Taurus Eyes

by Bonnie Hearn Hill

  I scribbled down her quote and asked, “What kind of person was he?”

  “Brilliant.” She looked right into my eyes again with such a fiery expression that I knew that she must be either Aries or Leo. “Generous, and yes, funny.”

  “Sounds like a nice guy.”

  “Maybe. I’ve heard that he could get very moody. Those who knew him said that Baylor could go from the sweetest guy in the world to a wild man if anything set him off.”

  “Textbook Gemini,” I said.

  She laughed. “You must have looked that up ahead of time.”

  “I did,” I said. “I appreciate you meeting with me. Before you go, would you mind telling me something? I’d really like to know what you would do if you had been given my assignment. How would you investigate Sean Baylor, ghost or no ghost?”

  “Good question,” she said. “The fairgrounds.”

  Her voice held that same longing my dad’s did when he talked about the countries he and my mom visited when they were first married. I felt a lump in my throat.

  “Want to go with me?” I was so shocked that I’d asked the question that I had to look down at my notebook to hide the blush I felt spreading across my cheeks.

  “No way. There are too many ghosts out there, and not the kind you’re hoping to find. Don’t go alone, though.” She got up from the table. Her hair glinted silver in the sunlight. “Stay safe, will you? I need to move on now.”

  With her dress and her hair floating around her, she stepped away from me and down the beach. I watched her disappear into the fog so easily, that if I hadn’t known better, she might have been a ghost herself.

  NOTES TO SELF

  I am starting to wonder if I will ever able to conduct a decent interview with anyone. Mercedes took charge the moment we started speaking. When I mentioned the boat, I could tell that she didn’t want anything to do with me or it. Yet I will be on it again in a few hours. I wish I knew her sign. Perhaps I’ll have time for a little library research before we go back to the boat tonight.

  21

  IT’S ALL RIGHT TO ASK FOR HELP. REMEMBER THIS,

  WHATEVER YOUR SIGN. THE WAY YOU ASK CHANGES

  WITH THE PERSON, HOWEVER. SOME SIGNS REALLY DO

  WANT TO HELP YOU FOR THE SAKE OF THAT ALONE.

  SOME WILL TURN YOUR REQUEST INTO A VEHICLE FOR

  THEIR OWN ISSUES. STILL OTHERS WILL WANT TO

  KNOW WHAT YOU CAN DO FOR THEM. BEFORE YOU

  ASK, ASSESS.

  —Fearless Astrology

  The cute Aries with the patent leather red streak in his black hair was working on his laptop when I arrived at the library. Fire signs could be pretty generous. Thus, I figured I should be direct in asking for his assistance.

  “Hey,” he said.

  “I’m so glad you’re here. I could use some help.” Pretty direct, at least I hoped it was.

  He grinned. “What kind of help? The guy who checked out the Baylor books still hasn’t returned them.”

  “I know,” I said. “Actually, this time, I’m just looking for the birth date for Mercedes Lloyd-Chambers, a reporter from the newspaper here. She interviewed Sean Baylor, and I’m guessing she must have been at his Monterey concert.”

  “Let me check it out,” he said. “The name’s familiar, but I’ve only been here a couple of years.”

  He motioned back to a computer behind his wrap-around front desk. I followed. He keyed in information. I waited.

  “Mercedes Lloyd,” he said. “Close enough? She was born October twelfth. I have an image here.”

  I walked around behind his desk. There she was, all right. The wild gray hair was shiny black, and the pale eyes were bright and intriguing. Then I realized it wasn’t just a photograph he was showing me. It was a photograph of an “LP” shot. Mercedes was the woman, along with the blondes, on the cover of the record my dad had given me. Mercedes not only knew Sean. She was friendly enough with either Cookie or him—or both of them—that she had shown up in the crowd of admirers on his album cover.

  Then I remembered the photo that I had taken from the sailboat. The woman who had been with Sean Baylor—that angry, brunette, arms crossed. Mercedes.

  “Can you find out anything else about her?” I asked.

  “It might take some time. Drop by tomorrow, if you can, and I’ll give you whatever I dig up.”

  I met Jeremy outside the dorm, and we drove over to the pier in Dirk’s car.

