Jeff Abbott: Distant Blood

“If you are quite done being the Welcome Wagon, Deb,” Aunt Lolly intoned, reproof in her voice, “perhaps you'd show Jordan and Candace to their rooms. Bob Don and Gretchen, y'all are in your regular room at the end of the hall. Why don't y'all get settled and then join us down here for cocktails? Then we'll all get acquainted and eat.” She patted me on the arm, smiled wanly at Candace, and glided from the room like a spirit. Only the vague smell of her cit-rusy perfume declared she'd been in the room.

Deborah made a wrinkled face at her aunt's departing form. “Speaking of old fuddies-she needs a little more sugar in her diet.” She grabbed Candace's bag. “Follow me, troops.”

The stairway she led us up was dark, in stark contrast to the glaring summer light outside. The banister was heavy and worn by several decades' worth of sliding palms. The stairs bent at the second floor, then bent again to rise to the third. The house must be older than I originally thought, built perhaps in the last century. The floor, the walls, the stairs all held an enclosing permanence that felt choking. It was not an airy house and an invisible denseness pressed against my skin. Deborah kept up a line of patter all the way up the stairs. “So you've already met Tom and Lolly- anyone else yet?”

“Rufus,” I answered.

“Ah. Uncle Mutt's marionette. Rufus is okay, but he's not one of the world's great thinkers.” Deborah paused at the second-floor landing, one hand on an ornate orb of wood on the staircase. “And have you made the acquaintance of Aunt Sass yet?”

“No, but we've heard quite a lot about her,” I answered.

“You can't hear about Sass-one has to experience her.” Deborah's grin was wry, but I thought I detected a flicker of pain across her features. “Aunt Sass glues this family together.”

“Blood can be as sticky as glue,” Candace offered unexpectedly. A quick glance told me she was studying Deborah intently, perhaps to see if the mention of blood rattled her.

Apparently it didn't. “Isn't blood what holds a family together?” Deborah shrugged. She sauntered up the steps; I figured she'd misinterpreted Candace's comment.

The third floor held several bedrooms-Deborah indicated her own guest quarters were down the hall, and Aunt Lolly's room was here as well. “She likes to be close to heaven,” Deborah observed while opening a door and gesturing us inside. “Here's y'all's digs. Hope they're comfortable.”

The room was nice, furnished with antique pieces and a braided navy-and-gray rug. Some undetermined wild-flower-lavender in shade-stood in a vase. A mirror, one crack scarring its surface, sat mounted on the wall like a diseased eye. A window opened up to a view over the bay. A small bathroom and large closet completed the room.

“I hope you like it. This is a room I used to stay in when we'd visit when I was little. I asked Uncle Mutt to give it to y'all special. I wanted y'all to feel welcome.” She smiled warmly.

“Thanks very much,” I said. “I'm sure we'll be really comfortable, Deborah.”

“We want you to be, Jordan,” she said softly. “I mean, I'm sure this is very odd for you. It's odd for us, as well. The family, I mean.” A sudden grip of inarticulateness made her flip her palms up, then down. “I don't have the words. I'm so very fond of Uncle Bob Don. I just am glad to know you've found him. I know he'll be a wonderful father to you.”

My throat felt tight. Found him. Wonderful father.

“You didn't tell us what you do, Deborah. Jordan's a librarian, and I run a little restaurant in Mirabeau. How about you?” Candace stayed close to me, watching my new cousin.

“Oh, I'm a nurse. In Corpus Christi. But I do get to visit Uncle Mutt and Uncle Jake a lot here at the house. Aunt Lolly I can do without.” She grimaced even at merest mention of her aunt's name.

“Nursing must be very rewarding work,” Candace proceeded. My tongue felt stapled to the roof of my mouth.

“Oh, it is. Listen, I need to get a few things done before cocktails and dinner. It's not dressy. Come as you are.” She started sidling for the door. “I am really happy to meet you both-”

“Deborah, listen,” Candace interrupted. “Would it be too much trouble for me to get my own room? I'd feel better about being here if I wasn't sleeping in Jordan's room, what with meeting his family and all for the first time.”

A prickle of anger contracted her eyes for a moment, as if Candace's request was a personal jab. Then her face softened and she said, “Of course. Bob Don had just said that y'all were quite the item, so I assumed-forgive my bad manners. There's an extra room at the end of the hall, Candace, and I'll make it up for you.”

“Oh, please, don't go to any trouble, Deborah. Point me in the direction of the sheets and I'll do the work.”

“Don't be silly. For a nurse, making a bed with fresh sheets is second nature.” She rubbed Candace's arm kindly and gave me another smile. “I'll see y'all downstairs for drinks. Tom makes a mean margarita, if you like 'em tart.” Deborah left, closing the door behind her.

“I like her,” I said, sitting down on the bed.

“I like her, too,” Candace said, “and it worries me no end.”

“Why?”

“Because right now I don't want to like any of these people.” Candace sat next to me and draped her arms around my shoulders. “Because one of these people is sending bloodied letters to my baby. I don't want to trust any of them until we know who that is.”

“We're not sure it's someone here on the island,” I offered.

“Then who else? Someone who's not at the reunion doesn't want you here? That makes no sense. And I'm not letting you out of my sight until I know who that is.”

I smiled at her determination to protect me from harm. I'm six feet two, a hundred and eighty pounds, and exercise regularly-Candace doesn't even come to my shoulders. But I pitied the fool who crossed her.

“If you're not letting me out of your sight, hon, why'd you ask for your own room?” I stretched out lazily on the bed, allowing myself to relax for the first moment since setting foot on Sangre Island. I ran a hand down her spine.

She squirmed away, playfully slapping my hand away. “First, I don't give a crap about appearances. But second, whoever's terrorizing you-”

“They're not terrorizing me, I'm not scared of that fool,” I interjected.

She forged ahead. “-will be watching you like a hawk probably, looking for a way to strike at you. Me being down the hall gives us another vantage point to watch over your ass. When you're in your room, that hallway is mine. No one's going to get near your room without me knowing.” She swatted said ass when I stood and reached for her.

“So you're baiting the trap with me and just me, while you watch from a safe distance?” I teased.

“Something like that.” She pressed herself into my arms. Her breath was short and she began to trace a fine web of delight on my back with her fingertips.

I kissed her, and the world seemed far away. I wished this house was empty and it was only the two of us alone on this island, surrounded by the comforting arms of the sea. And that we'd never heard of Goertz millions, gore-speckled letters, or murdered sailors on a beach.

I thought I'd seenGretchen wandering out from the house toward the scrubby trees that freckled the island, but I wasn't quite sure it was her moving in the shadows of the branches. Tired of feeling like I was hiding away from my new kinfolks, I felt vast relief when Deborah knocked on our door and offered to escort us downstairs. She'd fixed up a room for Candace, just as promised. Her hug and her reassuring smile were so welcome, I felt a pang of guilt for harboring any suspicions about her being my hate-mail fiend.