by Wesley Stein
Joanna was in High School now and struggling. But soon she went from struggling to broken.
Tuahine and Tua disappeared.
Shortly after Joanna’s fifteenth birthday, the phone calls and visits abruptly stopped. Tua had not been at school.
The sisters knew about the expired visas, but they’d been told it was no big deal. The odds of being deported were minuscule. But they knew that’s exactly what had happened. Their caretaker, Ben Sanderson, was a powerful attorney. A well-placed phone call was all it took.
“There are going to be some new rules around here,” Sanderson told the sisters. “From now on, you’re going to show me some respect!”
For the first time, he hit them. He felt bad that he did, he hated himself for it. But he also blamed them for his rage. He blamed them for his self-loathing. And the more he punished them, the more he hated himself and a vicious cycle was born.
One night he came to Jacey's bedroom and asked her to share a scotch with him. When she refused he got upset.
“You’re going to do as I say dammit,” he shouted. “If you live in this house, you’re going to obey my every command!”
Joanna came running from her room across the hall and Jennifer came too, but they stopped at the doorway. Uncle Ben pulled off his belt and struck Jacey across the face with one swift stroke.
“If I say you drink with me, you drink with me.”
Jacey nodded as best she could, but her vision was blurred and her ears were ringing too loudly to hear. He went on as he spun and saw the other two sisters in the doorway.
“If I say you kiss me,” he said to Joanna, “you kiss me.” Then spun back toward the bed where Jacey now lay. He fell next to her. An empty bottle of scotch tumbled to the floor.
Joanna and Jacey ran to the bedside, ready to punch and claw and kick their way to their sister. But there was no need. Sanderson was out cold, blacked out from the booze.
It wasn’t long after that when Joanna disappeared too. One day she was there, the next day she was gone. No one had any clue where she went.
Sanderson reported that she'd been kidnapped and made the accusation that Tuahine had returned and abducted the girl. But after a few weeks, Joanna returned.
Her hair was short, her eyes were narrow, and her attitude had shifted. She spoke in a deeper, more confident voice. She had returned with a plan, and laid it out for her sisters.
She wanted to extend to Sanderson all the rope he needed. With Tuahine’s help, the sisters would fashion the noose. With a camera and some acting, it wouldn’t take long before Uncle Ben hanged himself.
It finally happened one night when he was drunk again. The sisters waited for his perverted threats to pass, but recorded them all. When he’d finally given up and passed out, he was photographed.
Joanna posed herself in compromising positions next to her unconscious caretaker while Jacey snapped photos.
“We’ve got audio of him asking us for oral sex,” Joanna quietly reported to Tuahine over a fuzzy phone line. “And we have photos of him groping me while I’m lying topless beside him.”
“Game over,” Tuahine had said. “I’ll see you soon.”
“Call me when you land.”
After she had arrived and checked into a hotel with her son, Tuahine did not call Joanna first. Instead she phoned the only man in law enforcement who’d bothered to work the case of the Berklee Sisters.
“Agent Free here,” the man answered.
“Hi Agent Free, it’s Tuahine Kahale.”
“Tuahine,” Free replied with a sudden smile. He felt light. “I mean, Ms. Kahale.”
“Tuahine is fine,” she said.
“What can I help you with?”
“I have the evidence we’ve been waiting for,” she said. “Is it possible we could meet?”
“Sure,” Agent free answered without thinking. He had met Tuahine once before when she’d first arrived in California with the Sisters. He’d found her charming and beautiful as they discussed possible connections between Sanderson and Mr. and Mrs. Berklee’s disappearance.
This time they met over coffee and Tuahine wasted no time in sliding over an envelope. Free would have normally laughed at the TV-show-inspired gesture. But he was enamored with Tuahine.
“I need to be quick,” she said. “Tua is at the hotel, alone.”
“How is he?”
“He’s well, thanks.”
