Saving Grace (Katie & Annalise Book 1)

by Pamela Fagan Hutchins

  A giant of a man with unruly blond curls and effeminate tortoiseshell glasses at another table did a double take at us. His stare wasn’t admiring. He looked as if he was trying to decide whether to swat us with a flyswatter. His companion turned to look in our direction, and this time I was the one who did a double take. The investigator, Walker. He gave no indication he recognized us, just turned back to his basket of fries.

  “Did you see Walker over there?” I asked Ava. “He’s with some big guy who was staring at us.”

  Ava was singing below her breath and working on a step-ball-change-spin sequence of dance steps. “Just a second,” she said, holding up her hand and working her feet.

  I waited five beats, then said, “Ava.”

  “Yes, I with you. Now, what you say?” she asked.

  “Do you see Walker over there?” I asked, and pointed over my shoulder with my thumb.

  “Where?” she said, looking all around.

  I turned back to where Walker and his large companion had been just moments ago. Empty.

  “Oh, never mind. He’s gone.” I scanned the restaurant and the parking area. No sign of them. They’d certainly split fast. I’d ask Walker about it when I caught up with him, hopefully tomorrow.

  Ava was unconcerned. “I giving you a songbook to study tonight, and you can sing a few with me at my gig tomorrow night,” she said.

  “That soon?”

  “Yah mon, nobody care if you read the words. We all chill here. It be fun.”

  I stepped off the stage and put my head back. The sky was a blanket of stars now. I picked an extra bright one and made my wish: that things could always be as perfect as they were right now.

  Chapter Twenty-eight

  The next day, Ava woke me early. Too early. Wait, make that on time. Woops, I had forgotten to set my alarm. I lifted my head from the too-flat pillow on the couch. I hadn’t bothered to put on a bottom sheet. I shucked off the top one and swung my bare legs to the floor, smoothing with my hands my Phantom of the Opera nightshirt, a treasure from a long-ago trip to New York City with my mother. My head barely hurt. I congratulated myself on my decreased intake the night before. I could do this moderation thing.

  Ava said, “We got more to learn, island girl. I gonna teach you things best done before the sun high in the sky. To Annalise!”

  I dragged myself out to the truck behind Ava. I had promised to meet the contractors by 8:30 anyway. I drove like a mad thing, and we arrived at 8:40. I parked in the driveway and pressed both palms to my cheeks. The flesh on my face tingled as if it had fallen asleep. That’s what thirty minutes of violent bouncing on a St. Marcos road could do to a girl. I wondered if I could rig up some kind of a face bra so I wouldn’t end up with the jowls of a Great Dane. Still, we beat the contractors. That was all right. I hadn’t expected them to be on the early side of on time.

  “So what are you teaching me today, Dr. Doolittle?” I asked Ava as we climbed out of the truck.

  Ava reached into the truck bed.

  “Close your eyes,” she said.

  I did, with trepidation. In my experience, surprises don’t always end well.

  “Tada!” Ava said. “Open your eyes. A housewarming present. You very own machete, which every good islander needs. Trust me.”

  “Wow,” I said. I had no words. A six-inch black handle joined a two-foot wicked sharp blade, straight on one side and curved on the other. She handed it to me and I gripped the handle with both hands, holding the business end far away from me.

  “Learn from the master,” she said, brandishing her own machete.

  She crossed the lawn through a stand of trees and headed for the manjack and tan-tan bush my neighbors had come and gone through the day before. She swished the blade through the air and made solid contact on a large manjack. She repeated the move from the opposite direction once, twice, then three times more, and the bush hit the ground. She turned to me. “Just picture the face of someone you really hate, and whack it good. I imagining it the face of whoever cut Guy.”

  She turned back around, ferocious, and attacked the bush. I knew she hadn’t loved Guy, but she had cared about him. He was good enough to her, in his own way, a way that was good enough for Ava. Like trying to get her the TV show. I didn’t like him much, but I mourned for her grief.

  She wheeled back around. Her voice was tight. “I late getting there, you know, and if I been on time, ten minutes earlier, I be dead, too.”

