They got him on tax evasion, you know. How ironic.”
“How very interesting,” I said. “Well, we have to be moving along.”
“Wait,” Jonathan said to her before I could take a step toward the solitary cells. “Did you say you knew Al Capone?” I could tell by his puzzled expression he was trying to figure out how that could be.
“Oh yes, we go way back, the Capones and I. I didn’t always live in San Francisco, you know. I spent a few years in Chicago in the twenties. What a time that was.” She shook her head with a nostalgic smile. “But originally I am from Eastern Europe, and I know something about prisons. This place is a palace compared to some I’ve been to in my country.”
I sent Jonathan a silent message. Please don’t ask why or where she’s been imprisoned. Or how old she is or how she got here or how I know her.
“Do you know what happened to the missing and presumed drowned inmates who tried to swim their way to freedom?” she asked, putting her icy fingers on my shoulder. “I do.”
Before she could say they’d turned into vampires and were haunting the island, I said we were behind schedule and had to catch up. “Nice to see you, Meera,” I said and took Jonathan’s arm to nudge him along.
“Who was that?” he asked when we’d turned the corner to face the solitary cells.
“Just a friend of a friend. She leads tours of Nob Hill, which is how I met her.”
“How old is she?” he asked, looking puzzled.
Good question. I couldn’t say she was one hundred twenty-seven or he’d think I was crazy or naive or both, so I just said I wasn’t sure but she looked younger than she was.
Just to get the complete Alcatraz experience, I had to go into one of the solitary cells; even though I didn’t really want to, I also didn’t want Jonathan to think I was neurotic. But when I pulled the door shut, I had a panic attack. Especially when Meera came by and looked in at me like she was the warden and I was Public Enemy Number One.
“Why haven’t you called my nephew?” she asked, pressing her face against the narrow bars. “He is all alone, far from home. He needs a friend.” Her voice echoed off the concrete walls.
“I will,” I said, my heart pounding erratically. “Definitely. It’s just that I’ve been busy at work.” Where was Jonathan? Where was the tour guide? Where were the other visitors?
I looked through the bars at Meera. Her eyes were like deep black holes. Her face suddenly looked as old as she said she was. I knew she wasn’t really a vampire, but up close and personal, I could see the resemblance between her and the pictures of Vlad the Impaler. The same sharp cheekbones, the hooked nose, the same dark eyes and the same pointed chin. I decided there were worse things than being charged with murder. One of those things was being trapped by a crazy woman in an old prison.
I was breathing hard, she was leering at me. I wasn’t locked in, but suddenly I wished I was. A moment later our tour guide came around the corner. Meera disappeared down the hall in the other direction.
“The last ferry leaves in one half hour,” she said. “You don’t want to be stuck here overnight.”
Not with a weirdo on the loose, I thought. The guide smiled, but I didn’t. My face felt frozen. Before I could say, “Wait for me,” he’d hurried on by on his way to round up the rest of the tour group. I pushed on the cell door. It wouldn’t budge. Where was everyone? Even Meera had gone. I tried to scream, but my throat was clogged and I couldn’t speak. I was a prisoner inside a solitary cell even though I had done nothing wrong. I’d be here at least overnight and God only knew how long until someone found me.
Fourteen
I took several deep calming breaths and told myself Jonathan wouldn’t leave without me. But I couldn’t hear a sound. No voices, nothing but the voices in my head from the prisoners and their guards who were all dead and gone. Is this how they felt when visiting hours were over? Or were there no visiting hours? I’d forgotten to ask. If I got out of here alive, there were a lot of questions I’d ask.
I’d ask Jim Jensen if he killed his wife. I’d tell him she said he would if he found out about the shoes. So, did he? I’d ask everyone I knew what the fortune meant—“You cannot step in the same river twice without getting your feet twice as wet.”
Did that message have something to do with MarySue’s death? Or was it meant for me especially?