Free was tall and heavy, with mocha skin, short dark hair, and a goatee. There was a small gap between his two front teeth. Tuahine thought he was cute, the same way the gap in his teeth was cute.
“He must be getting big?” Free asked.
“He is. Now, listen,” Tuahine replied. “Photos. Audio. Please go arrest Benson Sanderson.”
Charges were filed and the warrant was executed by California State Patrol in the event Sanderson had paid off the local police.
Benson Sanderson was convicted on sex-related felony charges and Tuahine was granted temporary custody of the girls. She would be their official guardian until Joanna turned eighteen.
Before Sanderson’s sentencing, Tuahine visited the FBI investigator again. She’d known him for a while now.
Free was first assigned to the case of the missing parents when Consular Agent Robbins had phoned it in to the Embassy, just a couple of days after the disappearance.
Tuahine liked Agent Free. He was as honest as they came, she thought. And she appreciated the way he secretly adored her.
“What did you find out?” she asked.
Agent Free was with the Human Trafficking Task Force, and they had handed over Tuahine’s evidence against Sanderson to the State Police.
“They were all too happy to help me out,” Free explained. “I got to chat with him alone, to try and negotiate.”
Free had just returned from the county lockup were Sanderson was awaiting sentencing.
“And?”
“I’m pretty sure he has the map that Mark and Rachel used to get wherever they went,” he explained.
“He has a map?” Tuahine was confused. “Then he knows where they are.”
“I don’t think he does, actually. It’s not that kind of map.”
“Can you search his cell?”
“It’s not there. He’s got it hidden somewhere outside,” Free said. “He inherited a safe-deposit box from Mark, it’s probably in there.”
“Dammit.”
“He might be locked up,” Free explained. “But Sanderson is still a very rich and powerful man.”
“He wouldn’t take the deal?”
“He wasn’t interested,” Free answered. “He’s got too many reasons not to take it.”
“There’s a reason Mark gave him the map,” she said.
“What do you mean,” Free asked.
“Ben Sanderson needs to buy his way onto that island, just like Mark and Rachel had to.”
“How can you be sure of that?”
“Because I’ve been working with Joanna,” Tuahine answered, “trying to get those girls their inheritance, going through her parent’s financial records. I found things.”
“What things?”
“Mark didn’t just write a check to someone,” Tuahine answered. “He set up shell companies and fake shipping fleets.”
Free sat back in his chair and rubbed his temples.
“So to get on the island, you need to contribute to the island,” he offered.
“Exactly,” Tuahine said. “But we’re not talking about bringing a potluck dish. Mark bought a cargo ship.”
“Do you have the evidence?”
“Yes,” Tuahine nodded. “But there’s a lot of gaps. I need some time to piece together the paper trail.”
“I’ll help any way I can,” Free replied. “Send me everything you have.”
“I will,” Tuahine said. “These girls deserve answers.” She stood and straightened her skirt.
“They sure do.”
“Thank you, Agent Free,”
Tuahine said as she went to the door.
“My pleasure,” Free replied with a shy smile. Tuahine stepped through the door but paused at the FBI man’s sudden call. “Oh, and Tuahine,” he said.
She turned around, her wavy black hair lassoing around her body. “Keep in touch, will ya?”
She smiled back at him as she walked out the door, pointing a finger gun at him as she left.
After that a new legal battle was underway, this one for the sisters’ inheritance. Tuahine spent her life savings on lawyers. She borrowed money from her friends, sold everything she owned, and saved every cent she could earn. In the end, it was all worth it.
The three sisters received their inheritance, an annuity payment each month that was more money than Tuahine had ever earned in her lifetime.
But they also won a judgment against Sanderson and after legal fees, they claimed close to ten-million dollars from the convicted pedophile. Joanna, Jacey, and Jennifer would never worry about money.
Tuahine also fought hard to ensure that the contents of the safe deposit box would go to Joanna. It was another piece of the sisters’ birthright. But that battle was lost.
