Hana gaped unattractively at her husband, but still noticed Alfred’s sigh of relief as he sank back into his chair.
“Bloody hell!” Leslie exhaled and Phoenix went into a paroxysm of indignation.
“Om er! Om er, naughty Nonie. Not wearin’, vewy bad!” The child’s face reddened in horror and Hana beckoned to her.
“Come sit on Mama’s knee, baby. Nonie didn’t mean it. Come here.”
The little girl slithered from her chair and padded across, holding out her arms to Hana. Once settled on her mother’s knee, she humphed in satisfaction and pushed her spoon into Hana’s food. With a sly look at the adults, she popped a piece of succulent beef into her mouth and chewed happily with her baby teeth, her eyes closed in appreciation. Leslie smiled fondly and shook her head at Hana, evidently thrilled that one of the females liked her food enough to go back for more. “You want another portion, girl?” she asked Hana hopefully but the other woman shook her head.
“No thanks, Leslie. It was delicious but I just lost my appetite.” She sighed and ran a hand across her eyes, knowing she must look dreadful. A sickly greyness shrouded her inside and out. “Sylvia!” Hana sighed into the back of Phoenix’s fluffy head, her face disbelieving. “I can’t take it in. And I feel so mean because thinking she’d left for good was the best part of my week! What kind of person does that make me?”
“One that probably shouldn’t repeat that to the cops,” Alfred said wisely. He regained his composure immensely quickly for a man over seventy. Hana stared at her husband, tucking into another portion of dinner and narrowed her eyes.
“How can you just sit there calmly eating?” she asked.
Logan smacked his lips with contentment and his face gave nothing away. “Because I’m starving. And because the cops will be round in a bit to see me. Nothing half as nice as this in an Auckland jail.”
Hana exhaled loudly and the room spun before her eyes. She concentrated on taking calm, shallow breaths and Leslie grew concerned. The old lady was at her side in seconds. “Stupid boy!” she chastised Logan roughly and he had the decency to look guilty.
“Not again, not again!” Hana fought the urge to cry and Leslie patted her back with force, as though the woman was choking and not just falling apart at the seams.
“Hey,” Logan turned towards his wife and reached for her hand. “I didn’t know about it, I haven’t been across there for days and they honestly can’t pin anything on me. Don’t worry. It’ll be fine.”
“Poor Sylvia,” Hana breathed. “Why didn’t she just leave that night when she said she was going to? She’d be happily hunting down Michael for paternity and leaving us alone. At least she’d be alive.”
“Michael?” Alfred was instantly alert. “What’s Michael got to do with this?”
“It’s complicated,” Hana began. “But Michael is Ryan’s father, not Logan. I broke the news to her the other night and she didn’t take it awfully well.”
“Maybe don’t tell the cops that either,” Alfred intoned, his voice laden with doom. Hana’s breathing became even more frantic and Leslie grabbed Phoenix quickly off her knee. Another stolen chunk of beef hit the floor beneath the table and the child groaned.
“They’ll think I did it,” Hana hissed, her voice laden with misery. “She threatened everything I had. I’m going to end up having this baby in prison, I know I am. Innocent people get convicted all the time. What am I going to do?”
“Run!” Alfred stood up quickly. “You can go to my whānau in the north. They’ll help you...”
“Dad!” Logan’s voice cut through the panic like a shot of reason. “Quit it! Nobody’s running! We didn’t kill her so we’re going nowhere. We just have to play the game and let them work it out.”
“Er...hi. The receptionist said it was ok just to come up.” Bodie’s tone betrayed awkwardness and guilt at disturbing the family. “Oh, you’re eating. Sorry.” He stood at the top of the apartment steps having climbed them quietly and avoided detection until he chose to be seen. His dark hair was damp and he waited on the top step for a formal invitation to enter their space.
Hana glanced at Logan and found his expression unreadable. Her son was intruding and the mother in her ached at his evident awkwardness. She turned and smiled. “Come in, Bo. I’m sure there’s plenty if you’re hungry.”
