Desperation on Wildflower Island Page 11

  Isabella adored her big brother. He was 17 years old and she had followed him around, on his heels, almost from the moment she could walk. Even when he was 8 and she was only 1 year old, he didn’t seem to mind that she tagged along behind him. He kind of liked it and always treated her with kindness.

  “Hi,” Isabella greeted Sawyer as he walked in and propped his surfboard up against the foyer wall.

  “Hi munchkin.”

  She laughed. She loved the nickname he had for her. He had been calling her that for as long as she could remember.

  Sawyer looked up to see his parents, each walking around, doing their own thing, without talking or even looking at each other. It was very odd, especially since their father didn’t even live with them anymore. Jeanette and Jacob Hale were usually on friendly enough terms and talkative to each other. Not that day though. He watched them for a couple of minutes before he turned to Isabella.

  “What’s up with them? Why is Dad even here if they aren’t speaking?” he whispered to Isabella as he walked over and sat down in the chair next to the couch she was sitting on.

  Isabella just shrugged her shoulders, without looking up from the puzzle she was working intently on.

  “Did they have a fight?” He was still whispering.

  “I guess. Mom dropped me off at Mrs. Thompson’s house earlier, after she had a fight with some lady in the parking lot at the Wildflower. She didn’t talk to me at all, so I don’t know what’s going on.”

  “She had a fight with some lady? What lady?” Sawyer narrowed his eyes when he spoke to his sister.

  “I don’t know. Some blonde lady. I don’t know her.”

  “What did they fight about?” he prodded. His mother was pretty easy going. It was completely out of character for her to get into a fight with someone.

  Isabella finally looked up at her brother. “I don’t know. I think it was about me though. The lady looked weird when she saw me, like she didn’t know why I was there with Mom. That’s all I know. Mom didn’t tell me anything.”

  “That is weird,” Sawyer agreed.

  “All Mom said was that she needed to have a talk with Daddy, alone. Then when Mrs. Thompson dropped me off, I came in and they haven’t said a word,” Isabella explained.

  “How long has it been?”

  Isabella shrugged her shoulders again. “I don’t know. A little while, I’m not sure.”

  “It’s just weird, you know?” he told her.

  “Yeah, I guess.” Isabella looked at her big brother and made a face. “Eww, you smell like fish and sunscreen.”

  Sawyer laughed. “Okay, I get it. I’ll go take a shower.”

  Just as Sawyer got up and headed for the bathroom, their parents started screaming at each other. The strange thing is that their fight made no sense to their children. They started fighting about what to make for dinner. It wasn’t just a normal disagreement about what to have. It was an all out screaming match. Sawyer stopped dead in his tracks and he and Isabella looked at each other in shock. They had never heard their parents talk to each other like that. Ever. Sawyer couldn’t figure it out. Why didn’t his father just go home to his own place?

  The kids just stayed there in silence, waiting for it to end. But it seemed to be getting worse as the fight wore on. Isabella was too young to understand, but to Sawyer, the fight was about way more than dinner. He just didn’t know what.

  “Isabella! Go outside and play. You’ve been sitting there all day!” her mother yelled at her, clearly still agitated.

  “I’ve only been home an hour, Mom!” she yelled back.

  “Don’t argue with me, young lady. Just do it. Go on!”

  Isabella let out a huff, put her puzzle away, and walked outside. Sawyer never said a word to her. He didn’t say anything to his parents either, as he headed to the bathroom to get that much needed shower.

  Isabella sat down on the wooden bench that was sitting right outside the front door of their house. Her mother had painted yellow roses on it years ago, and they were starting to fade from the harshness of the afternoon sun bearing down on them. She crossed her arms and pouted. She couldn’t understand why she had to go outside and Sawyer didn’t. He always got to do things that she didn’t.

  She could still hear her parents fighting, even with the front window closed. So, she got up to go find something to play with in the yard, something to keep her mind off of what was going on in the house. As she stood up a tear fell on her arm. She hadn’t even realized that she had been crying. She wiped her face with the collar of the pretty yellow dress she was wearing. It matched the roses painted on the bench perfectly.

  As she looked up, Isabella saw the woman across the street smile and wave at her. The woman was outside, enjoying the day, and watering her hydrangeas. Isabella ignored her. She didn’t know the woman and had no desire to wave back. The neighbor just looked over at her as if she couldn’t understand why the little girl acted that way. Her mother was always so nice to her.

  As she stood there staring at the neighbor lady, something came over Isabella. Something that she couldn’t control. She couldn’t even fully grasp what was happening, even though she was the one doing it. She heard a noise and looked left up the street and saw a red car coming toward her direction. She walked over and picked up her bicycle that laid on its side next to the fence that separated their yard from the next door neighbor’s yard. Then she walked toward the street, rolling her bike along with her. About three seconds before the red car got to the area in front of her house, she pushed the bicycle out into the street, directly in the car’s path.

  The driver wasn’t expecting to see anything dart in front of him like that and he hit his brakes as he swerved the car, to the left, in a desperate attempt to not hit the bicycle in front of him. He didn’t have any time to register in his mind that no one was on the bike. He just had time to react. As he swerved hard left, his car skidded, jumped the curb, and headed right for the woman and her hydrangeas. He had no time to stop, and she had no time to jump out of the way.

