The House at Sandalwood Page 27

  “Hold on,” he warned us a few minutes later. “We’ve got some rough spots ahead.”

  We bounced over rocks, mud, brushwood and half-ripened fruits blown by the fresh rains. I was wondering at the accumulation in this spot, then noted the great piles of logs and boulders along the cliff side.

  “Was this the place?” I whispered nodding toward the pile.

  “The roadblock. Yes. Berringer and I removed it going north. He seemed pretty anxious to rescue you.”

  I showed my teeth. “He probably thinks I am the murderer he is looking for.”

  He raised his voice, smiling a little. I realized he was adding for the benefit of the woman behind us, “Mrs. Moku helped us too.”

  Ilima said severely, “I am not an inhumane woman!”

  After slowing to a crawl, we managed to get around what remained of the barrier and rattled on toward Sandalwood. I knew that Stephen and probably Ilima Moku were even more anxious than I to reach the Giles house. They wanted to read the note Kekua had left for Deirdre. I myself couldn’t yet assume quite as much as they did. Unless Kekua had been murdered. I still remembered those footprints that I had thought were running steps, the imprint of the toes decidedly deeper. She had been running in almost a direct line and she had fallen, somehow miscalculating the masked edge of the Ili-Ahi gulch.

  But why was she running? Obviously from some danger.

  I kept my thoughts on this matter to avoid thinking of what must happen at once, my departure from Sandalwood and Hawaii. I was happy about Deirdre. I felt that she needed psychiatric help, but that would be a decision between Stephen and Deirdre herself. I had spent most of my life living Deirdre’s life, or what I thought was her life. It was time I respected her ability to make her own mistakes and to survive them. My further regret I could scarcely admit to myself, and that was made more poignant by the mere effect of Stephen’s hand as it touched my shoulder. I loved him, and he was Deirdre’s whole life.

  Stephen turned sharply inland beyond the cliffside and into the parking place at the rear of the cottages in the sacred grove. He lifted Deirdre down and reached for me but I avoided him, as did Queen Ilima. Deirdre wavered but insisted on walking under her own power, beside Stephen. They cut through the grove but I knew Ilima Moku’s strong feeling about this ground, and when she started on the longer path around the grove, I followed the Gileses. They cut straight through the trees between the unfinished cottages, passing directly over the area, now covered by boards, where Ingrid Berringer’s body had been found.

  They were stopped on the veranda of Sandalwood House. I reached the steps in time to see Nelia Perez talking to Stephen and gesturing volubly.

  “Walking in like that and taking over! I didn’t believe you’d sent him and I told him so!”

  Stephen turned to Deirdre. “Do you remember where you put Kekua’s letter?”

  She looked blank and I wondered if she would revert to that childish girl who left problems to everyone else, avoiding any complications. But Deirdre considered the problem and then said quietly, “Yes. That’s it. I slipped it into the left-hand drawer of my dressing table.”

  Nelia exclaimed breathlessly, “I know! I saw it in the pink bedroom. We were looking for mokihana berries. Miss Cameron and I. I dropped the envelope back into the drawer.”

  “Unopened?” Stephen asked quickly.

  “Of course. Miss Cameron called me and I forgot all about it.”

  Stephen moved into the house and with quiet but rapid steps went up the front stairs. We followed, instinctively as cautious as he had been, although I doubt if either Deirdre or I knew quite who and what we were afraid of disturbing. Nelia knew, of course, and watched us curiously. I had just passed the landing when I heard footsteps as the door to Stephen’s room opened. There was apparently an attempt to cover up the sound because when I appeared in the upper hallway I startled William Pelhitt who looked more than usually awkward, walking on tiptoe and with his mouth open.

  I said, “Good afternoon. I thought we left you in the Hawaiian village.”

  He stammered, “I—we—that is, Vic sent me—I took the short cut by the trail. Being in Vic’s company for too long a time can g-get pretty bad; so I d-decided to drop in and maybe g-get invited to lunch.”

  “Of course,” I agreed calmly. I didn’t enjoy tormenting him, but I was furious with him for being the poor, luckless fellow he was. “And when you couldn’t find your host downstairs, you came up and looked for him in his bedroom.”

