Dangerous Depths (20 page)

Leia ran to Bane. “Are you okay?”

He was shaking his head as if to clear it. “Only my pride is hurt.”

He started to go toward the back door, but she held him back. “It’s useless in the dark. We already found that out. We need to call the police again.” She called to the dog, then stepped to her grand-mother’s doorway and peeked inside.
Tûtû
sat up and looked at her with a vacant stare, then fell back against the pillow and rolled over. Her eyes closed, and her breathing evened out.

“At least she’s okay,” Bane said. “The guy must have sneaked back around while we were outside. He’s after something.”

“It has to be the treasure. That’s the only thing that makes sense.” She went to phone the police. Her grandmother knew something. If only Leia could figure out what it was.

Sixteen

E
very muscle in Bane’s
body ached this morning. After dancing, traipsing through the woods, and then colliding with the intruder, as well as getting no sleep, he felt wasted. The police hadn’t left until about an hour ago. He splashed cold water on his face, then swiped it with a towel and went out into the hallway. Rounding the corner, he collided with Leia. Ajax got up from the floor by the door to greet him.

“Sorry,” Leia said. Her gaze searched his face. “You look exhausted.”

“I could use some coffee.”

“I just put it on.”

He sniffed. “I could eat a horse.” He glanced at Hina, who was winding her body through his legs. “Or a cat.” Her purr was loud enough to be a chain saw.

“
Tûtû
is making taro hash browns and eggs.”

“How is she this morning?” Hina’s tongue felt like wet sandpaper. He slid his toes out of her reach.

“Still bright. She said she’d take us to the treasure after breakfast.”

He knew better than to let himself believe it, but the muscles in his stomach tightened anyway. “I wonder if I should call Ron.”

“I wouldn’t do that yet. Let’s see if there’s anything to her claim. I’d hate to humiliate her.”

He had started to pull out his cell phone, but he put it back. “Yeah, okay. I wasn’t thinking about that.”

“She has so little dignity left.”

He examined her face. “You look beat too.”

“I’m a little tired.
Tûtû
is the only lively one.” Her smile held a trace of wistfulness. “She’ll likely outwalk us both. Let’s see what she knows.” He untangled his feet from Hina, then touched Leia’s arm, and she went before him down the hall to the kitchen.

She sniffed. “That smells wonderful,
Tûtû
. We’re hungry.”

“
Aloha kakah’aka
,” she said in the traditional morning greeting. “Sit down, eat.” Ipo bustled toward them with a huge white apron wrapped around her. The ties went around her twice, and she’d tied them in the front. She plunked down the plates of food.

Bane pulled the chair out for Ipo. “Sit down,
Tûtû
. You’ve worked hard all morning.”

“You take care of yourself, and let me handle breakfast.” Ipo went to the refrigerator and took out a pitcher of juice. She poured it into three mismatched glasses and placed them on the table before finally sitting down.

Bane sipped the strawberry-guava nectar. “Um, good.” He took a big gulp of the sweet juice. He could drink a gallon of the stuff. “So where are we going today?”

She gave him a pained look. “You shall see. But not until after breakfast.”

“Playing hard to get, huh?” He winked at Leia, who returned his smile. She still looked a little wan. Her eyes were red, and he wondered if she’d been crying. But that didn’t make sense. Unless her grandmother had been mean to her again. He knew it was a symptom of Ipo’s illness that her sweet nature sometimes turned on a dime, and she forgot how much she loved her family, but it was wear-ing. He shot Leia a questioning look, but she turned her head away.

“I shall take you only,” Ipo announced. “I told Leia she must stay here. I cannot trust the treasure to a
haole
.” She turned a smile toward her granddaughter. “I don’t wish to hurt you,
keiki
, but I must be careful about this and think clearly.”

So that was the reason for Leia’s turned-down mouth. “Leia must come too,” he said firmly. “She is your kin. Koma was going to show her. He trusted her to pass it on to future generations.”

Ipo hesitated. “I had forgotten,” she murmured. “Perhaps it will be acceptable.”

“You can trust me,
Tûtû
,” Leia said. “I want only to help you.” She leaned forward and put her hand over her grandmother’s. “Think,
Tûtû
, and you will remember how close we have been.”

