Paradise Wild Page 3

  She was still in a playful mood, so he asked, "Will you join me?"

  She nodded and started to pull him up from the bed, but let him go before he sat up completely. "Why else you come home so early, Ialeka? I never see you this time of day before unless we in country."

  Jaxed got up and whacked her on the behind. "After we bathe we have some packing to do."

  She brightened. "We going home?"

  "You are. You came to Honolulu for some shopping and you stayed three months. How will you explain that when you get home?"

  "Akela knows. She happy I take care of you."

  Jared grunted. "Malia doesn't know."

  "Malia is my friend. She not think bad of me," Naneki said with a slight grin.

  "Regardless, I don't want her to know." Jared frowned. "You understand that, Naneki?"

  She nodded, but she warned him again, "You always spoil Malia. You no let her grow up." When Jared's eyes turned a steely gray she added quickly, "But I understand. Come."

  Jared's mood had changed. "There's no more time to play, Naneki. We will leave first thing in the morning. I have to be back in Honolulu by Friday. I'm leaving Sunday for the mainland."

  "Like when you went college?"

  "No, this is business."

  "How long? You will miss your summer months in Sun­set?"

  "Yes. But I will try to be back by Christmas."

  Naneki tried to hide her disappointment. "That is very long time away."

  Jared came to her and kissed her lightly. "While I'm gone you should start looking for a new husband. Noelani needs a father."

  She grinned. "When you marry? I no see you running to church."

  "One of these days, I will."

  "With Miss Callan. I like her, I no mind share you with her."

  Jared sighed in exasperation and pulled her along with him to the bath. "Just remember what I said. Start looking for a husband."

  Chapter 4

  NED Dougherty's office was on the south side of Bos­ton. Hardly an office, it was just a small room above a tavern. There were a cluttered desk, two chairs, and file cabinets crammed into the small space. As Jared sat across from the red-haired man, he began having second thoughts about being there. Whatever he had expected to find, it certainly wasn't this.

  Ned's appraising look took in Jared's expensive suit, his aura of strength, and he noted a bit of ruthlessness in the sharp blue-gray eyes. This was a man who got what he wanted, and Ned anticipated profiting from whatever he wanted.

  "I can honestly say, Mr. Burkett, that I didn't think I would hear from you again. And I certainly didn't expect to meet you. Your business must be pretty important to bring you here all the way from Hawaii."

  Jared decided to be frank. If this man could accomplish what he wanted, then he didn't mind paying an outlandish fee for it.

  "What I plan to do in Boston is very important to me," Jared said as he glanced about the office. "But I'm not quite sure you're up to it, Mr. Dougherty."

  "Don't let the size and location of my office fool you," Ned replied defensively. "The larger investigating firms have bigger expenses and charge their clients more. I get more clients."

  "Do you work alone?"

  "I get help when I need it." Ned leaned back and smiled. "I can see by that wary look that you have doubts about me. Let me assure you that I have never disappointed a client. Whether I am investigating a firm, finding a missing person, or trailing a wayward wife, I do get results. I've even helped solve a few murders."

  Jared was not impressed. "I need not only information, Mr. Dougherty, but publicity as well."

  "I have a cousin and a few friends who work for the newspapers."

  "I will need to be well-known in this city within a very short time—in about a month."

  "No problem, Mr. Burkett."

  "Very well, then, I will take a chance on you, Mr. Dougherty. But I wouldn't like to be disappointed."

  The threat was obvious and Ned felt a slight chill race down his back. He shrugged it off.

  "I'm curious to know how you found me, Mr. Burkett. Have you been to Boston before?"

  Jared began to relax. "No. I got your name from a col­lege friend in the States. He told an amusing story around school about his grandfather hiring you to follow his grand­mother, suspecting her, at seventy-two, of having an affair."

  Ned laughed, relieving the tension. "I remember that old man quite well. It was the most ridiculous case I ever worked on."

  "I imagine so. But I never forgot your name," Jared admitted. "I knew even then that I would have need of you one day."

