Author: Christina Dodd
Category: Thriller
Go to read content：https://onlinereadfreenovel.com/christina-dodd/page,14,485077-strangers_she_knows.html
“I promise.” But Rae was disappointed—and for the first time, she had second thoughts. As paranoid as her mom was, Rae knew it was because she loved her. Maybe she shouldn’t have promised not to tell about Miranda.
Before she could ask if she could cancel her promise, Miranda teased, “Besides, we’re not really seeing each other, are we?” and smiled so brightly her teeth glinted.
“I said I wouldn’t say anything.” Rae glanced at her watch and gasped. “I have to get home.”
“Sure, you’d better hurry. What are you doing tonight?”
“Mama and I are reading more of Ruby Morgade’s diary. I’ll see you tomorrow!”
* * *
Mara watched Rae ride away, peddling hard up the hill, and smiled. She’d been hoping to catch the kid and have a little talk, gather some information and sow some dissension. That couldn’t have gone any better.
Now if only sweet little Rae could keep her mouth shut…
Probably not, so Mara had to work quickly.
21
That evening, Rae was affectionate and Kellen was apologetic. The breach was healed and, except for the F-100, all was once again right with the world.
Then, after breakfast the next morning, Olympia followed Max out of the dining room and into his office.
Max was cheerful when he asked, “What’s up?”
“I’m leaving.”
Max blinked at her in surprise. He knew she wasn’t happy here but—he didn’t think she was happy anywhere. “You signed a contract.” Stupid response, not helpful, because of course he couldn’t trap her on the island. “The contract stated that if you leave before September and while we still require your services, you lose all the bonus promised at the end, and that is a considerable amount.”
Kellen had followed Olympia to the library, but stopped in the doorway.
Olympia stood in the middle of the carpet in the middle of the office, straight and stiff, and he realized she no longer looked like the Olympia Paolergio he’d hired. She was… disheveled. But she sounded like herself—flat, firm and unemotional. “I’m quitting.”
Max met his wife’s gaze.
She grimaced and gestured at him to continue.
He leaned forward, set his elbows on the table, put a warm understanding in his voice and in his eyes. “Olympia, please sit down.”
She crossed her arms over her chest, shutting him out. “I don’t want to sit down. I want to leave.”
So warmth and understanding weren’t going to work. “I did warn you about the isolation and the difficulties in living here. You said you could handle them.”
“I’m quitting.” When Max would have made another objection, Olympia slashed the air with her hand. “You didn’t tell me I’d be receiving my cooking supplies from an alcoholic drug addict. You didn’t say there would be winds sweeping across the island that make the house creak, or the walls would sing in languages I don’t recognize.” She whispered, “The Frog God. All my life, I’ve heard of the Frog God. The Native Americans talk about him, about his powers. He crushed Kateri Kwinault and brought her back to life, and now—” Olympia’s voice rose “—I’ve heard him in the waves thrashing against the sand.”
Kellen put her hand over her eyes. Olympia Paolergio had slipped a gear.
Max almost stammered as he tried to think what to say. “The Frog God is pretty much a Native American icon from the coast up around—”
Olympia focused on him once again. “You didn’t say that a woman down the hill hates everyone so much she won’t even speak to me except to complain that you’re rebuilding a truck. A truck! Like that matters to me!”
So Jamie had complained to Olympia about the F-100. At least she was consistent.
Olympia was almost spitting out her complaints now. “You didn’t tell me your family would spend all your time outside, running and biking and—” For a long moment, Olympia appeared to have trouble speaking. Then the words caught up with her. “And leaving me in the house to battle rats who…who steal food from the pantry and scurry away into corners and disappear.”
Obviously, Olympia had to go. But Max stalled for time. “Will you give us notice? A week? Two?”
“You didn’t tell me ghosts from the old times would dance in the moonlight in the ballroom.”
Kellen took her hands away from her eyes and mouthed, Wow, to Max.
