THE BANDIT QUEEN - Chapter 24

CHAPTER 24

Deakin left the hospital two days later but he only made it as far as the F.B.I office in Portland. Eden jumped up from her chair when he limped into the room and grabbed his arm to help him walk. He jerked it out of her grasp and carefully lowered himself into the chair in front of the desk. He leaned to the right to take pressure off his left leg and stared at the man across the desk from him.
A quiet well-dressed businessman watched the boy keenly and then said, “It’s nice to meet you, Deakin. I’m Clark Duncan and I’m sorry to say I sent that man to find you. To my credit, I did try to call him off but he was out of control by then. How are you feeling, son?”
Deakin unconsciously touched his leg but no sign of pain showed on his blank face. In a carefully controlled voice, Deakin said, “I’m not your son and it’s my business how I feel.”
Clark shook his head wearily and said, “You have no reason to love any of us, do you? We certainly did not do very well by you. I can only say, in my own defense, that it wasn’t my project to begin with. I tried my best to clean it up after it happened but there wasn’t much for me to do.”
A dark scowl dropped over Deakin’s face and he harshly replied, “Is that all you have to say? ‘It’s not my fault.’ That’s it. My parents are dead. I grew up with no family and was left to live or die on my own. I don’t think that’s good enough, Mr. whoever you are. Just how do I get you to leave me alone? And what about Eden? Are you going to put her life back together? The last we heard, she was charged with hit and run and God knows what else? Can you make all that go away?”
Clark patted the air with his hands and said, “Just calm down, s..Deakin. We’ve already taken care of your friend here. We even dropped the charges for assault on a federal agent and theft of his weapon. That’s all gone, okay? There’s no way to undo the past though. The only thing we can do is send you out of here with a clean slate. I am sorry about your parents. That was a different world then, but there really is no excuse for what happened.”
Clark Duncan stood up behind the desk to signal the end of their discussion. Deakin slowly limped to the door with Eden close behind him. Just as he grasped the knob on the door, Clark cleared his throat. Deakin turned his head to stare back at the man.
“Deakin, if you ever find what your mother hid away, will you let me know? Eden has my number. Just out of curiosity, I’d like to know if she saved it or destroyed it.”
Deakin leaned wearily against the door and then said, “I might or I might not. I don't know how I’ll feel about that until it happens.”
He nodded goodbye and limped through the door. Eden closed the door behind them and walked slowly beside him down the hallway. When they walked out into the bright sunshine of a winter’s day, Deakin shook like a dog after a bath.
“Let’s get out of here, Eden.”
Eden led the way to her red convertible, conveniently delivered to her in close to pristine condition. She shoveled Deakin into the passenger seat and climbed in behind the wheel.
“Uh, where are we going?”
Deakin grinned a little smile and said, “Nowhere near that big rock. We’ll have to go there later, much later, when everyone has quit watching us. Where’s the rest of our merry band of treasure seekers? Martin, Mala and Ian.”
“Mala left for California yesterday. The doctors didn’t want her to travel but she wouldn’t stay. Ian flew to Chicago this morning. I have phone numbers for both of them, in case we find anything. I have no idea about Martin. The rangers and the deputies never saw him. He must have run away after that awful man shot you and fell off the rock. Somehow, I have the feeling he’s hanging around the rock out there and waiting for us to show up.”
Deakin grimaced as he tried to find a comfortable position for his leg. Eden reached over to help him but stopped herself before she touched him. She turned quickly to start the car and pull out of the parking lot.
“I guess that means we head back to LA then. I at least have an apartment we can live in. What do you say? We go to my place and decide what to do after that.”
Deakin reached out and touched her cheek. Eden glanced quickly over at him with a glint of tears in her eyes and let out the breath she’d unconsciously held. Deakin nodded and settled back for the long trip to Los Angeles.


