Maggie and the Hidden Homicide

by Barbara Cool Lee

  "That's right," Reese said. "He killed her grandmother."

  "No," Maggie said. "I heard Ethan tell Taiyari he needed to talk to her alone. That she'd understand if she let him explain. He'd have to be delusional to believe she'd understand and forgive him killing her grandmother."

  She glared at Susan. "You heard what he said, and had to stop him. Because he was about to tell Taiyari you killed Nakawé Méndez before she could figure out you were the mastermind of the blackmail plot. You couldn't have that. So you killed Ethan."

  The woman raised the gun, but there was nothing Maggie could do about that, so she continued. "But it wasn't enough. You had the money, but it wasn't enough. You had the handsome younger man, but it wasn't enough. You killed the old woman who would have outed you as the hypocrite you are. But it wasn't enough."

  Reese pulled at her arm, seeing the danger. "Stop, Maggie. Stop. That's enough."

  "No," Maggie said, anger boiling up inside her at the destruction caused by this empty-souled woman who had hurt so many innocent people. She clenched her fists until her hands hurt. "It isn't enough. You made a hundred people live in terror. You killed Taiyari's grandmother. You killed Ethan Kirby. And it's still not enough. Nothing will ever be enough for you!"

  "This will," Susan said, bringing the gun to bear on her.

  Reese grabbed Maggie and threw her on the ground, falling on top to cover her.

  She heard a gunshot, so close by it made her ears ring. It echoed across the pond, out into the circling woods where it seemed to go on and on, repeating through the trees until it fell to a whisper, and then there was only the soft rustling of the branches and the lap of the water against the muddy bank.

  Reese's body on top of her was trembling violently. He pulled her to him, not gently, and clutched her so tightly against his chest that she had trouble breathing. "You fool, you fool, you fool," he kept repeating. He covered her with kisses, all over her muddy face.

  "For once," Ibarra drawled. "I agree with you."

  They sat up, to see Ibarra standing over Susan Gallegos' lifeless body.

  Taiyari was there, too, about a dozen feet away, her expression showing she'd heard the whole thing, and now had no more questions about what had happened.

  Hours later, Maggie and Reese stood next to her little purple car in the semi-darkness. Ibarra's police SUV was behind them, and there was a cable hooked up from it to Maggie's bumper.

  The SUV's engine roared and it moved back, foot by foot, until the little Honda was clear of the rut and its wheels rolled free on the trail.

  Ibarra turned off his engine and got out. Maggie went over to him.

  "Thank you," Maggie said to him. "For everything."

  He nodded gruffly. "Just part of the service, Ma'am."

  He had a bandage on his hand where Susan Gallegos's first shot had skimmed past him.

  Maggie cradled his bandaged hand in hers. "No, really," she said. "Thank you. For everything. I should have called you. I should have told you everything I learned the moment I learned it."

  He cleared his throat. "Yes. You should have." He glanced at Reese, who had stayed back to let them talk. "You're lucky you've got someone looking out for you. He's not dumb."

  That had been a painful admission for Will, and she smiled. "Neither are you," she said. She gave him a quick peck on the cheek and she could see his face turn red even in the uneven glow from the SUV headlights.

  "Taiyari will be all right now?" she asked him, and he nodded. "And you?" she asked him, and he nodded again.

  "Yup. I'll be off until they finish the shooting investigation, but I'll be all right." His grin was brave, if a bit battered. "I'll finally get a chance to catch up on all the games I've got recorded and never got around to seeing."

  "I'll bring you some of my dad's chile verde tomorrow," she said. "After we've all had a chance to get some sleep."

  Reese came up then and Ibarra added, "Go home, Maggie. Get out of here before I throw you in jail for all the trouble you've caused." He was grinning.

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Two days later, Maggie answered the knock on the tiny house door to find Taiyari standing there, a bag in her hand.

  The teen stepped into the little space and looked around in wonder. "I know it's small," Maggie said while the girl stared, "but it suits me."

