Beautiful Lies (38 page)

On the ground they thanked Jim, who headed off to the men's quarters to look up an old friend. Matthew hadn't discussed Tricia with his grandfather, but as they walked back toward the house, he broached the subject. “Now that you've brought her parents here, do you think she'll stay or go home with them?”

“I suspect she might go home for a holiday, but she'll be back here before too long. They can visit her here and edge back into being a family.”

Matthew wondered how possible that last part was. He needed it to be possible. Better than possible. He needed this grandfather, who until this very day had never acknowledged his presence.

“Could we walk up to the cemetery?” he asked, as they neared the house.

Roman stopped. “What for?”

“Well, it's my family.”

“You can go up by yourself.”

“But I'd rather go with you. You can tell me about the people buried there.”

“You want a lot, don't you, boy? Your father was never satisfied, either. Nothing was ever enough for him.”

Matthew knew Cullen wasn't perfect, but he didn't want to hear about his father's faults from this man. “Well, you know, maybe he didn't get anything to start with. That would leave him wanting more, wouldn't it?”

Roman started down the path, and after a moment Matthew caught up with him. They had nearly reached the tiny graveyard before Roman spoke again. “When your father was still a boy, I'd catch him up here sometimes, sitting on his mother's grave, yammering away like she was right there listening. He'd tell her what he'd done that day, which horse he'd ridden, if he'd gone down to the billabong and caught a fish.” He shook his head. “They were always close, those two. When Joan was alive she held the three of us togeth—”

He cut off the last word, as if he wished he hadn't spoken. Matthew felt the same scratchy lump in his throat that had been there after his call to California. He had never thought of his father that way, as a lonely little boy with no one to talk to except the mother who had gone away.

“And so I don't come up here anymore.” Roman stopped at the gate. “When I do, I see them both.” He stood as rigid as a soldier, and his face was immobile, as if one twitch of emotion would shatter him.

Matthew felt tears welling, unmanly, little-boy tears he knew his grandfather would despise. He blinked them back and put one hand on the fence. He knew the time had arrived to tell his grandfather why he had come.

“Sir, I told you that meeting you, seeing Jimiramira, was one of the reasons I came to Australia.”

Roman's response was guttural, noncommittal.

Matthew looked away, and as he did, a flock of sulfur-crested cockatoos rose from the billabong and spread their wings to the dusk-tinged sky. He was transfixed, not forgetting so much as adjusting what he had planned to say.

“Get on with it, boy,” Roman said at last.

Matthew turned to him. “It's simpler than I thought. Simpler than I was going to make it. A long time ago, two of my ancestors found a pearl. And this pearl, well, it's so flawless, so perfect, that everyone who touches it, everyone who owns it, can't, well, they can't measure up. That's the only way I know to explain it. The pearl brings out the worst in everybody who has it or wants it or—”

“What are you talking about, boy?”

“The Pearl of Great Price.” Matthew spoke quickly, words tumbling out faster and faster. “My great-grandfather, Tom Robeson, found it in the Indian Ocean. Your grandfather, Archer Llewellyn, killed him so they wouldn't have to share it. My great-aunt Mei came here to Jimiramira and stole it from Archer and your father, Bryce. Then she took it to San Francisco, and her brother Thomas, my grandfather, stole it from her. Now my mother has it. And it's destroying her. The pearl's flawless, but it brings out everybody's greatest flaw. Don't you see?”

Roman looked confused.

Matthew tried harder to explain. “Archer was selfish, so he killed Tom for the pearl. Tom trusted the people he loved, but he trusted them blindly, no matter what they did. Because of that, Archer was able to kill him. Your father and my aunt Mei fell in love, but the pearl destroyed that. My mother and father were happy together, but they ended up getting a divorce.

“And now my mother can't even walk down the street.
See, that's her greatest flaw. She wants to be free, but she needs to feel secure. So she's always fighting with herself. And my father, well, his greatest flaw is fear that somebody will take away his freedom.”

He stopped. He was breathing hard. He knew there was a good chance he hadn't explained any of it well enough. “There were Viola and Willow, too, and my grandmother Hope, who wore the pearl on her wedding day. I forgot them, but the pearl destroyed them, too. And Thomas, my grandfather. His flaw was being ashamed of who he was and trying to prove himself to his own grandparents and everybody else. He spent his life trying to prove he was good enough, even if he was half-Chinese. He never even realized, not ever in his life, that being Chinese was something to be proud of. So he stole the pearl from the sister who had given up everything just for him and used it to try to make himself important. At least, that's what I think happened. I've had a lot of time to think about this.”