  "Well then, Mr. Burkett, I'm sure we will accomplish what you want done, if you'll just tell me what it is."

  Jared's eyes held a cold gray glint. "I want information on Samuel Barrows, especially about his business interests, the extent of his wealth, and how much reserve he has. I want to know everything about the man, his associates, and his family. I want to know his future plans, how he works, his weaknesses, and his habits."

  Ned nodded. "It will probably take about two weeks to get what you want. Since gathering information is pretty routine, I don't foresee any problems."

  "Fine. Now, about the publicity. You will start on that immediately. As I said before, I want to be well-known about town. I want to be talked about in the highest finan­cial circles, especially in Samuel Barrows' circle."

  The little detective picked up a notebook and pen and leaned over his desk. "I'll need facts about you, then."

  Jared grinned. "Jared Burk, millionaire from the West Coast, here to invest money. That's all you need to know."

  "I don't understand."

  Jared rose from his chair. "You don't have to understand. The name and facts I just gave you are false. I don't want my real identity known. But I do intend to invest some money if the circumstances are right. You might recom­mend a good lawyer."

  Ned's curiosity was aroused. "You want to be a man of mystery, then?"

  "Exactly."

  "Very well." Ned came around his desk to shake hands. "I'll get the name of a lawyer to you in a few days. Where can I reach you?"

  "I checked into the Plaza this morning as Jared Burk."

  The ride back to the hotel was pleasant. Jared had the driver take a short tour of the city first. The weather was a brisk sixty-five degrees on this early June day, warm for Bostonians, but chilly compared to Hawaii. Jared hoped he would not have to stay here too long, especially into the colder months.

  The carriage entered the Back Bay area. When Jared saw the Beacon Street sign, his whole body went stiff. Which one of these tall townhouses belonged to Samuel Barrows? Whichever one it was, Jared would be invited to that house soon. He would make Samuel Barrows' ac­quaintance. And then somehow, in some way, he would break the man, ruin him. Killing was too quick. Jared wanted him to live a broken man, to know what had happened, and why.

  Jared remembered the first time he had heard the name Samuel Barrows spoken from his mother's lips. He had been seven years old. Life was good. He lived in the country with his mother, while his father tended business in Hono­lulu many miles away, making frequent visits to his family.

  Jared and Leonaka were just beginning to learn respon­sibility, being allowed to help plant sugar cane. But they were quick to slip away to the beach and meet Dayna. The beach was their playground, surfboards their toys. One day when Jared stole away to the beach by himself he found his mother there, walking hand in hand with a tall man he had never seen before. That night he asked his mother who the strange haole was, and she told him. Samuel Barrows, an old friend from Boston, where his mother came from.

  A week later his father came home and for the first time in his life Jared heard his parents fighting. They were in the enclosed patio at the back of the house and were un­aware that Jared was in the back yard, only a few feet away.

  "Who in damnation is this man John Pierce saw you em­bracing?" Rodney Burkett had begun.

  "John?"
r />   "Yes, our neighbor! He.came all the way to Honolulu just to tell me what he saw—you and another man behaving in an unseemly manner on the beach!"

  "There is no reason for you to be upset," Ranelle an­swered in a quiet voice. "It was just Samuel Barrows, and we embraced only to say good-bye." . "Barrows? The man you were supposed to marry? The man who married an heiress instead, because his family needed money?"

  "Yes, I told you about him."

  "What in God's name was he doing here?"

  There was a long pause. "He—he came for me. He said he still loved me."

  Something shattered against a wall, a glass or a vase. "He still loves you! What about his rich wife? Did she conveniently die?"

  "Rodney, I told you there is no reason to get upset." Ranelle started crying. "He's gone now, gone back to Bos­ton."

  "You didn't answer my question, Ranelle. Is he a free man now?"

  "No, he's still married. But he would have left her if I were free, regardless of the disgrace. There are no children in that marriage, and his family is solvent again. But he didn't know that I had married, that I have a son."