Sanderson had taken whatever was inside, and there was no way they could get it back. The girls knew that it was a map, one which would point to their parents’ last known location. But Sanderson was in prison now and the safe deposit box was empty.
Years began to tick by. The memories of the islands began to fade. The trauma became less painful. The girls slowly learned how to move on.
By the time Jennifer, the youngest, was celebrating her eighteenth birthday, Joanna had earned a fine-arts degree in photography.
Jacey was working toward a degree too, hoping to join the fashion industry. Jennifer would eventually become a journalist, writing about style. In the end, all three sisters found themselves in the same industry, quite by chance. And it didn’t take long for them to make a splash.
Though they were a world away, over the years the sisters stayed close with Tuahine. They spoke to their adopted mother every week. Tuahine would call, check on the girls, make sure they were okay.
For her love and sacrifice, the girls funded a bank account in Papeete, so that Tuahine would never struggle financially. It was a generous sum and it came every month without fail.
After over a decade as orphans, the sisters were beginning to move on. They were adults now, and fine ones at that.
Tybalt was none other than Benson Sanderson, our old Uncle Ben. Jacey screamed when she saw him, Joanna was in shock, only shaking her head side to side in denial. I was surprised too, not at seeing that Sanderson was free from prison, but to see him here, with us, on this island, in this cave. It felt like we’d suddenly slipped into hell.
Tybalt came to us, as our parents stood among the steam and watched, emotionlessly.
“Well, well, well,” our old caretaker said. “Look who’s all grown up. I bet you didn’t expect to see me again.”
We said nothing. He came closer and inspected each of us. He smelled Jacey and Joanna’s hair, and he patted me on the shoulder.
“In case you are wondering,” Tybalt said. “I’m here to keep you from leaving, before you’re ready.”
“What do you people want from us?” Joanna asked. Tybalt turned to her.
“We want you to join us,” he said. “We want you to drink from the fountain, and find everlasting life here on Three-Hook Island.”
“If we drink,” Joanna said, nodding toward our parents. “We’ll turn out like them.”
“Nah,” Tybalt waved. “They were foolish. If you remain loyal, the effects are wonderful. Just look at me.”
He did look well. He was in his sixties now but could have passed for a newly minted forty-year-old.
“You have no idea what this place is, do you?” He asked as he looked around in wonder. “You’re standing in the center of the garden. Adam himself once walked this very ground. That water there, it springs from a well in the heart of God. Drink from it willingly, and you’ll never die.”
“And be doomed to live here forever? No thanks,” Joanna barked. Tybalt laughed.
“You’d prefer the horrid world outside,” he said, pointing his hand toward the cave opening. “This place is just getting started. With new deliveries coming each month, we’ll soon have enough supplies and equipment to develop the entire island, all three sections.”
“Develop?” Joanna asked.
“If we’re trapped here forever,” Tybalt answered, “we plan to make the most of it. Join us.”
“Never,” I said. Joanna and Jacey nodded support for my protest. Tybalt glared at them then stepped toward me.
“No one asked you,” he said. “Juliet is the ruler of the northern shore. She alone is the first hook.”
“First hook? What are you talking about?” I asked.
“You haven’t figured it out yet, have you?”
“What?”
My sisters looked at me, then to Tybalt. He knelt to the cave floor and used his finger to draw in the dirt. He made three hooks. Then, next to each hook, sprawling out to the right, he wrote a series of letters. Each hook suddenly became a name.
Joanna.
Juliet.
Jacey.
I didn’t see my name. Tybalt stood up and pointed at me.
“There’s no place for you here,” he said. “This is not Four-Hook Island.”
I didn’t know how to respond. Tybalt turned away from me as he continued.
“The island demands a sacrifice,” he went on. “Just as your parents sacrificed you three,” he said. “Two of you must now sacrifice the other. Jennifer will serve as your auxiliaire.”
