Tuesday’s Child

Chapter 5

KALA ADJUSTED HER SUNGLASSES, THEN REALIZED IT WAS THE sun umbrella on her terrace that needed adjusting. She loved the sun, the warmth it generated. She always felt like she could do anything, accomplish anything when the sun was out. Her Hawaiian heritage, she supposed. She craned her neck to look through the sliding doors to the giant hand-carved teak clock over her mantel, a gift from a grateful client years ago. A clock that had never lost a second of accuracy in all the time it had been hanging over her mantel. Twelve minutes past noon.

The ham-and-cheese sandwich on the plate that she’d fixed earlier didn’t tempt her. She wasn’t hungry, but no matter; if she suddenly got hungry, it was there for her. Maybe if Ben were there, she would have eaten it, but Ben said he was going nuts sitting around waiting for news. By news he meant Adam Star, and he also refused to refer to the waiting game as a death watch. Golf was his answer. Her answer was just to sit and wait. It was three weeks to the day that Adam Star had walked into her office and turned her world upside down.

So, there she was, alone, waiting for word. She eyed the pitcher of ice tea. The ice had almost completely melted. Well, what could you expect with the temperature in the low nineties?

Soft music wafted through the French doors, which she had left ajar. She did love the golden oldies, and so did Ben. Oftentimes they danced out here in the cool evenings after the sun went down. Ben was a romantic. So was she. At times. Soft music and balmy breezes always made her think of back home. Her game plan after the six-month vacation with Ben was to head that way and reclaim her roots. She wished now she had told Ben of her plans, but something inside her warned her that the timing wasn’t quite right. She would, of course, extend the invitation for him to join her, but he had so many friends here, she seriously doubted he would give up his present life even for her. She needed to go home, that was the bottom line. Her family had made it possible for her to go to the mainland at an early age, to attend college, then law school. It was time to take her place in the family clan.

Perhaps out of guilt, perhaps not. She thought of it as guilt because while her family had been wealthy, the inheritance always went to the sons. The females were provided for, and her brothers had certainly seen to that by shipping her off to the mainland for an education. Back then, she’d thought of it as being banished from the clan, which was far from the truth.

The Aulani coffee plantation was the largest on the island and managed by her brothers and their children. It was beyond profitable. The brothers, forward thinkers, had dropped the old ways, the old customs, after a typhoon wiped out the plantation, but not before a fungus attacked the coffee-bean plants. The insurance they carried was a mere drop in the bucket for the amount of money they needed to go on. With nowhere to turn but to their sister, Kala handed over all her savings, then borrowed money to get the plantation up and running again. Today, the Aulani plantation was a major source of coffee in the US. She never regretted even for a moment the hardships she’d had to endure to make sure the plantation survived. For many, many years now, she received a full share of the profits because her brothers were fair. A house in Lahaina had been turned over to her, her grandmother’s house, right on the ocean. Her brothers, their sons, the neighbors, and the workers from the plantation had refurbished the large five-bedroom house and added on to it after they bought up the two adjoining properties and made it into one. While it wasn’t palatial, it was darn close to it. They said it was an act of love for her, and she believed them because, when it came right down to it, family was all that mattered in their world-her world as well. She loved going back home, loved waking up to the sound of the surf, seeing the palms swaying, hearing the rustle of the wind, staring for hours at her banyan tree, the biggest and the oldest on the island, and it was all hers. She loved the way the Hawaiian sun kissed her entire body and made her feel at peace. She hungered for that feeling.

If there was a way to get out of the six-month trip that she and Ben had planned for four years, she’d do it in a heartbeat. She knew she wouldn’t really do it because she had promised Ben she would take the trip, and she never broke a promise. That wasn’t exactly true, she fretted. She’d broken one promise, and that was the promise to Sophie Lee that she would successfully defend her so that she would be free. She never knew to this day if Sophie held that broken promise against her or not.

Kala didn’t know how it happened or when it happened, but slowly, over the year she’d spent preparing Sophie’s defense, the young woman had come to be like a daughter to her. She still, to this day, thought of her that way. Jay had told her once that Sophie, who was an orphan, said that knowing Kala was like having a mother. She’d cried when Jay told her that. She still teared up when she thought of Sophie locked up for the rest of her life.

Well, that wasn’t going to happen. Soon, she’d be free. Free! God, how wonderful that was going to be for Sophie.