  “No. You see—” He began to wring his hands. His face was white and he was working terribly hard to make his story convincing. The trouble was, he did not lie well. He had to live his role. “I left something here the other night when I was —you know—sick. It was an envelope. I just didn’t want Vic to see it.”

  “So you left it in Stephen’s room.”

  “No! At least, it isn’t there. And I tried the greenish room facing the falls, Mrs. Giles’s study. I guess I must have left it in the other bedroom.” He reached for the handle of the door to Deirdre’s pink bedroom. As I watched him, he caught his breath. The door opened slowly under his horrified stare. Stephen came out. “Is this what you were looking for?” He held up two envelopes, one with Deirdre’s name upon it, the other a psychedelic pattern of bright yellow paper adorned by leis of purple flowers. In the middle of it scrawled in purple ink on the second envelope were the words: “In case of accident to me, Mrs. Steve, please read this, but only in case of accident. Kekua Moku.”

  “M-may I—it’s really mine—” Bill Pelhitt made one last effort, but he didn’t reach for it. He must have known he was through.

  I heard movement behind me. Deirdre and Nelia Perez, and a heavy footstep on the stairs. I didn’t look back. I was painfully fascinated by the scene before me. Stephen surprised me by his own gentleness as he took the bright yellow page from the envelope and read aloud:

  Mrs. Steve,

  I was coming back from my boyfriend’s trailer outside Kaiana City one night a couple of days after your wedding. I was just starting the motor of my boat when William Pelhitt came to the landing. I didn’t know him, but he asked me to take him to Ili-Ahi. He said he’d just missed somebody he knew. I figured he was a friend of Mr. Steve’s and took him over. He paid me twenty dollars. Another boat landed just minutes before we did. I saw him huff and puff up the hill. He met somebody and they went into the sacred grove. If it was a woman, I figured it was a love-in. Then Mrs. Mitsushima and Mr. Yee came out of the rear door at Sandalwood and headed for the landing. I didn’t want them to see me and maybe tell mother, so I cut through the brush west of the landing and legged it home on the trail.

  He must have gotten back across the bay in my boat or one of the others that’s always left by either Mr. Steve’s people or ours.

  I never dreamed my passenger had done anything. He was too harmless. But last week I saw him come to Ili-Ahi with the silvery man who has the money. I could see friend Pelhitt hated to come. He was scared I’d recognize him. He almost fainted when he saw me. But old Berringer wouldn’t take no. When I realized nobody’s seen Ingrid Berringer since about the time I took Pelhitt over here, and what with his pretending he’d never been here before and being afraid of me, I decided to test him. I asked if he’d loan me a hundred dollars. Just like that, he did. I figured I had it coming, and I was innocent. After all, I don’t really know he did anything!

  But today I asked him how he felt about lending me five hundred and he scrambled together three fifty. He got those ham-hands into my shoulders, told me that was it. I made him promise to meet me in the Grove with the rest of what he owes me. Then I got to thinking I need insurance. This letter is my insurance. All I have to do is mention it and there won’t be any rough stuff. He wouldn’t dare!

  Thank you.

  Your friend,

  Kekua Moku

  Bill Pelhitt put in eagerly, “You see? She says herself she doesn’t know if I did anything. And I didn’t. I me
an, not deliberately. Never. I couldn’t even believe it when she fell ... I swear I only ...” His eyes, bulging and bloodshot with his terror, seemed his own worst enemy. Their gaze focused suddenly on something in the shadowy hall behind me. He clasped his hands until they looked knotted by the tension he was under.

  “I wouldn’t hurt a living soul deliberately. I wouldn’t even hurt a fly ... a tiny insect. Not on purpose.”

  I turned and staring behind me, understood his terror, the desperate plea in his voice. It had been wasted on two people who appeared to be images in stone: Ingrid Berringer’s father, and Kekua’s mother.

  Stephen took his arm. “Don’t say anything else. Not until you have legal counsel. Judith, would you call the Kaiana City sheriff’s office?”