  “My God. I didn’t know.” Out of nowhere, the words came to my lips. “I’d met him, you know. Guy. I sat next to him on a plane. He was very nice. I’m so sorry, Ava.”

  She nodded, then swung the machete at nothing, her body gyrating with the weight of the blade as she sliced it from one side of her to the other. Take that, air. And that. And that. I marveled at her physical strength as she exorcized her demons. Ava was definitely not the talk-out-your-problems kind of woman. But maybe her way of dealing with loss had its merits.

  I hefted my own machete and went after the next bush. Whack. Whack. Whack. Ava stopped and eyed me critically, staying well clear of my blade. I rested, panting loudly. I was probably going to chop off my leg with the damn thing, and the bush looked no worse for my efforts. Ava nodded, then got back to work. I resumed whacking. We fell into a rhythm of sorts, my one chop to each of her three. Five minutes later, the small tan-tan tree—well, large bush—actually fell over. I set the machete down and beamed. I was the soon-to-be butt-kicking goddess of the St. Marcos rainforest, no doubt.

  “Man, you whup that bush’s ass and good, girl,” Ava drawled. Five felled bushes lay behind her.

  “Sure, laugh at me, but it’s all about the baby steps. Woman against forest.”

  We walked back to the house through a stand of tamarind trees with thick trunks tangled with passion fruit vines. Rashidi had told us on our tour that the tennis-ball-sized passion fruits were pulpy and seedy, and had to be boiled and strained before you could eat them. The Peacock Flower had served sweetened passion fruit juice, and it was delicious. I plucked one and stuck it in my left shorts pocket, then added a few tamarind seedpods for good measure. I would try them both later.

  When we got back to the Silverado, Ava said, “Keep that machete under the seat in your truck. Then you a for true island girl. Ready for anything.”

  I shoved the machete under the seat, blade side in, handle toward the passenger side. I didn’t want a handful of ouch the first time I pulled it back out. I stood back up, straightening my pleated shorts. My Gap tee had long since come untucked, and I left it that way, but brushed the bugs and mud off my sweaty legs. What I wouldn’t give for a hose.

  Ava excused herself to the optimal cell reception of the backyard pool, to call the manager of the club where she was singing that night. I heard the sound of heavy wheels turning fast on the gravel road. I pulled my iPhone from my shorts pocket and checked the time. It was 10:30. I frowned. I exited the garage, all set to meet Junior and discuss his tardiness, but saw Rashidi’s red Jeep instead.

  He pulled to a stop, leaned across the interior, and opened his passenger’s side door. Out jumped a large black dog. Then a yellow one. And a brown one. They just kept coming and coming. Rashidi hadn’t just brought the troops, he’d brought an entire cavalry. He was saying something, but I couldn’t hear him over the dogs.

  The pack of yelping mutts milled around me. I hadn’t owned a dog since I was a child, and now I was counting five heads and five tails.

  “My God, Rashidi, did you rob a pet store?” I said. “Why so many? I thought we said three or four?” I crouched down and rubbed the ears of a large yellow lab.

  “A friend of mine moving back to the states, and his dogs need a home. I didn’t want to break them up, and they good dogs. But if they’re too much, we can find other homes for a few of them.”

  Break up a family? “No, no. They should stay together. I can handle them.” I think.

  Rashidi introduced me to each of them, describ
ing their histories and dispositions with familiarity. The alpha male of the group was Cowboy, a freakishly large yellow lab. The lead female was Sheila, a rottweiler mix who didn’t trust men and was skittish around everyone, but Rashidi promised she was sweet on the inside. There was a crotchety old dog named Jake, an awkward cocker spaniel/Dalmatian hybrid. Cockermatian, Rashidi called it. There were also two young females: Karma, a golden retriever, and Laila, a boxer named after Muhammad Ali’s boxing daughter.

  “You sure you all right with them?” he asked.

  “I’m sure. They’ll be great,” I said. They were. Great, and really slobbery. This would take some getting used to. Kind of like bugs in leg sweat and carpets of gungalos. But I had asked for this.

  “Good. Because I got one more surprise for you.”

