Chapter 27
Logan’s truck proved a blessing, even if it was difficult to start first thing in the morning. As the term neared a close, the weather deteriorated. Frost threatened to put in an appearance and the nights gained a frozen edge.
Anka’s husband rang Hana one evening to let her know she left him. “You must have known,” he argued.
“I thought she stopped it,” Hana replied. “I challenged her and she left the school. I thought she removed herself from temptation. We’ve had no contact since.”
“You should’ve told me.” He sounded bitter and Hana felt his pain.
“I’m sorry,” she admitted. “You’re right. In my defence, I assumed she’d stopped.”
Ivan snorted. “I didn’t know she’d quit her job until last weekend! She did it so the kid could stay at school and not get expelled.”
“Oh, no.” Hana sat on the sofa and smoothed the cat’s tail between her fingers. He glared at her and hopped off the cushion. “He’s still there?” She sighed, knowing she could have asked Logan but hadn’t dared, pushing the subject as far from them as possible. It already did enough damage. He didn’t mention it and nor would she.
“There will be repercussions from this,” Ivan predicted. “I don’t know how to deal with it. Gareth is livid. He reckons if Tama comes near him, he’ll smack the snot out of him. I told him he’d get suspended and that will be the end of his school career and university. But I know how he feels. Apart from the fact Tama’s a kid himself and I’ve thought of him like a son, I’d smack the snot out of him myself!”
The conversation ended with neither of them any the wiser. Hana sat in stunned silence for a while, grateful when the cat returned for a smooch. “People just don’t realise, Tiger,” she whispered, fondling his ears. “When they set off after their own desires, they implode so many other lives in the process.” She thought about another time in another life and felt the chill begin in her soul.
Her mind drifted to Logan and warmth returned, stopping the ice regaining a hold. “Keep the truck, please?” he’d said, running his fingers up Hana’s forearms with a feather light touch. “I don’t go back on favours, that’s not who I am.”
“I just kind of assumed you would,” Hana began and he looked hard into her green eyes with a serious expression on his face.
He faltered for a second and after running his tongue across his bottom lip, said, “You can’t make assumptions about me, Hana. Sometimes things won’t be as they seem. Just ask me if you need to know something and I’ll tell you.” He had exacted a promise from her with a heated kiss in the car park and Hana blushed at the memory.
Hana made good on her plans to change her circumstances and started clearing out the garage. In the absence of her car, stuff crept outwards from the walls and took up residence on the garage floor. She didn’t even try to drive Logan’s truck in. Vik’s tools hung around the walls, rusting and unused. Hana’s repertoire of tools included a hammer, some nails and the ability to run up the street and summon one of her poor male neighbours. The junk needed to go.
Izzie wanted nothing but Bodie wasn’t sure. Hana spoke to him on the phone. “You need to come and look soon,” she told him. “I can’t keep it forever.” She heard his sharp inhale on the other end of the line and tensed. He didn’t like change and proved frosty over the house sale.
“I’ll come down soon,” he promised. Hana sighed. He’d been saying that for years, but had so far only ever turned up unexpectedly on his way to somewhere else.
“I’m planning a garage sale,” she said with pride in her voice. “I’ve got the signs ready.”
“You’re really going through with it?” Bodie sounded surprised and Hana cringed at the doubt in his voice.
“Yes. The real estate agents came through last weekend. I’m giving their proposals to Angus. He’ll look over them for me.”
Bodie’s silence spoke volumes and he changed the subject. “Any news on those two clowns who damaged the car?”
“No.” Hana’s brow furrowed. “I haven’t heard from the garage either. I should ring them. It shouldn’t take this long to repair Papa ji’s dings and replace the bumper, should it?”
“Not really. What did it cost?”
“I don’t know that either. I got busy clearing out the house and forgot about it. I’ll get onto it soon.” Hana didn’t mention the car parked periodically across the street from her house; a black sedan with a white male driver. She wanted to tell Bodie, but the man never approached her, just watched from a distance. Hana rang her case officer with the registration number, but she never seemed to be available and hadn’t yet returned the voicemail messages.
Logan’s truck kangarooed Hana to work, choking in disgust at the high grade gas she put in it. The day proved long and frustrating as Sheila geared up for the annual careers expo for students. Everyone lived on a knife-edge around her of late and the office degenerated into an unhappy, toxic place as the year progressed.
Held in the evening during August, the expo involved endless administration for Hana and other school admin staff who helped. It hailed the start of hundreds of messages left on voicemail for prospective visitors, emails dashing forwards and back, notes made about who needed what on the night; frustration and success all rolled into one.
“Thank goodness we started early this year,” Sheila sighed. “But it doesn’t lessen the stress does it? It just drags it out longer. What will we do without Anka? She did the typing and sorted out the floor plan.”
“It’ll be okay,” Hana reassured her. “It always is. We’ll manage.”
