It had only been his mother, switching on the light.
Stupid!
How could he have been so stupid?
Taking a deep breath, he walked out of the grove of trees and into the circle of light that spread from the veranda out into the clearing.
Katharine’s eyes widened and her mouth dropped open. “Michael?” Then: “Michael! My God, are you all right?” A second later she was off the veranda. “Michael, what happened? Oh, God, I’ve been so frightened! When you went out the window—”
“I’m okay, Mom,” Michael broke in. “I just — I don’t know — it was really weird, and—” They were back on the veranda now, and his mother was clinging to his arm. “I’m really sorry,” he said.
Katharine pulled Michael into the house and looked anxiously into his face. “Are you sure you’re all right?” she asked again. “I’ve been so worried. You sounded like you could hardly breathe, and the way you took off—”
Michael pulled away from her grip. “I really feel dumb,” he said, sinking down onto the sofa. He looked up at her. “And you’re gonna be really pissed at me.”
Katharine dropped into the chair opposite him. “Just tell me what happened.”
He tried to tell her about the nightmare, but most of it had vanished from his memory. Still fresh, however, was the vision he’d seen when his terror had finally driven him out of his sleep. “It was you,” he finished. “In that bathrobe. I was barely awake, and that robe makes you look like one of the things that was chasing me in the nightmare.”
“But that’s crazy!” Katharine objected. “I was trying to help you! All I wanted to do was—”
“It doesn’t matter, Mom,” Michael said. “I’m really sorry I scared you.”
“But where did you go?” Katharine asked.
Should he tell her? How could he? He barely understood what he had done himself. Suddenly it seemed almost impossible that he’d not only found the trail Josh had told him about, but followed an unmarked route to the dig as well.
And what about the people who’d been looking for him? Suddenly he knew who they must have been and how they’d known he was there.
The dig was on Takeo Yoshihara’s property, and he probably had a surveillance system everywhere on it.
They must have been watching him from the minute he climbed that first gate. And if they’d caught him …
Jesus! His mom probably would have lost her job!
But they hadn’t caught him — he’d gotten away!
He made up his mind.
“I didn’t go anywhere, really,” he said. “When I finally came awake — I mean really awake — I was out in a field.” He hesitated. “And it was kind of fun being outside in the middle of the night. So I lay down to look at the sky for a while and I guess I fell asleep.” Did she believe him? He couldn’t tell. “I guess you’re pretty mad at me, aren’t you?”
Katharine took a deep breath, then let it out in a long sigh. “I don’t know,” she finally admitted. “I was so frightened at the way you were breathing, and when you didn’t come back …” She shook her head. “You’re really sure you’re all right now?”
“I’m fine,” Michael insisted.
“If you’re ‘fine,’ then why were you having such a hard time breathing?” Katharine demanded, her fear giving way to anger as she remembered the torment she’d gone through. “And do you have any idea how many times I picked up the phone to call the police?”
Michael stifled a groan.
“But I didn’t,” Katharine went on. “I kept reminding myself that you’re not a little boy, and that I have to stop thinking of you as if you were still sick all the time.” Her eyes fixed on his. “So I didn’t call them. Instead I sat here and worried myself half to death.”
“I’m really sorry, Mom,” Michael began again. “I don’t know what I can tell you. I—”
“Don’t tell me anything,” Katharine interrupted. “Just don’t argue about going to see a doctor in the morning, all right?”
A glare of headlights appeared through the window. “I thought you said you didn’t call anyone.” Michael, already on his feet, was starting toward his room, suddenly embarrassed about being clad in his underwear.
“I didn’t call the police,” Katharine told him. “But I had to call someone.”
A car door slammed, and a moment later Rob Silver appeared at the front door. “I’ve changed my mind,” he began. “I really think we ought to call the police. If he’s out—”
“He’s back,” Katharine told him. “He came in about five minutes ago. And he seems to be okay. But I’m taking him to see a doctor in the morning.”
Rob nodded. “I’ll call Stephen Jameson first thing,” he said. “He’s the best doctor on the island, and he works for Takeo Yoshihara.”
CHAPTER 17
“All he’s going to do is tell you I’m fine, and then you really are going to look like an overprotective mother,” Michael groused. “Why don’t you just drop me off at school?”
“In case you didn’t notice,” Katharine observed archly, “we’re going in exactly the opposite direction. And as for me being overprotective, we’re just going to have to agree to disagree. Given your medical history, I think your difficulty breathing last night is a perfectly legitimate cause for concern. And since Dr. Jameson agreed with me, that settles it.”
The argument had been going on ever since breakfast, when Rob Silver, who had spent the rest of the night on the Sundquists’ sofa, had called Stephen Jameson, then turned the phone over to Katharine. Michael had listened in silence as she set up the appointment, and wondered if someone at Takeo Yoshihara’s estate might have seen him last night and would recognize him this morning. After all, something had told them he was there last night, and brought the guards looking for him.
What if they actually had pictures of him?
There were cameras that could do that — cameras that could photograph things in a lot less light than there’d been last night.
But wouldn’t they have called the police if they had pictures?
Though he’d done his best to talk her out of it, and knew he was now skating on pretty thin ice, Michael figured he might as well take one last shot at it. “There’s a school bus stop right up there,” he said, pointing to a yellow sign a hundred yards farther along the road. “If you just drop me off—”
“I’m not going to drop you off, and I’m getting tired of arguing about it,” Katharine cut in.
Michael, watching the bus stop slide by, and hearing the finality in his mother’s voice, gave up the argument and reached out to turn on the car radio. An announcer was just finishing a report on the mayor’s assessments of the island’s economic condition, and Michael was about to change the station when the newscaster’s voice took on a somber note. “Two local men died in the scheduled burning of a Maui sugarcane field last night. Their bodies were recovered this morning from a field off the Haleakala Highway. Their names are being withheld pending notification of their families. In an unrelated incident, a Makawao boy has been reported missing by his mother. Jeff Kina left his home around nine o’clock last night, and police confirm that he was one of three boys questioned in relation to the death of Kioki Santoya, whose body was found early yesterday. Though there is currently no evidence connecting the Kina boy’s disappearance to the death of young Kioki Santoya, police are not yet ruling out the possibility that these two incidents are related. Anyone who might have seen Jeff Kina, who is described as being six feet two inches tall and weighing 225 pounds, should contact the Maui Sheriff’s Department immediately.
“In other news …”
But Michael was no longer listening.