Chapter 5
The young man looked up and met my gaze and I realized it was Billy Joe Kramer, a local vineyard manager I’d met before.
I gave him a wave and a smile and he came over, leaving Sandy to get back to her waitressing duties.
“Hi Mele,” he said. “Did you come for our fundraiser?”
I shook my head. “Sorry, no. I’m just here with Bebe and my friend Jill. We’re having dinner. It sounded like you all were having so much fun, I had to look in and see what was going on.”
“You should join us,” he said grandiosely, encompassing the entire room full of people with a sweep of his arm. “This is the Destiny Bay Chapter of the Coastal Aggies. We’re like the Kiwanis or the Lions Club. We raise money for good causes.”
“What’s the cause tonight?” I asked him.
He nodded toward a young couple sitting on the dais. “Jimmy Perez and his wife Patty. They just had a baby who needs heart surgery. We’re collecting money for them.”
“Nice,” I said. “Listen, I’ll get Bebe and Jill to come over here after we’ve had our dessert. I’m sure they’d like to contribute to the cause. I know I would.”
“Great.” He winked at Sandy as she passed him with a tray of dishes on their way back to the kitchen. “Now if I could just get Sandy to agree to go out with me,” he confided with good humor, talking loudly enough to make sure she heard him. “All would be right with my world.”
“Good luck,” I told him. “She seems like a promising prospect.”
“Doesn’t she just?” he murmured, watching her go down the hall with a sort of yearning look in his eyes.
I laughed and waved as I went back toward the table where my pals were waiting for me so that they could dig into those spiced pears. Unfortunately, any news I had was pretty sketchy. Except for the fact that Marguerite seemed to have it in for Sandy, and that Sandy really was snooping.
“Aren’t we all?” Bebe murmured.
I couldn’t disagree.
The pears were luscious and we shivered with happiness as we ate them. I finally got us all rounded up and heading for the banquet room, and once we arrived, I was glad we’d joined the Coastal Aggies bunch in celebrating and donating to the Perez family. It was a nice way to end the evening.
“But what am I going to tell Jeff and the water desperados?” Bebe cried as we got back into the car and headed down the hill toward our own place.
“Tell him we’ve got an in now. We have a few contacts we need to develop further. Soon, we’ll know it all. No doubt about it.”
“Hah,” said Jill, to no one in particular. “Dreamers.”
And maybe she was right. But we hadn’t exhausted all our resources yet. There was still room to maneuver!
We got back to the house and the first thing I did was go out back and look for Aunty Jane. There was a misty fog casually slinking its tentacles through the gardens but no sign of Aunty. Or of my big black cat. I sighed and went back in. The three of us watched an old movie—Casablanca in fact, for the hundredth time—and Jill began to yawn, then headed for home. Bebe and I cleaned up and lingered for awhile, drinking Moroccan mint tea at the kitchen table.
“So tell me about Nigel Champaine,” I said to her. “You’ve met him, haven’t you?”
She nodded. “I met him at a council meeting when he was first negotiating to buy the property,” she said. “Oh, and at a Christmas party. He’s handsome and quite a charmer. I understand he owns three restaurants. The Italian Kitchen and also a crab shack in Santa Barbara and a seafood place in Malibu.”
“He lives in Malibu, doesn’t he?”
“Yes. He has one of those fabulous houses on the beach, the kind big movie stars own.”
“He must be doing well.”
“I guess. Either that, or he really knows how to fake it.”
“Did you like him when you talked to him?”
She hesitated. “I guess so. He can be a little overwhelming. You know what I mean? He gives off this air of knowing just exactly what’s going on behind the façade of fabulous things. You can’t help but feel a little intimidated.”
“And Marguerite seems to think she’s got him wrapped around her finger.”
“So she says. I’d like to hear his side of the story.”
We laughed. Then I yawned, and Bebe, like a true copy cat, yawned too.