  His car hit her with a sickening thud, before it came to a full stop on top of the blue flowers she had been lovingly watering only moments before. Isabella was quick. Within seconds of impact, she had run into the street, grabbed her bicycle, and returned it back to her yard, just as the Hales, and most of the neighbors came running from their homes. The car’s screeching brakes alerted everyone to the accident.

  “Oh my god, Isabella! Are you all right?” Jeanette cried as she reached her daughter and hugged her tight. Pictures of her daughter lying in the street flashed in her mind when she heard the car’s brakes. And that terrified her.

  “I’m fine, Mommy.”

  Isabella had no emotion on her face at all, but her parents didn’t notice. It was as if she didn’t realize what had just happened. But that wasn’t the case. She knew exactly what just happened. She was angry at the events that took place that day: her mother getting into a fight with some woman at the cafe, her parents fighting, and her mother screaming at her. It was all too much and she reacted. Hurting people was her way of reacting to the trauma in her life.

  She had been reacting dangerously to stress most of her young life, though no one realized it. When Isabella was only 5 years old, she accidentally discovered that plants can be poisonous. The next door neighbor’s big orange cat wandered into her backyard one day, which he did frequently, and she gave him the leaves of a pretty pink oleander leaf to eat. She had no malicious intent and just wanted to play with the cat. She thought it was funny that he ate it. Unfortunately, it didn’t take long for the cat to get very sick and die. She realized then that the pretty flowers were dangerous.

  Once when she was 8 years old, a boy at school was teasing her about being short. On the walk home from school one day, he came up being her on his bicycle, stopped next to her, and started tormenting her again. It was all harmless stuff, but Isabella didn’t see it that way. Just as he started in on her, she dropped her book
s on the ground. As he looked down at the books, she reached over and shoved him as hard as she could off of the bicycle, into the street. He fell, with the bike on top of him, and started screaming that his arm was broken. She turned around and walked home. It turned out that his arm was indeed broken. He told his parents and the school that Isabella did it, and no one believed him. They just chalked it up to an accident. With such a sweet face and sweet demeanor, Isabella Hale would get away with a lot of things in life.

  There were a few more minor incidents over the years. Nothing major that brought attention to Isabella. In fact, most people thought of her as a bubbly, sweet girl. No one had a clue what was going on in the dark recesses of her mind.

  After running outside to see what the commotion was all about, Jacob saw that Jeanette was taking care of Isabella, so he ran across the street to see if he could help. He dialed 911 as he ran. He saw immediately that the woman in her yard was dead. There was nothing he could do for her so he went to the driver of the car to see if he was all right. The airbags of his car had deployed and the man had a cut on his forehead that was bleeding. Otherwise, it appeared that he was okay. Jacob opened the car door and helped the man out.

  "What happened?" Jacob asked the elderly man. Because of his advanced age, Jacob quickly assumed that the man probably shouldn’t be driving.

  "I don't really know," the man replied, visibly shaken. “I was just driving down the street and a bicycle came flying in front of me. I don't even remember if there was someone on the bike. I don't remember seeing anybody, but I just reacted anyway. I can't believe I went up on the curb into a yard. Did I hurt anyone? Was there a kid on that bicycle?" The man had a look of fear on his face as he asked the questions. “Please tell me that I didn’t hit a little kid.” The man’s face turned red as he desperately tried not to cry.

  Just at that moment, the sirens sounded from the oncoming ambulance. Jacob’s face washed with relief as he realized that he didn't have to answer the man's questions. He would let the police take care of that. He told the man that he was going to go check on his daughter and left him as soon as the paramedics came running up.

  Jacob walked across the street and hugged his daughter tight. Jeanette and Sawyer were standing there with her. Sawyer’s hair was still wet from the shower. He was only wearing a pair of shorts that he threw on quickly when he heard the commotion going on outside.

  “Isabella, what did you see?" All eyes turned to look at her.

  Isabella shrugged her shoulders. "I don't know Daddy. I was doing other stuff and didn't see what happened."

  By then, the sheriff’s office had already shown up and were questioning the man while the paramedics patched him up. One of the other neighbors, Mr. Wilson, walked over to the officers and started speaking with them. Jacob and Jeanette saw the man pointing toward their house which caused the officers to turn and look their way.

  A few minutes later, one of the officers walked across the street to talk to them. He walked up to Jacob and Jeanette and introduced himself.

  “Folks, did you see what happened?”

  “No sir, we didn’t,” Jacob answered. “We were all in the house…well, except Isabella here.” They all turned to look her way.

  “What did you see, young lady?” the officer asked her.

  “Nothing.” Isabella scooted behind her father a bit as she answered the officer.

  “Were you here in your front yard when the accident happened?”

  “Yes,” she told him in a tiny voice.

  “And you didn’t see anything at all?” he asked her again.

  “She said she didn’t.” Jeanette was starting to get a bit irritated with the questions.