Months later, just before the beginning of the summer, Deakin and Eden carefully loaded up the car and drove north. Deakin no longer looked like a boy who’d grown too fast for his clothes. Eden had pushed him to make many changes during the time they’d lived together. He was working on his high school diploma but not actually going to class. In his situation, home schooling was the only way to go. Eden planned to go back to UCLA in the fall, but she had no idea what she wanted to study. Deakin leaned back in the seat and tipped his ball cap low over his eyes. A lazy smile flitted across his face and Eden felt a glow of satisfaction. She’d forced him to visit an orthodontist and have his braces removed. He grudgingly agreed that she was right and he was happy to have the braces off.
They took turns as they drove lazily up the coast of California. As far as they could tell, no one was following them around any more. When they’d first returned to LA, they constantly checked the people and the cars around them. Now, they’d almost forgotten what it was like to be followed by professionals.
As they neared the city of Salem, Eden realized her shoulders were tense. She slowly relaxed them and forced herself to look around at the countryside they passed through. She glanced across at Deakin and noticed the whiteness of his knuckles on the steering wheel. She flicked his hand with her finger and said,
“Relax, Deakin. There’s nobody around. At least, I don't think there’s anyone around who’s interested in us.”
Deakin kept his eyes on the road. “I’m not really worried about someone following us. I’m just kinda anxious about what we’ll find. Do you really think we’ll find anything?”
Eden shrugged her shoulders. She really didn’t care whether they ever found what Deakin’s mother had hidden. That adventure was over and they’d come out of it better than she’d ever expected. They were alive. They weren’t being chased by federal agents. Martin Wolfe called them on a weekly basis. He wanted them to continue searching for the lost computer files but Eden always put him off. Hopefully he wouldn’t follow them to the park.
Deakin pulled off the road into the parking lot of the small state park. Deakin pulled a backpack out of the car and swung it onto his back. Eden slipped her arms through a similar pack and followed Deakin along the familiar path. Deakin’s bullet wound had healed with only a small scar to remind them. They marched down the path through the dappled shade from the trees around them. Eden didn’t recognize much of landscape they walked through. Winter and spring made a big difference. She followed Deakin up the steep path without a word until they came to the ledge they’d rested on before. Deakin dropped to the ground and swung his legs over the edge. Eden dropped next to him and stared at the view in front of them.
Deakin reached for her hand and said, “Remember the last time. You thought we should live up here instead of LA. Have you changed your mind?”
Eden leaned her head against his shoulder and said, “We can go anywhere. This feels like a good place. We should drive to the coast after we leave here. I’ve heard it’s really beautiful.”
Deakin kept his eyes on the hills around them and nodded easily. “C’mon, Eden, let’s get this over with. It’s like something we have to do before we can move on.”
Deakin pulled Eden to her feet and climbed the rest of the way to the top of the rock. Eden stepped out on top and felt the wind blow through her. She held her arms out and turned a slow circle while the wind ruffled her clothes and her hair. Then she looked around to get her bearings and walked toward the rocks and scrub bushes that had hidden the tire iron for so many years. She dropped her pack on the ground and unzipped it. From its depths she pulled out several small gardening tools along with the tire iron. Deakin wandered around the rock to check for other climbers and returned quickly.
Eden had already levered out several small rocks and set them to the side. Deakin took the lever out of her hand and gave her a flashlight to hold for him. Before long they had cleared a good sized hole in the ground without finding any treasure. When Deakin shoved the tire iron into the ground one more time, they were rewarded with a metallic sound. Eden took the iron out of his hand and gave him the gardening tools. Deakin carefully dug out dirt and rocks until he could see part of a coffee can buried on its side. Roots had wound around the can over the years and the plastic lid had lost its hold. It took them quite a while to get the can loose and pull it out of the hole.
They sat on the ground with the can between them and just stared at it. Without taking her eyes off it, Eden reached into her pack and pulled out a camera. She took pictures of the can and pictures of the rocks that had hidden it all this time. A shadow passed over them and a shiver ran up Eden’s spine. She looked fearfully around and realized for the first time that black clouds had moved in from the west and covered half the sky. She quickly packed the tools away and took one more look into the hole to make sure nothing else had been buried there. Then she scooped the rocks and dirt into the hole. Deakin took the flashlight from her hand and illuminated the interior of the can. A glass jar lay inside with the lid screwed shut. Deakin glanced up at the sky and chewed on his thumb in indecision. Then he made up his mind and picked up the can. He slid the glass jar out onto a plastic trash bag they’d spread on the ground between them. He glanced up at Eden’s face and flashed her a quick smile before he rolled the jar around. Finally he took a deep breath and twisted the lid off before he could think of any more reasons not to do it.