Ipo patted it with her other hand. “I know I am sometimes hard on you, Leia. You may go with us.” She said the words as a queen bestowing a boon on a subject.

“Thank you,
Tûtû
.” Leia’s eyes grew luminous, and she sniffed and bent her head. Picking up the serving spoon, she began to ladle food onto her plate.

Bane decided not to say anything else about it in case Ipo changed her mind again. “You slept through all the commotion last night.” Leia’s head came up, and she gave it a slight shake. He sent her a quizzical look. In his opinion, Ipo needed to know about the danger so she could be on her guard. “An intruder was in the house.”

Ipo’s fork paused halfway to her open mouth. She closed her mouth and put down her food. “Intruder? Did you catch him?”

“Nope, he was too wily for me. But your granddaughter thumped him with your son’s bat. You should have heard her war cry.” He grinned at the way Leia ducked her head and blushed. The high color in her face made her blue eyes even brighter.

Ipo straightened in her chair. “In my day, I would have chased off any intruder who dared to come here. Now I must depend on the kindness of others.” She took a bite of food and looked away.

The old woman was proud. Bane didn’t know how to answer her, so he finished his breakfast in silence. He carried his plate to the sink, then squirted a drop of dish soap into his plate and washed up his utensils.

“How domestic,” Leia said, elbowing him aside.

“Now aren’t you sorry you broke my heart?” He grinned and put his dishes in the drainer, then leaned back against the counter.

“I might have had second thoughts if I’d realized I’d have a live-in maid.”

He was close enough to study the pink lobes of her ears that peeked out from the upswept sides of her hair. He leaned forward and whispered in those cute ears. “I have unplumbed depths of talents. You should reconsider.”

His all-out assault had the desired result: a tide of color swept up her neck and cheeks. She turned and faced him. “I don’t want to talk about it.”

His smile faded. “I think we should talk about it. Pray about it together.”

“I told you, we’re not right for each other.”

“But you haven’t told me why.” If he had a reason, maybe he could help her deal with it.

She looked away. “That’s not important.”

He struggled to keep his voice even. Losing his temper wouldn’t help. “It is to me.”

She looked over his shoulder. “
Tûtû
, are you ready to go?”

“Let me get my walking stick.” Ipo moved toward the hallway.

“This discussion isn’t over,” Bane whispered to Leia. Leia ignored him as she followed her grandmother. He sighed and went after the women. Ajax followed him.

L
eia wished she hadn’t made a vow never to cry again, because the release of tears would be welcome about now. She knew she was reacting to the fear and stress of the past twenty-four hours, but Bane’s flirtation with her wasn’t helping matters. She stood in the haven of her room for a few minutes and clutched Kanda, the stuffed bear Bane had given her for her last birthday, to her chest for comfort. If only she could go back to that time, back to before she knew there was no future.

She reluctantly put down her bear and joined the others at the door. Pua came squawking to meet them when they stepped outside into the yard. She rubbed the goose’s head and fed her a handful of berries
she’d filched from her grandmother’s refrigerator. Pua honked in appreciation and gobbled up the treat. Ajax kept a safe distance.

“Get out of here, Pua, you’ve had enough.” Her grandmother shooed the
nene
away. Pua honked in protest but waddled away toward the backyard.

“Where are we going,
Tûtû
?” Leia fell in behind her grand-mother, who walked slowly with her hand on Bane’s arm.

“To the fishpond.”
Tûtû
marched forward as though she knew exactly where she was going.

Leia almost stopped. There were no fishponds in this area. Bane glanced over his shoulder, and she saw the same awareness in his face. He gave a shrug and kept walking. Her earlier hope began to fade. She’d thought her grandmother was clearheaded today, but now she wasn’t so sure. Bane jerked his head slightly as though to urge her forward. She sighed and stepped out after them. It was going to be a wild-goose chase, so they should take Pua along.

She batted a large frond from a fern out of her face. An irate insect buzzed out. Leia swatted it away and plodded after Bane and Ipo. How far could her grandmother go in this jungle? It was slow-going with Bane taking care to help the older woman over rough ground and fallen trees. It was hotter here with the trees blocking out the trade winds and the moisture rising from the plants in an early morning mist. The humidity caused jungle scents to be more pronounced: the heavy fragrance of the red ginger that grew here in profusion and the light scent of lime that hung from the shrubs that snatched at her shorts as she passed.

