Whispers in the Wind Read online

  What was up with Jesse? Why was he so rude? Did he care more about Rita than he let on?

  Rita also noticed his behavior and scowled at him. With a shaken voice, Rita asked, “What the heck happened here? That sofa made me sick to my stomach.”

  “I was just going to explain to your mom what I know. Have a seat.” Jesse waved his index finger in the air at Lee. “There’s a chair in the corner.”

  Lee shook his head. “No thanks. I’ll go to the kitchen and get something to drink. You have a lot to talk about.” He bent and kissed Rita. Jesse half closed his eyes and crinkled his nose.

  Sunny noticed but said nothing.

  A little later, the creak of the bedroom door stopped the conversation as everyone turned toward it. Barry came in. “Sorry to interrupt.” He took a drag from his cigarette and looked at Sunny. “I’m going to see if I can get the car fixed before they close.”

  “They don’t fix cars in the bar, you know.”

  He brushed her remark aside. “I’ll be back,” he said and walked out.

  Rita moved over to the dresser and picked up a picture of her and Gina. There was a large diagonal crack on the glass from corner to corner. “What happened here?”

  “Gina got mad and threw it at the wall last week,” said Jesse.

  Sunny felt her cheeks flush and looked away. Gina must’ve been really upset with me.

  Rita stared at the photograph. In it she stood beside Gina. Rita was a petite girl, with shoulder-length dark cinnamon hair, squinting at the sun and smiling for the camera. She wiped her eyes. “I remember the day these pictures were taken. We had so much fun.”

  Sunny looked at her daughter and then strolled over to a chair, struggling to swallow the lump in her throat. Oh God, don’t let me be responsible for Gina’s death.

  Rita sat on the bed and hugged the picture close to her chest, head down, looking up at Jesse under her lashes. “It makes me feel close to her.”

  “Sure.”

  “Earlier that day, you and Gina argued right here in the bedroom.” She patted the bed. “You pushed her on top of this bed. Right?”

  “Yeah.” Jesse’s eyebrows drew together as he shifted positions.

  “Gina jumped back up and said, ‘See I’m just like a rubber ball. I keep bouncing back.’ It’s when you grabbed her by the shoulders and shoved her to the floor.”

  Sunny couldn’t believe what she heard and interrupted, “You shoved her to the floor? Jesse, what the hell is the matter with you?”

  “Wait, Mom.” Rita turned and looked again at Jesse. “When you shoved her to the floor, you said, ‘Bounce back, now, bitch.’ Gina sat and rubbed her butt. You both started to laugh and you two made up.”

  Jesse smiled and rubbed the back of his neck.

  “Remember?”

  He closed his eyes. “Uh-huh.”

  Rita’s chin shuddered. “Gina and I cracked up over that story. It was a day of fun.” Tears blurred her vision.

  Sunny sat back in her chair and adjusted the cushion.

  Jesse put his arm around Rita’s shoulder as she shivered. “I’m so sorry I did that.”

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  Jesse rubbed his hand down his pants leg. “I’ll tell you what I know. On Sunday some coworkers and friends came over for a party. They stayed here all day. This one guy, his name is Victor, he works with Gina. He wasn’t here at the party, but she acted different after she talked to him. I don’t know what was going on ’cause he kept calling.”

  Sunny’s mouth hardened. “Like all the times you call Rita?”

  “Mom!” Her daughter glared at her, then turned to Jesse.

  He ignored them. “I asked Gina what was going on with this guy, Victor, and she got mad. Said he’s a friend. They talk about work. Eva asked her about him and Gina told her it was none of her damn business. Anyway, I hung around awhile. All of us were drinking and acting Indian. You know how it goes, telling stories, laughing, putting each other down, making fun of each other.”

  Sunny had forgotten the old term “acting Indian.” It had been a long time since she had been to the rez.

  “Yeah, it’s what we always do.” Rita looked down at her feet.

  He laced his fingers together. “Eva gave her too much booze. When Gina said no, Eva teased her in front of everyone and dared her to have another drink, so she did. And then another. I couldn’t talk to Gina when she was drinking and in one of her moods. I left and walked down the road to visit my cousin, Louis. You know him. We call him Moochie.”