“Bedtime,” I said, rising and heading off for my bedroom. “I can barely keep my eyes open.”
“Good night,” she said.
And as I headed off I wondered why there had been no late phone call with Captain Stone as of yet. Then I realized I hadn’t had a call from Detective Roy in ages. What was going on with the love lives around here? We both seemed to be striking out on all levels. Made me just a little sad. But set me up for what was to come during the night.
But first I had to field another phone call from a tropical island. Bet you don’t often get those, do you? So why am I so lucky?
I’d just tumbled into bed and yawned and closed my eyes when my phone buzzed. I smiled, thinking it might be Roy and flipped it on before I’d looked at the screen. I heard the Hawaiian music before I even read the name.
Hawaii calling. Again.
I should have hung up immediately, but I couldn’t do it. For much too long I lay there, listening to the far-a-way sounds of the islands where I’d been born and raised. Tears filled my eyes and I took in a long breath, then finally switched it off. Jumping up, I took my phone into the bathroom and wrapped it in a thick towel and stuffed it in a cabinet.
Then I went back to bed and turned on the ambient background music I used when I couldn’t sleep. I skipped right over the tropical rainforest effects and the sound of waves on the rocks. Instead, I went for barnyard animals and ended up with the sounds of sheep. A whole lot of sheep. Sheep bleating. Sheep who went on and on and on…..
But at least I could sleep.
When I woke up, I didn’t hear any sheep. All I heard was the hard clopping of hooves on the dirt road and a soft whiny or two. I was on horseback and someone was holding me there. When I twisted to look behind me, I saw exactly what I expected to see—Dante, my one and only personal ghost protector. I hadn’t seen him for weeks.
“Dante?” I said.
He leaned in against my neck and whispered, “Hush. Just go with it.”
His breath was warm against my neck and I never could figure that out. I mean - he was a ghost. Where did the warmth come from? My own imagination? Could be. At any rate, it made me shiver in a delicious way and I sank back against him — and yes, he felt solid. I looked down. I was wearing a gauzy white dress. I felt like an angel. I didn’t care where we were going. I was going to enjoy the ride.
Too soon we reached our destination — the compound and stream at the Italian Kitchen on the hill above where Bebe’s little house sat. We stopped and I looked around a bit sleepily.
“What are we doing here?” I asked Dante.
“Don’t you want to find your cat?” he said.
“Oh! Yes.” I turned to try to see his face in the dark. “Is he here?”
“Sort of.”
“What does that mean?”
We were off the horse and I didn’t remember doing anything to make that happen. Was I actually awake? Or was this all a dream?
“Come this way,” he said, taking my hand and leading me toward the stream. “It’s got to be here somewhere.”
“What?” I came with him willingly. The thought of finding Sami was electrifying. I was totally excited! “Where should I look?”
“Sh!” He put his finger to his lips and motioned for me to be silent, pulling me back behind the bushes, right were I’d been with my friends earlier that day. Straining a bit, he looked out. I looked too and I saw someone emerging from one of the bungalows. He seemed to be in a hurry and suddenly something came out after him. A pan, flying through the air, dumping its contents as it went. It clattered against the rocks, making a horrible noise
. Luckily, it missed the man, but it was raining soggy blobs of some food-looking product all over the place.
“Get out of here!” a female voice yelled from inside the bungalow.
“You witch!” the man yelled back, then turned and stomped off without picking up the pan that had been hurled at him. As he passed near where we hid, I could see that it was Chef Bianchi. Was he fighting with Marguerite again? It seemed so.
Dante held me back, waiting for the chef to disappear into his own little house. But just as he did so, someone began to make their way down the path from the restaurant. As she came by, she was humming a tune, and when the light hit her face, I could see that it was Sandy.
What had she been doing up at the restaurant at this time of night? It had to be well after midnight and the place closed at ten.