Another question I’d ask everyone involved in the MarySue affair was, “Did you put the shoe box in my garbage? And if so, why?”
After about two minutes I gathered up all my strength and pushed against the cell door. It swung open, and I almost laughed with relief. I hadn’t been locked in at all. My rabid imagination was running away with me. I ran down the corridor and out the front door into the fresh air where Jonathan was waiting for me.
“There you are,” he said. “I was asking everyone if they’d seen you.”
“I was getting the complete prison experience,” I said breathlessly. “I’m glad I don’t have to stay here.”
As we boarded the last ferry, I looked around but didn’t see Meera. Was she still on the island by choice? I didn’t know and I didn’t care.
Jonathan and I stood outside on the deck as shadows fell across the city. He put his arm around my shoulders, and I was grateful for the warmth of the arm and his jacket, which I was still wearing.
He said he’d made reservations at the Cliff House, and I almost swooned. The place was historic. Perched on the cliffs above Ocean Beach, it was once a bathhouse but now housed one of the most famous and expensive restaurants in the city. We had a table at the floor-to-ceiling windows. It was still light enough to see the seals on the rocks below and hear the waves crashing. I couldn’t believe little me from Columbus, Ohio, was here watching the sun set over the Pacific with one of the city’s most eligible bachelors—or maybe
We ordered baby spinach salad with citrus and candied pecans, then crab cakes and filet mignon with truffled potatoes. We seemed to have the exact same taste in food and maybe lots of other things, like fashion. And what a relief to be with a man who didn’t constantly tell me to butt out of his business. Jonathan seemed to enjoy talking about his job and didn’t mind when I chimed in and asked questions. My kind of man.
He picked up the menu and read the back cover. “There’s been a cliff house at this location since 1863,” he said. I didn’t bother to do the math, but I wondered, if Meera were here with us, would she tell us she’d been around then? She’d probably have some interesting stories to share of how she met the Stanfords, the Crockers and the Hearsts, who would drive their carriages out to the beach for horse racing and kite flying. Sometimes the life of an ageless, undead vampire pretender sounded downright glamorous. I just didn’t want to hear about it or even worse, hear her threaten me. Isn’t that what she’d done in the prison? Or was I being too sensitive?
I forced myself to stop thinking about Meera or my other obsession, which was the murder of MarySue. When Jonathan brought me home, I told him it was the most perfect day I’d had since I’d arrived over six months ago. Of course it would have been more perfect without Meera, but I put her face out of my mind.
Jonathan said he’d had a great time too. I felt I had to reciprocate after he’d spent a fortune on me, so I said I’d invite him over for brunch on my patio where I had a not-so-shabby view of the Bay. I decided I’d worry about what a non-cook like myself would serve later. And I didn’t say anything about MarySue’s upcoming memorial. Surely he wouldn’t want to attend. He couldn’t possibly attend the funeral of every patient he’d lost. I wouldn’t go either if I didn’t have an interest in studying the crowd to see who looked sad, who looked relieved and who got hysterical.
I said good night to Jonathan and told him I’d see him soon. Then I checked my messages. There was one from Detective Jack Wall asking me to come down to the station to identify the silver shoes Marsha had worn at the fashion show. “If it isn’t too much trouble.”
He sounded slightly sarcastic, but with him you never knew. In any case I was eager to ID the shoes. I knew it was wrong to make up my mind too early, but I just knew they weren’t the shoes I’d brought back from Florida.
The next day I phoned Dolce to tell her I’d be late because I was heading for the police station to ID the silver shoes. She seemed nervous, but I didn’t know why. Money problems? Was she going to ask me to cut back on my hours? Was she going to close the shop? I couldn’t bear to think about it.
I dressed carefully in an easy-fitting double-breasted jacket, high-waisted fluid harem pants and my brogues. Then I took the bus, transferring once, to the small station in the same neighborhood where I’d volunteered at the