Roman leaned against the fence and studied his grandson. “Why did you really come here? What does any of this have to do with me, boy? I've never seen this pearl, though I've heard tales. But I don't know half of what you're talking about.”

“But it
has
affected you, don't you see? Your father loved Aunt Mei, but after she took the pearl and left him, he was probably afraid to love anybody again. Even you. And isn't that some of the reason you didn't know how to love
my
father the way you should?”

Roman stepped forward, as if to silence him. “This is bloody nonsense.”

Matthew knew the time had come. Either he had to leave Jimiramira right now, before Roman figured out ex
actly why he had told him this story, or he had to trust that Roman would help him.

The cockatoos floated back toward the billabong, probably to settle in the treetops for the night. Even from a distance, he could hear them squawking and screeching. Suddenly he felt calm, as if his life, his decision, was as simple as the flow of air under their outstretched wings.

He pulled up his shirt and pulled down the waistband of his jeans. A large round Band-Aid covered his navel. He teased it loose as his grandfather eyed him with suspicion; then he cupped a hand below it and let the Pearl of Great Price roll into his palm. He held it out for his grandfather to see.

“
This
is why I came here,” he said. “I want you to come to Broome with me, Granddad. I'm not old enough to rent a boat by myself, and I wouldn't know how to sail one if I did. I was born to do this, only nobody else understands it. I want to put this pearl back where my great-grandfather found it. I'm the only one who can do it, because I'm both Robeson and Llewellyn.”

“You've gone mad!”

Matthew shook his head sadly. “No, I haven't. It's just that I'm the only one who sees that throwing this pearl back into the ocean is the only way
any
of us will ever be free of it.”

San Francisco

I
n the end, after one look at the murderous expression on Cullen's face, Simon Van Valkenburg told them everything.

“He's gone to Australia.” He stood in his Russian Hill doorway and focused on Liana, as if facing Cullen might be dangerous. “To meet his grandfather.”

“Australia?” For a moment she couldn't comprehend it.

“Yeah. Matthew knew you'd never let him go, so he took the initiative.” He sneaked a glance at Cullen. “He wanted to do it while you were here, so she—” he nodded his head toward Liana “—wouldn't think you'd put him up to it or something.”

“Does my father know he's coming?” Cullen moved closer, and Simon shrank backwards into the hallway.

“Nobody knows. Just me. I—” Simon stopped.

“You what?”

“I, ummm…helped him work out the plans.”

“
What
plans?”

“He flew to Sydney. He was going to see if he could find a mail plane to get to Jimiramira or something. That's all I know. Matthew thought if he flew to Sydney, then made his way to the ranch, he'd be harder to trace.”

“Why did you send us to Arizona?” Liana said, still trying to make sense of it all.

“To give our son a bang-up head start. Or
something,
” Cullen said. “He probably had his strategy planned, just in case we showed up on his doorstep. But what I want to know is how Matthew pulled this off. He'd need a passport. Since he was born in Oz, I'm not sure he needs a visa, but he might.”

Simon looked uncomfortable. “I can tell you a little.”

“Why should we believe anything you say?” Liana demanded.

“Because it's the truth,” Simon said. “He made all the arrangements on my computer. He used an old credit card of yours, one you canceled—or thought you did. You can check if you want. I think it was from a bank in Nevada or someth—” He turned red. “Matthew's not the kind of kid who would do this stuff without a really good reason. He just thought it was important.”

“This is my fault,” Liana said.

“This is Matthew's fault,” Cullen said firmly. “And I'm going to tell him so, when I catch up with him.”

“Why don't you just leave him alone?” Simon said with surprising courage. “He risked a lot, you know. Let him come back on his own. Can't you deal with him then, instead of going after him like a naughty little boy?”

“I'm going after him, Simon,” Cullen said in measured tones, “because Matthew may not be
able
to come back unless we find him soon. It seems someone else may be looking for him, and if they find him first, none of us might see him again. So do you know anything more that will help us?”

Simon couldn't tell them anything else useful. At the end he said he was sorry they had been worried. “But Matthew's all right,” he insisted. “He can take care of himself.”

On the way back to her apartment, Liana leaned against the Miata's headrest. She was exhausted from the trip to Arizona. She was angry. She was terrified. “Australia…”

“Do you believe Simon?”

