Chasing Rainbow Page 7

  “Let me just change,” Gene said. “It’ll only take a minute.” He was wearing plus-fours—knickers— and a polo shirt, suitable for golf but not for lunch on the beach.

  Left alone with Jake, Rainbow hardly knew what to say or do. He stood there, just inside her door, looking entirely too attractive in khaki slacks, deck shoes, and an open-throated blue shirt—and she hated feeling that attraction.

  She spoke. “I’m sorry I blurted what I did about your uncle last night. I’m usually more cautious.”

  His face darkened a little. “You won’t manipulate me by mentioning Joe.”

  “Is that what you think? That I was trying to manipulate you?” The urge to slap him was growing again.

  “Why else did you say that?”

  “Oh, I don’t know. How about I just suddenly had this very strong impression, and I announced it?”

  His expression said he didn’t believe her.

  Rainbow shook her head. “You really don’t get it, do you? I don’t use my talent to manipulate people. What’s more, I usually don’t blurt out stupid things like I did last night because all it does is make people feel even more suspicious of me. It certainly doesn’t make anyone more likely to believe me. Look how you reacted.”

  He nodded slowly, as if he were actually considering what she was saying.

  Well, close-minded though he was, apparently he could be reasoned with—which might not be a good thing, she found herself thinking glumly. When he was unreasonable, at least she could continue to dislike him. This new side of him was somehow even more threatening.

  “What worries me,” he said finally, “is that while you’re ghost hunting, the residents aren’t looking for more rational explanations of what’s going on.”

  “You mean that someone might be trying to scare them out of their homes?”

  “It’s a possibility, yes.”

  She shook her head. “I know what I felt when I was there last night.”

  “You’re saying there definitely are ghosts?” He looked as if the words tasted sour on his tongue.

  “Yes, I am. There are. I felt it in Olive Herschfeld’s apartment, in Nellie Blair’s apartment, and in yours.”

  “Mine?” He got the strangest look on his face, and for once Rainbow would have given a great deal to know what he was thinking.

  “Yes, yours. Don’t worry about it, though. You’re apparently deaf to it, and anyway, whatever it is is benevolent.”

  “Benevolent.” He repeated the word almost woodenly. “Then I won’t worry about it.”

  Which, she thought reluctantly, had probably been difficult for him to say, given his totally incredulous approach to the subject.

  “Are we ready?” Gene emerged from the guest room, once again clad in tennis shorts and a green T-shirt that said, “You never really learn to swear until you learn to play golf.”

  They went up the beach a little way to a small restaurant with a view of the water. The lunch rush was nearly over, so they were able to get a table by the window without difficulty. Rainbow busied herself with the menu, preferring to let Gene and Jake do most of the talking. After all, anytime she said anything to Jake, they got into an argument. After they ordered, however, talk once again turned to events at the condo building.

  “I’m afraid I don’t really know the residents that well,” Jake said. “I used to visit my uncle maybe once a year, but I rarely stayed more than a week at a time. I played shuffleboard with some of them, and met them in the hallways. I got to know a few of Joe’s closer friends when we all went fishing together, but basically I don’t know anyone that well.”

  “That’ll change,” Gene said. “Where did you live before?”

  “Oh, all over the world.”

  “Really? What do you do?”

  “I’m a petroleum geologist.”

  Rainbow found herself listening with more interest than she wanted to as Jake continued.

  “I go where the work is, and a lot of it is overseas. I spent a couple of years on the North Sea and in Alaska, some time in the Middle East, and most recently I was in Indonesia.”

  “No wonder you had jet lag.”

  Jake smiled at both of them. When he smiled, Rainbow thought, he was more than just an attractive man. His whole face became warm and appealing. She looked away, unhappy with her reaction.

  “I’m not sure it was just jet lag,” Jake said. “It might have been partly culture shock. I seem to go through it every time I’m out of the country for a long time, living with local people. Somehow it’s easier to go overseas and immerse myself in a totally foreign culture than it is to come home and discover that what ought to be familiar isn’t.”

