The Fire and the Veil (Veronica Barry Book 2)

by Sophia Martin

  The next morning Veronica dropped Melanie off at work, after Melanie agreed to let her borrow her car. Veronica drove to the Fairfield Inn in Natomas, near the Sacramento International Airport. Veronica recognized Maya from the photo. She waited in the lobby, both hands clutching a red leather purse in front of her. Veronica waved.

  “Ms. Nakaela,” she said as she approached.

  “Please, call me Maya.”

  Veronica smiled at her. Maya managed a faint smile in return, but her face looked haggard and her eyes full of grief.

  “I’m Veronica.”

  Maya shook her hand. “Thank you for meeting me.”

  “I called around yesterday,” Veronica said. “The social worker assigned to Leinani’s case is named Rachelle Lincoln. I told her you were coming.”

  “What did she say?”

  “We have to go meet her,” Veronica said. “There’s paperwork to do, but she said when we’ve done it, we can go see Lei. And Lei is in a short-term placement. Rachelle said she didn’t think it would take long to sort out everything so Lei could go home with you.”

  Maya nodded. “Shall we go meet with this Rachelle, then?”

  Veronica grimaced. “I was hoping, actually, that you might be willing to make another stop first.”

  Maya cocked her head to the side.

  “It’s Lola,” Veronica said. “They wouldn’t let me visit her, because I’m not family. But now you’re here. And she needs to know what’s been going on, Maya. She’s not doing very well.”

  Maya nodded. “Alright. Let’s go see her first.”

  ~~~

  Luckily, the man in the front area of Thornton Youth Center was different from the one Veronica had encountered with Khalilah. Veronica let Maya do the talking, and was relieved to see that she had brought along paperwork proving she was Lola’s aunt: birth certificates for herself and her sister, her id card, social security card, and some other papers.

  “Visiting hours start at 4pm this afternoon,” the guard said. “You should schedule an appointment now.”

  Maya glanced over at Veronica in dismay. “I thought we could see her now.”

  “Not outside of visiting hours, except on court days,” the man said.

  Veronica sighed. “Okay, we’ll have to come back. Let’s go do that paperwork now, okay?”

  Maya nodded quickly and scheduled her visit for that afternoon.

  As they left, Veronica said, “I’m sorry, Maya. I should have checked into the visiting hours.”

  Maya shook her head. “Why are you doing this?” she asked.

  Veronica glanced at her and stopped by Melanie’s car. “I just felt a connection to Lola, I guess. And I heard about what happened, and…”

  Maya frowned at her over the car’s hood. “Not many teachers feel a connection with Lola,” she said. “Terri has—had been having a lot of trouble with her for years now.”

  Veronica nodded. “Let’s go somewhere and talk, Maya. I think you need to know a little more about Lola.”

  ~~~

  As they sat in a Starbucks, sipping their drinks, Veronica told Maya what she knew about Lola’s home life. Maya took the information about the abuse Lola and her mother had suffered at the hands of Owen and Paul Carver fairly well, Veronica thought.

  “She never told me,” Maya said.

  Veronica nodded. “Yeah, I imagine Terri was living in a pretty dark place.”

  “She had a lot of health problems,” Maya said, her eyes filling. “I used to ask her about her health all the time. I don’t think I asked her very often about how things were going with Owen.”

  Veronica shook her head and put her hand on Maya’s. “It’s not your fault. You didn’t know.”

  Maya pressed her lips together and gave Veronica a pained look. “I think I suspected. Lola started acting out, and Terri would call and complain about it, and I kept thinking, what has set this girl off?”

  “There’s more,” Veronica said, gazing at Maya. She wondered how the woman would take the news that Lola was gay.

  “More?” Maya said.

  “I think Lola has suffered a lot, as well, because she’s different from a lot of girls.”

  “Different how?”

  “She’s gay,” Veronica said. “I wouldn’t out her to you, Maya, not normally. I think everyone should have a chance to come out on their own. But I’m hoping you’re going to be able to take Lola back with you and Leinani. And you’re right, she’s not an easy kid to deal with. I think you need all the information you can get.”

  Maya raised her chin and gazed at Veronica. “I see,” she said. Then she gave a short laugh. “Wow.”

  Veronica watched her. Maya looked around the cafe, then her eyes came to rest on Veronica again.

  “Are you going to be okay about this?” Veronica asked, her concern for Lola driving her.

  Maya nodded. “I’d better be. My wife might call me a hypocrite if she found out I have a problem with Lola being gay.”

  Veronica exhaled. She hadn’t expected that. Her cell buzzed. She looked at the display. It said “Khalilah.”

  “Excuse me,” she said to Maya, and stood up to take the call outside. “Hey! How are you?” she asked Khalilah as she exited the cafe.

  “Veronica, I’m so glad I got a hold of you.”

  “Is everything alright?” Veronica leaned back against the wall outside.