She didn't want to. Some teens ran off to the big city. Her son, their son, had hopped a plane to the other side of the planet. Short of hitching a ride on the space shuttle, how much farther could Matthew have run?

“Lee?” Cullen sounded frustrated.

She swallowed tears. “I did have a credit card from a Nevada bank. And I thought I'd canceled it.”

“Not bloody likely Simon made a wild guess about that.”

“Have you told Matthew so much about your dad that he'd lie and steal to visit him?”

“I've told him stories, but he knows I haven't been to Jimiramira in years.” Cullen thumped the steering wheel with his palm. “What possessed Matthew? I've never given him any reason to believe Dad wanted to see him. We've talked about the things we'd do in Australia when he was finally able to visit me there, but we can't do them now, can we? I'm here and he's there!”

Liana shared Cullen's frustration, but her mind was already whirling. “We have to go and bring him home, Cullen. We can't depend on your father or anybody in Australia to send him back.”

“
We?
It's at least a fifteen-hour flight. And that doesn't include the leg to Jimiramira. You'd need a visa and a passport—”

“I have a passport. I've kept it current, even though I never use it. And visas are practically instant these days.”

“Don't you trust me to do this alone? After everything that's been said, are you still afraid I'll keep him once I get there?”

As she searched his face, she searched her own heart. “No,” she said at last. “Not one little bit. Don't make the mistake of thinking I don't trust you. Because I do.”

“The devil. I wish I had time to enjoy it.”

“When we get home, I'll get on the telephone. I'll make the arrangements.”

“What about Stanford? And what about your brother?”

She didn't know what to tell them. Or anyone, for that matter. She had called Sue for messages on every leg of the Arizona trip, and every message had been from Graham or the security chief. Both men were upset that she and Cullen had gone off without informing anybody.

“We can't tell them the truth.” She shook her head, emphasizing her own words. “We
can't
trust Graham. Not now. Not when we're so close to finding Matthew. There's no point in telling anyone he's down under. And if—” She stopped. There were more reasons than Cullen knew for keeping Matthew's journey a secret.

“If Graham's looking for Matthew for reasons of his own, and if Stanford's helping him…” Cullen supplied, when she didn't go on.

She composed herself. “They'll look for me if I just disappear off the face of the earth. They'll trace us to Australia.”

“Then we need to mislead them.” Cullen pulled into Liana's parking space. “But before we do anything, you have to confirm Simon's story about the credit card. And I have to call my dad.”

She was glad one of them was thinking clearly. She followed him to the garage elevator and punched in the code. He said nothing on the trip to the penthouse, although she
knew from his expression that he was sorting through the possibilities and making plans.

At the door she fished for her key while Cullen waited beside her. When she couldn't find it immediately, she rang the bell. “Sue probably heard the elevator anyway.”

“I reckon she's nearly as worried about Matthew as we are.”

Liana frowned when Sue didn't come to the door. “We must have caught her at a bad moment.”

“Maybe she's gone out.”

“Not a chance. She promised she would stay glued to the telephone.” Liana located her key, which she had zipped into an inside pocket in her handbag. She unlocked the door and stepped into the dark hallway. She tried the switch, but the light didn't come on. “Sue?”

The silence didn't even twitch in response.

Liana frowned. “I'll go look for—”

Cullen put his hand on her forearm to stop her. “Let me,” he said softly.

She was about to protest when she realized his fingers had tightened like a vise. “Why?”

He dropped her arm, but he put his finger to his lips. She understood, suddenly, that he was afraid of what—or who—she might find. He motioned for her to stay by the door, but she followed anyway. It was her apartment, her haven. And the thought that someone might have breached it or harmed Sue made her furious. Fear—for once the intelligent response—deserted her.

Their footsteps sounded like bricks dropping. The living room was empty and dark, and so was the dining area.

The kitchen was occupied. “Sue!” Liana shot forward and knelt beside the housekeeper, who was sprawled face-down on the terra-cotta floor.

Cullen knelt beside her and lifted Sue's wrist. “Heart's beating steady and strong,” he said after a moment.

“Can we turn her over?”

“Better not. Do you have an emergency number?”

Sue moaned, and the problem of whether to turn her over or call for help was solved. She pushed herself up with one hand and stared at them as if she were swimming through fog. With another moan she turned and pushed herself into a sitting position. Then she hung her head.

Liana put her hands on Sue's shoulders to help hold her erect. “Cullen, dial 911. Tell them we need an ambulance.”

He stood, but Sue protested. “No…I think…I'm fine.”