Kala looked down at the dried-out sandwich, at the pitcher of almost lukewarm ice tea. She sighed as she got up and carried it all into the kitchen. She might as well go to the office and pester Jay and Linda. She grimaced at the thought. Jay had threatened to kick her fanny out the door if she showed up again. Well, let him try.

Kala did a quick check of her makeup, her linen pantsuit that was so wrinkled it looked like she’d slept in it, her hair, and her sandals. She shrugged. Linen was supposed to look wrinkled. She headed out to her SUV, a Porsche Cayenne, and headed for the office. She only drove her little convertible when she wanted to show off. She much preferred the safety of the big SUV with all the crazy drivers on the road. Her cell phone rang just as she shifted gears to back out of her driveway. She had many rules when it came to driving. First and foremost, no drinking and driving. Nor would she use her cell phone or text while driving. Nothing was more important than keeping her eyes on the road, and the person could and would call back at some point. And last, never speed, always obey the law. Kala lived her life by rules, always had and always would. Besides, it was probably Ben just calling to check in. Something he did without fail when they were apart. She only wished she was half as diligent as he was.

The moment Kala opened the door to the office, she knew that IT had happened. That was probably what the phone call had been about when she was backing out of the driveway.

“What?” The single word exploded out of her mouth like a gunshot.

Linda took the lead, her expression one of excitement and misery all rolled into one. “Adam Star expired at precisely one thirty-six P.M. His remains are on the way to the crematorium where he will be… how do you say it, fried, burned, crisped up, roasted. Whatever, he is on the way. Jay has everything ready. You should go right now. Like now, Kala! Why are you still standing there? Go! Jay and I made all the calls. The judge faxed the writ to the prison. The warden is waiting for you, and he promised not to bring Sophie out till you got there. For God’s sake, go already!”

Jay reached for Kala’s arm and literally dragged her out the door. “Before you can ask me, Kala, yes, today is Tuesday!”

Kala sagged against her old partner. She felt so light-headed she could barely stand. “It’s finally going to happen. It is, right, Jay?”

“It damn well is, unless I have an accident on the way. The only thing I’m not sure about is if Star’s death is going to leak out before we get to Sophie. Hospitals are their own gossip mills. I don’t think Clayton Hughes will seek anyone out. He pretty much deferred to you, Kala. I’m not sure about the two male nurses. They don’t have a clue what’s been going on, at least I don’t think so. They’re hardened to death, but you never know. I’m driving. You just sit there, and let’s go over everything one more time. Like she said, Linda and I made all of our calls, so everyone has a heads-up.”

Kala’s hands flapped in the air. “The private plane is gassed and sitting on the tarmac. We head straight for the airport the moment we walk out of the prison. Every detail has been taken care of. The pilot will fly Sophie straight to Hawaii, where my family will be waiting for her. They’re going to take her to my house in Lahaina where, hopefully, she will agree to stay for at least six months. Time to start over with people who will care about her. My family will help her every step of the way. I have, in the back, suitcases full of things she will need until she feels confident enough to go out and about on her own. All the paperwork has been done, everything is in order. We spring her, we walk away, and that’s it.

“Tomorrow morning, you will file the lawsuit against the state of Georgia and Ryan Spenser. Do not even give him a heads-up. Tomorrow you can call Clayton Hughes, and he can give a statement, but wait until late in the afternoon so it makes all the evening news shows. Do not take any calls from Ryan Spenser. Also, tell the guard in the lobby not to let him up to our floor. I know you are getting all this because of that photographic memory of yours. I have Sophie’s driver’s license, which I renewed every year, her passport, which was renewed by me last year, plus an envelope full of cash until we can get her a bank account in Hawaii. I even jumped the gun and filed to have her nursing license renewed. Don’t even ask me why I did all that. Maybe I had a premonition something like this was going to happen. She has a brokerage account of her own here in Georgia that we can have transferred. When we told her about the grandfather she’d never known, who only learned about her after she was in prison and left her his farm in Pennsylvania, Sophie okayed selling it, and I invested that money for her. She’s not rich on her own, but we sold before the bottom fell out of the real-estate market. That four hundred thousand we got from the sale of the farm is now worth seven hundred thousand. That’s Sophie’s own money. The state will pony up big-time, so she will have that coming to her, too. Then, of course, there is the Star fortune. Who the hell knew storage lockers, zippers, and toothbrushes could generate the kind of money that is in that estate? I guess the elder Stars were visionaries of a sort. Can’t you drive any faster, Jay? Oh, by this time tomorrow, Ben and I will be on our way to London. I do need to call him as soon as we get Sophie airborne.”