  Sunny stared at him. “You went off and left the boys here with a bunch of drunks?”

  “They were playing outside with the neighbor kids.” He twisted his wedding ring.

  “Moochie. Why do I know that name? There’s something about you and him, but it’s not coming to me right now…. Anyway, you’re telling us you stayed at his place all day and left everyone partying at your house so they could tear it up?”

  He looked out the window and didn’t respond.

  Rita brushed her hair out of her face. “Mom, let him finish.”

  His eyes moved back and forth at them and repeated, “I got mad and took off. Like I said, I left the boys outside with their friends.”

  “Okay, so you left. We get it. What else?” Sunny asked.

  “About four o’clock, Frank Allen came to get me. That’s when he told me what happened. Frank went inside the house after he learned about Gina and called the police. Helen called my mom. Mom told her I might be at Moochie’s. Well, when I heard I ran back to the house. The tribal police and BIA were here. The ambulance came and parked outside as I ran up on the porch.”

  Rita’s perfectly arched brows rose. “How did Frank know about Gina?”

  “When the boys found her they ran over to Frank’s house.”

  Rita’s hand flew to her throat. “Oh my God!”

  Sunny’s eyes widened and her mouth dropped open. “No!”

  Jesse sucked in a long breath. “Some cop stopped me at the front door. Other officers were securing the scene, putting yellow tape all around the house and yard. Everything was moving too fast. I couldn’t get inside.”

  Jesse eyed her with a downturned mouth. “The police kept me from going to her. I hollered, ‘It’s my wife in there.’ They questioned me about what went on at the house earlier and where I was, and what I was doing. I shouted questions back at them at the same time.

  “I could see Gina on the couch. Her hair hung over the side with blood splattered all over the floor and wall. A couple of BIA agents were kneeling beside her.

  “They were all talking at once. When they saw me the house got quiet. Everyone who’d been at the party was gone, including Eva. Later, the guys from the ambulance took her off the couch, put her on the gurney, and covered her. My rifle lay on the living room floor. One of the tribal cops told me he believed Gina had stuck the rifle under her chin and shot herself.”

  Sunny shoved her hands between her knees to keep them from shaking. Beads of sweat formed on Jesse’s forehead.

  Rita’s eyes were closed. Her shoulders drooped as she bit her lower lip and shook her head from side to side.

  “Why? Why’d she do it?” Sunny felt sick to her stomach. She couldn’t think straight. Acid rose in her throat. She focused her attention on the garbage truck out the window.

  “I don’t know. I couldn’t believe what I saw. It seemed like a frigging nightmare. Everything moved in slow motion.”

  Rita looked at the ceiling, her face wet with tears. She whispered, “What about the boys?”

  “I could see them out in the yard, crying. One of the neighbor’s older girls wrapped her arms around Tommy. Frank and his wife took the younger two. I tried to get to them, but the police were in my face. I couldn’t understand what had happened. I was in a daze.”

  Jesse crossed over to the table and picked up a cigarette pack. Hands shaking, he took one for himself and offered one to Sunny.

  “No thanks,” she sai
d, though she desperately wanted one.

  His hand shook as he leaned against the dresser. “The kids heard the shot and ran into the house. They found her and rushed over to Frank’s. Thank goodness he was home.” Jesse looked around the room as he shook his head.

  “I can’t believe she would do it with the boys right outside,” Sunny said. “That doesn’t sound like her. Not when it came to them.”

  He scratched at his neck, not looking at them. “Maybe she was so pissed off or drunk she forgot they were outside.”

  “I can’t believe it either,” Rita said.

  Sunny picked up Gina’s bracelet off the nightstand. It felt cold as a steel blade. She thought, Gina is the same way now. She got more than a prickly neck; she got a powerful vision. It was so overwhelming it took over her sight and hearing. For a moment, she left her reflection behind, looked through the window, watched Gina’s youngest son, Patrick, standing, screaming bloody murder. She felt the boys’ pain and confusion when they discovered their mother.