The wind picked up again and swirled around the rocks, carrying dust and grit in its wake. Eden held her hair out of her face and scooted around to become a human windbreak. Deakin reached carefully inside the jar and pulled out a thick wad of papers. The smell of must, mold and peanut butter came out with the papers. He unfolded them and held them down by the corners. He threw a wild look at Eden and croaked,
“It’s the same writing as the other letter. The one my aunt had. Help me read this top one. The paper has turned darker and the writing is a little smeared.”
Eden leaned against his shoulder and stared at the neat precise writing on the page in front of them. Deakin began reading slowly out loud.
Dearest Alex,
I hope you are the one who finds these papers. I gave one letter to my sister in Seattle and sent one to Mala. They are the only other people who love me unreservedly like you do. I have done a terrible thing, my dear. I turned into a scientific machine and lost my humanity for a while. But now I have regained it and realized what a mistake I made. I thought that because I could never use my laser design for any wicked purpose, no one else would either. There are so many terrific uses for my discovery but there are just as many, if not more, terrible uses. I decided I have to destroy all my work before I lose control of it. I have no choice. When I look in the face of our child, I cannot allow him to grow up in a world where governments have control over the immediate creation and destruction of everything. There is no human being anywhere on earth who can wield that power. Not even I and I made the damned thing.
I don't know what will happen when I get back to the lab. The baby is safe with my sister. The computer disks and files we took have been destroyed totally. I hope you destroyed the computers and the prototypes. I will leave here and take one last look at the ocean before I come home. The wind and the water will surely wash away the grit and ashes. I can only hope that nobody else will be able to reconstruct our research. Whatever happens is in someone else’s hands now. Maybe you and I will stand on this rock in a year or so and dig up these papers together. If not, never forget that I love you and I love our son.
Helena
Eden wiped a few tears from her eyes and carefully took the page from Deakin’s hands. She slipped it in a thick plastic envelope and reached for the next page. She quickly scanned the page and handed it Deakin. His eyes misted over as he stared at his parents’ wedding license. Next was his birth certificate and Helena’s Russian visa. The last page had been torn from a child’s book of nursery rhymes. One side of the page showed a small boat with three babies in it. The other side of the page showed blackbirds flying out of a large pie. Deakin looked blankly at Eden and shook his head. A sudden gust of wind swirled around them and a few drops of rain hit their shoulders. Deakin hurriedly slid the papers into the plastic envelope and dropped everything into his backpack. Eden brushed the dirt smooth and followed Deakin quickly down the path back to their car.
Occasional drops blew into their faces but the rain held off until they made to the shelter of the car. Deakin held his pack tightly on his lap and watched Eden climb into the driver’s seat.
“Where do we go now? I certainly don't want to camp out in this rain.”
Eden started the car and drove smoothly away from the park. She turned to car west and headed for the Pacific coast. The storm strengthened as they drove along the twisting road. Deakin pulled the package out of his pack and carefully removed the papers from their plastic covering. He read the letter from his mother over and over, taking comfort from the knowledge that his mother had written every word on the page. He flipped through the other pages once and returned to the letter. Then he held up the page torn from the book. He rummaged through Eden’s pack and found her flashlight. He still didn’t find any marks or clues on the page.
Eden glanced at him with a crooked smile and said, “Maybe she kept it because you drooled on it. Maybe it meant something to her or to your father. Someone must have read to you. Your ‘mother’ in Dallas said you already knew several nursery rhymes when you came to live with her.”
Deakin shook his head in indecision. “I don't know, Eden. I think she put it in the jar for a reason but I don't know what it was. You know, she never did say what she did with all the research files. There must have been boxes and boxes of papers and notes plus the computer disks. Back then, people still did a lot of work by hand and transferred it to the computer. There must have been stacks of stuff.”