At interval, she saw Angus with her pile of real estate agreements and he went through them. One by one he poured over them, checking out the small print and the terms with his glasses perched on the end of his nose. “Even though we’re in the middle of a recession, some of them have good terms but want to list the house at a very low asking price. Others are higher, but I suspect once they get the listing, the price will be lowered after a few weeks to your detriment.”
“I don’t pretend to understand this.” Hana sighed and Angus observed her over his glasses. Then he slid them off his long nose.
“Can’t Logan help you with this?” he asked. “He’s got a good head for business.”
Hana misunderstood. “No. It’s okay if you don’t have time. I can work it out.” She stood and shuffled the agreements together in a bundle, shoving them back inside a manila folder. “We’re not allowed relationships with other staff.” Her jaw worked and Angus cocked his head and watched her like an eagle waiting for a sparrow to settle.
“It’s not in his contract,” he said, his lips lifting upwards in amusement.
Hana narrowed her eyes. “But it is in mine.” Her jaw worked and she hid the disappointment in her eyes. She wanted to be honest. Wanted to tell him she’d found love after all this time. The sentence died on her lips and she asked another question. “Why isn’t it in Logan’s? What’s different about him?”
Angus grinned and leaned forward. “If I tell you, Donald will be cross,” he said and tapped the side of his nose.
Not liking the riddle, Hana shook her head and pushed her chair under the table. When she looked up again, Angus grinned. “It’s simple, Hana. Our Mr Du Rose is a law unto himself. He crossed that line out and initialled it. Donald didn’t expect it and so he didn’t notice. He countersigned it, amendment and all.”
Hana’s brow furrowed. “That easy?”
Angus laughed, the sound issuing from deep inside his chest as though the matter really tickled him. “That easy,” he said and winked. “Donald regrets the incident. I doubt it will happen again. I figure Mr Du Rose met someone on his first day here, someone he wished to get to know.” He reached for his telephone handset and lifted a finger. “Wait there, Hana.”
Angus called an old friend in real estate to ask his advice. The friend was expected back in the office at any moment and while they waited for his reply, Angus ordered te
a from his personal assistant and relaxed in his battered old chair. “I found the business of Mrs van Blerk rather distressing,” he said without preamble, watching Hana with interest. “I’m saddened to think you knew about the situation and didn’t inform someone, even anonymously.”
Hana’s cheeks flared red and anger rose to the surface in defence. Ivan’s accusations weren’t easy to shake off. “I found out by accident the day before Anka resigned,” Hana began, a barbed edge to her voice. “I met with her that night to get her to see sense, but she left after we argued. I haven’t seen her since and I don’t know where she is. It’s not fair how everyone blames me. I almost lost everything.” Hana stopped herself, staring at the fist resting in her lap and concentrating hard on her nails, which needed some serious care.
“I see,” said Angus. And that was it. The tea arrived and he didn’t mention it again. As his assistant thumped a cup in front of Hana and gave her a spiteful glare, Hana wondered what Angus did actually see. She suspected it might be the one thing she didn’t want him to. Her relationship with Logan remained off limits for public discussion. Relationship. Hana recognised the plummeting in her stomach when she thought about Logan’s kisses and steered her mind elsewhere, unable to disguise the flush on her neck. Angus studied her with predatory calm and Hana diverted her attention to her tea as though engrossed in the horrid tan colour and peculiar floaty bits. An occasional twitch of his lips told her she failed. The Scotsman missed nothing.
His friend called back and after a lengthy chat, Angus gave him Hana’s address and phone number. “Mates’ rates?” he enquired and then laughed. Replacing the phone with a clatter, he smiled at Hana. “He’ll meet you at home after school to do an independent appraisal. Come back to me if you need further help.”
Hana felt the world drop out of her stomach at the sudden prospect. Her courage failed her and she nodded and thanked him, standing to end the meeting. “I’m grateful,” she said, fear in her eyes. “It seems like a massive undertaking.”
Angus accompanied her to the door and rested his hand on her shoulder. “And it is, Hana.” His smile held understanding. He knew. “It is. Lean into the pain, dear. It doesn’t last forever. We both know that.”
Hana pulled the door open, running into the assistant whose wrinkled face oozed mischief. “Ah, headmaster,” she said. “We have a little problem.” She shot barbs of hatred in Hana’s direction.
Hana left them to it and walked into reception, finding Ivan pacing in front of the counter. “What’s happened?” she asked, responding to the misery in his expression.
Angus came out behind her and there was little time for Ivan to do more than raise his eyebrows and give Hana a look that said it all. Tama sat on the couch with a roll of tissue stuffed beneath a bleeding nose, his white shirt soaked through to the skin. Gareth stood in an opposite corner of the wide room, his body stiff and eyes unseeing. Bruised knuckles still curled into a fist at his chest and his anger boiled over into a tangible force.
Ivan disappeared into the office with Angus just as Logan strode from the stairwell. He didn’t see Hana, his gaze fixed on the sorry kid with the blood nose. With a cursory glance over her shoulder, Hana left them to it.