“You're not fine,” Liana argued. “You must have fainted.”

“I heard a noise. I turned to see who. Then everything…” She shook her head, but moaned at the movement.

Liana gently explored the back of the housekeeper's neck and head, spreading Sue's short black hair.

Protesting, Sue pushed her hands away.

Liana stood. “She's got a knot bigger then the Pearl of Great Price on the back of her head. Somebody hit her.”

“You call 911.” He hiked a thumb toward the telephone. Then he disappeared.

Liana knew he was going to make sure there was no one else in the apartment. Her heart beat faster. She didn't want him to face an intruder alone. She grabbed the receiver and punched in the numbers, giving a cursory explanation before she hung up. “Sue, will you be all right for a moment by yourself?”

At a faint “yes,” Liana followed Cullen's path, walking as quietly as she could and wishing with every step that she had a gun. She had nearly bought one when she returned to the city, but in the end she had been more afraid of Mat
thew finding it than of a break-in. Instead she had chosen her condo carefully, with security uppermost in her mind. And until now, she hadn't regretted her decision.

Cullen wasn't in the hallway, her room or the master bath. She continued on, following the photographs of Matthew's childhood until she reached his room.

“Oh, God…”

Matthew's room had been trashed. The mattress was half off the bed; the floor was covered with papers and beloved possessions that had been on his desk and shelves. One glance told her that his computer was gone, and some of the stereo equipment was missing, too.

Cullen stood perfectly still in the center of the room, making mental notes. “Don't touch anything. Wait for the police.”

“What about the guest room?”

“Don't worry. Whoever did this is gone.”

She had only peeked into her room, but she hadn't noticed that anything had been disturbed. “Is anything else missing?”

“You'll need to check your jewelry, I reckon, or anything else of value.”

She heard sirens. It helped, she supposed, to have a prestigious address. “But even if something else is gone, it's Matthew's room that got the worst of it, Cullen.”

“Yeah, it is.”

“That isn't a coincidence, is it?”

His face was serious. “I think the same person who logged on to his account the other night wasn't satisfied reading his E-mail. I think he wanted to get inside Matthew's head. The computer was as close as he could come.”

“There's stereo equipment missing, too.”

“A decoy.”

“He's trying to find Matthew.”

“Yeah. He's looking for our son, Lee. Now we have to find him first. And we have to do it without anyone knowing where we've gone.”

 

The police were sympathetic, but little help. They took a statement and left, and the paramedics left without Sue, who promised she would have a friend take her to see her own physician.

“She's not sure how long she was unconscious,” Liana told Cullen after Sue had gone. “She remembers she'd just put chicken in the microwave to defrost, which is probably the reason she didn't hear the intruder until it was too late. The microwave was finished by the time we arrived, and she thinks she'd set it for about twenty minutes.”

“So she was unconscious at least that long.”

“She's lucky she didn't hurt herself worse when she fell. She may have grabbed the counter for support before she passed out. She insists on coming back as soon as she sees her doctor.”

“There was no sign of forced entry, Lee.”

“I've already called the locksmith.”

“Who has keys to the apartment?”

“Sue, Matthew and me. But workmen are in and out. And Matthew loses his key about once a month.”

“So it's possible somebody stole one from him, and he just thought it was lost.”

“I'm going to look for that credit card, Cullen.”

While she rummaged through papers in her office, Cullen went into the living room and called his father at Jimiramira. He was finished with the telephone by the time she joined him, waving a paper in her hand.

Cullen got to his feet. “The housekeeper claims Dad's
off at the other end of the property for a few days, and I didn't want to leave my name or a message. It's better if we have the element of surprise. If Dad knows I'm the one who rang him, he might not take the next call.”

“He's that angry at you? After all these years?”

“I'm fair afraid to take a chance.”

Her search had come close to confirming Simon's story about the credit card. At one time she had possessed a Mastercard from a bank in Nevada, but some months before, when the rate increased she had canceled it—or thought she had. A quick check had turned up a new statement, which included a second request for payment on a balance of over two thousand dollars. Apparently Matthew had gotten to the first statement before she could. Now a call to the bank confirmed that the bill in question was payment for an airline ticket on Qantas airlines.

“Well, at least this time Simon wasn't lying,” Liana told him after she hung up.

“We have plans to make.”

She pictured herself on an airplane again, but this time for hours and hours. Her heart began to pound, but she nodded. “Then that's what we have to do,” emerged from a mouth suddenly gone dry.