Relieved, Bodie pressed his feet out of his shoes without bending down to unlace them. He padded across the space between the landing and the kitchen, leaving damp footprints on the wooden floorboards. Leslie humphed and turned away still carrying the child, bustling over to the simmering pan and clattering with crockery one-handed. Alfred sat down.
“Sit,” Hana indicated the empty chair next to her. Bodie lowered himself carefully into its wooden embrace.
“Should you be here?” Logan asked, with a directness that bordered on rude.
“It’s fine,” Bodie countered. “Odering knows I’m here. But you hardly helped yourselves did you? I don’t know how you always seem to get mixed up in this kind of crap.”
“Does Odering think we did it?” Hana’s green eyes were wide and fearful. Leslie plonked a laden bowl of stew in front of the unwanted guest and slapped a soup spoon next to it.
“I’m gonna take my moko for a warm bath,” Leslie snapped, challenging Hana to disagree.
“Thanks, that’s a great idea,” Hana replied with a small smile. “It’s probably best she doesn’t hear too much.”
Leslie humphed again and left the room. Hana heard the child getting excited over the bath and the option of bubbles. Bodie tucked into his dinner and the gathered company waited in silence.
“How’d she die, boy?” Alfred asked eventually and Bodie looked up with a small smirk. Logan rolled his eyes at the young man’s minor victory.
“Shot at close range in the face.” The answer was given without emotion but Hana recoiled and clapped her hand over her mouth.
“I think I’m gonna be sick,” she whispered.
“Yeah, not real nice,” Bodie replied. His mouth was full and Hana saw the food swirling like a washing machine and fought sickness valiantly. “The contractor who found her is still ill. He’s ended up in the hospital on a drip, heavily medicated. Only a young lad. It’s his first week with that company. He left school last Friday. Ironic hey?” Bodie glanced round at his audience as though he related nothing more than the state of the weather. “He shot puke right over the crime scene so DNA will be fun. Not that there was a clean site to get any, to be honest. She’s been there a couple of days. It was a mud bath, it’s been raining and every man and his dog traipsed all over it before we turned up.”
Logan shook his head slowly and glanced at Hana. She detected a flicker of a smirk in his eyes and wondered what was wrong with her men. They cared so little about serious things in their ego-laden relationships.
“We thought she’d left,” Hana said quietly. “As far as we were concerned, she’d gone.”
“Well, she had,” Bodie said callously and Hana shuddered. “In spirit, just not in body.”
“That’s enough!” Logan’s reprimand was loud and pointed. Hana sighed. Here we go.
“There’s a sixteen year old boy downstairs who just lost his mother. Are you gonna tell him? You’re gonna wander down all casual and let him know that she’s laying in a muddy trench with her face blown off are ya?” Logan stood up and Bodie tensed. “Ah man, you’re about as unprofessional as your other buddies. Finish your food and sod off!” Logan scraped his chair back under the table and strode down the apartment with long-legged steps, the muscles in his back tensing under his shirt.
“Daddy! Bubbles!” Phoenix’s excited voice travelled back to the group around the table, innocent and unburdened.
“He’s right. You should go.” Alfred stood up and left, hauling his stooped body after Logan. He passed the bathroom and headed to his bedroom at the end of the apartment. The sound of game show laughter permeated the gloom.
Hana slumped in her seat and sighed heavily, resting her elbows on the table and cupping her eyes. “Why do you feel this need to wind him up?” Her voice carried a perceptible whinge.
“Odering told me to.” Bodie lowered his voice. “I think he gets some perverse thrill out of it.”
“And you always do as Odering tells you, don’t you?” Hana observed her son with sadness. “Whatever the personal cost.”
Bodie looked ashamed, the first glimpse of honesty since he’d entered the apartment. “He’s my boss. He’s going places and hopefully taking me with him.”
“He sure is,” Hana mused. “I just worry about where that might be.”
