Du Rose Legacy

Chapter 3-2

“I love riddles.” Jas pushed a bare foot into one trouser leg and hopped around.

Hana shot a sideways look at Bodie and walked into the hallway. She stopped him with an outstretched hand as he tried to follow. “Spend time with your son,” she instructed. “I’ll talk to Amy.”

Bodie frowned and stared at the maniac bouncing on the bed in camouflage pyjamas.

“I can’t tell you anything,” Amy groaned in the kitchen. “It’s against the rules.”

“Can’t you tell me if he’s okay?” Hana pleaded. “He must feel terrified.”

“He’s fine.” Amy sighed and poked in the fridge for leftovers. She dropped a crinkled carrot into the dustbin and leaned in, pulling out the burger wrapper. “Please tell me Bodie didn’t feed Jas this crap for his dinner.”

Hana swallowed. “What can I do to help Logan? I feel powerless.”

“He’s got a lawyer.” Amy dropped the wrapper into the bin and stood. She narrowed her eyes. “I knew her. She was at your wedding reception.”

“Mine?” Hana knitted her brow. “I can’t think who that is.”

“Eliza Du Rose.” Bodie leaned against the doorframe and Hana heard Jas pulling toys out onto the bedroom floor. “His sister. Odering behaved like a man with a bee up his a*s when he saw her arrive.”

Hana’s face changed at the mention of the woman who confiscated her phone and stopped her calling for help when Tama attacked Logan. “What did she do?”

Amy’s shoulders slumped. “Pushed everyone around. The evidence against Logan is circumstantial.”

Bodie snorted. “Apart from his threats against the victim.”

“He didn’t mean them.” Hana sank into a kitchen chair. “He just learned that our mutual friend sold my safety to the highest bidder. I’d rather like to bash Boris myself.” She rubbed her eyes and the paleness of her complexion betrayed extreme tiredness.

Bodie straightened upright and nodded to Amy. “I’ll take her home. I’m sure you’ll get the pleasure of giving her mafia husband breakfast in the morning. I’d like to forget him for tonight.”

“Don’t be such an a*s!” Amy rebuked him.

“Mafia husband?” Hana scraped her chair back with her legs. “Why do you say such mean things?”

“a*s!” Jas squeaked, flying one of his dolls around the table. The doll’s cape flew out behind its shoulders and he distracted Amy as she tried to stop him falling over chair legs and the dustbin. She grabbed him by the forearm and hauled him up onto her hip.

“Stop repeating grown-up language. Say night to Hanny,” she said, dipping him forward so Hana could kiss his lips. He blew a raspberry and giggled.

Hana climbed into Bodie’s car in silence. He started the engine and turned towards her. “Do you want to see if your vehicle is okay?” he asked.

She nodded and made suggestions about where Logan might have hidden it. They located it in a side street in Fairview Downs, a short walk from the school. It nestled between a truck with a wheel missing and a decent saloon. Bodie nodded towards it. “Looks safe enough for tonight. Without the keys it will have to stay there.”

Hana pressed a hand over her stomach and fought to maintain her composure. Logan’s efforts to keep her safe spoke of devotion and his awful predicament unpicked her from the inside. “He’ll be home tomorrow,” she insisted. “He can pick it up.”

“Don’t count on it,” Bodie breathed. He turned his car around and headed towards Ngaruawahia.

Pulling onto the bottom of Hana’s driveway, he didn’t expect to almost rear-end the sleek red Mercedes blocking the gate. “Oh, no!” Hana hissed and hid her face in her left hand.

“Who is it?” Bodie demanded, undoing his seat belt.

“The last person in the world I want to see,” she groaned.

Liza’s long legs preceded her haughty face from the driver’s door and she strode towards Bodie’s window. “Open the gate,” she demanded. “I’ve had a long day and what’s-her-name isn’t replying.”

Bodie’s lips parted in surprise and he opened his window to run a critical eye over the spectacular woman in front of him. “Mum’s here,” he managed with a stutter and Liza made an irritated sound with her lips.

“Open the damn gate then!” she rebuked him. “It’s freezing out here.” Her gaze slid over Hana’s cast and up to her face, but she made no comment. Her expensive heels clicked in the gravel as she walked back to her sports car.

Hana exhaled and looked at Bodie. “Are you still staying the night?” she asked, hope in her voice.

He shook his head. “No thanks. It’s not appropriate under the circumstances. It’s bad enough your husband phoned me after finding Boris, but if I spend the night in the same house as his lawyer they’ll fire my a*s for sure.”

Hana swallowed. Liza’s car ground up the driveway, navigating the turns with car. The exhaust pipe hung about five centimetres from the concrete and Bodie hissed as she almost lost it at the top of the rise. Liza blocked the ramp to the garage, so Bodie dumped his car in front of the porch steps. Hana struggled to extract herself one-handed and emerged in time to see Liza dump her briefcase and an overnight bag in his arms. “Don’t put them on the floor,” she threatened and Hana saw her son’s back straighten in irritation. She almost laughed as he turned towards her with a mystified look on his face.

Liza clumped to the top of the porch steps and tried the door handle. She snorted like an angry bull. “Open the door then!”

Hana shrugged. “Logan has the key.”

“I’ve got mine.” Bodie struggled to support both bags in one hand while he fumbled in his pocket. Hana clutched her handbag and kept her left hand under her cast, not wishing to end up as a bag carrier either. She stood on the drive and observed Liza’s long legs and the expensive cut of her power suit. The youngest judge on the circuit cut a dashing figure, even in the darkness.