  This was my day for surprises. Rashidi turned back to his Jeep and opened the driver’s door. He untied something, then made a huffing sound and snapped his fingers. He stood back and I saw that he was holding a leash. He gave it a tug.

  A gorgeous black and tan German shepherd sprang out of the Jeep. He was a puppy, but a big puppy, with alert ears and ginormous paws. He held his head and tail high and trotted toward me in that singularly shepherd prance, a miniature show horse.

  “This here Poco Oso. We going to make him your personal guard dog. A woman traveling about alone on the island need a big dog with her. He nine months old. A beaut’, isn’t he?”

  I was on the ground by then, my hands deep in Poco Oso’s fur. “Oh, Rashidi, he’s perfect. I love him. Thank you. Thank you for all of them.” Oso was sniffing my hair and neck, and I let him take his time imprinting on my scent.

  “Good, so where you go, he go. Get him used to his job. The rest the dogs dem stay here.”

  “You’re awesome, Rashidi.” I meant it.

  “So put in a good word for me with Ava now and then,” he said, his voice softer than before.

  “Oh, Lord, Rashidi, not you, too?” I asked.

  He shrugged and chuptzed himself.

  Ava appeared from around the back of the house. “Good God, where all these wild animals come from?” She waded into their midst and rubbed one head after another. “Ah, I know you guys. These here were John Beillue’s dogs.”

  A line of trucks came barreling up my driveway, as many as there were dogs. Lord have mercy, where would they all park? Junior was in the first truck, his snazzy midnight-blue Silverado again. A short wiry local man exited the passenger side. Junior bounded out to greet me.

  “Ms. Katie, good morning, good morning, and a pleasant good day to you.” Junior’s smile stretched from ear to ear.

  Mine didn’t. I couldn’t even choke out a fake good morning. “I’ve been out here for two hours waiting for you, Junior.”

  “Oh, yeah, I sorry. I call to tell you we late, but no answer.”

  I held up my iPhone. “No messages, no missed calls, and I’m in cell range. Maybe you should check the number you dialed. Or text me. It’s important to me that we can count on each other.” I put on my witness cross-exam face. “Next time, either be here when you tell me, or let me know. Then we’ll be fine.”

  I trusted him less the further his grin spread across his face. “Yah mon, for true, we be fine.” He stuck out his hand and I shook it briefly. “I get the cleaning crew started while this mon look at the ’lectrixity and the plumber see to his business.”

  Not great, but good enough.

  Ava broke in. “We haven’t been introduced.”

  “Sorry,” I said. “Ava, this is Junior. Junior, this is Ava.”

  “Very nice to meet you,” Junior said. His eyes gleamed, of course, as he took Ava in.

  “Pleasure,” Ava said politely.

  It was time for me to leave if I was going to track down Walker before I picked up Emily.

  “I’ll see you later, then, Junior,” I said. Farewells rang out from all sides.

  Ava and I walked to my truck, Rashidi behind us, Oso behind him. Rashidi leaned in the passenger side once Ava and I were seated.

  “Don’t forget your guard dog,” he said.

  Ava opened her door and Oso climbed in. He snuggled down between Ava and me on the bench seat and Rashidi handed Ava his leash. I stroked Oso’s luxurious fur, loving how soft he was.

  “Good boy, Oso,” I said.

  “I stay out here just to keep an eye on t’ings for another hour or so. I see you ladies later.” Rashidi saluted and backed away.

  Oso had already put his head down on the seat. We drove out slowly, honking the rest of the dogs out of the way. I made a right turn out of the dirt driveway onto the gravel road, and we passed the ramshackle wooden shanties in the village of Rasta squatters a few yards down the lane from Annalise. All the times I’d passed it before, the old patriarch and at least a few of his kids or grandkids and their pets were milling about. Today, it was quiet. A woman’s flowered housedress still hung on the line. Plastic Coca-Cola bottles and Cheerios boxes littered the ground and the stink of garbage still hung in the air. But no people, no animals.

  Ava teased, “White lady move into the mansion down the street, and old Rasta man say, ‘There go the neighborhood.’”

  “That was pretty funny, Ava.”

  “Yah mon,” she said. “I funny.”