  "It looks heavenly," she replied. "Like a cozy little nest."

  Maggie motioned for her to sit on the daybed, but first the girl wrapped her in a big hug, which Maggie was happy to return.

  "I'm safe now," Taiyari said when the hug ended. "Thanks to you and my grandmother. And all the others who fought to help me make it."

  Maggie shook her head. "I didn't do much. I suspected all the wrong people."

  Taiyari sat on the daybed, and Jasper jumped up to lie down next to her. He put his long nose on her lap, and she patted him.

  "I'm sorry about Ethan," Maggie said to her. "I know you cared for him, and it must hurt to find out he was an evil person."

  "No," she said. "Ethan wasn't totally evil. He never really thought of how the people he was blackmailing felt. He just thought it was a game, I think. I think it's easy to dehumanize people if you don't know them personally. And then it's a small step from there to taking advantage of them."

  Maggie sat down on her craft chair and smiled at the wise words from this young girl. "But when he fell in love with you, he realized you, and your family and friends, and everyone else like you, were just people. And so he wanted to stop the blackmail scheme."

  "I think so. But he was afraid," the girl said, looking down at the dog.

  "Afraid of going to prison, or of being killed by Susan Gallegos?" Maggie asked, and the girl shook her head.

  "I don't know. I guess we might never know. He said he wanted to talk to me. I assumed it was because he had cheated on me. But I think he really was going to tell me the truth."

  "You think so?"

  Again the girl shrugged. "We'll never know, I guess."

  "So what will you do next?" Maggie asked.

  The girl looked up at her and smiled. "We go on. The way we always have. The people who were being threatened are in the wind, and may never be found by the authorities. I'll miss them. But the blackmail is over, and hopefully they can go back to working hard and caring for their families without being afraid of being hurt, or even killed."

  "And you?"

  "I'll go to college." Her chin tilted up when she said the words, and the pride was visible. Again Maggie was struck by the girl's beauty, the stunning features of her Wixáritari ancestors that were the legacy of her beloved grandmother. "And I'll graduate, and become an attorney, defending people who need someone on their side."

  "Like Donovan Cruz?" Maggie asked, and the girl nodded.

  "I thought he was just doing his job, pushing me to get an education, but…."

  "But he is in love with you, too, isn't he?" Maggie asked.

  Taiyari looked down at the dog again, and smiled. "I think, maybe." She looked up again at Maggie. "He's starting a new charity, to do the work of the Gallegos one. He said I can come intern on school breaks, to help him continue the good work they were doing before—"

  "—Before Susan Gallegos caused so much damage."

  "Yes. It was really the two of them in a life-and-death battle, wasn't it?" she said. "Susan Gallegos and my grandmother, fighting for control of the people."

  "Yes," Maggie agreed. "I think so." She leaned forward in her chair with a creak. "When Susan's father died, she took over the charity. But she didn't want to do the work her father had devoted his life to. She resented the people he'd spent so much time helping. She blamed them for his absence. She wanted money and power to make up for the hole in her heart from her absent father."

  "She wanted to go to fancy parties, not farmworker barbecues," Taiyari said.

  "Yes. As long as Donovan Cruz was there, keeping the books in order, she couldn't siphon off the legitimate charity mon
ey, so she found a new source: the workers themselves."

  "And she found weak people on some of the farms to help her funnel the blackmail money into her own pocket without her ever being seen as the villain." Taiyari shook her head. "What a waste of a life."

  "But your grandmother stopped it."

  Taiyari stood up, and held out the bag she'd brought with her. "She tried. But you are the one who finally stopped it. You didn't believe I killed Ethan like everyone else did. You kept pushing until the truth came out. You finished the job my grandmother started."

  Maggie took the bag and opened it. It was a jaguar sculpture, all covered in the beaded patterns of the Wixáritari.

  "It's my grandmother's best piece. I grabbed it when I ran away, along with her other ones. I couldn't leave them in that evil place with the dead body. Now I'm going to sell the others to pay for my college. But this one—it's for you."