  Feeling like a coward, I went downstairs to phone, not wanting Bill to hear me if I spoke on the upstairs extension. I had reached the office and was told Lieutenant Padilla of the Honolulu Police was also expected momentarily, when I heard voices as they all came in downstairs. Then I heard Stephen’s angry insistence, “You have nothing to say about it. You are going to have to leave him alone. He will be locked in my study with me until the authorities arrive. Is that agreeable to you, Pelhitt?”

  Apparently, Bill agreed, because his broken-voiced reply was too low for me to hear. It was a strange and terrible hour that followed. Mrs. Moku and Berringer went into the living room to wait. She sat stiff and regal on the couch and he paced the floor. At Mr. Yee’s demand, Nelia went to help him in the kitchen, and Deirdre said faintly, “I’m going to lie down. Stephen will tell me all about it later. Would you sit with me until I can get to sleep?”

  I said, “Of course, I will. I want to see as much of you as possible, because I will be leaving when the police say I may.”

  Deirdre frowned. “And I meant you to have a wonderful time here. I didn’t know I’d feel so—inferior when you were around.”

  “Don’t worry. I would have had a splendid time and gone over to visit the Nagatas, done all sorts of things. Except for poor Mr. Pelhitt and Kekua. But I do have to begin my new life back on the mainland, if we can get my parole transferred.” I lied briskly, “I’m looking forward to that.” And then, as I knew it was not quite a lie: “Really! I am. A whole future—out there—”

  “Is it—because of what I said today?”

  “No, dear. It’s because I am a grown-up lady now and I can’t cling to my favorite niece forever.”

  She squeezed me in as strong a bear hug as she could manage and we went up to Stephen’s bedroom together. I forced myself not to overdo the assistance. She lay down, pulled the thin thermal blanket up to her chin, and stared at the ceiling.

  “I thought I had a heart attack today. But it went away too quickly.”

  “No. We can be thankful for that.”

  She sighed. “I suppose he did really kill them, poor man.”

  “I’m afraid that’s the curse of William Pelhitt’s life. He was born to be called ‘poor man.’ ”

  “I’m sorry about Kekua. But the other one, that’s different. She was cruel and cutting and loved to hurt people.”

  “I never understood, Deirdre. Why did you travel with her?”

  Deirdre was thoughtful. “I guess because she treated me like an equal. She didn’t have too many girlfriends, but she was glamorous and exciting. It was only after we met Stephen and he wouldn’t pay any attention to her, that she began to call me names. Idiot! Moron! All that. You see, until that time, I’d always let her have her way. Let her have any boys that liked both of us. I gave in. But not about Stephen. So she said I’d be a perfect match for her old boyfriend, that she’d trade me her boyfriend for Stephen and then everybody’d be balanced ... I suppose she meant Mr. Pelhitt.” We were silent, possibly thinking that our own problems had never been worse than Bill Pelhitt’s were and always had been. He was a born loser.

  I thought Deirdre had gone to sleep but she turned suddenly and gazed at me, holding out her hand. “Judy, I used to dream about mother’s death. Horrible nightmares that she was taking those capsules and I could stop her but I didn’t. And then I’d wake up and try to remember, and it was gone. A blackness rolling up around me. And this time, when I woke up, I remembered.”

  “But there was nothing you could do. If she hadn’t been drinking, it is very probable she wouldn’t have died, so it was an accident. You see that, don’t you?”

  “Oh, Judy, I see that you suffered all those years because of me.”

  “What a ridiculous thing to say! If anything, I suffered because no one in court would believe the truth, that your mother killed herself.”

  We held each other’s hand briefly. She closed her eyes. Nelia Perez came in as silently as possible, motioning to me.

  “Mr. Pelhitt would like to talk to you. Mr. Steve says it’s all right. And the police will be here any minute.”

  I looked at Deirdre. “I don’t know.” Deirdre opened her eyes, grinned, and winked.

  “I trust you with my husband. I’m a big girl now.”

  “Can I stay here in your chair and hide out?” Nelia wanted to know. “Mr. Yee’s been running me ragged.”