Olympia’s eyes drifted, unfocused. “Do you hear the music at night? Do you find the vinyl records spinning out the old songs and wonder what could have set the needle on them for a last time?”
Max rose. “I have not heard that.”
“Underneath I hear the growl of men’s voices, soldiers who took the island and then left it—and died. They all came back here, you know. They’re alive here.” Olympia was rambling. “All those poor boys. Dead and yet tied here. Not gone. Not yet.”
Kellen signaled Max with wide eyes and a shake of her head.
Max walked around the desk and took Olympia’s arm. “Let me prep the helicopter for flight and tell the Di Lucas in Bella Terra I’ll be coming in to their airport. Are you packed?”
Olympia snapped back into her usual brisk mode. “I am packed. Your lunch has been made and is in the refrigerator—sandwiches, a vegetable plate with appropriate dips and a refrigerator cake. I made bread. It’s in the freezer. The ham is sliced, separated, vacuum-sealed and frozen in servings appropriate for the three of you. Each container of soup is marked and holds four servings—Rae is eating like a stevedore. I have not left you to go hungry!”
Kellen stepped forward. “Olympia, that’s wonderful. Thank you so much for your service, and I hope when you reach the mainland, you’ll no longer be haunted by the ghosts of the past.”
“Puleaze. I’m not haunted, I just…” Olympia lifted her chin. “I don’t like living in an old house where unhappiness walks the halls.” She said it as if that made total sense.
Kellen nodded as if she understood.
Max said, “Then we can go.”
“Right now,” Olympia answered.
* * *
When Max and Olympia were out of the house, Rae sneaked around from the corner where she’d been hiding and grabbed Kellen in a tight hug. “Mommy, are we going to starve to death?”
Kellen chuckled. “No, dear, it sounds as if Olympia left us with plenty of food prepared.”
“But I’m eating like a stevedore.”
“Do you know what a stevedore is?”
“No. What?”
Kellen didn’t say anything.
Rae sighed in disgust. “I’ll look it up. In the dictionary.” She made it sound like a dirty word. “But when the food runs out, then what? Daddy can barely make a PB and J and you can’t cook.”
Stung, Kellen said, “I can. I can Army cook. I can open cans.”
“I hate tuna fish.”
Kellen smoothed Rae’s bangs off her forehead and thought she needed them trimmed, and knew she couldn’t do it. She would never trust herself with scissors so close to Rae’s eyes. “I know.”
“And your hand is better, but you can’t use a knife. That’s final.”
The kid could be bossy. “This probably changes our plans, but not right away. We’ll talk when Daddy gets back, figure out our next move.”
“Maybe go home?”
“To Yearning Sands? Do you want to?”
Rae squirmed. “Yes. No. I don’t know. I like it here.”
“I like it here, too.”
“But I miss it there.”
“I miss it, too.”
They heard the helicopter hum, and walked to the window to watch the R44 rise off the ground and zoom toward the mainland.
Rae slipped her hand into Kellen’s. “It’s scarier out here without Daddy.”
“Yes. But even with a bad hand, I can
protect you,” Kellen promised. “I’m a heck of a fighter.”
“I’m learning, too!” Although Rae hated boxing lessons as much as Kellen hated piano lessons. “I didn’t mean we’d have to fight anyone. I just meant it felt lonelier.” Rae hesitated, looked at Kellen, looked out the window, looked at Kellen. “There’s something I wish I could…”
Kellen waited, wanting her to confide whatever was bothering her.
But Rae sighed and looked around as if lost.
“You can tell me anything,” Kellen encouraged.
“I know. Maybe. I shouldn’t because I…” Rae visibly struggled again with some issue, then brightened. “While Daddy’s gone, let’s read more of Ruby’s diary.”
Kellen understood, Ruby’s youth and life spoke to Rae, and her resilience taught good life lessons. “Let’s do that.”
“Up in the attic!”
“You like it up there, don’t you?”
