Catharine Bramkamp - Real Estate Diva 04 - Trash Out (35 page)

Satisfied and
pleased
with the
visitor
response, I drove home to my own old fashion house with modern plumbing, the only decent combination in which to live.

I entered
the house but did not get far. Summer ran up the street as soon as she saw me.  I did not need to live in the co-
housing;
I got just as much attention by living on Main Street.

“Allison, they found a body at the river
!”

Chapter
15

I froze and tried not to
believe that all my evil
thoughts about poor Debbie had manifested in her terrible demise. 
“Do they know who it is?”

Summer moaned. “It’s
Debbie
, I knew I shouldn’t have. I mean
,
I never.”

“
Where is the body now?”

“Tom just took the call.  I overheard, you came home just in time.”  She looked mournful
,
and very guilty.

“
Come on, we’ll go together.” There were many places to find a body at the river
but only a few places to get the body up to the road.
I drove to the closest place, more to placate
Summer
, who hung her head out the car window and gulped down explosive breaths of air as I careened down to the south fork of the Yuba.

The river runs the lowest in the early fall
.
The water temperature increases to almost above freezing giving many locals
and more than a few tourists
a false sense of security
:
the warmer the water, the less treacherous it seems. We los
e
about two people a year
to accidents at the river
,
usually because
the victim had smoked too much weed
and
drank too much
alcohol
and became simultaneously relaxed and invincible
:
an
attitude
that packs a dangerous punch in a
mountain
river
.

Tom was
just
hiking out as we pulled in. 
Three
families
and a gaggle of
teenagers hovered
around
the parking lot
. S
ome member
s
of the crow
d
were dusty from the afternoon out doors, some, like
Summer
and
me
had just come over for the news.  Tom looked tired and sweaty. Behind him the
whole
of the police force
climbed the last of the stairs leading from under the bridge to the parking area. That
horrible black bag
swung
between them.  I turned away.  Summer started to sob.

“She dove!”  Tom announced loudly enough for the milling teens and twenty
-
something’s
to hear.

“Never dive into the river, you’ll break your
fucking
necks!”
  His voice was fierce and he scowled at the teens.

The
officers loaded the
body into the
waiting
ambulance. It took off in
silence
, lights and siren subdued.

Tom rubbed his face and waved away the rest of the witnesses. “Just go
!  Damn kids.”  He muttered, fully forgetting he had once been one of their
number
.  I forestalled pointing out the number of
afternoons
Tom got high and threatened to jump off
this very
bridge.

“
God,
” the chief of police kicked a rock and watched it tumble down the slope to the river
. He finally turned and registered
our presence.
“Probably
happened
at the swimming hole, it’s shallow this year.”

W
e
had wasted a great many summer afternoons at that
swimming hole, Tom and
I
, back in another life and another time.
It was called the swimming hole, but few of us did much swimming.  I personally, never dove. 
My mother’s voice kept echoing in my head, and
to keep that inner voice was nagging, I simply did what it said – no diving.

“Did you know her?” 

He shook his h
ead.  “I didn’t recognize her. Makes it even worse.”
He shot
a look at the distraught
Summer
.  “It’s not Debbie.  Or Melissa either.” He said the last name thoughtfully.

“Why would it be Melissa?” 
Was she still missing?  Now I felt guilty because I forgot to worry about her.

“Her ex is at large
, released on a technicality, aren’t they all?
”
Tom
rubbed his head
.  “She has a restraining order, which makes it a little easier for me, should I ever run into
Dick
. 
But o
therwise
,
worthless.
  I
try to
keep an
eye on her.”

“She liked to get high at the river?”

He gave me a withering look and I
turned away
.

Summer sucked her lipstick off and gazed up where the ambulance disappeared.  “Where is she then?”
s
he
asked
quietly.

Tom shook his head.  “I don’t know, she’s a free woman, she doesn’t need to
answer
to us.”

Summer stamped her foot, acting the
petulant
child, or
perhaps
she just acted the part of a competent adult.  “Yes she does, she needs to tell me where she is.”

I
had put it off as long as I could.  I reluctantly packed, spen
t
a restless Thursday night wondering about both Debbie and Melissa
, and
f
or good measure
,
Ben
. Was
he hovering
by
Cassandra’s side?  Would he want to postpone our life together while he rescued Cassandra?  Again?

