Perri O'Shaughnessy - Presumption Of Death

Nina embraced him. He was so skinny!

Even with this distressing getup, Nina saw that someone had washed him up and bandaged him. He was walking and talking and medicated. She drew him in and helped him take the boots off.

“I’m thirsty,” he said hoarsely. In the kitchen, Paul offered him a beer, which he refused, and a couple of Cokes, which he sucked down fast. “Sorry to cause all this trouble,” he told Paul. “I got in a situation and had to go undercover.”

Nina said, “I’m going to make you a sandwich. Peanut butter okay? Your parents have been so worried. Paul and I have been looking for you.”

“I’ve been in the hospital.”

“What? I called the hospital.”

“I went to the clinic in San Juan Bautista.” He’d driven himself thirty miles to another county.

“Why?”

“I better call my mom. Could I borrow the phone?”

The call lasted a long time, and if it was possible, when he finished the call and walked back into the living room he looked more disheveled after talking to her than before. He sat down heavily on the couch, fingers embedded in Hitchcock’s fur. Nina sat close beside him.

“Now,” Paul said, “what happened to you?”

“We’ve all been so worried,” Nina said. “I guess your mother told you the whole county is looking for you.”

“I got hurt,” Wish said, holding his hand to his throat. “The clinic put me on an IV and I slept all yesterday.”

“Your mother…” Nina started, but Wish interrupted.

“She’s pretty… worked up,” he said, wiggling a finger in his phone ear. “But I told her everything’s dandy now that I’ve hooked up with you guys. She said to tell you she’ll talk to you later,” he added, unaware of how ominous this sounded.

“Does it hurt to talk?”

“No. I know I sound funny, though. Uh, sorry, I need to make one more call. My friend, Danny… have to make sure he’s okay.”

So Sandy hadn’t told Wish about the body. “We heard about Danny from Dustin and Tustin,” Nina said. “We’ve been calling him, but we can’t get through.”

“I need to call him right now.” He got up.

“Does he live with Ben Cervantes?”

Wish said, “Yeah, his uncle. Ben’s not there either?”

“I just called again a few minutes ago. They don’t have an answering machine and there’s no answer.”

Wish sat down again and hung his head. “I’m very worried,” he said. “Paul, I was attacked and I think Danny may have been too. I have to get ahold of him. You’re gonna be mad at me about this situation, but I thought it was under control, I really did, when I told Danny I’d go along.”

“You were attacked?”

“Could I have a glass of milk and another sandwich?” Nina went into the kitchen, but she could still hear them talking.

“I guess I thought I’d be a hero,” Wish was saying, heaving a sigh. “I had a narrow escape instead. Maybe I’m not cut out to be in law enforcement after all. I think I showed bad judgment, Paul. Danny may be in trouble. I should have stopped him, not gone with him, but he pushed my buttons. He’s always known how to do that. Now what? I don’t know.”

“I think there are some huge misunderstandings all around,” Paul said. “Now tell me. Danny Cervantes came to your house Tuesday night.”

“Yeah, we hooked up again after I came down a few weeks ago. Danny left Markleeville in sixth grade, and we had his uncle’s number in Carmel Valley, so I called him and we got together a few times and hung around together. He’d just lost his job and I had a few extra bucks and I was glad to buy the drinks, but, I have to say, Paul, I had decided not to see him anymore. I told him a couple of weeks ago that I was too busy to see him anymore because of working with you and all, and Danny lost it. I didn’t want to hurt his feelings but I did anyway. I think he’d been lonely and-I don’t know, he brought up some old problems we had years ago. This was at the El Nido bar in Monterey.”

“Danny’s twenty-one too?”

“Yeah, and he drinks. He was my best friend when we were kids, Paul. I thought I really hurt his feelings and I was feeling guilty, you know? And sad because our friendship was over.”

Nina came out and sat next to him again, setting a tray of food in front of him. She patted his hand and said, “Thanks for coming here. We’re your friends too.”

Wish drank some milk. He pulled his legs up and put his feet on the coffee table, wincing. “I was sitting in the living room with my roommates on Tuesday night,” he said. “We were watching the Giants-St. Louis game. Danny knocked. He was in a great mood, better than I’ve seen. It’s like we hadn’t had an argument, like I never said anything. And I have to say I was relieved about that.

“He was all fired up. He said he needed me to go up to Robles Ridge with him. Grab some stuff and just go now, now, now. I was in for the night, but Danny-he made me feel like I’d be letting him down, or that I was a coward. You know how you always say, you got to have courage in this world, Paul? Well, this was my moment for courage. But when the time came, I didn’t show much courage at all.”

Nina licked her lips and said, “What did Danny want you to do up there?”

Wish stared at her. “You know. The arson fires.”

“Right,” Paul said. “The arson fires. And you went up there… why?”

“For the money.”

“The money?” Paul wore a stunned expression. Nina thought, it can’t be true.

“One hundred thousand dollars split two ways,” Wish said reverently. “You know how much that is?”

“That would buy a lot,” said Paul.

“Sure would,” said Wish. “Instead, what a fiasco. And you can’t even see the worst of it!” he said darkly. “My throat is completely swollen up with poison oak! That’s why I belong back in Tahoe! I am never hiking these woods again.”

“You know, Wish, I’m trying, but help me out, will you? You went up there with Danny on Tuesday… why?”

Wish looked at Paul as if revising a previously positive opinion. “I told you. For the reward.”

Paul relaxed back into his chair. “Ah. A reward.”

“Some people who got burned out put their money together with some money from the county, that’s why it’s such a large amount,” Wish said. “Arson causes a lot of expensive damage.”

“You followed Danny up there to catch the arsonist?” Nina asked. “In spite of the fact that you could get caught in a fire or killed?”

“No way,” said Wish. “We were just gonna get a picture of the arsonist or his car, some evidence to show who was doing it. We planned to shoot and run.”

He told them what had happened after they went up the ridge, the waiting, the heat and flames, Danny insisting on staying until they could get the shot, then the fear and confusion and getting lost. Nina held Wish’s hand as he haltingly told them about Danny finding him, then losing him again. Wish buried his face in his hands.

“Then the firebug-he ambushed me. He came after me, knocked me down with a rock. I remembered my mom’s advice to my sisters when they went away to school, because she has a double standard, you know? With girls.”

“And that advice was…” Paul prompted.

“Grab and twist. But I was on the ground and he was too close for me to kick. Thing is, he got behind me. He thought the rock knocked me out. Even though the fire was right there licking at me, I decided to lay low. There were plenty of other rocks around.

“He stood over me for a few seconds watching to see if… I don’t know. Maybe to see if I moved-I don’t know. I felt his eyes on me. Maybe the wind shifted right then. Something went right and the fire didn’t get me while I was playing dead.