  Gene nodded. “I’ve had a taste of that myself at times.”

  “Really? When you were on location?”

  He shook his head. “Actually, in a past life I worked for the federal government. I spent some time overseas.”

  “But he won’t tell you anything about it,” Rainbow said, retaliating sweetly for Gene’s getting her involved in this lunch. “He was with the CIA.”

  Gene shot her a look. His past affiliation was not something he liked to advertise.

  Jake looked at her uncle with renewed interest. “Really? I bet you have some war stories to tell.”

  Gene shrugged.

  “He had a bullet dug out of him once without anesthetic,” Rainbow said.

  This time Gene glared at her, and she couldn’t help laughing.

  “I’ll get even with you,” her uncle said.

  “Too late. I’m getting even with you.”

  “I figured as much.”

  Jake looked from one to the other. “What for?”

  Rainbow favored him with a smile. “It’s a long story. I wonder what’s taking lunch so long?”

  Just as she spoke, a waitress brought their meals. Rainbow had chosen her favorite seafood salad. Gene, as usual, thumbed his nose at cholesterol counts and was dining on fried grouper. Jake had ordered broiled cod on a bed of rice.

  “Have you ever traveled overseas?” Jake asked her.

  “No, I’m afraid not. I’ve spent most of my life in Florida.”

  “Do you want to travel?”

  “I’d love to, but so far I haven’t been able to afford it. Besides, I wouldn’t want to go alone, which means I’d have to find a friend who wanted to go to the same places.” Nor was she comfortable talking about herself. “Are you going to stay here permanently?”

  ‘Tor a year, at least.”

  “I didn’t know there was any petroleum around here.”

  “I’m planning to write a book.”

  “Really? About what?”

  “Petroleum geology.” She grimaced.

  “Hey,” he said, laughing. “It’s not that dull! It’s actually quite fascinating. The rocks tell stories, and there’s always a new one to read. Over the years, I’ve branched my studies out from geology to paleontology, and now reading a core sample can be like reading a good book.”

  “Sort of like what Rainy does with her talent,” Gene remarked.

  Rainbow wished he hadn’t redirected the conversation, and shot him another look. Gene simply smiled at her.

  “How do you mean?” Jake asked.

  “Well, you can read things in stones that other people can’t see. It took training, perseverance, hard work, and a lot of talent. Rainy does the same thing. The only difference is that her art isn’t considered a science—yet. But if you were to ask the average man on the street about the things you read in rocks, you might as well be talking about magic.”

  “With one big difference.”

  “Of course,” Gene said equitably. “You have the religion of science behind you.”

  Jake surprised Rainbow by laughing. “You know, that’s almost exactly what an old lady said to me yesterday. She said that my belief in science was as blinding as any other belief.”

  Gene nodded. “It can be. If you let it. Who was this elderly lady? I�
�d like to meet her. She sounds like a woman after my own heart.”

  “A Miss Mary Todd. She drives a purple golf cart, and she isn’t reluctant to stick her nose in wherever she wants.”

  “Miss Todd,” Rainy said, “is one of our most prominent local citizens. She’s a real dear.”

  “With a tart tongue,” Jake added. “But I liked the old girl.”

  Of course, thought Rainbow. Mary Todd didn’t have psychic powers. She looked down at her salad and speared a piece of tomato with her fork.

  Gene finished his lunch a little before the other two and suddenly rose from the table, tossing down a couple of twenties. “My treat,” he said. “I just remembered an appointment.”

  “An appointment?” Rainbow asked, feeling her heart sink.

  “You’re not the only reason I came to Florida, my dear.” He gave her a brilliant smile. “Jake will see you home. Won’t you, Jake?”

  “Sure. I’d be delighted.”

  Yeah, right, thought Rainbow, looking down at her plate again to hide her scowl. Damn Gene and his machinations! Maybe he was the one she ought to tie to the railroad tracks.