I
was ready to
return t
o River’s Bend
by 7:00
Friday morning
. I thought
I
may
as well get an early start
.  One rehearsal dinner and one wedding and I would be a free woman. 
I knew that if I left at exactly 7:05 am
,
I would just avoid the commute
traffic
back up in Sacramento and
travel
behind the regular traffic traveling north on
highway
101.  I had a good three and a half hour drive ahead a
nd wasn’t looking forward to it, mostly because I was reluctant to leave. I
drank another cup of coffee and watched the sun fill the back yard and spill into the kitchen and great room.

“Okay, okay, I’m going
,
” I said out loud.  I walked to the front door to double check that it was locked, and
saw
what at looked like a pile of clothes heaped on the front porch.

“Oh for God’s sake
!
”
Now people are leaving their garbage on my doorstep?
Now
I
was
really
going to run
for City Council, there should be
laws.
. . I started to push the offending bundle away,
then looked more closely.
A tangle of grey hair poked from the top of the bundle.  I pushed at it and it moved.  A face peeped out like an extra in Oliver Twist.  Her eyes were
red rimmed and bloodshot. 

“
Please don’t turn me out
,”
s
he begged breathlessly.

Her face
was sunburned, her nails were grimy and she looked like she had
n’t
slept
for many nights
.
Her bright caftan, not flattering in the first place, hung in grimy tatters around her round form.

“I take it the local bars didn’t exactly welcome you.”

She winced and patted her lips experimentally as it to make sure they were still attached to her face.

“
What the hell happened to you? 
I grabbed her arm before she slipped further down the
door
frame
.
I closed the door
(locked
it)
and led her to
one of the
emergency loan
chairs
from the Prue Sullivan collection of uncomfortable furniture.  If it broke under Debbie’s weight, t
o
o bad.

She rubbed her eyes and dragged her dirty hands down her face smearing dust and traces of yellow pine pollen over her cheeks.

“I think I was kidnapped
,”
s
he
announced, her voice dull.

“You think?  Wouldn’t that be a certainty
?
” I
guessed that
cooing attention
and anxious
hovering
would
not be appropriate or welcome.  Debbie
was tough and
I had heard she
prided herself on being no nonsense. I would have fetched a glass of water but to be honest, I was afraid to leave her alone.

“I went up to the Ridge.
”
She started to cough.

Once
she was
occupied, I dashed to get her a drink and returned just as she was recovering.  I admit
,
I also didn’t want her to disappear again.

She drank and glanced up at me.
“You’ve been to the
R
idge?”

“I’m not allowed
,
” I a
ns
wered piously. 
The
Ridge was short hand for
blue tarp shacks,
a casual
r
elationship with sanitation, un
-
immunized children
,
m
eth labs
and
p
ot farms.  The
more
left unsaid, the better.  But the cash from the main export did help the local merchants
in the surrounding towns
.
A successful crop meant good times at every bar in town.

“I went up there to find people who were affected by the last fire.”

“
Oh
,
boy
,
”
It was easy
to
visualize
poor
Debbie
armed with
only
book
s
and codas and writs
,
determined
ly
face
ing
down
illegal squatters who yes, lost buildings and farms in t
he
last fire, but how on earth can you go about suing someone for
loss of
stolen property? It was
a great
conundrum
, a large complex word problem. And I hate word problems. I bet
Debbie
hates them now too.

“They didn’t
exactly
embrace your idea
,
”
I guessed.

“
T
hey didn’t want anything to do with
anything to do with
authority
, not even if it helped them
.
One couple was really nice, they lost a daughter in the fire.”

I knew
the
couple;
I had found their daughter. I
did not volunteer my information but just
waited for
Debbie
continue
.

“They explained to me that no one up there want
s
any
attention and then shared a great joint
with me
.”

“A
seven-day
joint?”

“
M
ore than that
one.  Every
time I pulled myself together
,
they insisted I smoke another, a peace offering. I thought I was getting through
to them. Lots of people came by
and shared a smoke,
or
,”
she
paused
,
“
a
drink
.
Did I shoot up anything?
”
  She pulled her
sleeve
and glared at her bare arm.  “I don’t fu
c
king remember.  Jesus, I’m too old for this.”