  Other than a bored-sounding, “Hi,” Jeremy said nothing else to me during our short drive. I noticed the way he looked, though. I couldn’t think about that, because if I did, I would get hurt beyond anything I could imagine. He was that great looking, and that dangerous. Once this was over, I would tell him what I had found out about Mercedes.

  Jaffa was waiting for us outside the gate, bundled up in a wool scarf, as usual. He waved, and we joined him.

  “All right,” he said. “We’re avoiding the security camera this time. Let me go first.”

  “Because you have the black belt, and we don’t?” Jeremy asked.

  “Because I am responsible for you, in case you haven’t figured that out yet. If one of you kids get hurt . . . well, let’s not even go there.”

  “All right, then,” Jeremy said. “Let’s get going. I want to see the rest of those photos.”

  “Okay. You kids wait here. I’ll tell you when it’s safe.”

  He turned his back just as a large guy walked out of a haze of fog.

  “It’s him,” I screamed. “He’s the one who tried to fight Jeremy.”

  Jaffa jumped down beside me.

  “You don’t learn, do you?” the man told me. He smelled of cigarette smoke. The stud in his ear glinted in the dim light.

  “Wait a minute,” Jaffa said. “How do you have the right to guard these boats?”

  “It’s my job. These vandals broke the law, and if you want them to stay healthy, you’d better keep them away from here. They caused all kinds of damage.”

  “That’s a lie,” I said. “We didn’t touch anything.”

  “Let’s all go aboard then,” Jaffa told him. “I’d like to survey the damage.”

  “It’s fixed now. We got it all cleaned up.”

  “We?” Jaffa asked. “So you work for the owner?”

  “That’s none of your business.”

  “If you won’t tell us who you’re working for, and you can’t prove that you have a right to be here, I’m afraid I’ll have to call the police.”

  “Try it, and you’ll be sorry, old man.” With that, he charged Jaffa. Not a good idea. With a single movement, Jaffa sent him flying to the deck. The man shook his head as if trying to ground himself, then pulled up to his feet.

  “You crazy old coot. You can have the damned boat for all I care. Go out there and die the way Baylor did.”

  Jaffa took a step toward him, and he turned and walked so fast the way he’d come that he was almost jogging.

  We stood speechless for a moment. I felt light-headed and giddy. Images of what might have happened filled my mind, and I forced myself to erase them. Jaffa had turned the whole horrible situation around. We were safe.

  He adjusted his scarf and grinned at us. “So, how was I?”

  Jeremy nodded. “You were all right.”

  “Logan?”

  I threw my hands in the air and tried to imitate that Aries shriek. “Oh, Henry, you were wonderful.”

  Jeremy grinned and slammed his hand over his mouth.

  Jaffa shrugged away my comment, the way he did Vanessa’s crazy outbursts in class. “You must remind me to tell you about my college roommate one day, Logan. He helped me a great deal in any number of ways. But I think he and I are just about even now. Shall we go aboard?”

  NOTES TO SELF

  I am in bed and trying to calm down. Candice went out with Vanessa and the New York twins to the theater again, and I just put Fearless in its usual hiding place, under the pillow of the bottom bunk. I still can’t
stop my wild heartbeat. We could have been killed tonight, Jaffa for sure. How did that creep know we were going to be there, or does he patrol the place every night? Jaffa guessed that he might be a hired guard, which would mean that Ren Baylor is paying him to keep people away from the boat.

  Once we were onboard, it was clear that guard guy had lied about the damage we had supposedly caused. The boat looked just the way it had the night before. Jaffa was clearly disappointed that no spirits greeted us in the galley. I was relieved that I didn’t have to hear that eerie song again. Jeremy disappeared into the back area, and I knew he was after the photographs. He came back with an envelope, but other than a few at the festival, they seemed to be only family photos of Sean and Ren. Tomorrow night, I’m going to see Cookie again. First I have to suffer through another class with Vanessa. At least it makes sense now. Her dad was Henry Jaffa’s college roommate. But as he said, that debt is nearly paid off.