  Actually, for across-the-street neighbors, I would rather have a shanty village of peaceful Rastas than empty shacks. It was definitely something to keep an eye on.

  Chapter Twenty-nine

  When we pulled up in front of Ava’s nondescript white masonry house, I decided I’d have just enough time to shower before I went to see the investigator if I could get her to pick up the futon. I pulled out a fistful of bills.

  “Ava, could you get someone to run you out to buy a futon? I smell awful, and I only have time to shower if I don’t go to K-Mart.”

  “No problem, mon,” she said, taking the money and getting out of the car.

  I ran into the house and made a sharp right into the shower. She had decorated her blue bathroom with swirls and twirls of seashells glued right to the wall in a Nautilus pattern. The room was so small that I had to stand partway in the shower to blow-dry my hair. I donned a yellow linen sundress. I wanted to feel put together when I saw Walker, and this appointment had me out of sorts. I’d left three voicemail for him the week after the McMillan trial, none of which he’d returned. Then, of course, I’d seen him last night, only to have him pretend he didn’t see me.

  “Jacoby on his way to get me,” Ava said as I left.

  “Thanks,” I yelled as I ran out the door.

  I cruised past the farmer’s market downtown, where for half a block, islanders displayed their wares in wooden bins under thatch-roofed huts. Big green breadfruit. Ovals of avocados. Bunches of tiny babyfinger bananas and their larger cousins, the starchy plantains. I couldn’t wait to do my shopping there. A round-bellied black woman sat in a rocker on the sidewalk, legs splayed, fanning herself with a paper plate as a handful of customers milled around between the bins.

  I found a parking place on King’s Cross street about a half block from Walker’s office. As I pulled into the spot, a paw reached out and pushed on my thigh. Oso used my leg as leverage for his stretch, raising his hindquarters until he was in the perfect downward dog position. I guess I’d learned something in the Peacock Flower’s yoga class, after all.

  I wasn’t used to carting a half-grown dog around town. What was I supposed to do with my new pal? I couldn’t leave him in the truck on our first day together. He’d feel abandoned. I clipped the leash to his collar and tugged.

  “Let’s go, Oso,” I said.

  Oso pulled back against the leash. OK, so he needed some training. No time like the present to start. I tugged again. He shook his head back and forth and chuffed. I looked at the clock on the dashboard. Emily would arrive in one hour. I had to hurry.

  I approached Oso through the passenger’s side door and scooped the sixty-five-pound dog into my arms. Whoa, s
ome puppy. I hefted his front legs over one shoulder to take some of his weight, then I slung his leash and my purse strap over the other shoulder. I’d just put him down when we got to Walker’s place. I shut the door with my hip and started down the street, then caught a glimpse of myself in a window. I was a red-haired version of a 1950s movie star, and Oso was the giant beaver stole over my outfit. Pretty ridiculous. I couldn’t do this again or I’d have escaped my crazy cat lady reputation in Dallas only to become the crazy dog lady on St. Marcos.

  Walker’s office was only four doors down from my primo parking space, which was good, because I don’t think I could have dragged Oso any further. I didn’t have to go even that far, though, because Walker was leaving his office and locking his door behind him as I approached. I’d passed a law firm and a surf shop before Walked turned and saw me. He grunted.

  “Mr. Walker, good afternoon,” I said. Oso squirmed.

  “I’m on my way out,” he said.

  “I can see that. Would you mind if I just walked with you for a moment?” I looked at the dog. “Oso, be still.”

  “Actually, yes, I do mind. I’m not ready to discuss your case with you, and I don’t hold private client conferences in public.”

  We were the only two people within one hundred yards in either direction, but I decided not to debate the relative public-versus-private aspects of conversing with me here. Oso decided he wanted down right that second, and he made it happen. Okay, then. I caught the end of his leash and wound it around my hand twice.

  “When will you be ready to update me, Mr. Walker?” At this point, I just wanted a report, and to be done with him. Then I could regroup.

  Oso lunged toward Walker and growled, nearly pulling my shoulder out of socket. I didn’t mind at all. Rashidi might be right about this dog escort business. Oso’s instincts were spot on. I didn’t like Walker much, either.