  “I like your uncle,” Jake said when Gene had gone.

  “I do, too. Sometimes. But he’s a rogue and there’s never any telling what he might do next.”

  “You mean like abandoning you to my mercies?”

  She looked up, feeling her cheeks heat with embarrassment that her uncle’s ploy had been so obvious, and found Jake smiling at her. It wasn’t a casual smile, but something … warmer. Friendlier. Almost sympathetic. “He drives me nuts sometimes,” she admitted.

  “He means well. I think he’d really like it if you and I managed to bury the hatchet.”

  “How are we supposed to do that? We have a fundamental disagreement.”

  He put his fork down. “I didn’t believe the witch doctors in some of the places I lived, but I didn’t go around insulting them, or the people who had faith in them. I should never have said what I said to you, and I can’t apologize enough. I don’t have to believe your abilities are real to admit that you’re sincere.”

  She regarded him suspiciously. “Can you change your convictions that easily?”

  “I haven’t changed any.”

  “You believe I’m a fraud.”

  He shook his head. “No, Rainbow, I don’t. Like I said before, I think it’s possible you really believe in what you’re doing.”

  “So in essence, you’ve decided I’m not a fraud, but I’m certifiably crazy.”

  “I didn’t say that!”

  “What’s the difference?” She tossed her napkin down and rose, giving him a brittle smile. “I’m not hungry anymore. I think I’ll go home.”

  She headed for the door, head high and back stiff. Enough, she thought. She’d had enough of this. She’d tried to be polite to the man yesterday, and for her trouble had gotten her rice handed back and the door closed in her face. Now all of a sudden today she was supposed to forget all that and be willing to accept that he thought she wasn’t a bad person, just a deluded one. Well, to hell with him!

  She decided to walk back along the beach and paused at the bottom of the stairs from the boardwalk over the dunes to remove her sandals. She had only taken two steps in her bare feet when Jake caught up with her.

  “It’s a beautiful day,” he remarked.

  “It’s hot and muggy.” Never mind that the sea breeze was blowing and actually making it rather pleasant.

  “The sun is awfully strong. Aren’t you afraid of getting a burn?”

  “I always wear sun block.”

  “Oh.”

  She kept walking as fast as she could, and he kept pace right beside her. Clearly he was not going to vanish, no matter how hard she wished the sand would open up and swallow him.

  “Look, Rainy—”

  “Nobody calls me Rainy except my family!”

  “Excuse me. Rainbow. Listen, I’m really sorry you took me wrong. I don’t think you’re crazy.”

  “No?” She turned and faced him with flashing eyes. “Just deluded?”

  He shook his head. “No more deluded than people who go to church.”

  “How magnanimous of you!”

  He waved a hand almost helplessly. “I can’t seem to say anything right to you! What I mean is, you were raised to believe all of this. Your mother’s psychic, right? Well it’s only natural that you would believe the same thing. And I was raised not to believe in it, so it’s only natural that I don’t.”

  “Which leaves us poles apart on one of the central issues of my life.”

  He nodded. “Yes, it does. But that doesn’t mean we can’t be friends. Nor does it mean that I can’t respect your beliefs.”

  She looked past him, squinting into the sun that glared off the aquamarine waves, listening to the steady roar of the surf and the raucous cries of gulls. Why was she being so difficult about this, she wondered? She was ordinarily more inclined to go with the flow, to let things wash over her like those waves out there, and then steadily seep away.

  This man had been doing his best to smooth rings between them, and she had been doing her best to prevent it. There had to be a reason she was being so contrary, but she had a feeling she wouldn’t like the answers.

  She looked up at him, noting the squint lines around his eyes and the way his mouth seemed to express an almost deferential hope. He had a very expressive mouth.

  So here they were, acting more like two kids on a schoolyard, than adults. Or rather, she was.

  She sighed, the sound lost in the pounding of the surf. “Why should we want to be friends?” she asked, and this time there was no truculence in her tone.