  22

  BETRAYAL FROM SOMEONE YOU TRUSTED PROVOKES

  DIFFERENT REACTIONS IN EACH SIGN. FIRE SIGNS

  (ARIES, LEO, AND SAGITTARIUS) FLY INTO A RAGE.

  EARTH SIGNS (TAURUS, VIRGO, AND CAPRICORN)

  HANG ON. THEY WILL TRY TO WORK IT OUT BECAUSE

  THEY HATE CHANGE. AIR SIGNS (GEMINI, LIBRA, AND

  AQUARIUS) GET EVEN. WATER SIGNS (CANCER,

  SCORPIO, AND PISCES) TRY TO IGNORE BETRAYAL (OR

  ANY PROBLEM) AS LONG AS POSSIBLE. REMEMBER

  THAT THE PROBLEM WILL NOT BE FOUND IN YOUR SIGN

  BUT IN THAT OF THE BETRAYER.

  —Fearless Astrology

  Vanessa was not really my competition. She seemed more interested in hanging out at the theater than working on her writing. I remembered that her original topic had been about breaking into Broadway musicals, and with that Aries sun, she was more suited to that than facing a computer screen every day.

  She wasn’t my competition for Jeremy any longer either, if she ever had been. When he looked at me, his cocky expression became almost tender. I no longer believed he was faking an interest in me.

  Back in class, we sat at our separate tables. Vanessa’s sweater was gray, chaste, and pearl-buttoned to her chin. A new image? Not really. As I watched her take a seat at the table beside Candice, I noticed that, beneath that sweater, she was wearing a short skirt that slid up almost to her hips when she sat.

  She was giving Dirk a fine view. He pulled up a chair across from her to take full advantage. Tati made eye contact with me and shook her head.

  “Okay, people.” Jaffa was still wearing the same navy scarf he’d worn when he’d taken on that guy last night. “I want to hear those leads today, and I want to hear the Baylor ones first. Can we start with you, Logan?”

  Being first was almost a relief. I wondered if he knew that, then I looked down at the page in front of me and began to read.

  Was all we had to s ay to each other

  all we had to say to each other?

  Was forever only a feeling . . .

  “With these simple lyrics, folksinger Sean Baylor expressed the way that he defined love and desire in the late 1960s. To that Gemini male, love and desire were the same; and they were indeed interchangeable.”

  “How did he live? How did he love? How did he die? It’s all in Sean Baylor’s chart, something far more complex than the sixties question, ‘What’s your sign?’”

  “Excellent, Logan,” Jaffa said. “It offers promise and intrigue. Good job. Jeremy, would you like to go next?”

  “Sure.” He glanced down at the paper in front of him. “Sean Baylor’s ghost is the stuff of legends. His music haunts a Monterey restaurant. Stories of his sightings abound. The sixties-era folk singer is believed to have drowned after taking out his sailboat following his show-stopping performance at the Monterey Pop Festival in 1967. But what if it’s not Sean Baylor’s ghost that haunts the beach? And what if his death was no accident?”

  “I like it,” Jaffa said. “It hooks the reader and makes him want to read more. You and Logan are using questions in your leads. Although they work in both your cases, they can be easy to overdo. Now, who would like to go next?”

  “I will.” Vanessa raised her hand. “It’s not very long, and so not as wordy as the first two. But it is the essence of my article. It’s a way of looking at fictional characters in astrological terms. And it has some questions in it too.”

  “That sounds very promising, Vanessa.” Jaffa looked surprised. “Let’s hear it.”

  “It’s called, ‘Hamlet Was a Libra,’ and here’s how it starts.” She took a sip from her water bottle. “‘To be or not to be?’ With all of his wondering and all of his questioning, Hamlet had to be a Libra. They frequently have trouble making up their minds. His love for beauty—think Ophelia—is par for the course for one ruled by Venus. There’s a lot of talk from this Air sign, too, and Libras are known for their communication skills.”

  I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. She had stolen my words. Somehow, Vanessa had found my hidden astrology book and ripped off the first part of the Hamlet piece. Fortunately, that was all she had.

  “Since you like the first part, what do you think about my argument that he could be other signs?” I asked her.

  Her eyes went blank. She glanced from me to Jaffa. “What are you talking about? Hamlet was a Libra. That’s my hook. It works, Henry, doesn’t it?”