  Tommy had blood on his hands. He pushed on his mother, trying to revive her, while the middle boy ran off screaming. Tommy went pale, rubbing his arms absently. He turned and looked through the window at his brother, Patrick, frozen in one spot in the yard, choking on his sobs. She was sure the whole thing took only a few seconds, but it was so powerful she felt drained.

  She’d never had this happen before, an image so strong and painful. She recoiled and pulled herself out of the vision.

  Back in Gina’s bedroom everyone was staring at her. The image gradually faded and the grinding, clattering garbage truck across the street returned her to normal consciousness.

  Rita had moved from the bed to the corner chair and fixed her gaze at her mother.

  Sunny wished it had lasted longer. If she could have controlled it, she might have picked up more clues or seen what actually happened. Anger rose in her chest. She had no knowledge how to handle it or what to do with this vision. If only she could have found out Gina’s reason, if she did it.

  She heard Jesse say, “What with the empty lot between our house and theirs, and the loud music, the Allens told the police they didn’t hear anything. They’d gone shopping and just got home when the boys hollered and banged on their front door. The neighbors on the other side were not home.”

  Sunny’s eyes widened. Sadness overwhelmed her. “Oh God! What’s this going to do to the boys?” Jesse’s eyes darted around the room and Sunny wondered why beads of sweat were popping out along his hairline.

  “The tribal police were called. It took ’em only a few minutes to get here.”

  Queasiness rolled from Sunny’s stomach to her throat. She excused herself, hurried into the bathroom, put the toilet seat up, and hurled. Then she sat with her knees on the floor and rested to regain her composure.

  Seeing a wastebasket wedged behind the porcelain sink, a certain feeling caused her to press her two fingers against her hot neck, and then her stomach knotted up again. Her gaze was drawn again to the basket.

  Sunny bumped the wastebasket with her leg and tiny pieces of pink paper fell from a rumpled tissue. Curious, she gathered them up and put them in her pocket. Once again her neck grew warm. Searching in the medicine cabinet for something for her stomach, she was surprised to see prescription sleeping pills. This makes no sense, with these in the cabinet, why would she use a gun, especially a rifle? She could have gone out peacefully instead of taking a violent way. She looked up at the wall in the bathroom. Pictures of Gina’s children lined the shelves on the wall unit.

  Returning to the bedroom, she slipped her hand inside her pocket and felt the torn pieces. Her fingers tingled. She gave them a little pat, uncertain why she’d bothered to pick them up, or why they gave her a strong reaction. She wasn’t used to having visions. She knew she had psychic abilities, like her grandmother, but never visions. Those confused her. Sunny joined the others again in the bedroom.

  Jesse looked at her. “Are you all right? Do you want to hear the rest?”

  Sunny rolled her eyes. Her chin quivered. “Yes, of course. Keep talking. I didn’t mean to interrupt.”

  “Rita, is it too much for you?” he asked.

  She repositioned herself in the chair. “Yes, but I need to hear it.”

  He rubbed the back of his neck. Sunny wondered if it was hard for him to tell about what had happened, or if this is what he did when he was nervous. What does he know?

  “Well, Eva told the cops that Gina took the rifle and ordered everyone out of the house.” His hand shook as he took a drag.

  “I can’t understand why she’d have a gun. She never wanted to touch one,” said Rita. “Maybe someone else got it out.”

  “Her glasses are on the kitchen counter. She was blind without them,” added Sunny. “Did you put them there?”

  “No, I guess it’s where she left them when she wrote me a note. The letter was on the table next to her.”

  “Why use a rifle when there were sleeping pills in the medicine cabinet? She always said she couldn’t tolerate pain,” Sunny said. “And you had a handgun in the closet. It doesn’t make sense.”

  “I don’t know.” With short jerky movements, he stubbed out his cigarette. “I don’t know.” He changed the subject. “I’m sorry. You guys want something to drink? A beer maybe?”

  “No, I quit,” said Sunny. The front door opened and closed. She wondered if Gerald had left.

  “Sorry, I forgot.” He smiled at Rita. “What about you?”

  “No thanks. When I’m all grown up, Mom stops drinking,” Rita complained.

