Murder Likes It Hot
Page 12
“Assuming she’s arrested,” Dale countered.
“Even if she doesn’t get implicated in that man’s death, someone obviously needs to look out for her interests,” Dharma said. “Her home life sounds atrocious.”
Dale frowned. “You know, you ladies are putting an awful lot of stock in that young woman’s story. Teenagers have been known to stretch the truth on occasion. Her mother may be sitting by the phone in a panic, waiting for someone to call saying her daughter’s been killed—or worse. And the stepfather may not be perfect, but he also may not be the ogre you’ve been led to believe. Not every kid that runs away from home has nowhere to go, and not every man who yells at his kid is an abuser. Sometimes the family simply needs help figuring out how to resolve conflict.”
“I don’t think that’s the case here.” In fact, I felt certain it wasn’t. As certain as Bella was that psycho killers drove UPS trucks.
“You may be right,” Dale replied. “Then again, you may also be wrong. Either way, your young friend has options. If she truly doesn’t have anywhere to go, Child Protective Services will intervene.”
I vehemently shook my head. “Rainbow doesn’t want to end up in foster care.”
“Can you blame her?” Dharma said. “A troubled teen in the foster system won’t have it easy.”
Dale turned to Michael. “Are you going to sit there and let them gang up on me?”
“Sorry, Dale,” Michael replied. “I’m with them on this one.”
Dale sighed. “Of course you are. You know, some kids in the system turn out fine. She might be one of the lucky ones.”
Dharma leaned back and crossed her arms. “Do you really believe that?”
The expression on Dale’s face told me he didn’t. I didn’t either. More importantly, Rainbow didn’t believe it. I couldn’t let her end up back on the streets, tossed aside like a bag of trash. “Dale, I’m afraid for her. She’s not safe on the streets. If they put her in the system, she’ll run again. I know she will.”
Dale didn’t speak for several seconds. When he did, his entire white beard seemed to frown. “You know, Kate, it was a heck of a lot more convenient for me when you got into trouble on Orcas. At least then I didn’t have to abandon the farm to help.”
“I’m not the one in trouble this time. It’s a kid who has no one else. Dale, she’s sixteen.”
Dale peered over his wine glass at Dharma, as if looking for moral support. Dharma lifted her eyebrows and shrugged.
He moved on to Michael, who shook his head. “I’m still kicking myself for not helping her last night.”
“Fine. You win.” Dale gestured around the table. “You all win. Find me the kid and I’ll talk to her. No promises after that.”
“Thank you, Dale. I’ll make it up to you someday, I promise.”
Now all I had to do was find her. My mood should have been lightened, and honestly it was, a little. But my heart was still weighted by Gabriel’s death and the unborn child I might never conceive.
Michael made a pretense of normalcy by mopping up the dregs of two large bowls of hearty tomato, artichoke, and lentil stew with chunks of whole-grain sourdough. An unlikely concoction that I usually found irresistible. Tonight, I could barely force myself to touch it.
Still, I tried. I took small sips of wine and moved food around on my plate in a desperate attempt to make it seem like I’d eaten. Dharma’s concerned gaze burned a hole through my forehead.
I’d become sensitive to energy in my late twenties. I’d originally thought reading energy was a skill I’d acquired teaching yoga. But during those long, uncomfortable minutes avoiding Dharma’s gaze, I realized it was genetic. Dharma examined me, brow creased in concern. She noted the dark circles under my eyes; the unspoken sadness between Michael and me. As she watched my food move in circles, her expression grew quizzical. Something was wrong, but what?
“Are you okay, Kate?” She asked. “You look a little peaked to me.”
I tried to smile, but my lips refused to obey. “I’m not feeling all that well tonight. It’s probably the stress about Rainbow.” I picked up my wine glass, but even the earthy scent of Cabernet made my stomach churn.
Dale glanced at my plate, then at my wine glass, then back at my plate again. “Dharma’s right. You’ve seemed off all night, and you look positively green. You remind me of that friend of yours, Rene, back on Orcas when—” He stopped speaking. The right side of his mouth lifted. “You’ve barely taken a sip of that wine. That glass is a big fat pretense, isn’t it?”