  “It might,” he said. “Logan, what are your thoughts?”

  “My thoughts—the ones I didn’t write down to be stolen—were that Hamlet could have been a Gemini or even a Sadge. And with all of that karmic family emotional stuff, he could have been a Scorpio or a Cancer, too.”

  “So, in this fictional astrological model, Hamlet may not have been a Libra?” Jaffa asked. “Is that what you’re trying to say?”

  I shook my head and met his eyes. “What I’m trying to say is that Vanessa plagiarized the first paper I tried to write for this workshop. She flat stole it.”

  “That’s ridiculous, Henry,” Vanessa whined. “Who’d want to plagiarize someone as boring as Logan?”

  “You would.” My voice shook. “You did. And I have another question.”

  “What?” Jaffa asked.

  Nothing to lose now. I might as well go for it. I’d been betrayed, and I knew it. Not only by Vanessa either. I stared at Candice, that long, shiny blond hair. Those dark eyes and straight, pale lips.

  “Why?” I asked her.

  She stood up, started to speak, then ran from the room.

  “Candice was the only person who knew where my astrology book was hidden,” I told Jaffa. “My notes were in it, and now, Vanessa is quoting my own words back to me.”

  “It’s not true,” Vanessa said. I could hear the buzz of doubt in the classroom. No wonder, considering the doubt that Jeremy had already cast. “Not true at all. I didn’t try to steal that book. Candice offered it to me.”

  “No,” I said.

  “Oh, yes she did. I didn’t even know the creepy old thing existed.” She turned to Jaffa. “Henry, it wasn’t my fault. Candice showed me where Logan had hidden the stupid book.” My stomach turned with every word. “I didn’t plagiarize, either, exactly. Her idea about Hamlet being a Libra sounded okay, so I decided to write my article about that.”

  “Class.” Jaffa stood. His voice was the deadly quiet one he had used when he spoke to the guy guarding the sailboat. “You are excused for the rest of the day. Vanessa, please come to the front.”

  “But Henry . . .” It was the last thing I heard her say.

  When I got to the room, Candice was already packing her stuff into boxes. And she had a lot of stuff. I realized just then that the floral arrangements, crystal glasses, and china cups had all been hers. Not to mention that humongous coffee machine. There was barely a trace of me left in this room.

  “I take it you’re leaving,” I said.

  She pulled up her hair and twisted it to the back of her head. “Trading roommates. I can’
t wait to get out of here.”

  “I thought we were friends. Why did you turn on me?”

  “Friends!” I realized that her serene expression was about as steady as a china cup on a narrow ledge. Never had I seen such a seemingly calm face mask such internal chaos. “You remind me of my sisters. You get all the attention in class. You can’t decide between two guys, and the only person who cares about me is Vanessa.”

  “But what about your boyfriend at home?” I asked. She glared at me through her tears, and, just like that, I knew. “There isn’t any boyfriend at home, is there?” And probably no wonderful friends either. So that’s why she was throwing the 24/7 espresso fests and barbecues here. She was trying to buy herself the life she didn’t have at home. I would feel sorry for her if she hadn’t been so awful to me.

  “I don’t know your sisters,” I said, “but for what it’s worth, I liked you for who I thought you were. No one is going to really like you, though, not when you do the kind of things you did to me.”

  “Vanessa does,” she said.

  I didn’t reply. Let the Virgo and the Aries figure it out for themselves.

  NOTES TO SELF

  True to my Air sign, I should want to get even, but that’s not how I feel. I feel, well, betrayed. So, here I am, alone in the room. It still feels bizarre and unreal that Candice was jealous of me or that she told Vanessa where I had hidden Fearless Astrology. I’m better off knowing the truth about her. Wait. I hear a knock at the door. If it’s Candice, I swear I’m not letting her in.

  I get up. “Who is it?” I ask.

  “Me, Tati.”

  I yank open the door, and she stands just outside with two suitcases as purple as the streak in her hair.

  “Hey,” I say. “Are you my new roommate?”

  “Looks that way. Vanessa just kicked me out. Must be a lucky day for this Capricorn.”

  I put out my arms and hug her.