Trouble
Laura and I have moved to the dining room and are still talking when Sophie wanders into the kitchen to pour herself a bowl of cereal.
“I missed breakfast with the family, but it sure felt good to sleep in; I won’t be able to do that next week.” She gives us a mischievous grin.
“Why is that?” Laura raises her eyebrows.
“Well,” she draws the word out as if it were a bucket of spring water from a new cistern. “Tomorrow I start my new job as administrative assistant to the head of the dance department at Foothill. Isn’t that great?” She pulls up a second bucket. “And, I get free dance classes. It’s a part-time job so I’ll still have time to help Valerie, but isn’t that great news?”
“Yes!” Thank you, Jesus. If Sophie is busy at school that’s less opportunity for Scott to hound her. We shouldn’t have to live like this.
Laura bites her lip and gives me a look that says mum’s the word on Scott’s latest caper. She gives Sophie’s shoulders a congratulatory hug.
It is Sunday night before I have an opportunity to tell Roger what took place this morning and what Laura told me.
“We have to do something to keep him away. We can’t live like this, never knowing when he’s going to show up or what he’s going to do.”
The effort to stay calm all day has exhausted me. Roger hears me out. He looks like John Wayne, standing pokerfaced, arms folded across his chest. I’m almost waiting for him to say, “Now don’t you worry, little lady,” but that’s not what he says.
“This is serious, Dee. I think we need to talk to Andy. There may be some legal steps we can take.”
“I hate to take his attention away from Valerie when she’s so close to having the baby.”
“Okay then, we could talk to Walter first. If he were willing to get some help for Scott, maybe there would be no need to involve the law.”
“What kind of help?”
“Scott’s got more than one problem, Dee. I don’t think the lying and sneaking around are all drug-related. One minute he’s full of confidence and easy charm and the next minute he’s a completely different person. He’s like a dog that seeks your company and then bites your hand when you offer it. He’s a sad case, that’s for sure.”
“I don’t care about his problems; we need to keep him away. He needs to be locked up.”
“I will make sure the family is protected. Just give me a few days to think this through.”
Like every other time we have come up to this fence, we back away. Valerie and Sophie engage me in elaborate decorating for Halloween. They want tiers of grinning pumpkins flickering warm welcomes to all the tiny travelers they expect on Halloween night. I don’t think the trick-or-treaters will pass us by this year.
Ever since the party, we’ve had children playing in the street in front of our house. They ring the doorbell and ask if Boofus can come out and play. Boofus loves children, so we let him practice his chase games. Poor Petey is beside himself. He’s been poorly trained, so he can’t be off his restraint. Marjorie comes outside when she hears the children and stands in the street with us to watch them play. She tells us stories about her own children, grown up and moved away now. Carlo stands inside the house, glaring out the kitchen window. There seems to have been a changing of the guard at the Santorini house. It’s as if Marj has been holding a deposit of words for a decade. Now she’s ready to pay dividends. Her stories are hilarious.
We eat early on Halloween night and then man our stations. Danny has gone over to the Tanaka’s to pass out candy with Ursula so that Yoshi and Naoko can take Simon through the neighborhood. Danny is dressed like handsome Dr. Kildare and Ursula is, of course, his sexy nurse.
Roger and Andy lurk near the front door dressed like astronauts, scary only because they are both so tall. Andy gets a lot of laughs from the parents. Snakeskin cowboy boots stick out prominently from under his too-short silver suit.
It’s up to us three Mouseketeers to keep the candy flowing. We wear the requisite uniform, turtleneck tee shirts, pleated skirts and mouse ears, but Valerie has printed silly names on the shirts, Soapy, Dinky and Preggers.
When the waves of toddlers begin to trickle off, we remember Marjorie’s warning. Keep the light on and the bowl filled for the teenagers who wait until the little kids are in bed to have their fun. Sure enough, the candynappers get taller, louder, and scarier; monsters and ghouls, ghosts and goblins, snarky witches who sift through the candy bowl trolling for chocolates, and rude jailbirds who rattle their chains at Boofus. Puffy is hiding under our bed, but Boof thinks this is great fun.
Around ten o’clock we’re pretty sure we’ve heard the doorbell ring for the last time. We sit in the living room for a while, trying to come down from a sugar-buzz, comparing notes on the cutest costumes. Simon Tanaka dressed as Rocky the Squirrel gets my vote.
At eleven o’clock, a bright moon travels through a cloudy sky sending fractures of light streaking through the trees. I pull out an extra quilt and spread it on the bed and we sink into our pillows. We are almost asleep when we hear a clamor outside, banging and barking, then a loud crack, then silence.
“Raccoons,” Roger whispers in my ear. And we drop off.
R
This morning we are preparing for a day that will take us each in different directions. Danny has already gone to work. I thought Sophie had left too, but she comes back with the morning paper and a somber look on her face.
“There are cop cars at the Santorini’s. Cops are all over the yard.”
“Why? What happened?” I’m imagining vandalism or burglary.
“I don’t know. I have to go, or I’ll be late for my first day.” She dashes back out the door. Roger and I barely have time to look at each other before the doorbell rings.
We expect it’s the police canvassing the neighborhood for witnesses to whatever happened. I hope Marjorie and Carlo are okay.
“Maybe it’s a medical emergency,” I whisper to Roger.
“I wouldn’t think that would bring the police to our door.” Roger opens the door and Detective Ramos and his partner are standing there. “What’s happened?”
Despite his practiced professional demeanor, the detective looks grim. “That’s what we are trying to determine.”
“Are Carlo and Marj okay?” I flash back to the first moment I saw Fred hanging lifeless in a tree. What do we need to prepare ourselves to see?
“Mr. And Mrs. Santorini are okay. We’d like your permission to search your yard.”
“Sure, go ahead.” Roger starts to follow them, but the detective asks us to stay inside while they complete their investigation. Across the street, I see the neighbors gathering.
Not again. I put a hand on Roger’s arm and draw him back into the house. “Let’s just stay inside until they finish, and then I’m sure they’ll tell us what’s going on.”
We walk into the living room. Andy and Valerie have just come out of their room. We tell them what little we know. We stand at the patio window and watch the unreal unfold. Down by the creek, a team of uniformed policemen are picking through the brush. We can’t hear what they are saying, but one of them has found something behind the grove of fruit trees. He motions to the others and soon one of them is snapping photographs while two others spread yellow tape around the trees.
“What could they possibly have found?” I whisper.
Valerie and I are holding on to each other. Roger and Andy are talking quietly. The doorbell rings. Roger and Andy go and this time Detective Ramos asks if he and his partner can come in. The others are walking down the driveway to meet an ambulance that has just pulled up.
The men stand in the hallway. Valerie and I hang back, listening. The detective moves his eyes from face to face.
“Who is the homeowner here, is it you Mr. Russell?”
“Actually, my wife and I own the home.” Andy steps up. “Ander Ibarra. You were here a few months ago when someone fired a shot into our front window. My wife, Valerie,” he gestures in Valerie’s direction but does not call her to join the group. “As you can see, she’s expecting a baby any time now. I don’t want her upset.”
Valerie straightens up. I realize we have both been hunched over, protecting ourselves against whatever bad news is about to come. Valerie moves to stand next to Andy. I follow her into the circle.
“We all need to hear whatever you are going to say.” She raises her chin and puts her hand into Andy’s.
Detective Ramos adjusts his posture, planting his feet apart on the tile. “We’ve found a body under the trees on your property.” He looks at our faces to see how we are digesting his words. “And, we found something else.” He looks at Andy. “Does anyone in this house own a gun?”