face.
“What are we doing here? Keep driving.” Hannah twisted in her seat, looking at the water on one side, the cliff of Fort Mason on the other side. Her hand moved nervously in her raincoat pocket.
“I wondered if we could hear the Wave Organ from here. It’s around the point, but I think I can. Hear it?” Waves slapped the sides of the pier and crashed through the Wave Organ somewhere west of us, which emitted a hollow, groaning noise. I had always liked it, but now it seemed too macabre. “Never mind. I’ll do you a big favor and show you one of my favorite spots in the whole world.”
“This isn’t a tour, you know.” Hannah looked at me with disfavor when I turned the bus around and headed back up Van Ness to Bay. I swung into Fort Mason.
“Where are you going? Is this some kind of police station?”
“Relax. It’s part of the Park Service, not the army anymore, though they do have an officer’s club over there somewhere.” I drove down a little street, with old houses on it that dated back to the military’s first presence in San Francisco in the late 1880s. Some of the houses were still occupied by army personnel; children scampered out a front door, intent on catching the school bus. “There’s a youth hostel here. And something else very special.” I parked the bus and opened my door. “Come on.”
“I don’t like this. What are you doing?”
“I’m showing you something.” I turned and gestured. It made me very nervous, the way she fingered that gun, but I thought if I could loosen her up a little, get her to follow my lead, she’d eventually stop bossing me and come to her senses. “It’s nothing to do with police or people in any way. Come on.”
She climbed down from her side of the bus, managing to do so with her hand still in her pocket. “You are asking to be shot,” she threatened, but she didn’t do anything. At that moment, I felt my first tremor of doubt that she had killed Naomi. If she was ruthless enough to poison her longtime associate in front of witnesses, she was surely ruthless enough to shoot me and commandeer the bus.
Instead, she followed me along the path through the trees. I hadn’t been to the spot in a long time, but it was still just as I remembered it—a small clearing in the thick vegetation, with a bench positioned to look out over the steep cliff that marked the end of Fort Mason. From the bench, a perfect vignette of the Golden Gate Bridge, the Marin headlands, and the distant buildings of Sausalito was framed by the surrounding greenery.
“Sit,” I invited Hannah, doing so myself. “Take it in. It’s very peaceful.”
She sat, still pointing that stupid gun at me. The air was incredibly fresh, as if it had never been breathed before. It was impossible not to breathe deeply. I felt more relaxed almost instantaneously. I hoped its magic would work on Hannah too.
I could see her chest lifting. For a few minutes she didn’t speak. I let the silence settle around us. If you were striving for clarity of thought, this was a good place to be.
Of course, it was also a good place to kill someone and leave the body.
I hoped that idea hadn’t occurred to Hannah. I heard her breathing deepen and slow, and tried to project an aura of calm reflection.
How long we sat like that, I don’t know, but after a while I heard a surprising sound—sniffles. Hannah was crying.
“Are you okay?” I groped in my pocket, but she was already patting her damp eyes with a hankie.
“I miss Naomi,” she gulped. “She’s been with me for nearly forty years. All that time, we had a common goal. I always thought it was the most important thing to her— really, to both of us. Why, she never even married, she was so intent on our work.”
“How did you start out?”
At first I thought she wasn’t going to answer my question. Then she put the hankie away and started talking.
“We were in Talbot at Smith. We ended up in the kitchen, cooking to earn our
“What are we doing here? Keep driving.” Hannah twisted in her seat, looking at the water on one side, the cliff of Fort Mason on the other side. Her hand moved nervously in her raincoat pocket.
“I wondered if we could hear the Wave Organ from here. It’s around the point, but I think I can. Hear it?” Waves slapped the sides of the pier and crashed through the Wave Organ somewhere west of us, which emitted a hollow, groaning noise. I had always liked it, but now it seemed too macabre. “Never mind. I’ll do you a big favor and show you one of my favorite spots in the whole world.”
“This isn’t a tour, you know.” Hannah looked at me with disfavor when I turned the bus around and headed back up Van Ness to Bay. I swung into Fort Mason.
“Where are you going? Is this some kind of police station?”
“Relax. It’s part of the Park Service, not the army anymore, though they do have an officer’s club over there somewhere.” I drove down a little street, with old houses on it that dated back to the military’s first presence in San Francisco in the late 1880s. Some of the houses were still occupied by army personnel; children scampered out a front door, intent on catching the school bus. “There’s a youth hostel here. And something else very special.” I parked the bus and opened my door. “Come on.”
“I don’t like this. What are you doing?”
“I’m showing you something.” I turned and gestured. It made me very nervous, the way she fingered that gun, but I thought if I could loosen her up a little, get her to follow my lead, she’d eventually stop bossing me and come to her senses. “It’s nothing to do with police or people in any way. Come on.”
She climbed down from her side of the bus, managing to do so with her hand still in her pocket. “You are asking to be shot,” she threatened, but she didn’t do anything. At that moment, I felt my first tremor of doubt that she had killed Naomi. If she was ruthless enough to poison her longtime associate in front of witnesses, she was surely ruthless enough to shoot me and commandeer the bus.
Instead, she followed me along the path through the trees. I hadn’t been to the spot in a long time, but it was still just as I remembered it—a small clearing in the thick vegetation, with a bench positioned to look out over the steep cliff that marked the end of Fort Mason. From the bench, a perfect vignette of the Golden Gate Bridge, the Marin headlands, and the distant buildings of Sausalito was framed by the surrounding greenery.
“Sit,” I invited Hannah, doing so myself. “Take it in. It’s very peaceful.”
She sat, still pointing that stupid gun at me. The air was incredibly fresh, as if it had never been breathed before. It was impossible not to breathe deeply. I felt more relaxed almost instantaneously. I hoped its magic would work on Hannah too.
I could see her chest lifting. For a few minutes she didn’t speak. I let the silence settle around us. If you were striving for clarity of thought, this was a good place to be.
Of course, it was also a good place to kill someone and leave the body.
I hoped that idea hadn’t occurred to Hannah. I heard her breathing deepen and slow, and tried to project an aura of calm reflection.
How long we sat like that, I don’t know, but after a while I heard a surprising sound—sniffles. Hannah was crying.
“Are you okay?” I groped in my pocket, but she was already patting her damp eyes with a hankie.
“I miss Naomi,” she gulped. “She’s been with me for nearly forty years. All that time, we had a common goal. I always thought it was the most important thing to her— really, to both of us. Why, she never even married, she was so intent on our work.”
“How did you start out?”
At first I thought she wasn’t going to answer my question. Then she put the hankie away and started talking.
“We were in Talbot at Smith. We ended up in the kitchen, cooking to earn our
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