“I’m sorry to wake you,” Nate said gently. He was kneeling by Georgina’s cot, with Gordon in tow. “I need your help.”
Rolling over to face Nate, Georgina murmured, “This better be good.” She had not slept well. The exhibit hall had been noisy throughout the night. About 3 a.m. she had felt the need to seek out the portable toilets. As she stood in line, fierce gusts of wind had swirled around her, hurling the accumulated detritus—paper, plastic, random bits of food—of several thousand evacuees against the exterior walls of the exhibit hall. Flying debris had assailed her from every side.
“I’m wiped out too,” Nate commiserated. “But I need to get to the hospital. There’s a police officer here to take me in, but someone has to take care of Gordon. Can you do it?”
Suddenly fully awake, Georgina swung her legs over the edge of the cot and sat upright. “Take care of Gordon? Um, well…. I don’t know,” she stammered. “What’s going on with the fire? Maybe I’ll be leaving today.”
“No chance,” Nate said. “The fire is still out of control. I know this is a lot to ask, but I need to relieve some folks in the emergency room. The police have promised that they can get me back here by early evening.”
“Is this all right with you?” Georgina asked Gordon. “Do you want to stay with me today?”
Gordon looked up apprehensively at his father and said nothing. Nate was undeterred. “It’s fine with him,” he said, placing one hand on his son’s shoulder.
Georgina did not see a way out. “I guess I can do it,” she said.
“You’re the best,” Nate said. “You’ve got my cell phone number. I owe you one.” Nate gave Gordon a hug and headed out.
Adela sipped hot tea with lemon while she waited for Mark to come on the line. She had been fielding telephone calls, emails and text messages since news of her father’s death had spread. Family members, friends, her lawyer, and her father’s lawyers—everyone wanted to talk to her.
“Adela, Mark Webber here. I’m so sorry to hear about your father,” he said. “It’s such a great loss, I really can’t put it into words.”
“Thank you for your concern,” Adela said, fingering the edge of the teacup as she spoke. She was growing weary of rote condolences from people who cared nothing for her father. “I’m reaching out to you because I know how much my father valued your advice. He left Rios Capital to me, but I haven’t been involved in the business for years. Now I’m going to have to make decisions that I fear I’m ill equipped to make. Can you come out here and give me a hand?”
“Of course,” Mark replied. “I’ve been trying to get out there since yesterday, but all the hotels are booked because of the evacuation.”
“Don’t bother finding a hotel,” Adela said. “You can stay with me. I’m at the beach house.”
“I’ll take you up on that,” Mark said. “Actually, someone from my group is there now. She was working on a deal for your father. It would be a big help to me if she could stay with you too.”
“I have room for one more,” Adela said. “What’s her name?”
“Georgina Graham. I’m not sure how to get her to you. She’s at the shelter where the people from your father’s estate are staying. She tells me that they aren’t allowed to leave because the roads are closed.”
“She must be at the Fairgrounds,” Adela said. “I’ll work from my end on getting her here. I know someone who can help us.”
“Let me give you her cell phone number.”
“I’m going to pass you on to my father’s housekeeper for that,” Adela said. “Her name is Lupe. She’ll be your contact person. I’ll see you when you get here.” Adela covered the mouthpiece of the telephone and called for Lupe, who had shown up at the beach house the previous afternoon. Following the evacuation procedure written by Rios, she had brought along with her the cook and two other staffers from Casa Feliz.
Adela went to look for Consuelo. She found her daughter in the dining room eating breakfast. “How did you sleep?” Adela asked. “I tossed and turned all night.”
“Sorry to hear that,” Consuelo replied. “I had some trouble getting to sleep but then I slept right through. When is Pilar getting here?”
“Her flight gets in around noon,” Adela said. She sat down next to her daughter. “Once she gets here I want to talk to you both about the memorial service. I need your input on some things.”
“How are you holding up?”
“Just hanging by a thread, to tell you the truth,” Adela said. “It hasn’t sunk in yet that he’s dead.”
“Where did you go last night?”
“What are you talking about?” Adela asked cautiously.
“Lupe told me that a woman came here last night to see you. She said that you left with her and then later you came back alone.”
Having grown up with live-in help Adela was all too familiar with the lack of privacy that it brought. At her own home she had only day help and even that on a limited basis. In addition to her other problems she now had to figure out what to do with Lupe and the rest of her father’s household staff. “It’s nothing to concern yourself about,” Adela said.
“Lupe said the woman was a detective.”
“When someone dies unexpectedly there’s always an investigation."
“I don’t remember hearing about any detectives when Dad died,” Consuelo persisted.
“There was an investigation of the plane crash. Perhaps there were detectives involved and we just didn’t know about it,” Adela said. “Listen, last night I went to the Medical Examiner’s Office to identify your grandfather’s body. That's all it was. The detective is going to call me today with the results of the autopsy. As a matter of fact, when she calls I am going to ask her to help me bring someone here.”
“Another guest? We have enough people here already with Grandpa’s servants,” Consuelo complained.
“Actually we’re having two more guests,” Adela said. “I’ve asked my father’s banker to come out from New York to help me with Rios Capital and the other person is his associate. I need their help right now.”
Katy Carmichael had dealt with burn injuries before, but nothing had prepared her for the sight of the three injured firefighters who had just been brought to the ER. When the paramedics lifted one of the firefighters onto the bed in front of her, and she grasped the full horror of what had happened to him, Katy felt sick to her stomach. She stiffened her jaw and approached the bed, preparing to examine the man. But the ER Chief stopped her. He told her that she had been there too long for this one; the relief people were checking in now, he said, and he was going to use them instead. He told Katy to get some sleep. Except for a brief catnap taken sitting upright in a chair, she had been on her feet and working since the previous afternoon. Looking down at the burned man, Katy thought that he was lucky that she was not going to be taking care of him, because she no longer had the strength. She went to the main desk to sign out. Nate was there, signing in. “I was hoping I’d run into you,” he said. “How’s it been?”
