Shaking Off the Dust (12 page)

I should have told him Ron shoved me out the door the minute he found out I was pregnant. That I went through the loss of that child alone. People try to understand grief, but in the end it is always a lonely thing. Enough time and the ache is not as close. Enough distance and you’ve learned to appreciate the coldness of your heart, because it’s not breaking in pieces or seizing up at a stray thought.

Marvin started on questions about the emergency-department experience and I had a lot of stories. I pulled out the funniest ones first. The meal went on in a lively debate of the most disgusting tattoos.

My cookie didn’t have a fortune in it. I worried there might be a reason when it occurred to me. “This must be Tom’s fortune cookie, not mine.”

Tom shook his head. “Don’t be nervous, Hannah. It’s not so bad being dead.”

“Thanks, that makes me feel so much better.” I started to clean up the table, taking the food to put away. The men got up to help, but I shook my head.

“He doesn’t need me to ask or answer questions.” Shimodo picked up several containers and followed

me into the kitchen.

“So what do you think?” I questioned him once we were alone. “Will he be able to help us help Tom?”

He stood inside the refrigerator door putting up containers in perfect alignment. He didn’t act as though he was being purposeful in doing it either. It was habit, almost ceremonial. “I don’t know. Dr.

Galenhouser, you met him today, he’s the head of my department. He is contacting Professor Bernard in Madrid. We finally got an email back so we sent all of your test results and scans, as well as a copy of the disc Marv saw. We’re hoping he will be intrigued enough to invite us there. Then at least we’ll be in Spain.”

“You realize if this goes wrong—and listen very carefully to this, except for my nursing, most everything else I do does go wrong—there’s no telling what could happen. How Marvin handles this and what he really believes will make a huge difference on what happens next.” I handed Shimodo more containers.

I spun around but stopped to grab the counter. I’d moved too fast and my head was dizzy for a second.

Shimodo came up behind me and put his arm around my waist. “What’s the matter?” His fingers slid across my wrist searching for my pulse again.

“Just turned too fast. All this Chinese food, which I love, is too salty. Since my hearing loss, I have balance problems and I didn’t watch my salt intake. I’m okay now. Don’t worry, I’m used to it and I know I’m a pain in the ass. It’s why I live alone.” I walked back into the living room.

Marvin sat at the table, Tom across from him. Marvin was writing questions in the margins of the transcript.

Tom jumped up and started pacing. “Hannah, tell him the baggage handler’s name is Ricardo Manlino.

He works every Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. And tell him Eduardo’s sister-in-law lives in City Park, California. And her name is Maria Bresez.”

I repeated it to Marvin.

“He can read as I’m writing the questions?”

I looked at him. “He was a doctor you know. The reading part’s pretty fundamental.”

“Hannah, be nice,” Tom scolded.

“I’m being sarcastic, not mean,” I argued.

Marvin looked embarrassed. “It was a stupid question, I’ll agree. I’m still getting a handle on the whole ghost angle.”

“Will anyone else believe?” I asked as Shimodo came to sit with us.

Marvin sat back a moment and considered my question. “I don’t know. We’ve used psychics on a couple of cases. Their input is questionable at best and in one case, when they did give a real lead, they became an immediate suspect. You’d be under an incredible amount of suspicion, and I’m afraid, Miss Campbell, that you could be taken away for questioning. Takeshi, your research has been established for so long they’d probably believe that you have been taken in by Hannah.”

I must have looked horrified.

“I’m talking worst-case scenario.” He shrugged. “That’s not the truth either. Homeland Security could take you for questioning and put you away.”

“Are you joking?”

“No. Tom’s plane crashed during take-off because of a terrorist bomb in its baggage section. The fact that they were not yet airborne was the only reason eighty of the passengers survived. That is deadly serious. They’ll swarm on you like locusts.”

“Thanks for the visual. Why are you telling me this? Do you want us not to try to help?” I asked in a strangled voice.

“So you know what can happen. You won’t have Takeshi there to keep the situation under control.”

“Then we are done here. It goes no further. Hannah goes nowhere where her integrity or freedom is in jeopardy. Tom, it’s over,” Shimodo said.

