The Weeping Buddha

by Heather Dune Macadam

  “You’re very smart,” Devon agreed with her.

  “You liked the koans, huh? Those were for you. I knew you wouldn’t be able to figure them out right away. But Gabe hoped that Heron kid would get you involved—too bad he didn’t get to see it.” She snickered to herself. “That’s the problem working in an uncontrolled environment like the East River—here we control everything.”

  “Beka gave me the answer to her koan.”

  “How could she?” Aileen was around.

  Devon could see how it had happened now, and let the camera in her mind play through the events that had led up to Beka’s death.Aileen had shown up dressed in Crime Scene gear and told her Devon was working, then playfully, in all her enormous friendliness, handed them the bottle of bourbon. “To Todd,” she had toasted, thereby drugging Beka and Gabe. They had hung out, drinking bourbon. Maybe Aileen had told Beka she had information from Detective Freesia about Todd. Maybe something in her manner had made Gabe suspicious, so he took her aside to find out the game plan. That was when Beka called Devon and left her message. What had happened then? How much did she know before she died? Had she walked in on Gabe and Aileen arguing? Somehow she had found out about the boys in the pond after her call to Devon and before she died.

  As Beka felt the effects of the drug, Gabe must have become aware that Aileen had also drugged him. That would explain why he was attacked. And while Aileen was killing him, Beka had struggled to get outside, hoping to escape or at least signal some passing car on the road. But it was winter in the Hamptons and no one was driving past the estate, and the drug had weakened her heart—the exertion was too much. She collapsed in the mud, probably slipping into a coma as Aileen slit her wrists, informing her that it was going to look like she was responsible for not only Todd’s disappearance, but for Gabe and Edilio’s murders as well.

  Beka had died knowing that Devon would find her and that it would appear that she were the murderer. But Beka had been heading up the hill toward the barn … toward the pond, when she was stopped. Her last efforts had not been to save her life, but to aim herself in the direction of much greater crimes. Only Beka Imamura would have had the ability to control her body despite the spasms of death. Her last dance had been her arms clasped over her head like Shiva pointing the way—if only Devon had recognized it sooner.

  She inhaled again, considering her questions carefully. The dumber and more drugged she acted, the more chance she had of surviving. “Leenie,” she used Aileen’s nickname to keep a sense of familiarity between them, “why would you kill Beka because of Todd?”

  “The Daniels started it all with their damn golf course!” Devon didn’t answer. “Gabe was going to leave me and the boys behind! And all of that land was going to go for more people, more developers, more golfers! They were talking about leveling the woods all the way down to Trout Pond. The run-off from chemical fertilizers alone would poison the underwater springs. That used to be our swimming hole! Remember how we used to go there every day, all summer long? Do you want another damn golf course poisoning our swimming hole?”

  “Of course not, but I don’t want to be dead either.”

  “That can’t be helped.” Aileen had chewed at her lip until it was red and raw. “With all of you dead, the estate becomes a wildlife refuge and no one ever finds out what’s in it. There’re too many people in the world, and they’re out here every summer!”

  Devon had to agree, but said nothing; Aileen sounded a little too much like Ted Bundy for her own comfort.

  Aileen had stopped thinking in an organized manner and like all compulsive killers had let her appetites get away from her. “It’s the only way to make it work. Beka told me she’d rather die than see it developed. And she would have killed him if she’d found out what he was really doing for art. I just helped matters along. I understood what he was after—you have to make sacrifices for art. Murder isn’t so hard once you get the hang of it—no different than gutting fish, really. Remember how we used to gut fish? And Gabe and I had a real partnership—better than any marriage.” She was nodding her head convincingly.

  “But he betrayed you.”

  “No,” Aileen disagreed, “I betrayed him.”

  Devon was finding it hard to breathe. Her eyes became parched as the impulse to blink slowed. She was not going to die here. She felt Boo licking her hand, her fingers, her wrist.

  “Come on, Boo! Want to go for a ride in the car?”

  He looked at Aileen but did not budge. He nosed Devon’s hand.

  “I would have proved Beka was innocent with or without your help, Aileen. But now you’ve made it easy. Katiti’s not dead.”

  “That bitch. She should have paid me on time!” She edged nearer to Devon.

  “And you’ve confessed.”

  “I’m going to disappear. I’ve been making others disappear for years, don’t you think I know how?”

  Keep her focused on reality, carving up a one-time friend is more difficult than an acquaintance, Devon reminded herself. But in case that didn’t work, Devon thought she should continue trying to short out the circuits in Aileen’s brain. “What’s my koan, Aileen?”

  “In honor of Boo, I was thinking about Chao Chou’s Mu.” Aileen stepped toward her threateningly. “Come on, Boo, let’s go for a walk.”

  Boo did not fall for that old trick, though, Aileen could have said cookie and he would not have left his mistress’ side. He pressed his cold nose deeper into Devon’s forearm, nudging her arm with his nose as if he were trying to help her hand reach the gun snug in her belt holster. She knew that any quick action might send her into cardiac shock, and yet she had to do something, and the more Boo moved her arm the better the circulation became.