  “Oh, I’m fine. I mean, I’m a total wreck, you know, and I don’t think I’ll ever be able to relax again for as long as I live. I don’t suppose one recovers overnight from being hit and tied up and threatened with death.”

  “I can imagine,” Veronica said.

  “But look, that’s not why I called.”

  “What do you need?” Veronica asked. “I have some errands to run today, but if you want I could come over to your place later, if you want some company.”

  “No, it’s not that—although, honestly, that does sound nice. So I might take you up on the offer. But that’s not why I called. I had to tell you the news, Veronica. It’s Amani.”

  “Amani? Is she alright? Did they arrest Jahid?”

  “She’s fine, and Jahid is fine. I don’t think he had anything to do with Hamza’s—with any of that. No. Amani has decided to give a statement. About your student, Lola. She called me a few moments ago to tell me.”

  Veronica pressed her fingers to her mouth, breathing in.

  “Veronica, are you alright?”

  “Oh, Khalilah,” Veronica said. “Are you sure?”

  “Look, Amani said she’d go to the police station if I could give her a ride. As I understand it, Jahid is at work. He spent the whole day yesterday answering questions and she doesn’t want to make him go back to the station so soon. Do you want me to come pick you up?”

  “Are you sure you can drive?”

  “Actually, no, but my brother will drive me.”

  Veronica straightened. “In that case, I’ll meet you there. I have Melanie’s car, and someone is with me who will be very interested in meeting Amani.”

  “Who?”

  “Lola’s aunt. She’s hoping to take Lola and her sister back with her to Hawai’i, once everything gets straightened out.”

  “Alright, well, I’m going to have to wait a little while for Fayid to get out of work so he can drive us. Unless you want to pick me and Amani up?”

  “You know, I think I’ll do that.”

  Veronica returned to the table where Maya waited and explained as much as she could about Amani and Lola’s alibi without revealing that much of the information she had came from her psychic visions.

  “So I know you’re anxious to get the paperwork started for guardianship of Lei,” Veronica said, “but I think maybe we should start by driving Amani to the police station. The sooner we get Lola released, the better.”

