointing to a spot across the road. “I see that cat almost every day, but he won’t come any closer than that.”

“I saw that same cat the first time I set foot on this property. Must be a stray.”

“Black cat. Bad luck.”

Lee smiled. “Nope. Not this one.”

“You know, I asked Raddie if he would carve out a tiny area for mi own little plot of clover. I don’t need much.”

Lee focused on Shaneta’s profile for a long moment before she turned her head.

“What?” she asked.

“Raddie?”

“It’s just a little nickname. What can I say, it just slipped out one day when we were...well, this is no business of yours, young man.”

Lee kept his eyes on her while she rambled on.

“Stop lookin’ at me.”

“And just what are you going to use the clover for?”

“You don’t know ‘bout red clover? Hmmm. You use it for many things. You can dry the flowers for tea, put fresh ones in oil and use it to soften your skin, or use them in a salad. I have even dropped blossoms in the ice cube trays to brighten up drinks. You can put it in soup, and for coughin’? Well, there’s nothin’ like a little red clover tincture. I swear, for someone with such a high IQ, you don’t know much, neither you nor Dr. Rad.”

“Raddie.”

“Shut up ‘bout that man...please.”

* * *

As soon as the back fifteen acres had been cleared, Dr. Rad told Lee the soil was unusually high in nitrogen, which he hadn’t expected.

“So what do you think would cause just this one section to be like that?” Lee asked him.

“There’s also lignite in the soil. I didn’t expect to find that either.”

“Lignite...as in coal?”

“Yes.”

“What is lignite typically used for?”

“It’s not very efficient to burn as fuel, and I’m not sure what plant life would even thrive in carbon- and ash-laden soil.”

Lee thought back to when he had first set foot in that section of his property and found the strange thin grayish root strands.

“Wait a minute. There was something planted there at one time.” He described the roots to Dr. Rad.

“Do you still have it?”

“Probably still in the trunk of my car, but...”

“Let’s have a look.”

Lee led the way to his car, which was parked in front of the lab next to the golf cart. He looked at the cart and then at Dr. Rad.

“Don’t ask,” Dr. Rad said.

“I won’t.”

Lee opened his trunk and pulled out the shriveled-up tangle of brittle roots.

Dr. Rad took it in his hands, fondled it, sniffed it.

“You know what this is?” he asked Lee.

“No. Do you?”

“It’s ganja.”

25 | Alone

So someone had been cultivating marijuana on the property before Lee had inherited it. That explained the strangely placed gate in the northeast corner—an access point for working the field. It appeared to Lee that someone had taken full advantage of the property’s having been untended, and the evidence pointed to DeRam as that someone.

It explained why DeRam had dragged him into his office the first day Lee had visited the property—he hadn’t wanted Lee to discover the plants. When DeRam realized Lee was the new owner and was going to develop the property, he must have removed the plants, which explained the fresh cut marks on their stems and the time he saw that car and trailer leave his property. Maybe it had been DeRam. Maybe it had been DeRam hauling away all the evidence. It also explained Dennis Freborg’s dog, the former K-9 member on the Chicago police force, going berserk in that section of the property.