“Look,” Bodie’s tone became urgent and he laid his spoon down in the empty bowl. He turned his body fully towards his mother. “I’m glad they’ve all gone. I need to talk to you. The local doctor came to certify the body as dead. The coroner was too far away. He said some odd stuff as soon as he saw the body. He made a statement about coming up here about ten days ago to see you after you had some kind of fainting spell. He said you asked him for help. You stated...” Bodie reached into his pocket and removed the ever present notebook. “My husband’s having an affair with an old girlfriend who turned up yesterday. If I should die unexpectedly, please could you make sure that everyone knows I was disposed of? The Du Roses do that, you know. They dispose of their problems.”
“Oh no!” Hana’s eyes filled with tears. “Oh my goodness. I was angry with Logan. I didn’t mean it!” She ran a shaking hand across her face. “What have I done? You all think Logan did it, don’t you?” Her voice rose with anxiety and Bodie leaned in to his mother, putting a hand quickly over her mouth.
“Mum!” he hissed. “Shut up! I’m not meant to be telling you any of this. It’ll cost me my job if someone finds out! But yes. On the basis of that, it certainly looks like it.”
“You don’t understand...I...”
“Mum, I’m only telling you what a well-respected local medic said. He actually stepped into the hole and said, ‘Oh thank God! I thought it was going to be Hana Du Rose!’ It’s too late now. The investigation’s heading this way. I think Odering wanted me to wind Logan up so he made a mistake. They have a long history, Mum. They can’t stand each other and this isn’t gonna end well. You need to explain some stuff and quickly!”
Hana took a long breath in and told her judgemental son the whole sorry story. Bodie was appalled. “Geez! So he was knocking off this woman?”
“No! I told you he wasn’t. I just thought he was. He can’t have killed her, Bo. He’s been with me for days now. He’s stuck to me like glue. I’ve really needed him and he’s been there. There’s been a handful of times when we’ve been separated but he hasn’t been by himself. He’ll have been with the other guys on the farm. I’m sure he can get an alibi for all his time over the last week or so.”
“Well, you’d better hope so.” Bodie’s face was serious. “Mum, why don’t you come back to Hamilton? You can live with me and Amy as long as you want to. You don’t have to stay here.”
“I’m fine!” Resignation dawned in Hana’s eyes. “You’re never going to believe me, are you?”
Bodie shook his head. “No, sorry. And nor is anyone else.”
“How come Odering doesn’t think I did it?” Hana asked. “I had more to lose than anyone. I’m sure one of the waitresses from the dining room could verify I sat with her a few nights ago and Sylvia seemed upset towards the end of the conversation.”
Bodie leaned back in his seat. “See, you’re the only person who’s mentioned that. We’ve had cops downstairs for the last hour taking statements and not one of them heard anything about you meeting with the deceased. Your husband runs a very tight ship, Mum. Nobody will dare say anything against you or him. Which is why any alibi he gets here is worthless. Not one of the staff will speak out against him. Can’t you see that?”
“But Logan didn’t kill her!” Hana maintained and Bodie shook his head.
“I’m sorry, Mum. But I think you’re deluded. And you’ve got one hell of a nasty wakeup call coming your way!” The young police officer stood up and scraped his chair back under the table. He kissed Hana lightly on the forehead and dumped his bowl and spoon in the sink. With a wistful smile he walked away, turning as he fitted his feet back into his shoes and bent to tie the laces. They were streaked with loamy mud, despite Bodie’s efforts to clean them. A flake of stained tissue stuck to the heel. “You know what, Mum? I was so jealous of anyone ever replacing Dad that I saw off every guy who showed an interest in you. I made a mistake. Any of those jerks would have been better for you, than this.” He waved a uniformed arm expansively to take in Alfred’s apartment and the life that Hana had chosen for herself and he was gone, clattering down the stairs to the floor below. Hana heard the fire door at the bottom hiss closed behind him, leaving her with a heaviness nothing would dispel.