“What are you talking about?” Joanna asked. I stood motionless, watching, waiting to see what would happen next.
“There was a prophecy,” Tybalt said as he spun again and came closer to me. “And it doesn’t mention you.”
He put a hand to my throat, then another. He mimicked strangling me but didn’t squeeze. He leaned in close to my ear.
“It doesn’t matter if you drink or not,” he whispered. “You’ll not last long.”
I felt both my sisters tense and it seemed like they were about to attack Tybalt. But just then he lowered his hands and turned toward them.
“You two are in luck,” he said casually. “After you’ve imbibed, you each will rule a third of this island. The vision of the Triad was to develop the entire island. But to do so was risky. Juliet feared the three sections may eventually come into conflict with each other. So she created a prophecy.
“What prophecy?” I asked.
“Juliet declared that only the northern shore, well hidden by the lagoon, would be developed until two sisters came along. Sisters would not wage war against one another, she reasoned. So the prophecy came down that two sisters, each with a name beginning with the letter J, would come to the island and claim their thrones.”
Tybalt stepped toward my sisters as he went on.
“Your father wanted it to be you,” he said. “He and Rachel gave each of you names beginning with the letter J and started planning the move when you were just a few years old.”
Tybalt pointed at Joanna. She ducked her head.
“We’ll never drink,” she said.
“We’d never stay here,” Jacey added.
Tybalt walked across the room to the cavern’s only opening. Our ghostly parents followed him there, where they waited as sentinels at the entrance.
Tybalt paused before he climbed up the passageway to the platform, and turned back to speak.
“We’ll see about that.”
CHAPTER 6
THE FOUNTAIN
One Year Earlier
“It’s great to hear from you Tu,” Agent Free said.
The phone reception was crackling. They were an ocean apart.
“He’s out on parole, Langston,” Tuahine said. “I’m sure that sailing to Tahiti would be considered a violation.”
&n
bsp; “It would,” Free said. “But even if you could prove he is there-”
“Which I can,” Tuahine interrupted.
“Even with your proof,” Free went on, “there’s no way the Bureau is going to pay me to go to French Polynesia to pick up a dude on a parole violation.”
“What about the shipping fraud, the piracy?” Tuahine asked. “Tua and I have been working for years to get this evidence. I’ve got shipping manifests, forged documents, all burning a hole in my outbox,” Tuahine said.
Free thought for a moment, a hand to his chin. Then he slapped the table at which he sat.
“Shit,” he proclaimed. “Let’s do it. I’ll do everything I can to grease the pipeline. It’s been almost fifteen years. It would be a dream come true, if I could finally get justice for those girls.”
“For you and me both,” Tuahine replied. “The only difference is I won’t stop until I do.”
“That’s what I like about you,” Free said.
“That’s what you like about me?” Tuahine laughed.
Free’s cheek flushed red under his phone.
“I’ll talk to the Special Agent in Charge,” he replied, trying to ignore her quip. “Just give me something to show him.”
“You’ll have it by email,” Tuahine said, “in just a minute. We only have a few months before everything goes into motion.”
Agent Free could hardly believe that after all these years, Tuahine was still looking out for those girls. Tuahine, for her part, was amazed at the lengths to which Agent Free had gone, all those years ago, to try and find answers for her girls. He never gave up.
Tuahine had been working on a way to get the sisters down to the islands for a visit. They had all agreed that a return trip, a decade and a half removed from the trauma, might serve as a point of closure. But Tua was worried that whoever had helped Mark and Rachel disappear, might want to take the sisters too.
He worked with his mother and Agent Free to craft a plan. They would protect the sisters and maybe find answers for them in the process.
Tua was twenty-five years old and living with his mother on the main island. Tuahine was no longer a school counselor. Instead she had given most of her years to help the three sisters that she’d met nearly fifteen years before. To do that, she’d become everything from an amateur shipping inspector to an armchair attorney, to a waitress in California.