“I could drive faster, but I’m not going to, so don’t ask me again. I know this is a touchy subject, and I know neither one of us has mentioned it, but what do we do if Sophie doesn’t want to go to Hawaii?”

Kala’s lips tightened. “She’s going. Sophie needs to get away from the publicity that is sure to come and get her life back. She’ll see that and understand. I am prepared for a little argument, but when she realizes today is Tuesday, and when we tell her the story, she won’t argue.”

Jay’s face turned stubborn. “But what if she does kick up a fuss?”

Kala’s hands flapped in the air again. “Then I don’t know, Jay. I guess we go to Plan B; but since we don’t have a Plan B or a Plan C, we absolutely have to convince her to go with Plan A.

“I can’t wait to see her. It’s been seven and a half years since she cut off visitation. A day doesn’t go by that I don’t think about her and wonder how she’s doing. The warden said she’s a model prisoner, never gave them one ounce of trouble. But that’s Sophie for you.”

The rest of the ride to the state prison was made in silence. When they were two miles from the prison gates, Jay tossed Kala his cell phone and told her to text the warden that they were within shouting distance. “We want in, and we want out. I stressed that to him when I called earlier, but say it again.”

Kala did as she was told. “The warden’s return text read, ‘Done. We are waiting at the door.’ ”

“Wow! Does that mean we don’t even have to get out of the car?” Jay asked, his eyes wide.

“One of us does, to show the proper credentials. That would be me, Jay. When we return, I will sit in the back with Sophie, and you can chauffeur us to the airport. We need serious hugging time. Oh, my God! There it is!”

Inside the state prison, a tall, distinguished man with white hair and a white beard stood aside as one of the matrons brought Prisoner 9878245 to the door. He waited for the locks to open, and out walked Sophie Lee, who looked frightened to death to be where she was.

“It’s okay, Miss Lee. You are being released, and you are free to leave. I wish you well.”

“Free! I don’t understand. What happened? What am I supposed to do, where should I go? No!” Sophie tried to pull back to return to the barred doors.

“Sophie!” Kala said, rushing forward and throwing her arms around the young woman. “Oh, Sophie, it is sooo good to see you!” She gathered Sophie in her arms and squeezed her so tight, Sophie could barely breathe, but she didn’t tell Kala to stop.

“Am I going with you, Kala?” Sophie asked, when Kala finally released her.

“Damn straight you’re going with me. You are done with this place, kiddo. Come along and don’t look back. Do you hear me, don’t look back! Jay is in the car.”

“What happened? What about my things? They just brought me to the warden; no one said I was being released. I didn’t say good-bye to anyone!”

“Is there anything you really want from here to take with you?”

“No, not really.”

“Is there anyone you care enough about inside that you want to say good-bye to?”

“No, not really,” Sophie said as she ran to Jay, who was standing by the door of his SUV. She allowed herself to be hugged, then reached up to wipe a tear trickling down Jay’s cheek. “I’m really free! You got me out! I never thought it would happen. Never in a million years. Oh, you two are miracle workers! I hope you aren’t upset with me, Kala, for stopping the visitation. I just couldn’t keep on seeing you, then have to go back inside. I couldn’t function after I would see you and Jay. It just seemed better that way.”

“I understood, Sophie. Come on, get in the car. We have so much to tell you and don’t have all that much time. You’re going to Hawaii as soon as we drop you off at the airport.”

“Hawaii! Why? Now? Why can’t I stay with you till… till, you know, I get my bearings?”

“Yes, you’re going to stay in my house in Hawaii. We need to get you as far from here as possible once the news gets out about your release and the circumstances surrounding it. My brothers are going to pick you up at the airport when you land. It’s called R and R. You aren’t going to give me a hard time about this, are you?”

“No, I guess not. I trust you and Jay. I guess you have your reasons. I’ve always dreamed of going to Hawaii. Do you think I can sleep out under the stars on the beach?”

Kala laughed. “Baby, I personally guarantee it.”

“Now I am excited. Please, tell me everything.”

They told her everything, ending with, “And today is Tuesday, Sophie!”