Ipo paused and looked around. Her confused frown cleared, and she pointed at two monkeypods whose branches were growing together, leaving an arch underneath. “I remember this—it’s through here, I’m sure. Koma called it the wedding arch.” Her grandmother sounded almost girlish.

For the first time, Leia wondered if her grandmother had feelings for Koma. She’d been morose and irritable since his murder. Of course, she was that way sometimes anyway. But Koma and Ipo had been friends a long time, probably sixty years or more. Leia looked at her grandmother with new compassion.

Ipo was walking with more spryness now, leaving the security of Bane’s arm in her eagerness to get to her destination. Bane jogged to catch her. “Don’t try to go by yourself,
Tûtû
. I don’t want you to fall.”

Ipo paused, her breath coming in sharp gasps. “I think I should sit down.” She held out her hand, and Bane guided her to a fallen log and helped her settle onto it.

“Are you all right?” Leia rushed to her grandmother’s side and knelt beside her. The thick canopy of leaves overhead blocked out the light. She suddenly realized there was no sound here. Not even the hum of insects or the call of a mynah bird. The quiet felt eerie, almost sinister. She shivered.

“I’m fine,
keiki
¸ just fine.” Ipo raised her hands and cupped them around Leia’s face. “You’re a good girl, Leia.”

Her real grandmother was back. Leia wanted to bury her face in the folds of Ipo’s skirt and forget the harsh words her grand-mother had lashed her with. If only she could keep her grand-mother just like this, her own sweet self.

Ipo dropped her hands and looked through the arch toward where the forest darkened even more. “We have to go. I hate that place. I’d for-gotten how much I hated it. It’s haunted and evil.” She lowered her voice. “People die there. We must be careful.” Her eyes emptied of light.

Leia sent a silent plea in her gaze to Bane, who stood watching quietly, though she knew there was nothing he could do to prevent this. Even prayer hadn’t been able to hold off the confusion that swirled in and took her grandmother away. She wanted to grab
Tûtû
and shake her until her eyes cleared, to hold on to every moment of lucidity, every crumb of love that still fell her way. If only her grandmother’s disease was something fleshly she could fight, instead of a faceless enemy that kidnapped the grandmother she knew and loved and left this empty shell behind.

Bane seemed to feel her despair, because he put his hand on her shoulder and squeezed. “She’ll be okay again soon.” Ajax pressed against Leia too.

Leia stood and rubbed the dog’s ears. “But for how long?” Her voice was low and raspy. “Each time her lucid moments are shorter. I feel so helpless.”

He didn’t answer right away. “Accepting God’s will sometimes is hard. I think we all struggle with it. Why was Eva born with Down syndrome? Why do babies sometimes die? Why do mothers leave their children? We’re full of questions sometimes. There aren’t any easy answers.” He fell silent again. “Those things shape us and make us who we are. They make us stronger.”

“And less trusting,” she said. She had felt the weight of his suspicion sometimes when they were engaged and knew he wondered if she would leave him without a word. It was another nail in the coffin of their relationship. “God scares me. You never know what he might do.” She put her hand to her mouth, uncertain if she’d actually said the words. From the comprehension on Bane’s face, she knew she had blurted them out. She realized her anger was at the core of the lackluster worship she’d managed lately.

He nodded. “I can understand that. I’ve been like that a time or two in my life. The last time was when we broke up.” He grinned, a sideways smile that didn’t reach his eyes.

“I don’t want to talk about us.” She stood and clasped her hands together to keep them from shaking. “What do we do now that
Tûtû
is obviously not going to lead us to the treasure?”

“We could look around I guess.” He glanced at Ipo, who had begun to sing. Her dull voice echoed in the treetops and reverberated through the clearing. “Come along,
Tûtû
, let’s go for a walk.” He helped her to her feet, and she continued to sing as they walked along the faint path between the trees. “She said something about a fish-pond. Are there any legends of ancient fishponds in this area?”

“I’ve never heard of any. How far are we from the ocean here? The ponds would have to be near the water.”

“Unless they’re so old, the water receded and land filled in.” Still helping Ipo along, Bane studied the jungle. He stopped and cocked his head. “Listen. Is that water?”