She stopped and gave a low whistle, then waved. I looked toward the stairs that went down to the parking lot. Someone was going down that way, but he paused and waved back at her, and she giggled before starting off again. It was the identity of the man that floored me. It was Jill’s latest love, Jagger. Had he and Sandy just been together? It sure looked like it.
Jagger got into a car and drove off, but Sandy just kept coming our way. She passed awfully close and I held my breath. I could have reached out and touched her. She looked right at where we were. My heart jumped and I grabbed Dante’s hand, hard, holding my breath. He put out his arm to stop me from making too many moves. But she didn’t seem to see us. She was smiling, humming, and probably just a little high.
At least that’s what Dante said after she passed and turned into her own cabin.
“Do you think she saw us?” I asked him once she was past us.
He shook his head. “No. She was floating on fumes.”
“Fumes?”
“Weed. Mary Jane. What else do you expect from a college girl?”
“Oh.”
We waited for her to go to her own cabin. I thought I knew which one it was, but she went right by that one. Instead, she headed for the cabin next door to Marguerite. I craned my neck and thought I could read the sign on the porch. “Gwen’s Place.” There were no lights on inside, and when Sandy knocked softly on the front door, no one answered. Moving stealthily, she walked around to the back of the house, shoved open what looked like a bathroom window, got a quick foothold and disappeared into the house, practically vaulting inside, supple as a gymnast.
I stood there with my mouth hanging open. “Did you see? She…she…she just broke into the house! Shouldn’t we…?”
“Do what?” Dante said. “Alert the neighborhood? We don’t know why she did it or what the custom is around here. Maybe they all do their visiting that way. Who knows?”
“But…”
She was coming out again, the same way she’d gone in. As we watched, it was obvious she was carrying a brown paper bag with something in it that she seemed to have picked up inside the house.
Before I could comment, light suddenly swept across us, and we pulled back further into the greenery. The headlights came from someone who had just pulled into the parking lot below. The lights were turned off and someone came out of the car, heading up toward where we were.
I looked back at Sandy. She was tucking the paper bag into the pocket of her jacket, but she didn’t seem in any hurry to avoid the visitor. In fact, as he came closer, she spoke to him and the next thing I knew, they were in a fairly passionate embrace. And at the same time, I realized it was Billy Joe Kramer. They laughed, pulled apart and started toward Sandy’s house. In another moment, they were inside and I couldn’t see a thing any longer. Darn.
Dante was looking around. “Now if we can avoid any other of the locals, we have some ground to cover. I’m not sure exactly where the portal is. But that’s what we have to find.”
“And that will take us to where Sami is?”
He hesitated. “I hope so. No guarantees. But I’ve heard hints and I’m ready to take the chance. You?”
I took a deep breath, looking up into his sea-green eyes. “I’ll do just about anything to find Sami,” I said, wondering if I was leaving myself open to a little bit too much.
He looked deeply into my eyes and nodded. “Okay. Follow me.”
We started up, walking carefully, then climbing from one mossy ledge to the next.
“Careful,” he said, steadying me when I faltered.
“I’m trying,” I replied, wishing I didn’t feel so clumsy.
We followed the stream until we came to the place where the water emerged among rocks and boulders. Rising above it was an ancient, vine-covered statue of an old Spanish rancher++ in full regalia. I’d never seen it before.
“Look down on that side,” Dante said, gesturing at something just out of sight.
I climbed a little higher and my feet began to slip on the shale-like decomposing rocks on the far side of the hill. Then I saw what he wanted me to see. It looked like the remnants of a beautiful swimming pool. It had probably been stunning in its day, now it just looked like a bombed out relic of war.
“Watch your step,” he said, taking my arm and guiding me back. “There’s a big price to pay for carelessness here.”
We turned back and went a little higher.
“This is it,” Dante said, staring down into a pool of water that had formed in a small grotto just before the water spilled downward toward the restaurant in a silver waterfall I’d never noticed before. “The head of the spring. The portal we’ve been looking for.”