Michael gestured wildly beside me, trying to get Dale’s attention.
“Why Miss Kate, you’ve been playing us. You’re pregnant!” He reached across the table for my hands, beaming. “It’s about time you two made me a grandpa!”
We all reacted to Dale’s words. Michael squeezed his eyes shut, as if willing himself to disappear. Dharma gave Dale a look that would have soured milk. I …
Well, I lost it.
To my horror, my throat spasmed. My eyes started burning. I couldn’t cry. Not here. Not in front of Dharma and Dale. I pulled away from Dale’s grasp, tossed my napkin on the table, and pushed back my chair. It caught against my heel and crashed to the floor, almost taking me with it.
My words came out in garbled half gasps. “I’m sorry … I … I need to use the restroom.” I stumbled out of the kitchen, bolted across the living room, and took the stairs two at a time.
Dharma’s stern admonition echoed from the kitchen. “Dale Evans, you’re a big-mouthed old fool.”
I slammed the door to the bathroom and locked it behind me. Solid wood muffled Dale’s plaintive reply. “Dharma, why are you mad? What did I do?”
Tears streamed down my face in spite of my best efforts to contain them. I sat on the edge of Dad’s jetted tub and tried to catch my breath. Please, God. Please don’t let anyone follow me up here. Not even Michael. Please give me a few minutes alone to get myself back together.
God wasn’t listening, or—more likely—not even an all-powerful deity could stop Dharma once she’d made up her mind. I heard three soft taps on the door, then Dharma’s concerned voice. “Kate? Are you okay?”
“I’m fine. The lentils must have upset my stomach.” The tremor in my voice betrayed me.
I imagined Dharma placing her palm against the door’s cool, smooth surface. “Can I come in?”
I didn’t reply. Instead, I waited through one long breath, then another.
Dharma spoke again. “Kate?”
I wiped smudged mascara from under my eyes, then stood and unlocked the door. Bella nosed through it first and nudged my hands, whining. Dharma locked the door, took my prior place on the jetted tub and patted the space beside her. “Not the most comfortable room in the house, but it’ll do. At least the men won’t follow us here. Sit. Let’s talk.”
I sat. I avoided making eye contact with Dharma by staring into the mirror above the sink. A stranger with hollow, red-rimmed eyes stared back at me.
“Kate honey, what’s going on? And please don’t say it’s an upset stomach. If it’s none of my business, fine. Tell me that. But don’t lie to me.”
I stared at my hands and kept breathing.
“Dale’s a good man. He’s usually a smart one, too. But he really stepped in it tonight.”
“It’s okay.”
“No, it’s not, but it’s nice of you to say so. Do you want to talk about it?”
I opened my mouth to say no, then closed it again. The true answer, which surprised me, was yes. Words that had come so hard with Rene poured out of me sitting on cold porcelain next to Dharma. Maybe it was because I’d already told someone other than Michael. Maybe it was because I’d been forced to deal with Tiffany’s pregnancy. Then again, maybe Dharma was becoming more like a true mother to me than I’d ever imagined.
“I’m not
pregnant, but it’s not for lack of trying. Michael and I can’t have children.”
“Can’t?”
“No, at least not without help. And maybe not even then.”
For the next twenty minutes, I told Dharma everything. About rising FSH levels, scarred fallopian tubes, missed opportunities. “Having a child naturally isn’t out of the question, but it’s pretty darned unlikely. We want to try IVF, but it’s expensive.” I met her eyes. “I mean really expensive. The doctor says that given my test results, the chances of a single cycle being successful are less than ten percent. We’ve applied for a couple of loans, but so far we’ve been denied. I shouldn’t have gotten upset when Dale assumed I was pregnant, but I’m touchy right now, and I can’t seem to control my emotions. I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be ridiculous, Kate. I only wish you’d told us sooner. Then Dale wouldn’t have stepped in that big pile of goat dung.” She gave me a squeeze, then turned me to face her. “I know I missed the first thirty-two years of your life, but I hope that’s behind us now.”