  "But this is your grandmother's best piece. I can't take this."

  "She would want you to have it," Taiyari said. "I'll always have my grandmother. Here." She touched her chest. "And I think this is her wish for you to have it. The deer on the side—"

  Maggie saw that a deer, rich with swirling shades of blue and decorated with flowers, covered much of the jaguar's body.

  "—it represents the spirit who gives us knowledge."

  "Then it was meant for you," Maggie said, looking at the girl, so young, but so wise beyond her years.

  But Taiyari shook her head. "No. I already carry its spirit inside me. My family gave it to me. They gave their lives so I could have that spirit. But you were led to step in. To do the right thing to help people who were helpless and being abused. My grandmother would want you to have it. For your wisdom."

  "I wasn't wise," Maggie said. "It took me so long to figure out the truth. I was almost too late."

  "But not too late," the girl said. "Just in time. You came to me, and you brought the police to save us, even when I didn't think he should come. You were just in time to save us all."

  They talked a bit more, about her plans for working through college, and Maggie shared her own story of doing the same thing long ago, when her father had been a struggling used car dealer, and she'd worked as a secretary at a movie studio to pay her tuition at UCLA.

  After Taiyari left, Maggie sat for a while, with Jasper pushing against her for a hug. And she thought about parents and children, and how sometimes the parents' values were passed on, like in Taiyari's life and in her own, and sometimes the lessons didn't sink in, like with the shallow playboy Ethan Kirby, and with Susan Gallegos's father, who'd spent his life trying to help the poor, but somehow failed to instill a sense of right and wrong in his own daughter.

  Eventually Jasper bumped her to let her know he needed his morning constitutional, and she told him to fetch his leash, and they went outside.

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  There was a purple car parked in her driveway.

  Jasper let out a low growl at the sight of it, and she didn't blame him. It was a monster.

  They came down the steps from her tiny house and stared at the car.

  It was royal purple, so glossy you could see your face in it. Her own face looked wide-eyed in shock at the sight. So did Jasper's as he stood next to her and confronted the shiny Jeep Wrangler hunkered down in front of them like a predator stalking its prey. It crouched in the driveway on its massive off-road tires, as if waiting for something.

  Jasper barked at it, but softly, as if he worried it might bark back.

  "It's okay," she said to the dog. "It's just a car."

  A mouthwateringly royal purple car. One that made her beloved dusty plum Honda look like a child's toy in comparison. "I wonder whose it is?"

  "Like it?"

  Reese stood in the doorway of Casablanca. He leaned against the door frame, arms crossed, looking very pleased with himself.

  "Who does it belong to?" she asked.

  He sauntered over to them. He ran a finger across the hood, affectionately. "Pretty, isn't it?"

  "I'm drooling," Maggie said. "But—oh!" she blurted out, realizing. "You need it for that Zen house. I suppose your Porsche won't like that gravel road up to the hilltop."

  But he shook his head. "I think I want a red one. Maybe a pickup." He cocked his head to the side. "You can have this one."

  "What?!"

  He dug the keys out of his jeans pocket and held them out to her.

  Her fingers itched to grab them, but she didn't. "That is a full-on Cheshire-cat-that-ate-the-canary grin you're sporting there, Reese. What's going on?"

  He laughed. "I think you mixed your metaphors there, Mags."

  She waved a hand in the air. "Whatever. You know what I mean. Explain yourself."

  "That'll take a little doing. In the meantime—" He tossed the keys toward her and she grabbed them mid-air. "Let's go for a drive."

  "Okay," she said, dying to get behind the wheel of the purple beast. "Can Jasper come? Or are you worried he'll get fur on your new toy?"

  Reese laughed again, and motioned to the back door. She opened it, to find a new travel harness, perfectly sized for Jasper, already installed on the seatbelt.

  "Patricia's work, I presume," Maggie said. "Your assistant thinks of everything."