  I left the two girls exchanging horror tales of Mr. Yee’s domestic tyranny and went downstairs past the living room. Berringer stopped pacing to demand of me, “When is there going to be some action?”

  Before I could answer. Queen Ilima said sternly, “Be calm, man! You are as weak as your murderous friend.”

  This upset Berringer so much he stared at her, speechless, and then sat down in the nearest chair. He looked shaken. I wondered if anyone in his life had ever referred to him as weak. It was apparently the worst insult in his lexicon. I went to the study and Stephen let me in. I could see that, in a strange way, he and Pelhitt seemed to have developed a rapport. Possibly he understood why Pelhitt had killed Ingrid Berringer. If, of course, he really had killed her. I still hoped he could somehow prove both deaths had been “accidents.” I despised him, but I pitied him profoundly.

  Stephen said. “He wants you to understand how it happened and I think he deserves that.”

  Bill Pelhitt got up from the couch. He looked extraordinarily well, considering his situation. There was a pride about him that I had never seen before. The slightly fleshy color had returned to his face. I was amazed.

  “You don’t mind sitting here beside me, just for a few minutes, Judith?”

  almost looked at Stephen to get his opinion or permission, but I made my own decision and sat down before William Pelhitt. In spite of his invitation to me, he remained standing. There was a glow of nobility in his manner and I guessed even before he spoke that he had raised his spirits with some pretense that would help him get through the long and terrible time ahead.

  “Judith, I did receive a letter from Ingrid, just before the Gileses were married. She sneered at me. She was crude and vulgar. She said she had met a real man and nothing but her simpleton roommate stood in the way. She said beautiful morons would appeal to me, that I should come over and snap up Miss Deirdre. That hurt. It cut deeply, I can tell you. I brooded about it until I couldn’t stand it. I felt my whole world was collapsing. I had to talk to her. Persuade her that I had always been a part of her life and she would come back to me.”

  Stephen cleared his throat. I said, “You did not tell Mr. Berringer?”

  “He would have despised me. And I might have lost my job.”

  I felt a few grains of my sympathy dissolving in his concern for serving at any cost a man who despised him.

  “So you flew over to Hawaii in secret,” Stephen prompted him.

  “Yes. Vic sent me downstate to New York City to deliver bonds for exchange. It was a very private matter and it had to be done by hand, so to speak. I hurried through that in a couple of hours and flew to L.A. and then to Honolulu. I was dead tired. I couldn’t find her at the hotel next day. She’d moved. I was frantic. I figured she must’ve won over this Giles fellow—sorry, Mr. Giles—
so I flew to Kaiana and that’s where I met this Kekua and got the ride to Ili-Ahi. And when I came ashore, I saw Ingrid. I rushed up and grabbed her. She was coming from Sandalwood. Seems that Giles wasn’t home and Mrs. Giles refused to see her. She cursed me. Said if I’d come a few days earlier I could have taken this Deirdre off her hands—like calling to like, she said. Meaning we were both idiots, I guess.

  “I rustled her into the little grove. There was lots of lumber lying about. To be used the next day for steps. Anyway, the ground was torn up and I stumbled and she laughed. Said I couldn’t even walk straight. She said even though Giles was already married, she would never want me. Then she showed her teeth. She said I should leave her alone, and when I got mad, she said she was going to tell her father—tell Vic—what an idiot I was and that she’d see I lost my precious job if I didn’t stop pestering her. I’ve worked for Vic since I was fifteen. I’ve gone right up the ladder. My father was Vic’s partner in the old days. He was going to give me the management of the brokerage house in Buffalo if I—when I married Ingrid. I just went crazy. I slapped Ingrid. She fell into that hole. I guess ... right then she was dead. She never came to. I must’ve sat on those boards, holding her for an hour. She was cold. She began to—anyway, she was dead. I panicked. There was the trench. I did it by not thinking. I just dug deep and covered her up.”

  I shuddered. He tried to touch my hand but saw the involuntary retraction of my own fingers and drew back. Stephen said, “Maybe you had better save the rest for later,” but Bill Pelhitt shook his head.