I wavered and looked back at the rough rocks below. I didn’t want to take a misstep and end up plummeting down that side of the cliff. On the other hand, did I want to explore the bubbling spring Dante was pointing to?
“Can you swim?” he said.
“What?” I stared at him, then looked down at the dark swirling water. “In this?”
He nodded. “I think we have to dive down and get through a cavern at the bottom of this pool, taking us into another place, another time.”
“What?” I said again, backing away and almost losing my footing.
Dante reached out and grabbed my arm to keep me steady. I took another look down. It looked very deep. This was more than I’d bargained for. Fear slashed through my system and I shook my head.
“No. That just doesn’t sound like something I can do.”
Even to get Sami. I mean, what was the point? I would obviously die before I reached him.
“Dante, are you serious?”
He looked into my eyes, his own deep as mountain lakes. He was ready to try it. I could see that.
But me? Oh heck no!
“Dante, wait…”
He reached out and took my wrist in an iron grip. “Come on,” he said. “I’ll be with you. Don’t be afraid.”
“No. No. First I need to know just what we’ll be diving into. You said a cavern…”
“Mele, I haven’t been here before, but I’ve been where we’ll be going. It’s a long swim, but we’ll be protected. It seems dark and scary from this side, but once we get to the lagoon…”
I was shaking my head wildly. I couldn’t do it. He was going to make me go down there! Pure panic ripped into my soul.
But suddenly he stopped and listened, then nodded toward something down the hill. I turned to see what he’d noticed. A man was making his way to the same cabin Chef Bianchi had come out of, along with thrown pans. He was walking stealthily, sticking to the shadows. I only had a quick glance at his face but he looked familiar. Still, try as I might, I couldn’t place where I’d seen him.
Dante pulled me close and we watched as the man stopped at the window, peering in, then made his way to the front door, pulling out a key and opening it on his own. Silent as a shadow, he melted into the cabin. Not a sound came from inside.
“Oh hell,” Dante muttered. “This place is like Grand Central Station tonight.”
I looked up at him. “Do you think we ought to….?”
“Go down and see what that gu
y is up to?” He was practically rolling his eyes at me. “No. We can’t. We’re not here in normal time, normal space. We’re here in spirit time, and even if one of the humans could see us, they wouldn’t understand what we are. It’s no use trying to communicate when we come in this form.”
“Oh.”
I thought I knew what he was talking about. Normally when we met, Dante was ghostly and we couldn’t really touch. But when he put me into spirit form, things seemed normal—but only to us. Not to other humans. It was complicated.
He stared down at me for a moment, then shook his head. “Come on. Let’s get out of here. You’re not ready anyway. We’ll come back later. Okay?”
I nodded vigorously.
He held me with the intensity of his green eyes.
“Mele, listen. This is important. If you want to find Sami, you are going to have to dive down there.” He inclined his head toward the murky water. “And we have to do it soon. If we wait too long, Sami will be gone. He can’t stay in that dream land for more than a few days.”
I swallowed hard. “What will happen to him?”
He shrugged and turned away. “We’d better go.”
I closed my eyes and moaned softly. I wanted to find Sami with all my heart and soul but I wasn’t ready to swim in underwater caverns at midnight—even with Dante. Not without some preparation.
And the next thing I knew, I was back in my own bed, listening to sheep and feeling a dull sense of loss and regret. I closed my hand over the talisman netsuke. I’d forgotten to try to use it at all. But I doubted it would have helped. I’d been tested and found wanting. That was all I could think of. I’d had a chance to do something hard to find Sami and I’d muffed it. How many more chances would I get?
Chapter 6
Sirens woke me the next morning. I shot up and stared at the peach-colored dawn outside, then slipped out and went to the window. Sure enough, the red lights were flashing along the road up to the restaurant. Something had happened at the Italian Kitchen compound.
Murder and the Secret Spring Page 4