I smiled. “We’re certainly working on it, aren’t we?”
“Yes, and you know what that means, don’t you?”
I shook my head.
“It means you have family.” She paused, as if thinking. “I spent most of my life trying to save mountain gorillas, which didn’t exactly leave me rich.”
“I know, Dharma. Animal activism may be the one career that pays worse than teaching yoga.”
“I could talk to Dale, though. He—”
I held up my palms, stopping her. “No, Dharma. Michael and I already owe Dale a pregnancy’s worth of legal fees. We can’t accept any more from him. It’s too much.”
The least attractive part of me hoped that my words weren’t convincing. I wanted Dharma to browbeat me into taking Dale’s money. She was right. History notwithstanding, she was my mother. The universe had given her a child, and she hadn’t even wanted one. I needed that same miracle, more than I needed anything else, including my pride.
She didn’t let me down. “Dale should be the one to decide what’s too much, don’t you think? He’s smart about money, and he made a lot of it when he was a full-time attorney.”
“I know. But it’s not about whether or not he can afford it, at least not completely. Rene’s wealthy, and she offered to lend me the money too. But how can I take money from a friend to finance my family, especially when I may never be able to pay it back?”
Dharma gave me a stern look. “Kate, don’t you ever call Dale a ‘friend’ where he can hear you. Not unless you want to hurt his feelings. Dale thinks of you as his daughter.”
A new wave of tears threatened my eyes.
Her expression softened. “Did you know that Dale gave up practicing law for several years?”
“Yes. I was his first client—at least his first criminal client—afterwards.”
“Did he tell you why?”
I nodded. Dale had worked his legal magic and gotten a domestic abuser off with a fine. Three days later, that same client killed the woman he’d been abusing.
“Then you know that since the day that woman died, Dale has been trying to atone.”
“Her death wasn’t Dale’s fault. He was just doing his job.”
“I’ve told him the same thing hundreds of times. He refuses to believe it.” Dharma grasped my hands and squeezed. “Don’t you see, Kate? You might be doing Dale a favor. Helping to bring a new life into the world might make him feel like he’s evened things out.”
The tears threatening my eyes spilled down my cheeks. “Even if we get the money, the whole process seems so hard. How many months can I wait, peeing on plastic sticks and dreading my period? The tests showed that my egg reserves are low, so our chances of success aren’t all that great. It would probably take multiple tries. I’m unstable enough on a good day. Can you imagine me dosed up on hormones for the next year?”
“Get used to it. Pregnancy hormones won’t be much better.” Dharma grinned. “I have a feeling we’ll all survive. Will you let me talk to Dale?”
My reply came out as a choked whisper. “Yes. But please don’t ask him tonight. I need to talk it over with Michael first.”
“I won’t say a word until after we’ve hit the road for Olympia. Kate, I promise, everything’s going to be all right.”
For the moment, at least, I believed her.
thirteen
I waved goodbye to Dharma and Dale at seven the next morning, wishing they could have stayed longer. We’d spent the rest of the night hanging out, catching up, and trying—unsuccessfully—to convince Mouse to allow one of us to pet her. By unspoken agreement, the four of us didn’t talk about my retreat to the bathroom or what Dharma and I had discussed while we were sequestered inside it. If Dale’s questioning look was any indication, Michael hadn’t clued him in about what was wrong with me. I didn’t think it was possible, but his discretion made me love him even more.
After we all went to bed, Michael and I discussed Dharma’s offer. To my surprise, he readily agreed to take out a loan from Dale should Dale be willing to give it. Neither of us liked the idea of taking money from him, but if the banks continued to reject our loan applications, it was the best option available to us. As long as Dale agreed, of course.
In the meantime, I distracted myself by making a plan to help Rainbow. The morning yoga teachers would staff the studio until eleven-thirty, so when Michael left to open Pete’s Pets, I rubbed catnip all over Mouse’s living room cat tree, gave Bella an ostrich tendon, and pulled out a notebook. Two long sips of fragrant caramel-hazelnut coffee later, I started brainstorming.
