Chapter Thirty Two
July Tenth
Juniper
Sylvia had hitched a ride back with her daughter, Crystal and despite Pat retiring early, she still worked. Juniper sat on the couch across from Pat, with Zeppelin laying on the floor entertaining both of them. Wolfgang had run up to the store to grab a few things on his uncle's motorcycle. He figured they would look less suspicious outside of the cabin, if they were separated. Even then, the news for the murder was dying down, new things had come up giving her some relief that it was headed towards a cold case.
Pat, look at her and open his mouth. "You know, for Brigham, I’m going to ask, how do you see this going? Wolfgang obviously loves you, considering he is here. I'd hate to see him get hurt in the end."
She looked at him slightly surprised that he had asked. "I love Wolfgang." She responded, looking Pat in the eyes. "I've never been with somebody where I lose time so easily, he makes me feel like I could be myself. He makes me laugh, he's gentle but protective. I love Marilyn as well, and given the opportunity under horrible circumstances, I would never leave him. If I could have half the man he's been to me, I would be happy and I will forever love all of him."
"Well alright then." He stood and headed to the kitchen. "Seems he's pretty serious about you too." Repeating himself, grabbed a can of soda from the fridge and turned, lifting his head to see a black and white vehicle outside spinning up dirt on the dry county road. "June you better come here." She sat frozen seeing the vehicle, thinking how Wolfgang had just left, wondering if he had been discovered and they were coming to get her as well, until her body led her to the pantry behind him, and watched as he pushed a stack of crates out to reveal a crawl space door.
He lifted it with the sound of expanded wood rubbing against itself and dirt crumbling from the cracks "Get down and don't make a noise, I'll take care of it." She followed his lead, trembling.
Her bare feet dropped onto the dirt below and crouched over as the door closed over her, the glow of the small mesh ventilation square’s on all sides was left for light. The stack of crates dragged back over the door.
Pounding came from inside her chest and the front screen door, announcing the sheriff department. She heard Pat’s footsteps leave the pantry and thud towards the front door, “Hello?”
“Hello sir, I hate to bother you but I got an anonymous tip that the two suspects from the Sacramento murder have been seen in these parts.”
“Well, I got my nephew up here, I’ve been visiting with him. But he’s not even from North California. I had my daughters and their families up here over the weekend, they’re not from Sacramento either. I don’t want to be harassed for hanging out with family, but if you want to come in and look you’re more than welcome.”
June stayed squatted below, listening with one hand over her mouth and the other gripping a floor joist above. Her hearing went sharp and was praying Wolfie wouldn’t come back right now as she listened for motorcycles, she had realized Patrick knew. He knew what had happened and that they were to blame. He wouldn’t have jumped to hide her like this if he didn’t know.
“No sir, I’ll let you get back to your family. Have a good day.”
The screen door bounced on its frame before latching and Zeppelin’s nails ticked on the floor above, doing circles around the thuds of boots in the living room. She exhaled, sweating in the hundred degree summer, creating a heat box under the house. She could hear the car door open and close and the law enforcement vehicle sat for a moment until the tires slowly ground the gravel under them. A few minutes had passed until Patrick continued to walk towards the pantry.
The stack scraped against the floor and the door opened. The few grains of dirt fell on her face, sticking to the beads of sweat as she looked up at him. “Come on.”
He reached out a hand.
“Thank you.”
She hopped, propping her bottom on the floor. Stepping away from the door as he rearranged his hiding spot, she wiped her face off with the bottom of her tee shirt. “How did you know?”
“Know what?”
He faced her towards the exit of the pantry.
“The reason I had to be hidden?”
“I don’t know anything.”
He gruffed avoiding eye contact exiting the pantry.
She looked outside seeing no dust and no police vehicle. A black and metallic shine peaked in and out of the trees up the road, catching her eye. Wolfgang. The air in her body left in relief almost to tears, a thin trail of dust followed behind him as he got closer.
The motor of the engine grew loud and steadied as he dropped the kick stand, killing the noise right after. Patrick and June stood in the kitchen watching Wolfgang as he came to the door, clueless. “Hey.”
He looked at both of them, taking in their expressions. “What’s going on?”
He pulled the grocery bag out of his backpack.
“We had a visitor.”
Pat shuffled his feet back to his soda can to exchange it for a beer.
“What do you mean?”
He set the bag on the counter, brows furrowed.
Pat cracked his can open, “Someone is sending cops up here, saying the people from the Sacramento murder are here.”
Wolfie stood, not knowing how to take it, not knowing how June handled it. He pulled his lips away from the can, “She knows I know. I hid her in the crawl space, but I have an idea who has been giving out these little tips.”
Wolfie looked at Juniper, who was still confused how Pat knew and didn’t care. “Who?”
“That damn neighbor. He’s nosey enough to tell me there’s people on my property, probably nosey enough to call the cops because two people look like murder suspects.”
“We did see him twice looking straight at us, not including any of the times we didn’t see him.”