  Quietly, in a torn voice, Rodney asked, "Did he ask you to leave me?"

  "Rodney, stop it!" Ranelle pleaded. "There's no point in it. Samuel's gone—he won't ever come again."

  "Did he?"

  "Yes, he wanted me to go with him. He said he would take Jared, too. But you can see I'm still here. I told him no!" Ranelle began screaming hysterically. "He is eight years too late! Too late!"

  Jared ran down to the beach then, to get away from the sound of his mother crying. He had never heard her cry before, never heard his father's voice raised so angrily or with such pain.

  Ranelle Burkett was never the same after that. She had always been a gentle and loving mother, devoting her life to her son and husband. Now she was distant, withholding her love. She no longer smiled or laughed. She began to drink heavily, and frequently cried silent, hopeless tears.

  For two years Jared lived in a state of confusion. He didn't understand why his mother didn't love him anymore. He didn't understand why his parents fought all the time. And then Ranelle was expecting a baby. Rodney had first been delighted, but then things between them got even worse. Ranelle turned from melancholy to bitterness. She didn't want the new baby. Rodney stayed away from the house, but the arguments didn't stop. Now Ranelle also fought with Akela, who warned against her heavy drinking. Jared stayed away from his home as much as possible.

  When Malia was born, Ranelle wanted nothing to do with her. She gave the baby over to Akela, took to her bottle again, and was hardly ever sober. Jared finally came to understand why his mother had changed. She was still in love with Samuel Barrows. He had overheard many fights between his parents, but one in particular explained much.

  It occurred early one morning, just after Malia's birth, before Ranelle had a chance to find her rum. Jared was still in bed, but his room was next to his parents' and their loud voices woke him.

  "For God's sake, go to him then!" Rodney was shouting. "You're no good to me anymore, you're no good to your children. You haven't been a wife or mother since that bastard Barrows came here. Yes, you gave me another child, but only because I forced myself on you."

  "Please leave me alone, Rodney," Ranelle replied. "I can't help the way I feel."

  His father's voice was filled with pain. "Why, Ranelte? Just tell me why? Our first eight years were good. We were happy. How could we have been so happy if you still loved him?"

  "I had given him up. I thought there would never be a chance for us, don't you see? I made myself forget him. I should have waited for him. He had always intended to leave his wife after a few years, but I didn't know that. I should have waited."

  "Did you ever love me, Ranelle?"

  "Oh, Rodney." Ranelle started to cry. "I never wanted to hurt you. I did love you. But Samuel was my first love, and I caa't help loving him still."

  "Then go to him," Rodney said brokenly. "I will give you a divorce."

  Ranelle laughed, but it was not a happy sound. "It's too late! He wrote me after he returned to Boston. His dear wife had a baby while he was gone, six months after he left. Now hell never leave her."

  "Ranelle, Ranelle, forget him. Can't you do that? You did it once before. Forget him again."

  "How can I when I know this time that he still wants me? He proved that by coming here to find me. He loves me and I love him!"

  "You must do something, Ranelle. We can't go on like this. I can't work anymore. And it's affecting Jared. He's withdrawn, he's become moody. You have got to stop drinking and start acting like a wife and mother again."

  ",Leave me alone, Rodney."

  "Ranelle, please."

  "Just go away. I don't want to talk anymore."

  There was silence. But now Jared knew why his life had been turned upside down.

  And when Malia was one year old, Ranelle Burkett died.

  It was a stormy night, the night Jared still had nightmares about. His father was in Honolulu, and Akela had taken Malia and two-year-old Naneki to visit relatives in Kahuku for a few days. The eleven-year-old Jared had become very protective of his mother, and would not leave her alone in the house. Just the two of them were there that night

  Jared heard the patio door leading to the beach open and close, and he got out of bed to see if Akela had re­turned. When he found no one in the house he ran to his

  mother's room but found it empty, a half-filled bottle of rum lying in the middle of the bed.