“It’s safe up there. Away from…all the problems.”
“Do you have so many?” What was Rae keeping from them?
“No… No.” Rae headed for the stairs. “Let’s go. You read first.”
22
Father did it. He did it. He demanded General Tempe transfer Patrick, and the general did it. I didn’t know until Patrick was gone. I went to the general and demanded to know why, and he said he had daughters and he understood my father’s love and concern. General Tempe seemed surprised when I laughed in scorn. I demanded to know where Patrick was. The general said he couldn’t tell me, but I was very young and Patrick was only my first love. There would be many more. I wanted to curse at him, and with great dignity, I declared I would never love another. I asked, rather cruelly, if he had found another to replace his beloved wife. He stirred uncomfortably then, said Patrick will probably survive the war and if it’s meant to be, we’ll be together. I wanted to pound him with my fists, to spit at him for his smug assurances. I didn’t, but my emotions, now released by love, hover close to the surface. As I turned away, he asked me if I spoke Japanese. I said yes, and that was the end of our conversation. I hope to never see the wretched villain again.
Patrick and I made promises to each other, promises we will always keep. But we never even got to say goodbye.
“It’s important to keep your promises, isn’t it?” Rae sat in the window seat, Luna’s head on her knee. She petted her dog and stared intently at Kellen.
Kellen picked her words carefully. “It is, as long as the promise was made freely and you know what you promised won’t harm anyone.”
Rae nodded. “Okay. I agree.” She leaned forward. “What happened to Ruby next?”
Today I got a letter! From Patrick! He writes me that he loves me, and that the transfer caught him completely by surprise and he begs my pardon for his abrupt departure. As if he was at fault! He says he can’t tell me where he is, but rather than fighting, the military has him writing dispatches from the front to be read by the public to reinforce civilian morale. He is allowed no byline, but it doesn’t matter—I hear his voice in his writing! I scoured the newspapers and found a story (in Father’s own paper!) and I knew it was his. He’s in Hawaii about to board a ship to the South Pacific. His descriptions of the port and the military roar and bustle raised hope in my heart that America will quickly win this war. Then he’ll be home and we’ll be together. What an inspiration my darling has become, to me and to others!
Father came home to announce I would marry a man named Alfred Herbert. I met him years ago; he is a crony of my father’s, an old newspaperman who tried to run his lewd hands over me when I was twelve. When Father announced I would marry Alfred, I told Father about the disgusting incident, and that Bessie said he did the same thing to her. Father said if I was willing to let a filthy Irish Catholic grope me without the benefit of matrimony, it should be a refreshing change to have a husband handle the goods.
That was so crude and so cruel, I ran to throw up. I told Hermione to pack, we were leaving, but Hermione told me we couldn’t go. We have no money, she said, and she said I didn’t understand what that meant. I’m clearly half-Japanese; I would be hunted down and interned in a camp, and the camps are dreadful places. With no family, I would be hurt, raped. She was very blunt, and she frightened me very much.
We spoke through the night, and at some point we resolved to appeal to Bessie to take me in. In the meantime, I must stay out of Father’s clutches. Mad as it seems, we moved my belongings up to the attic. It’s a bedroom tower, fanciful in its way, with a bathroom and door that locks. Because we know my father, we also transported many foodstuffs up the stairs. We did all this before dawn. Hermione went back down to her room, and I locked myself in. Now I wait to see what Father will do when he receives my letter. Rage, I imagine.
“Ruby’s tough, isn’t she?” Rae’s eyes were wide and her voice held awe.
“She is.” Kellen patted the couch cushion beside her.
Rae hopped off the window seat, came to sit with her mother, and leaned her head against Kellen’s shoulder. “Ruby’s going to make it, isn’t she? She’s going to be okay?”
“I hope so, but I don’t know. We could keep reading—” Kellen heard the chopping sound of a helicopter. “No, we couldn’t. Your daddy’s home. He’s going to be mad that we read Ruby’s diary without him.”