Action item number one. Find her. Which led to the first problem: How? I’d spent limited time with her. Certainly not enough to know who—other than her boyfriend, Jace—she’d hung out with. I planned to confront Jace the next time I saw him, but now that he’d dumped Rainbow, I doubted he’d know where she’d gone.
Jace couldn’t be her only friend though, could he?
Rainbow had been active at Teen Path HOME. She’d taken part in the art and kitchen programs, which meant she’d spent time with Vonnie and Chuck. She might have spoken with them about her life outside the center. At the very least, they might know which of the other teens she’d befriended.
Underneath the words Find Rainbow, I added a bullet point: Talk to Vonnie, Chuck, and Jace. Below that, I added, Interview other youth at the center. If the teens I’d spoken with yesterday were any indication, most of them would stonewall me, but I couldn’t know that for sure until I tried.
I tapped my pen against the notebook. What if I sweetened the deal? Money was tight, but my childbearing future wouldn’t be significantly altered by a fifty-dollar finder’s fee. I added Go to bank machine to my growing to-do list.
Bella’s tail thumped on the carpet beside me. “Don’t worry, sweetie. Michael and I may starve, but we’ll always feed you.”
I turned back to the notebook. What else did I know about Rainbow? I wrote down the word Tacoma. Rainbow mentioned that she’d lived in Tacoma before she ran away. Now that she was in trouble, would she go back there? I doubted it. The risk of running into her stepfather would be too high. But I couldn’t eliminate the possibility, either.
How did knowing that Rainbow was from Tacoma help me, though? Tacoma had over two hundred thousand residents, and I had no idea which part of the city Rainbow used to call home. Was I supposed to drive up and down every street on the off-chance that I’d see her?
Bella finished her tendon and hopped up on the couch beside me. Mouse glared at me from the top of her cat tree.
There had to be a way to narrow it down. Rainbow’s home address would be a great start. Detective Martinez undoubtedly knew it, especially if the serial number on the gun had been traced back to Dean. The question was, would she give it to me? I wrote down another note: C
all Detective Martinez.
How could I find the address if Martinez refused to tell me? Rainbow’s last name was Roads, or a version of that name with a different spelling. Since no one knew who Rainbow’s biological father was, she and her mother probably shared the same last name, or at least they had at one time. Unfortunately, Rainbow hadn’t told me her mother’s first name. And while I knew her stepfather’s first name, I didn’t know his last.
Ugh.
Directory assistance would probably be a dead end, but I added searching it to the list anyway.
Bella sighed and placed her chin on my thigh. Her way of saying that watching humans write in notebooks was boring. I rubbed the bridge of her nose, and she licked my fingers with her black-spotted tongue. I sat up straighter. Bella’s tongue! The photo! Rainbow had posted the selfie she’d taken with Bella on Instagram. If her Instagram profile was public, I might be able to find it. She might have left some clues there.
I pushed Bella off my lap. “Come on, sweetie. We’re going to the office.”
I pulled up a browser and started typing. I knew Rainbow’s real name was Rain Roads, but I had no idea how she spelled it. I did a quick Google search and jotted down the options I found. For her first name there were six: Raine, Rain, Rainn, Rayne, Reine, or Reign. Seven, if you counted Rainbow. For her last, six more: Rhoades, Rhoads, Rhodes, Roads, Roades, and Rodes.
If my math was correct, that left me with forty-two possible combinations. If Rainbow used an unknown middle name or a different name entirely, I could be scouring social media until Rene’s twins graduated from college. Still, it was worth a try. I’d never used Instagram before, but how complicated could it be? I added Search for Rainbow on Instagram to my growing to-do list. Below it, I added all of the different spellings I’d found.
Ten more minutes of brainstorming later, I put planning aside and began ticking off items.
I started by calling Teen Path HOME in hopes of connecting with Vonnie and Chuck. After three rings I got a short but to-the-point voicemail. “Thank you for calling Teen Path HOME. Due to unforeseen circumstances, we will be closed until further notice. For immediate assistance, please call the Seattle/King County twenty-four-hour crisis line at—” I hung up before listening to the rest of the message.