  Maya nodded quickly. “Absolutely. If it takes an extra day to get Lei out of foster care, it’s worth it to get Lola out of the hall.”

  ~~~<
br />
  As Veronica stood to the side with Khalilah and Maya and watched Amani give her statement to a clerk in the DA’s office, she considered the young woman. She wore her full abaya, all black, so that only her eyes showed. When they met Amani in the motel and when Veronica had seen her in her vision, Amani had been unveiled. Veronica wondered if she would ever choose to discard her veil again in the future.

  Perhaps now she wouldn’t want to, since Hamza could no longer use the traditional laws of his tribe to bully her into doing things she didn’t want to do. Maybe Amani would find a way to have the kind of life she wanted without giving up the parts of her culture that she liked. Maybe the veil was one of those parts. Veronica found it hard to imagine, but even Yesenia wore a headscarf, and she seemed like a modern woman. So you didn’t have to choose between the two, did you?

  After a moment Veronica excused herself and hunted Melanie down.

  “Hey!” Melanie said. “Tawna Anderson’s all in a tizzy. Did you have something to do with that?”

  Veronica moved a box of files off the extra chair in the corner of Melanie cubicle and sat down. She crouched forward so Melanie could hear her as she whispered, “Amani Ahmad is making a statement that alibis Lola for the arson.”

  Melanie’s eyes widened. “Well, that’s that then. Between the ME’s report and that statement, the DA’s not going to want to risk a trial against Lola.”

  “Can you check on Paul Carver’s status in your computer?”

  Melanie turned and typed rapidly, stopping only to shift her mouse around and click on links. “Okay, says here he’s still in custody.”

  “Does it say anything about why he was arrested?”

  “It says ‘Arrested in connection with murder investigation,’ but there’s nothing specifically about the Carver fire here.”

  Veronica chewed on her thumb nail. “I don’t want them to release him. Do you think he’s going to get out soon?”

  “I can’t tell, V. But I know it probably won’t take much if there’s nothing here about what murder investigation and all,” Melanie said. “In fact, Daniel’s probably lucky he’s in the hospital right now. He signed off, it looks like, and someone is going to want to talk to him about arresting people and not properly filling out the paperwork.”

  Veronica sighed. “Okay. We’ve almost got everything together. I have Maya Nakaela here from Hawai’i, ready to pick up Lola and Lei and take them home. Amani made a statement and the ME’s report supports the idea that a tall person hit the Carvers. There’s that arson expert Daniel is friends with who thought it was probably an adult male. How do I get Tawna Anderson to look at Paul Carver for the murders, now?”

  “Well, with Amani’s statement, I’m betting the hall will release Lola today—they can’t afford to just keep kids in there for no reason, it’s too crowded already,” Melanie said thoughtfully. “So maybe Lola could come and talk to Tawna herself. She could tell her it was Paul. Tawna will probably want to have Lola questioned again about the whole thing anyway.”

  Veronica widened her eyes. “Mel, you’re a genius.”

  “Aw, shucks.”

  Chapter 24

  “So I gave Mel’s car back to her, and then Khalilah let me drive hers when Maya and I went to pick up Lola,” Veronica told Daniel as he sat up in his hospital bed, listening.

  “How’s Khalilah holding up?”

  “She was glad to have something to do. She’s taking a couple of weeks leave from school, but I think being home alone was making her a little crazy.”

  Veronica sat in the chair pulled up close to his side.

  “Have you heard anything about Yesenia?” Daniel asked.

  Veronica took his hand and laced her fingers through his. “Khalilah says she went to visit some friends she has in San Diego.”

  Daniel smiled at her and squeezed her fingers lightly. “So Lola’s free and the DA likes Paul for the murders?”

  “That’s what I hear,” Veronica said.

  “Felsen came by a couple of hours ago. She said things look pretty bleak for Hamza, Ghattas and Colston,” Daniel said.

  “Well, they did try to kill you,” Veronica said, thinking she hoped they disappeared into the prison system and never reappeared again.

  “You mentioned something before. Your father helped you get into the storeroom?”

  “Yeah,” Veronica nodded. “I haven’t heard anything from him since. I wonder if maybe when he did his white light thing, it used up his resources or something. I hope he’s okay, and still out there.”

  Daniel gazed at her, running his thumb up and down hers. “I don’t know how it works at all, Ronnie. But it seems like he’d have to still be out there. Maybe he’s just backing off for a while.”

  Veronica gave him a small smile. “Yeah, I just wish I had a chance to talk to him. I’ve missed him so much.”

  “More than your mother?”

  “She left us. I think I never really forgave her for that. And my father… well, I guess he left me too, but… I don’t know. I grew up feeling like that was my fault, you know, even though I was too young to really articulate the thought. So I guess I wasn’t as angry at him as I was at myself. And my mom.”

  “Do you still blame yourself?” Daniel asked, his eyebrows drawing together in concern.

  Veronica shrugged one shoulder. “I don’t consciously. But I don’t know. Maybe I still do. He killed himself right after he found the drawing I made of my mother’s car accident. He knew what I could do—so when he found that drawing, he knew she was dead. I think I blame her too, though. If she hadn’t left, she wouldn’t have gotten killed in the car accident, and he’d still be alive.”

  Daniel shook his head, still resting it back against the big white pillow. “You don’t know that. You told me your father was an alcoholic and that your mother knew that—so it started before she left. I think he sounds like a man with some problems. If she stayed… you don’t know that he would have been better off.”

  Veronica tried to raise the corners of her mouth in a smile, but the best she could do felt like an ugly grimace. “Yeah,” she said. “But at least then I wouldn’t have been alone.”

  “Is that why you care so much about what happens to Lola and Lei?” he asked.

  She swallowed, trying to clear the lump in her throat. “Yeah,” she breathed. “I know what it’s like, to be an orphan.”

  Daniel raised her hand to his lips and kissed it. “Well, you’re not alone now.”

  “You’re right. I mean, Cybele took great care of me, like Maya will care for Lola and Lei—”

  “No, I didn’t mean Cybele,” Daniel said. “I meant me, Ronnie! I’m here for you.”

  A genuine smile broke on Veronica’s face. She beamed at him. “Yeah, okay. And I’m here for you, too. But there’s one thing I think I need to say to you before we go on.”

  “And that is?”

  “You have to trust me from now on.”

  “I do trust you!”

  “No, I mean you have to trust me to do dangerous stuff sometimes. And I think the key is going to be us talking about it—when I have a vision or a dream or I see a ghost. If you and I hash it out, maybe we’ll understand what I’m seeing better.”

  “And maybe I won’t go get knifed after you dream a warning about it? Yeah, that would be good.”

  “Exactly. But the point is, I went to that market and I had my father’s help, and that made it possible for me to get in and out without getting hurt. I’m not just your average civilian blundering into dangerous situations, right?”

  “You’ve made your point,” Daniel said. “I get it. But I’m never going to stop worrying about you, Ronnie.”

  “Well, I guess I can’t argue with that,” she replied, and she leaned over and kissed him.

  ~***~

  If you liked The Fire and the Veil, you can continue with The Plane and the Parade, its sequel. All of Sophia Martin's novels are available on Amazon.

  About the Auth
or

  Sophia Martin lives in Mount Shasta, CA with her husband, son, dog and three cats. She teaches high school and likes to go hiking and foraging for wild food. She writes a lot, often about ghosts.

  If you would like to have news of Sophia’s writing, consider following her on Twitter @sophiarosehips. You can also like her page on Facebook. She’s always thrilled to hear from readers!