“Where’s Gordon?” Katy asked sharply.
“He’s at the Fairgrounds,” Nate explained. “He’s OK. I found someone to watch him for the day.”
“Really? And who is this person?”
“Relax,” Nate said. “Gordon’s with the banker from the deal. She’s very nice.”
“Nice? That’s so reassuring,” Katy said. “Thank you so much for leaving our son with someone you hardly know. But at least she works for Rios Capital. That speaks well of her. What’s her name?”
“Georgina Graham, and she doesn’t work for Rios Capital. She works for a bank in New York. Gordon has gotten to know her well enough to be comfortable with her. I needed to get in here to help. I had to leave him with somebody.”
“I want to talk to Gordon. Do you have this woman’s number?”
“Sure,” Nate said, reaching into his pocket. He fished out the scrap of paper that contained Georgina’s cell phone number. “Are y
ou off now? You can’t go home, you know.”
“I’ll crash in the call rooms.”
“You look like you could use some sleep.”
“Thanks for the compliment,” Katy said. She resolved to have it out with Nate about this woman, as soon as she could muster the energy.
“I miss Mommy,” Gordon said plaintively.
“Of course you do,” Georgina said. Moments earlier Georgina had promised Katy that she would call her immediately if she had even a minor concern about Gordon. But she had no intention of doing so; she would call Nate first. Georgina was not in the business of handling ex-wives. “We’re going to have fun today, Gordon, you’ll see,” she said. “Sonia’s taking us to visit the horses. She got special passes for us to go to the stables.”
“Cool,” Gordon said. “Can we go now?”
“We’ll go after lunch. Just a sec, Gordon, the phone again.”
“How are you holding up?” Nick asked.
“I have one piece of good news,” Georgina replied. “I’ll be getting out of here tomorrow. Mark has arranged for me to stay with Adela Rios.” Gordon was pulling on her arm, trying to get her attention. She motioned for him to keep quiet, but he was insistent. She leaned down and whispered to him, “Gordon, I’m on the phone. I’ll be with you in a minute, OK?”
“Who’s Gordon?” Nick asked.
“Believe it or not, I’m babysitting,” Georgina said. “Someone here at the shelter had to go to work, so I’m helping out.” She did not want to complicate matters by telling Nick that Gordon was Nate’s son. “Any news on your end?”
“An interesting development,” Nick replied. “Someone called in a tip to the TV station last night. Apparently Rios had done some sort of audit, and he was going make some personnel changes because of it.”
“Now I’m getting freaked out,” Georgina exclaimed. “This could mean something about motive, if Rios’ death wasn’t an accident.”
“Exactly," Nick said. "The station hasn’t put anything about it on the air because they haven’t been able to get a second source to confirm the tip.”
“Should I tell Mark about this?”
“You should,” Nick advised. “It might sound odd, but I’m glad that Mark is going out there. He may make your life miserable at times but at least you’ll have someone there with you that you can trust.”
Sonia Rousseau and Christopher Wahl were standing in front of the jumbo television screen that had been set up at the Red Cross command center, watching footage of the burned-out barn at the Rios estate. The commentator said that the body had been identified as that of Alejandro Rios and an autopsy was being performed that day to determine the cause of death.
“The autopsy will clear up what happened,” Christopher said. “It’s weird that Mr. Rios didn’t leave the barn when everyone else did. My Dad thought that he was so focused on loading up the horses that he didn’t pay enough attention to what anyone else was doing. He thinks Mr. Rios got left behind in the confusion.”
“But all he had to do was run outside,” Sonia said. “The firefighters were right there and they saved the house and the barn.”
“It is hard to understand why he stayed inside the barn,” Christopher acknowledged. “He must have been overcome by smoke.”
Georgina and Gordon came up to join them. “We’ve been looking for you, Sonia,” Georgina said. “We want to take you up on your invitation to see the horses.”
“Now would be a good time for that,” Sonia said. She escorted the group to the temporary stables, where she tracked down her father.
“Glad you brought us some company,” Jake said to Sonia.
“It would be fun for them to feed carrots to the horses,” Sonia suggested. When her father said that that was fine with him, Sonia held out her open palm to demonstrate the correct technique. While her guests were preoccupied with their task—and she was sure that Christopher could not hear—Sonia spoke to her father. “I need to get your take on something,” she said.
“Sure,” Jake said. “What’s up?” Sonia told her father about the incident in the rose garden. Her father listened attentively but he did not appear concerned. “Rios chewed people out over nothing,” he reminded her. “He was on Wahl’s case as much as he was on anyone’s. I doubt there’s any significance to what you saw.”
“But the detective seemed so interested in it. She asked me a lot of questions, about what I knew about Wahl, about the barn, everything.”
“You think that she asked you a lot of questions?” Jake said. “She was with you for twenty minutes, right? She grilled me for over an hour, going over and over what happened at the barn when we were loading up the horses. Then she asked the same questions all over again and a whole lot of new questions about how the barn was run, who was responsible for this and that. That woman is a bulldog.”
“I’m worried that Rios’ death might not have been an accident,” Sonia confided. “And I think Christopher’s father might be involved in it.”
“Oh, come on, Sonia,” Jake scoffed. “Don’t be ridiculous.”
Chapter Fourteen