Bodie unlocked the door and deactivated the burglar alarm, shoving the briefcase under his arm. He eyed the floor and bent as though wishing to drop Liza’s bags. “Don’t you dare!” she warned and he stood up straight and glared at Hana.

“Put them in the room you used,” she said with a sigh. Bodie clumped towards the open bedroom door and Hana smirked as he ditched the bags on the bed without care.

“He can’t stay here.” Liza pointed a manicured fingernail in Bodie’s direction as he walked towards her. “If he’s involved with incriminating my brother, he can’t hear anything I have to say.”

Bodie held his hands up in front of his face. “Don’t worry, I’m leaving.” He raised an eyebrow and shot a cautious look at Hana. “I hope you realise this is your life now, Mum.” He shrugged and stepped onto the porch. “Don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

“What’s he talking about?” Liza sneered as the front door closed.

Hana sighed and set her handbag on the floor. She fumbled the zippers of her boots one-handed. “He thinks Logan is a mafia boss and that I’ll spend the rest of our marriage prison visiting.”

Liza laughed, a musical, tinkling sound. “This is Logan’s first arrest and purely circumstantial.” Her face softened. “My baby brother’s an i***t, not a criminal.”

Hana nodded. “I know.” She stood up straight and inclined her head towards the kitchen. “Have you eaten?”

Liza nodded. “I dined with a local parliamentary minister after I finished with Logan.” The snooty air returned. “I’ll get changed and then we’ll talk.”

“Okay.” Hana pointed towards the allocated bedroom and Liza’s nose wrinkled.

“It isn’t what I expected of my brother,” she said, the words snide on her tongue.

Hana shrugged. “That’s because it’s mine,” she replied and turned her back on her sister-in-law.

The kitchen smelled of Logan’s aftershave and Hana closed her eyes. She felt defeated and Liza’s presence in the house gave her no space to unleash her negative emotions. Flicking the kettle to boil, Hana pulled mugs from the cupboard and set out milk and sugar.

Liza appeared in the doorway, her clothing expensive but casual. She’d released her long, dark hair from its severe bun and it cascaded around her shoulders in ringlets. Inclining her head towards the teapot Hana laid on the table, she asked, “Don’t you have anything stronger?”

“Not really. We don’t drink anymore.” Hana pulled open a cupboard door and found a dusty bottle of cooking sherry. She plonked it on the table and watched Liza struggle with the rusty lid.

“Help yourself.” Hana pushed a mug towards her and watched Liza pour black tea and add a glug of sherry to the dark mixture.

“That’s better.” Liza closed her eyes and a smile lit her tight lips, curving them upwards in a beatific expression. Hana watched in surprise as she lost the hard look and mirrored Miriam’s fragile beauty. “I’ll get him out,” she said with confidence, savouring her drink.

Hana nodded and replied with a nod. She poured tea for herself and sat opposite. Her stomach rumbled but the thought of eating induced nausea and she ignored it. “How’s Logan?” she asked. “I know he didn’t do it.”

Liza inhaled. “The victim regained consciousness as I left the station,” she said. “The detective went up to the hospital to speak to him. My brother has no previous record of violence, so their only evidence is circumstantial and the fact he ran his stupid mouth off before following the man.”

Hana nodded. “With good reason. Boris betrayed us.”

Liza looked at Hana over her mug, “My brother can take care of himself, but hitting someone from behind isn’t his style. If he had questions for the man, why hit him with a sharp object over the back of the head and then call an ambulance? Logan isn’t the type for regrets.”

Hana sighed. “Logan’s left arm is still weak from the break. He’s having physio and chopping wood to regain its strength.”

Liza tilted her head and frowned. “But an angry man can do extraordinary things. It’s not a reasonable defence, although it can be argued to influence a jury.”

“A jury?” Hana swallowed. “It won’t go that far. Will it?” Her eyes glazed over in horror and Bodie’s threat returned to taunt her.

“No.” Liza sniffed. “The doctors found splinters in the wound. Someone hit him with a sharp, wooden object. They haven’t found it yet.”

Hana closed her eyes and imagined the villa’s hallway. “I don’t remember seeing anything like that. But there’s a garage.” She bit her lip. “Logan might have touched any number of things in there. He still keeps a car on the property.”

“Just let them find what they find,” Liza said, taking another sip of her laced tea. “We’ll deal with it then.”

Hana let out an audible sigh but Liza, used to other people’s misery in her line of work, finished her drink without further comment. She scraped her chair back from the table and stood. Pausing in the doorway, she said, “If anything changes, they’ll call me and I’ll go. They can only keep him for twenty-four hours while they get their evidence together. They can apply to a judge for an extension but I’ve already spoken to their list of possible signatories. They’ve promised to make themselves unavailable. Nothing will happen tonight. I can’t imagine they’ll wake him up for questioning when they have all of tomorrow morning.”

“Unless Boris dies.” Hana lowered her gaze and tried not to allow the possibility to permeate her fears too far. She opened her mouth to thank Liza for her efforts, but the other woman’s parting shot left her speechless.

“You’re the problem. You’ve made him careless and that’s on you.”

Hana sat at the kitchen table long after Liza closed her bedroom door. Logan’s family seemed determined to blame her for everything that went wrong. She sighed and pulled herself to the pantry to pour kibbles into Tiger’s bowl as he wrapped himself around her feet. “Don’t go climbing into bed with her by mistake,” Hana warned him as he crunched on biscuits. “Although she probably sleeps upright in a coffin.”