Eden wrinkled her forehead in thought and then said, “Well, it sounds to me as if she never wanted anyone to duplicate her research so I think she destroyed all of it. Maybe she burned it. That’s what I’d do if I had that much paper to get rid of. She did mention fire in that letter, didn’t she?”
“No, she mentioned ashes, but it would be sort of symbolic, wouldn’t it? You know, purification and all that stuff.”
Eden made a sudden left turn and parked the car in the parking lot of a lookout point. The rain had moved inland leaving forests that had been washed clean. Directly in front of them was the ocean still churning from the strength of the wind. Eden stepped out of the car and leaned against the waist-high rock wall at the edge of the parking lot. The land dropped off just beyond the wall into a sheer cliff. A couple of hundred feet down was a small beach littered with large black rocks. The waves crashed on the rocks and sprayed streams of water partway up the cliff. Deakin joined her and stared at the wild waves which started far out in the ocean and rolled steadily into the earth just below their feet.
“This is like the edge of the earth, isn’t it? We’re safe on land while any boats out there are in danger of going under.”
Deakin put his arm around Eden and said, “It’s only relative safety, Eden. We have our own predators on land. The fish out there are relatively safe in their own environment, but they have predators too, not just man. Wait a minute. I just thought of something. What is that you were telling one time? You know, about wind, fire, water. There was more to it too. What was that?”
Eden smiled and said, “You mean what I said about feng shui. It’s also part of Chinese horoscopes too. The five elements: wood, water, metal, fire, and earth. What does that have to do with your mother? Or even with us right now?”
“Think about it. We’re standing on the edge of the earth. Water is right in front of us. We came in a metal car. There are forests all around us. The only thing missing is fire. I think my mother started with fire. She burned the papers and gathered up the ashes. Then she took me to Seattle, stopped here to bury her little coffee can, and then came this way just like we did. She left the earth and sailed off in a boat – either metal or wooden. Just like the babies on that page she buried. What is that rhyme about Wynken, Blynken and Nod? They sailed away, didn’t they? Out there somewhere is the resting place of those ashes. I wonder if we’ll ever know what she really did.”
After fifteen or twenty minutes, Eden returned to the car and started it. Deakin dropped into his seat and opened his mouth to speak. Eden shook her head and drove off in silence. She pulled into the first town they came across and drove up and down the streets. Finally she stopped at a small bait shop and went inside. Deakin rolled down his window and wrinkled his nose at the smell of rotting fish. The ocean looked much tamer from the pier out beyond the shop. Eden walked quickly out the door and jumped back into the car.
“Whew! That is one smelly place. Leave your window down. I need to air out. There’s a small motel down this road. We’ll stay the night there and try to figure out the last clue your mother gave us, okay?”


The two young people sat on the deck of a seafood restaurant and stared out at the wide expanse of blue water. Neither had spoken for the last five minutes or so. Finally, Deakin turned to the girl across the table from him and said,
“I’m out of ideas, Eden. This whole coastline is littered with tiny towns and fishermen. We’ll never find anyone who saw my mother. You know, even if someone did talk to her, they probably won't remember it after all these years.”
“Don't be so cranky, Deakin. It won't hurt to try. Let’s get out of here. I’d like to find a beach or a pier. Dangle my feet in the water or walk barefoot along a beach. What d’you say?”
Deakin stood up without a word and herded Eden out the door. She immediately turned back and grabbed a tourist brochure. She tossed it in Deakin’s lap in the car and said
“Look for my beach in that thing.”
Deakin flipped the brochure open and looked at the small map of the town. He gave Eden directions and soon they stood on a tiny slice of beach. They walked along the beach and dropped to the sand next to a large rock. They stared out at the darkening ocean and lost themselves in the movement of the waves. Soon the water crept up the sand and tickled their feet. Finally they walked back to their car in silence. Eden drove along the main street of town and stopped the car in amazement. Deakin looked around but could find nothing to account for Eden’s actions. He nudged her shoulder and she jerked out of her trance. She smiled widely and pointed out the windshield. Deakin looked out at the row of commercial buildings lining the main street. They had seen their best days about fifty years in the past but new businesses were beginning to open. He shook his head and said,
“Why did you stop here? I don't see anything but a few shops and offices. What?”