  The moment was crystalline—synchronistic with Boo’s cold nose on her flesh and the cold butt of her gun touching her hand. It came clearly, like the monk getting out of the tree to show her which way to go—like Beka dying, while making sure that Devon got the message, running outside to show Devon the way. In the end, Beka must have finally known that the answer to Todd’s disappearance was in the pond—Daniels’ Hole.

  Hans always said that when enlightenment came it was so heightened and pure that it carried one above the situation at hand and beyond the realm of the body. She was instantly aware of her connection to all things animate and inanimate, sane and insane, and saw how each was distinctly a part of her being, just as she was a part of all beings. Some conscious part of her knew what Aileen would do next, and in response Devon lengthened her arm down the side of her body.

  “Chao Chou’s Mu asks if a dog has Buddha nature,” she reminded Aileen, “and I already know the answer.”

  Aileen hesitated, looking confused and bewildered, as if the koan baffled her rather than Devon. “You can’t.”

  “I can. Boo told me.” Devon’s hand pulled her gun out of its holster in one deft movement. Aileen’s arm swept upward as she lunged forward. The gun fired, but only lobbed Aileen’s shoulder. Under normal circumstances, Devon would have hit her square in the chest, but her reflexes were off.

  “How could you? You were my friend!” Aileen grabbed her arm in dismay.

  “Were being the operative word …” Devon’s heart throbbed against her chest until all she could hear was its booming between her ears. Aileen rushed at her again, the knife plunging in a downward arc through the air. Devon adjusted the sightline for her discrepancy of vision and pulled the trigger once more.

  She fell into darkness, reaching for the phone that had fallen out of Aileen’s hand, or was it the remote? Pressing numbers that looked like 911, she prayed she hadn’t just changed the channel on the TV.She was not even sure if it was her voice yelling, “Officer down! Officer down!”

  “Don’t move.” Lochwood’s voice was soft and around.

  Devon blinked and tried to focus her eyes, but his face was still blurry.

  “You had a minor heart attack.”

  She was disoriented and her throat wa
s sore from where they must have placed oxygen tubes while she was unconscious. She must have been unconscious. She tried to sit up but Loch gently forced her back down.

  “You’re in Southampton Hospital. Detective Freesia heard shots as she came up the driveway and found you clinging to the phone.The 911 operator thought your call was a hoax and hung up on you.Freesia administered CPR until the ambulance arrived. They had a little trouble subduing Boo. He liked Freesia but wouldn’t let EMT get near you.”

  Devon tried to look for her dog. Lochwood pointed to the corner of the room, where she could just make out the blur of spotted light that was Boo fast asleep on the floor. “He’s just a little tired.”

  “He saved my life.” There was a darker shape behind him. “Hans?”

  “Yes.”

  She tried to smile but wasn’t sure if her facial muscles were smiling or grimacing. “I got my koan.”

  “When you least expected it.”

  “I think I’m figuring out this koan thing, myself.” Loch’s face was starting to smooth around the edges so she could see the worry and puzzlement in his eyes.

  “Murder is a koan.” Hans folded his hands and bowed toward Devon.

  Loch nodded. “I was on my way to your house when I heard the police band for shots fired in Sag Harbor.”

  “Enlightenment comes in a flash.” Hans’s voice was soft.

  “Of gunpowder,” Loch added. “Josh said that Godwyn told him he had planned to meet you in the back of Hans’s house. So I looked at his statement a little more carefully, despite the evidence, because quite frankly, Josh does not seem like the murdering type. Then you called about Aileen going to Katiti’s. I was sure it was Katiti.”

  “Is she alright?”

  “Just barely, but she will live to bitch again. We went over our timeline and figured that either Maddie or Aileen could have put on Josh’s shoes and gone out back to Godwyn. I started thinking about your cellphone batteries, and how they ran out. And your beeper disappearing.” She nodded. “And Aileen’s the only one who knew you were going to Gabe’s studio that night, because I told her.”

  “She was withholding my messages, too. I think Beka tried to call me and I never knew.”

  “Beka wanted to make up,” Hans assured Devon.

  Her heart ached. “She got out of the tree to show us the way, Hans. That was her answer to the koan.”

  “Mu,” the monk sighed heavily, the sound reverberating out of his chest and into the room. “There is the Weeping Buddha, but also there is the Laughing Buddha. Do not spend all your life being crushed by fate.” Hans bowed to her and smiled. “I’ll go get your parents now.” He shuffled out of the room, leaving them alone.

  Loch squeezed her hand, pressing his face against her knuckles.

  “Have you found him yet?”

  “Not yet, but we will. We’re dredging the pond now. They’ve found some bones, and two skulls—we’re running dentals.”

  “I’m missing the fun part.” She tried to smile again but failed. “Poor Leenie. She was really good with dogs.”

  “She just didn’t like people a whole lot.” He had almost gotten her to crack a real smile, but laughing was too painful. “You’re going to need to find a new pet-sitter, but I think I found someone with the right kind of credentials,” he said softly.

  “Already? Who?”

  He took her hand in his, turned it upwards, and kissed the heart of her palm. “Me.”