  Jasper still wasn't sure about the Jeep, but Reese lifted him up onto the back seat and he settled down after Maggie fastened the harness around him.

  She started to hand Reese the keys, but he motioned to her. "You drive."

  They got in. The interior was luxury personified, all black leather and high-tech video, with the luscious gloss of the purple hood out the windshield.

  She adjusted the seat and steering wheel to fit her, then started the Jeep. It came to life with a rumble that added to its beastly vibe.

  "You really need to work on your phobia of driving with passengers," she admonished Reese, but he just grinned again.

  "I'm fine. But you should drive. It's your car."

  She'd had a suspicion that was where he was going with this, but him saying it aloud still made her gasp.

  "No, Reese."

  "You don't like it?" For the first time he looked a little tentative.

  "Of course I love it. Are you kidding? But we have a rule between us: I will not mooch off of you. I pay my own way."

  "You will pay your own way. But it's only fair. I'm just giving you a car so you can get to your house."

  "What house? I told you I love my tiny house."

  "I know. But you can't get to it in your little Honda."

  Maggie stared across the driveway, where her purple tiny house sat just where it always had.

  "I don't need a Jeep for that."

  "You will."

  Then she got it. "You found a house."

  "Yup," he said, and his obvious excitement started to make her feel excited, too.

  "You found a place you love? That's wonderful. And it has a place to park my tiny house. So it must not be the Zen one."

  "Yup," he said again.

  "Stop with the Gary Cooper imitation and tell me all about it."

  He motioned to the ignition. "Just drive."

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  In daylight, the old Carita Campground showed every minute of its age.

  They had bumped along the trail, easily crossing the ruts in the road that had bogged down her little car two nights earlier, and ended up parking in the middle of the driveway.

  They got out to look around. Maggie stood there arms crossed in front of her, wondering what on earth had possessed Reese to bring her out here.

  The lodge house stood proudly in the clearing, thistles and blackberry bushes crowding around its massive form. The huge redwood trees that had been turned into logs for its siding were weathered gray, while living brother redwoods loomed to the right of the lodge, rusty brown bark covering trunks soaring straight and true to the canopy of dark green branches a hundred feet above them. A path, thick with fallen needles, beck
oned them to follow it into the woods to find out its secrets.

  On the other side of the clearing was open hillside that sloped away from them. No other houses could be seen for miles, but far below could be seen the little buildings of Carita, and beyond, the sparkle of Carita Cove spread out in the distance. From this height they could see how the little cove, with its crystal blue waters, opened out into the vast sweep of the Pacific Ocean.

  All the way to the horizon the water flowed, as if it went all the way to the edge of the earth.

  In the trees, squirrels, tan against the reddish tree bark, skittered up the trunks and chattered at them, annoyed that their privacy had been invaded by mere humans.

  A scrub jay, with feathers as blue as Reese's eyes and a stubborn little smirk on its face, landed on the lodge's porch railing to scold them.

  Jasper sat at her side and stared from the frolicking squirrels to the scolding jay, unsure what to think.

  Maggie took it all in, not missing the sagging porch railing and the missing shingles on the lodge roof.

  She didn't laugh, though. She just looked at it all, walking around and examining everything from the missing step on the porch to the fat carpenter bee that bumbled its way across a blooming purple thistle near her feet.

  "I don't get it," she finally said.

  "Why not a luxury home on the golf course?" Reese asked. "Why not a gentleman's ranch with invisible servants to fulfill my every wish? Why not a Zen house with a perfect garden and a marble sauna?"

  He turned to face her, his hair glistening gold in the sun. He had trimmed his beard back to his usual perfectly sculpted stubble, and she noticed what she hadn't before.

  "The weight's gone," she said.

  "What?" he asked.

  "The weight."

  He patted his stomach, and she laughed.

  "Not that weight. You're still too thin, and need to eat a few more hamburgers to get back up to your normal form. I meant the weight that's been holding you down."