“No. Yes. You’re right.” Rae was all despair.
“Your daddy’s back, safe and sound. Let’s talk to him first, see what he has to tell us, then we can tell him about Ruby.”
“Okay. He’ll understand.”
“Probably.” Kellen stood and hauled Rae to her feet. “He’s a pretty great guy.”
23
Max arrived carrying an extra-large chicken and pesto pizza, ready for the oven, a six-pack of beer and a six-pack of Coke, and an assortment of gelato in a freeze pack. He stashed the gelato in the freezer, distributed the drinks and turned on the oven.
He knew how to make himself welcome. “The great thing is,” he said, “with Olympia gone we can eat at the kitchen table.” Instead of the large, echoing dining room.
Max also brought a flashlight headband, an LED mat light, a telescoping lighted inspection mirror, an LED floodlight…
Kellen looked up from the bag he had placed on the table and raised her eyebrows.
“The carburetor kit is full of really small parts, and I need light in that garage.”
She removed a new roll of electrical tape, a big box of knuckle bandages, a solar crank emergency radio and a multimeter to check for hot wires. “What did you do? Stop at an auto parts store and go through it like a whirlwind?”
Without a bit of irony, he said, “I was like a kid in a candy store.”
Rae pulled out an electric screwdriver and turned it on. Eyes shining, she said, “Daddy, we’re going to get that truck running.”
“Yes, we are.” He grinned blissfully. “Check out the coffee maker I bought.”
Kellen pulled it out. “It’s pretty small, but I suppose it’ll work for the garage.”
Max started cutting lettuce to make a salad. “Um, I thought we’d take the big coffee maker from in here and—”
Kellen started laughing.
He waited until she finished before saying with dignity, “I need caffeine way worse out there. You shouldn’t snicker, because I brought you a present, too.” Leaning over, he reached into the bottom of the bag and pulled out a pair of pink padded hand wraps to protect Kellen’s knuckles while she pounded the mattress.
She pounced on them. “Thank you! You really know how to make a woman happy.”
“I’ll do that later,” he promised.
Rae sighed loudly and rolled her eyes. “I hate when you use that warm gushy voice to Mommy. It’s gross.”
While the pizza baked, Rae set the table. Kellen fed Luna, and Max told them he’d contacted his cous
in and explained the situation with Olympia. When they landed, Rafe had been waiting for them. He offered Olympia a cruise across the Northern Atlantic that would keep her occupied.
In dire tones, she had said, “I knew something suspicious was going on,” and accepted.
At that point in the story, Rae slapped a fork by Kellen’s plate and asked, “You saw Cousin Rafe? What about my grandma? Did you see her?”
Max looked alarmed, as if he’d realized he’d put his foot in it. “You know she’s in Italy.”
“We were supposed to be in Italy, too,” Rae retorted. “We aren’t!”
“I promise you, she really is,” Max assured her.
“Did she send me a message by Cousin Rafe?” Rae begged.
“No, honey, she didn’t.”
“Why didn’t you call Grandma?”
“It would have been the middle of the night.”
The frustration Rae had expressed in the first days at Isla Paraíso made a whopping return. “Am I dead here? Has everyone forgotten me? Why can’t I talk to anyone? I want to go home. I want to go home!”
“Where’s home?” Max asked.
Kellen clenched her fists. No, Max.
Frustrated, Rae huffed like a steam train. “Where I can talk to my friends! And my grandma!”
Kellen brought the balsamic vinegar and olive oil out of the pantry and handed them to Max. Gripping his wrist, she looked into his eyes. “Did you hear about Verona? Is she—” safe was the wrong word to use “—having a good time?”
“She is.”
Kellen released him.
“She’s with Irene and Annabella, in the old family village where everybody knows everybody and all strangers are kept under careful observation.” Max made the dressing and tossed it with the salad. “Don’t worry, Rae, I’m sure Grandma is fine, and missing you, too.”