  He panicked, for his mother never left the house at night. He raced outside and down to the beach, screaming Mother over and over again. There was no answer. He wasted time searching along the shore before he saw her in the water. She was wading quickly away from the land.

  Ranelle Burkett couldn't swim. All those years with the ocean at her back door, yet she'd never learned to swim. The surf was high because of the approaching storm, and Jared dove into five-foot waves to reach her, but it was as if the hand of God just swept her away. The moonless night was too dark. He couldn't see. The tears blinding his eyes hindered him, too. But he stayed in the ocean all night, looking, hoping, praying.

  Dawn brought the storm, but also enough light to see by. And Jared found his mother, half a mile down the beach, washed up on the cold, wet sand. She was dead.

  It was many hours before they were found, Jared sitting in the sand staring out to sea, his mother's head cradled in his lap. He couldn't keep the truth a secret, that she had killed herself, for it was well-known that she couldn't swim, that she never went into the water even to wade.

  It was many years before Jared stopped blaming himself for not being able to save her. She would only have tried again, he finally realized. She had wanted to die. And Samuel Barrows had driven her to her death. By coming into her life when it was too late, he had pushed her into the sea. He was responsible for her misery and her death, and Jared would see to it that he paid.

  Chapter 5

  THE townhouse on Beacon Street was brightly lit and filled with fresh-cut summer flowers from the Barrows' garden. Maids in stiff black uniforms and white aprons circulated drinks among the early guests. This was to be a formal party, and guests would mingle in the large reception hall until dinner was announced.

  Upstairs in Corinne's bedroom, Florence worked on her elaborate coiffure while Corinne's cousin Lauren paced nervously across the room behind them, her slippers with their tiny heels clattering noisily as she moved back and forth. This was Lauren's second formal party, and she was anxious about the impression she would make.

  "Are you sure this gown is suitable?" she asked for the third time.

  "Yellow becomes you, Cousin. After all, you don't want to wear anything darker at your age," Corinne said as she watched Lauren through her mirror.

  "But your gown is so daring, Cori, with only those thin sequined straps to hold it up. And rose silk is so beautiful. Mother wouldn't let me have a gown like t
hat. I'm sure I look old-fashioned."

  "Oh, stop fretting. I am a bit older than you, remember," Corinne remarked impatiently. "But I suppose I forget what it was like to be sixteen. You really will be the prettiest girl at the party, so stop worrying."

  Lauren smiled. "Maybe if you don't come I'll be the prettiest."

  "Don't be silly. And looks aren't everything. You know most men won't look at me twice because I'm too tall for them. Small, delicate women like you are all the rage."

  Lauren blushed and changed the subject. "I wonder why

  Uncle Samuel didn't have this party on July Fourth, just a few days ago. And why didn't he give us more warning?"

  "I don't know, but I don't care, either," Corinne smiled. "A party is a party."

  "I suppose so. But this one was planned awfully fast. Mother had a fit because her dress wasn't finished in time and she had to wear an old one. What was the hurry, do you know?"

  "There is some man Father wants his friends to meet. He decided to do it this way with a party, to please me. We haven't been getting along too well lately."

  Florence gave a humph to that as she slid ruby pins into Corinne's hair. Florence Merrill had been with Corinne since she was a child, and she knew what was going on. The maid fastened the last pin in place, then left the room. Corinne fussed through her large jewel case.

  "Will Russell be coming?" Lauren asked.

  "Of course."

  "Still no luck in getting your father's permission to marry him?"

  "No. I haven't given up yet, but I'm beginning to think it's hopeless. Father won't even discuss it anymore. I just might have to find someone else pretty soon if Father doesn't show some signs of coming round."

  "Have you anyone in mind?"

  "No. It's going to be very difficult to find the man my father will approve of. He wants me to have a husband of strong will—'A man you can't boss so easily,' were his exact words. But that kind of man would defeat my whole purpose."

  "I still say you should wait for love," Lauren sighed.

  "No, my dear," Corinne said, her stiff lip showing her determination. "Marriage will be my life, so I must have control of it. I can always find love on the side."