  The officer looked up at Jeanette. “Yes, ma’am, I understand that. But I’m trying to investigate the accident, and the death of your neighbor.”

  Jeanette took a quick intake of breath when he said that. She hadn't realized that the woman across the street had been killed. She began thinking about how nice the woman was. She always waved at Jeanette whenever she was out in her yard and often came over just to chitchat. She didn't know her well, but it was nice having a neighbor that was friendly. She couldn't believe the woman was hit by a car in her own front yard.

  Jeanette’s reaction did not go unnoticed by the officer. “Did you know her?” he asked.

  “Well, no, not really. I mean, she would wave and come make small talk with me occasionally, but that was about it. I’ve never even been inside her house.” Jeanette didn’t know why she added that last part. The officer didn't ask. She suddenly remembered her father telling her many times when she was a teenager that if she was ever questioned by the police to just answer their questions as simply as possible and never add anything that they don’t ask. Better yet, get a lawyer and don’t talk to them at all.

  “I see. Well, one of your other neighbors tells me a different story.” The officer was looking directly at Isabella when he spoke. “He said that he saw you roll your bike out into the street, in front of the car, deliberately.”

  All eyes were watching Isabella then for a reaction. It didn’t faze her, none of it did.

  “No, I didn’t. There’s my bike.” She pointed at her bicycle lying on the ground by the side fence.

  “Hmmm,” the officer replied. “He said he also saw you run into the street after the accident and retrieve your bike.”

  “Officer,” Jacob interrupted. “I don’t know how she would have had time to do that. We all heard the tires screeching from in the house and came running. I doubt she would have been able to get her bike back before we got outside. Besides, Isabella is only 10 years old. She would never do something like that deliberately. Would you, sweetheart?”

  “No Daddy.”

  That was enough for Jacob. The story that the neighbor told the police officer was ridiculous. Isabella was not capable of doing something so callous. He knew his daughter well enough to know that. Is that something any child would be capable of doing? He doubted it.

  The officer could plainly see that Isabella's bike was lying on its side in her yard and he also doubted that the cute little girl in front of him was capable of purposefully rolling her bike out in the street in front of a car in order to cause an accident. And then have the wherewithal to run out into the street immediately after the accident and retrieve her bike before anyone saw anything. He decided that he would talk to the neighbor a bit more and make sure that he saw what he said he saw. He had a duty to investigate the accident in detail since someone was killed.

  “Okay, well if I have anymore questions for you I will let you know. If you think of anything else please give me a call. Here's my card.”

  Jacob took his card and put in his back pocket. “Of course. We will call you if we think of anything else. Thank you.”

  Chapter 17

  Within a few hours, the car accident gossip was all over the island. Strangely enough, Isabella’s name was never mentioned. The officer had warned the neighbor not to tell anybody else what he saw, or what he thought he saw. Isabella was a young child and he didn’t want there to be problems for her. And of course, the Hales would never tell anybody that Isabella was involved in the investigation. He knew though, that it probably wouldn’t be long before her name came up. It was going to be impossible to keep that part of the investigation quiet.

  The officer had serious doubts about any involvement by Isabella in the accident. He still needed to do some more investigating though. He noted that she was present at each of the deaths that had recently occurred. Could it all be a coincidence? Sure, there were dozens of people at the cafe when Eric died. The other two could very well have been accidents, and Isabella may have just been in the wrong place at the wrong time.

  Two days later, with dark clouds rolling in above, Isabella was walking home from school alone, with her backpack full of books and papers in tow. It was something she did most days as she only lived a few blocks from school. Her mother thought it was good for
her to walk and Isabella enjoyed the quiet solitude. She really didn’t have any friends, so she spent a lot of time alone. Though the adults in her life thought she was a cute, friendly child, most of the kids at school thought of her as a bit strange. And that could be toxic for one’s social life at any age. However, Isabella wasn’t bothered by it at all. She deemed them as immature and unworthy of her. She much preferred the company of people several years older than she was.

  While lost in thought, Isabella jumped when someone tapped on her right shoulder from behind. She spun around to see who was there. She was a bit startled by Lola’s sudden appearance. Isabella never walked home with anyone and was not really paying any attention to her surroundings. She knew better than that though. Her mother had taught her to always be aware of people around her. There was a lot of danger lurking in the world.

  When she realized who it was behind her, Isabella turned away from Lola and back toward home. Though the two girls had never met, Isabella knew exactly who she was. On that small island, no one did anything that everyone didn’t know about. And with the way Lola looked, odd by anyone’s standards, the gossip ran rampant.

  “Hey, got a question for you,” Lola said to Isabella as she jumped in front of the girl to keep her from continuing her walk home.

  Isabella stopped and looked at Lola questioningly. “I saw you the other day at my house.”

  “Yeah, I know,” Lola replied casually. She didn’t care that Isabella saw her. No proof and all that, she figured.

  Lola was wearing her usual ensemble of torn jeans, a black t-shirt, and lots of jewelry sporting skulls. She had pulled her hair back into a ponytail. With the sides of her head shaved as they were, her ponytail looked very odd to Isabella. Isabella let out a subtle smirk as she looked at Lola and her getup.