“I wish that was the way things could be, that I could guarantee everything will be all right. But I have pertinent information on a terrorist investigation. I have to turn this over to the director.” He sounded like FBI now.

“She will not be taken for questioning without me. You can arrange that much. You owe me, Marvin. I always knew about Kim. She made a point of telling me how treacherous my friends were. I chose to believe she was the unfaithful one. Hannah’s involved with this only as a promise to Tom. Neither he nor I considered that she might be in any kind of danger from our own government.” Shimodo was intense.

He spoke Japanese for a sentence or two.

“He’s upset,” Tom explained. “He only curses in Japanese. I’d be doing the same if I spoke Japanese.

I’m so sorry I involved you, Hannah. I didn’t realize the potential fallout for you, or Takeshi.”

“None of us realized. I mean I knew it was complicated and I hate complicated. My plan was to fake my way through this all. You know, parrot Tom’s tales of the dead. Be funny whenever possible and go home to the routine that has become comfortable and insulated. I’m sticking with my plan.”

Marvin stood, looking around the room. “I’m going to take possession of the disc, transcript and all your test results on Hannah. I’ll try to give you a full twenty-four hours before anyone comes knocking on your door. I’ll want to verify the information I’ve already got. Attempting like hell to do that without setting off alarms anywhere.” He gathered up the files and disc. “Takeshi, I owe you. I’ve carried that guilt around for a long time. I know it’s no excuse, but I was drunk as a skunk that night. I will do everything I can to make sure you and Hannah stay together on this.”

He left and as soon as the door closed, Shimodo came to me.

“What should we do? What can I possibly do to prepare for an interrogation?” I pleaded.

He took my hands. “Come on, I’ll make some tea. It will clear our heads.”

Tom followed us into the kitchen. There was a full trash bag near the back door, so while Shimodo set

water to boil and rummaged for tea, I decided to take out the garbage.

“Are the trashcans in the back?”

“I can do that later,” Shimodo insisted.

“Tom will walk me out.” I headed out the back door, following him to a gate at the end of the yard.

There was a wooden fence with bonsai plants on stands at intervals along the way. I opened the trashcan and the stench hit me hard. It was obvious his cousin hadn’t put out the trash for pickup. I held my breath and put in the bag. I tried to secure the lid, but it wasn’t cooperating.

I needed to take a breath and that was a mistake. I started sneezing and coughing. I must have sneezed ten times in a row directly into the trashcan. When I stopped I noticed Tom hadn’t bothered to hang out with me. Of course, I didn’t blame him.

“Tom, you coward.” He didn’t show up to debate that.

I hit the lid hard until it popped in position and went back inside. After I washed my hands, Shimodo handed me a cup of tea and we walked back into the living room.

“Is Tom still here?” Shimodo asked.

I looked around. “No, he’s not. He must be checking up on his transplant patients.” I sat down before I felt coldness on my arm and sucked in my breath. “Tom, is that you?”

There it was in my hand again. I jumped up. “Oh my God, Shimodo, I can’t see him or hear him anymore. I know he’s here because he keeps touching me.”

“Calm down. Did something happen while you were outside?”

“I started sneezing.”

“I think that solves this dilemma. At the memorial service you inhaled Tom’s ashes. I think you sneezed them out. Unless you’re actually in contact with him, your ability to see and hear him is broken.”

“But, we just got the FBI involved. What are we going to do? We’re screwed.”

Shimodo smiled reassuringly. “Wait here.”

He went to his room and came back a few minutes later with a small travel bag. He pulled out two brushes and a comb. “They’re Tom’s. There should be lots of his hair here. Try touching one.” He pulled a single strand from the brush.

I put out my hand and touched the hair.

“Please, be able to hear me, Hannah.” Tom was beside me, pleading.

“Tom, thank God.” I threw myself on Shimodo. “I can see him. I can hear him again. You are so smart.”

“Yes, and it has occurred to me that there is something I need to do.” He pulled the hair from my fingertips and put it back in the brush. He closed the travel bag and did the oddest thing. Grabbing his

keys from the desk at the door, he went outside. He put the trashcan in the backseat and the travel bag in the trunk, then drove away.

He was gone for twenty minutes. When he came back, he smiled at me and headed to the kitchen to wash his hands.