“I just saw something that could solve our latest puzzle. Look at that sign hanging there. What do you see?”
“Duh! Just the name of the shop and the address.”
“Think, Deakin. Your mother left us a number puzzle. The page from that book had the blackbird rhyme on it. Four and twenty blackbirds baked in a pie. Well, maybe we need to look for an address with those numbers in it. 420 something. If we look in the phone directory, we might find a boat rental place with that address. It’s worth a try.”
Deakin’s frown disappeared and he laughed out loud. “Boy, you sure are reaching. Don't hit me. I can’t hit you back. You’re driving. Find us a directory and we’ll check it out. Just don't hope too much, okay?”
Eden muttered under her breath, something about men who didn’t know a good idea when they heard one, and drove determinedly to the nearest open shop. Deakin wheedled the directory from the teenaged girl behind the counter and tossed it to Eden. She set the book on the hood of the car, opened it to the yellow pages and ran her finger down all the listings for boat dealers and rentals and anything else similar that she could think of. None of them came close to her numbers.
“It’s a very small directory. We could go through all the pages in an hour. What do you say, Eden?”
She tossed it in his lap and said, with a sigh, “You can do what you want. I thought that was going to be the answer. Maybe this is the wrong town. You said there were towns all up and down the coast. How can we try all of them?”
Deakin flipped desultorily through the pages. All at one his attention sharpened on one page and he grabbed Eden’s arm.
“What did you find, Deakin?”
He laughed again and his eyes sparkled as he looked across the car at Eden.
“You found it! You found it! Show me!”
“Hey, give me the book back! I haven’t actually found it. I just figured the puzzle out. You know my mother was a scientist so she thought differently than most people. Actually she probably thought more in numbers than in words. So, think about that nursery rhyme. Four and twenty blackbirds baked in a pie. Well, just change it to say Four and twenty blackbirds baked in pi. What does that say to you?”
“I don't get it.”
“Well, what’s pi?
“It’s dough and fruit baked in a round pan.”
“No, P I, not P I E.”
“Oh, 3.1414, and on and on and on.”
Deakin smiled at her and said, “So, what’s the answer?”
Eden wrinkled her forehead in thought and then shrugged her shoulders in defeat. “I guess you’ll have to tell me.”
“Okay, think about it this way. Four and twenty make twenty-four. So you have twenty-four baked inside pi. So, what if the answer is a phone number? Twenty-four inside pi. If you put the twenty-four where the decimal point is, you come up with 324-1414. If you look in this book, you’ll see that lots of the phone numbers begin with 324.”
Eden let out a yell and grabbed Deakin. She pounded her fists on his chest and danced around the parking lot. When she finally ran out of breath, she leaned against Deakin and asked,
“Well, do we just call that number and see what happens? Right now?”
Deakin rubbed his hand down the side of his shorts and looked around at the darkness.
“How late is it?”
“9:30.”
“Let’s do it now. What’s the worst that could happen? They can just hang up on me.”
Deakin walked slowly over to the pay phone mounted on the side of the building. He pulled some change out of his pocket and determinedly slid the coins into the phone. He carefully punched in the number and leaned his head against the wall as he listened to the ringing of the phone. He was almost surprised when the phone was answered after the seventh ring. He stuttered a little as he began his story, but the person on the line listened until he’d finished. Then a soft, elderly voice said,
“Son, you must be looking for my husband. He used to fish around here and took people out for boat rides. He hasn’t done that in years and years though. You’d best come by the house in the morning and talk to him. He’s usually pretty alert during the morning. He sleeps the rest of the time. You just come about nine or so and I’ll have him ready to talk, okay?”
“Th-th-thank you. Where do I come? I mean, what’s your address? I only have your phone number.”
The woman gave him directions and left him standing with the receiver in his hand. He turned to Eden with a look of wonder.
“Tomorrow morning at nine o’clock. He’s an old man and he might not remember but she said he used to have a boat for rent. Maybe he’ll remember something.”