  “Because we have a common goal?”

  “We do?”

  He nodded. “We both want to resolve the problem at Paradise Towers. We have different ideas about what the problem really is, but we both want to fix it. And I can’t help feeling we’d both do better if we cooperated.”

  “How?”

  “I’m not really sure. All I know is, I’ve started chatting with some of my neighbors, and they’re all very concerned about what’s going on. You’ve been saying the same thing. They’re uneasy, and some are really frightened, and understandably so. Whether the problem is supernatural or earthly, it’s hard to feel safe in your home when someone or something can get in and out of it at will.”

  Rainbow nodded. “Exactly.”

  “So see? We agree on that much. I went to the chief of police about it, but he said he needed proof that someone was trying to scare the residents. Which, I guess, pretty much leaves you and me to work the problem.”

  “But why do you want to work with me if you think I’m way off course?”

  He shrugged. “Because as difficult as it is for me to admit it, you may not be off course.”

  Rainbow nearly gaped at him. “Are you allowing that there might be ghosts?”

  “Not exactly. I’m allowing that some of the residents believe there are ghosts. And if there’s no earthly explanation for what’s going on, then you’re probably the only cure. I’m a great believer in the power of conviction. I once saw a man die because he believed he was under a curse.”

  Rainy nodded slowly, thinking about what he had just said.

  “Hey,” he continued, “it’s a scientific fact that some thirty percent of the time people are cured of illness simply by faith in their doctors. Or faith in a pill, even if it’s a placebo. If these people believe they have ghosts, and believe you can solve the problem, you probably can, and I’m not going to stand in the way.”

  So he’d found a scientific reason to accept what she was doing. Rainbow decided she could live with that, even if she didn’t fully agree with it. Besides, she was aware of the so-called placebo effect, and she couldn’t deny it played a role.

  “So how do we work together?” she asked finally.

  “All we have to do is share information, whatever we learn as we go along. You may hear th
ings from the residents that are useful to me, or vice versa. Pooling our resources seems like the most intelligent way to battle the problem.”

  She nodded. “All right. It certainly can’t hurt.”

  They started walking along the sand again, this time more slowly. The subtropical sun was at its height, blazingly hot on the skin despite the steady breeze.

  They passed by a heavy man who was stretched out on a beach towel, his skin already looking an unhealthy red. He wasn’t going to enjoy the rest of his vacation if he didn’t watch it, Rainbow thought. He must be from up north. Far up north. Too many visitors failed to appreciate how fast they could burn at this latitude.

  Two little children, greasy with sun screen, were building a lopsided castle in the sand. Their mother lay nearby, reading a paperback novel. A jogger passed them, kicking up little fountains of sand with his bare feet.

  “It’s so peaceful out here,” Jake remarked. “I suppose it’s jammed during tourist season?”

  “Busier, but not crowded. I don’t think I’ve ever seen the beach really crowded, unless there’s something special happening, and then the crowding is limited to the area right around the event.”

  “That’s good. I’ve been having all kinds of visions of the horrors of the season.”

  “Well, if you want to get anywhere, it will take longer, especially along the boulevard. Traffic is pretty much bumper-to-bumper during the season.”

  “I’ll keep that in mind.”

  “Everything takes longer when the tourists are here, though. Checkout lines get longer, for one thing, and you have to wait at most restaurants if you go out for dinner, especially on weekends. Everyone tries to cope, but by spring tempers are getting a little frayed.”

  “That’s understandable.”

  By the time they reached her cottage, Rainbow was hot and thirsty and wanted nothing so much as a tall glass of iced tea. She asked Jake if he’d like to join her, and he accepted with a smile.

  She served it in her “green room,” a small greenhouse she had added to her cottage that opened off the living room into a sunny spot in her garden. It was full of plants that needed a gentler climate than those outside, and made it possible to enjoy the garden in air-conditioned comfort.

  “I like this room,” Jake said as he joined her at the white cast-iron table. “It’s great.”