“May I ask what you are doing?”

“Wait a minute and I’ll explain everything.” He walked into the living room.

“What’s going on? Where is—”

“No, don’t say his name. I spoke with him in the car. He won’t bother us tonight unless I call him.”

“And why is that?”

“I met you four days ago and yet we’ve never been unaccompanied. I want to be alone with you, Hannah. I don’t want you staring off and making conversation with my best friend tonight.”

“I guess it would drive me crazy to always feel like you’re waiting for an update.”

“No, you don’t understand, I’m jealous. If we only have twenty-four hours, I want every minute of that time in your company exclusively. I haven’t had this much fun or wanted anyone like I have wanted you these last few days, ever.”

“Shimodo, I realize we’ve been in a heightened situation, especially tonight with Marvin and his talk of interrogation. But it’s only been a short time since you met me. And you have to admit, despite the fact I’m just so darn funny, I’m a mess. You’re reacting to the situation, not to me.”

He moved to stand in front of me and looked down into my face. His hand captured my chin with one finger then he bent down to lay a soft kiss on my lips.

I made an “ooh” sound.

He kissed the corner of my mouth and nibbled on my lips until my mouth opened and my breath came in a rush. His lips were persuasive and demanding and they covered mine, staking claim to what he wanted.

The bad girl that I was kissed him back without hesitation. I fell into him, feeding on his mouth as he fed on mine, and sighed at how wonderful he tasted, how silken his lips were, how skilled his tongue. There was something I was supposed to remember, I couldn’t think at that moment.

He pulled back, looking down with those amazing dark eyes. His hands skimmed down both of my arms, pulling me closer into his space, until he took my right hand and tugged me towards my bedroom.

He flipped on the lamp as we entered, but I turned it off again. The bathroom light was on, the door half-open. It was enough for me.

“I want you,” he said, a simple statement. “Don’t you feel it? There is something between us that makes me ache to touch you.”

“Yes.” I touched his cheek lightly. “But I’m not on birth control. So we can’t.”

His eyes were gleaming in the near darkness. “Wait.” He left me standing and was gone. Returning in record time, he held a roll of condoms.

“Well, aren’t you the Boy Scout, always prepared.”

“I bought them today when I went out for breakfast. All I could think about last night was you, and then when I saw you this morning in the bath, I was compelled to make this purchase. Every time I’ve been near you, I’ve had an erection, it’s damned uncomfortable. It’s ruining my ability to think rationally.”

“We need to clear our heads here a moment. We’ll ruin any chance at a friendship, Shimodo. I can do short-term lovers, but I can’t be friends after. It’s too hard.”

I sat on the bed and looked at my hands. I couldn’t remember if I’d washed them after taking out the trash, so I absently went into the bathroom and cleaned them.

Shimodo came up behind me and began soaping my hands with his long fingers entwining with my own.

It was an incredibly intimate thing to do. With each movement of his arms, his lean body enveloped mine.

Desire raced from fingertips to my belly as I felt his sex nudge my back. Our eyes met in the mirror as he turned off the water and reached for a towel. I dried the back of my hands, pushing him with my hip into the bedroom.

“Take off your sweater,” I whispered against his chest. I had made my decision.

We were standing in the light of the doorway still several feet from the bed. He pulled the sweater over his head and let it drop to the floor. I walked into him and lifted my face for a kiss. He eagerly took my mouth. I rubbed the back of my hand across his chest then turned the still wet palms against his nipples and they pebbled at my touch.

Fingers glided down my shirt, unbuttoning as he went, until he had it around my shoulders. The blouse kept my arms and hands off of him and towards my back. He kissed down my neck and over my breasts, which were now hard and almost painful. One hand held my shirt tight against my back and with the other, he pulled down one side of my bra. I tried not to think about the fact I hadn’t worn a particularly sexy one, I always bought for comfort. It was off my shoulder now as his hand pushed it away from the breast. He spread his fingers in a light touch over the globe of my full breast and tightened his hand around it, hefting the weight in his palm. His tongue flicked out and rasped across the nipple, then he blew his breath across the wet tip. When his warm mouth covered my nipple, my whole body seemed to rise up to him. I moaned as he suckled and teased with his teeth and tongue.