June hugged Wolfgang thankful to see him and stepped back, “Can someone update me on what is going on with you two?”
“He knows.”
Wolfie crumpled the bag letting one hand consume it.
“What does he know?”
“June, I told him everything.”
He tossed the garbage into the can and looked at her.
“What? When?”
She looked betrayed.
“I’ll let you two talk.”
Pat grabbed his beer and an unopened one.
Wolfie put up his hand, “You’re fine.”
“I wanted to go outside anyway.”
He turned and exited the sliding door.
June stepped up to Wolfie, “How long has he known?”
“The day after we met him. He approached me with proof and I told him everything but specifically why, Juniper. He said he would have done the same thing for his wife or daughters.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
Her arms crossed.
“I didn’t want you to worry, no one needed to know. You already told me you hated knowing what you know. How would you like me to handle this?”
“I don’t know.”
She shook her head. “I’m going to go lay down for a little bit, Zeppelin.”
She called him and turned towards the stairs.
He grabbed her arm as it swung away from him, “Hey,”
She stepped back, “I love you.”
“I love you too.”
Wolfgang
He closed the sliding screen door behind him with two beers in his hand, “Thank you.”
“For what?”
Pat acted clueless.
“Hiding her.”
He handed his extra beer to Pat as a gift.
“I didn’t hide anybody. You’re sounding like a crazy person.”
Wolfgang smirked, “Well thank you for taking care of her, of us. My mom is extremely grateful.”
Pat didn’t look at Wolfie, he continued looking straight ahead. “I talked to June about you.”
“What do you mean?”
His can cracked with a fizzle.
“I don’t want you doing things for a girl who would leave you at the drop of a hat. She likes you.”
“I knew that.”
He opened his mouth letting the beer fall in.
“Well I’ve been observing, she’s quiet, but she’s one of us. She’s a keeper.”
He knocked his beer into Wolfies. “Good job.”
“Thank you. I waited twenty nine years for her.”
“Nothing like your parents, Marilyn was so young.”
Wolfie looked at Patrick’s narrow eyes and followed his gaze into the trees. “Yeah, they were young.”
“There he is.”
Pat stood, set his beer down and hiked the back of his pants up going down the porch steps.
“Seth!”
He shouted through the trees. “Seth!”
He took a straight path to the neighbors house in the near distance. Wolfie stood to get a better look at the interaction, not sure of what was going on.
The neighbor, Seth, met him halfway. Wolfgang could see by the way Pat was gesturing that he was not happy. His feet apart and arms crossed as Seth responded. Pat then pointed in his face and jerked his thumb back at the cabin. Seth threw his arms in the air and spun to head back to his cabin. “Leave ‘em alone!”
He hollered, proceeding to their porch.
Wolfgang sat back on the bench, “What was that about?”
“Had to tell him to leave you two alone. You’re my nephew and niece, not outlaws and quit calling the police on you two.”
He quietly chuckled at his uncle, “Thank you.”
Pat returned to his previous seat, “So what’s the update on your flight?”
“Jay is going to be here sunday. I was asked to help find resources for the island and I have some money left over from,”
He paused looking for the word, “you know. So I’ll be gone for a few days. Could you stay here with June while I am gone?”
“Sure can, Syl may come back up on Friday to see you two off.”
“Thank you.”
Juniper
She rolled over after closing her eyes for twenty minutes with no luck, and grabbed his tablet. She had already reached out to a few people under Wolfie’s account and was checking for any replies.
Whitney ‘June, you have been quiet the talk around town. A lot of people can’t believe that Wolfgang ran off like that. What spell did you put him under? I’m glad we are doing a wedding next year, if you’re coming back, I would want you to be there. The new girls are annoying. I’m ten years older than them, I was already nine years older than Brittanya. Would that be crazy if I missed Shianne? Oh, who by the way is getting married this friday. She’s getting big. Love you.’
Juniper ‘Whitney, I miss you too. We plan on being back in two weeks, the last two months have been unbelievable. I’m excited for your wedding and it's crazy that Shianne is already getting married. Does she know the gender of the baby? Also, I’ve been thinking, can I get Wolfie’s tattoo guy’s information? Love you.’
Brittanya ‘Hey girl, I’m glad you’re coming back. I got permission to take your stuff to Wolfies. I will miss you here, but I understand Margaret’s reasoning. Whitney is also still here sometimes, less now that it’s a bunch of young girls. I can’t wait to see you when you get back. I want us to get together, let's plan dinner or something? I’ll plan it with Marilyn, it’s probably hard for you to plan something being far away. What day will you be back? I can’t wait. Xo Brittanya’
Juniper ‘Brittanya, Thank you for taking care of my stuff, that was sweet of you. I heard you got new roommates and Whitney ‘loves’ them. Haha. A get together sounds great, Marilyn would probably be better to plan it with, it might help her take her mind off of everything. We plan on being back in two weeks, the twenty third or twenty fourth, see you then. June.’