  Sunny scowled at her. She wanted to focus on the facts around Gina’s suicide, rather than her own problems.

  “What’s this about a letter?” Rita asked Jesse. “You said she wrote you one. Did the police ask if she left one?”

  “They’d found her note before I got here.” Jesse frowned. “They were the ones who showed it to me.”

  Changing her mind about the cigarette, Sunny walked over to the table and tapped one out while he talked. Lighting it, she looked Jesse in the eyes, a mixture of sympathy and disgust going through her. “Tell us about the note.” She blew out her smoke.

  “Gina said, ‘I can’t live like this anymore.’ With me, she meant. She was tired of the drinking and fighting. All she wanted was to be left alone and in peace.” He paced around the room. “The rest of the note said, ‘If this is the only way to get peace, then it’s what I’m going to do.’”

  “She didn’t say anything about the kids?”

  He rolled his tongue inside his cheek. His voice rose. “No. I’m not a mind reader. I can’t tell you what she was thinking.”

  Sunny stood with her back against the wall and exhaled smoke, taken aback by his abruptness. “No, something’s not right here. Gina couldn’t even talk without mentioning the kids.” She looked at him. His jaw twitched. Is he upset or is this talk making him nervous? Is he hiding anything? What about those papers I found? Could Gina have written a practice letter?

  Could the boys have written a letter? I remember Gina saying they had done that before, like when they wanted to go to Circus Circus for Christmas and their birthdays. In fact, she used to call and read them to me. These questions hung in the air like her cigarette smoke. She shuddered. I can’t take this. My brain is on overload.

  Rita’s boyfriend, Lee, tapped on the bedroom door and came in. “I have to go to work. I’m on the late shift.”

  Rita turned to her mother. “You guys want to stay at my place tonight?”

  “No, you two go on. We’ve got a room at Super 8. Room 5.”

  Sunny watched from the bedroom as Rita and her boyfriend passed Eva in the hall. Everyone avoided eye contact.

  Eva’s perfume announced her arrival before she came through the bedroom door. Sunny coughed into her fist. Eva shot daggers at her, then smiled sweetly at Jesse.

  “The mortuary called,” Eva said in a monotone. “Gina will be ready for viewing in the morn
ing. I already told your daughter and that guy she’s got with her.” She turned back and dipped a shoulder flirtatiously at Jesse, then sauntered out.

  Sunny grabbed her purse and told Jesse good night. Hearing about the mortuary was too much for her. She just wanted out of there and headed toward the front door to meet Barry, who waited in the hallway. He leaned toward her ear. “Remind me to tell you what I found out.”

  They were the last to leave. Sunny had hoped she’d receive a sign, another vision or a prickle on her neck, but nothing happened. She didn’t know what to make of the vision she’d had of Gina’s boys. A thought occurred to her: her vision didn’t show any images of Gina in the house, or with the gun.

  Why not?

  CHAPTER NINE

  MONDAY NIGHT

  Exhausted, Sunny and Barry picked up takeout at the Chinese restaurant near their motel. Moments passed as they ate silently. Sunny’s stomach was so upset she hardly tasted the noodles.

  Barry took a bite of fried rice. “Remember, I wanted to tell you something?”

  She fumbled with her chopsticks. “Yeah, what is it?”

  “I talked to this guy in the kitchen, Gerald. You know, your ex?” He grinned. “He was at the party.”

  She hoped Gerald hadn’t said anything about them being engaged. That was a long time ago, and she didn’t want Barry to know anything about him, and vice versa, but she had to say something.

  “I was surprised,” she finally answered. “Why was he there?”

  “He and Eva are dating.”

  Sunny almost dropped her chopsticks. “What? Oh no. Not her.” She stuck out her tongue. “Yuck.”

  “Hmm, jealous?” he teased.

  “Stop it. Just tell me what he said.”

  “He said that Gina and Eva got into a big argument about Jesse. After a screaming match, Eva told her, ‘You’re lucky to have him.’ Gina said, ‘He’s a liar and a cheat. If you want him, he’s all yours. I don’t care anymore. There’s someone else who cares about me and wants to help me and the boys.’”