Sandy Island Exposé

By Lewis W. Heniford

James Hemming, sixty-two, married but childless, a syndicated columnist based in California, has exposed enough secrets and crimes to earn a wall full of awards and commendations for investigative reporting. Recently, he has stumbled onto the story of his career, but revealing it would destroy his family.

James’s diagnosis of cancer brings into focus his mortality. He fights back by undergoing treatment, but the outcome is unsure. He may have but a brief time left. Fully aware that he has spent almost four decades a continent away from his domineering brother, Oaks, and their older sister, Millie, who is their center of gravity, he needs to uncover their secrets.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Aug 6, 2018
• ISBN: 9781984534934

Lewis W. Heniford

Lewis W. Heniford holds an AB degree from UNC, an MLS degree from San Jose State University, and a PhD from Stanford University. Currently, he writes poetry and spec feature-length film scripts. Heniford and his wife live in Visalia, California.

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Copyright © 2018 by Lewis W. Heniford. 780856

ISBN:      Softcover               978-1-9845-3494-1

                 EBook                   978-1-9845-3493-4

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Rev. date: 09/27/2018

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This book is dedicated to

Cac and Davis

my sister and brother

Epigrams

It ain’t bragging if you can back it up. Muhammad Ali

Little strokes / fell great oaks. Ben Franklin

To be nobody-but-yourself—in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make you everybody else—means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight. E.E. Cummings

Don’t cry because it’s over, smile because it happened. Dr. Seuss (Theodor Seuss Geisel)

Knowing where the trap is—that’s the first step in evading it. Frank Herbert, Dune

That one who deceives will always find those who allow themselves to be deceived. Niccolò Machiavelli

"We’ve been able to actually keep track of these white sharks as individuals, as animals we’re come to know as personalities. Barbara Block, marine sciences professor

Introduction

Family has been thematic in my writing. I have explored the topic in six prior novels. Several reasons make family the prime focus in my search to understand life.

If you can count on family to stand with you, you feel secure. If they love and understand you, you sense their affection, understanding, inclusion, love. If they protect you from external influences by clarifying right and wrong, you gain a reliable moral compass. If, as Frost mentions, you always know that you have a home to go whatever happens, you see a haven. If kinsfolk successfully raise a child, they assist you to cope with your offspring who are theirs, too. If difficult decisions plague your life, family values can guide. If you worry about self-identity, family can counsel ways to shape your personality and beliefs.

When you accept family, you never walk alone toward your special island, be it Avalon, Atlantis, Bali Hai, Mysterious Island, Treasure Island, or their like. Fantasy isles are havens, refuges, retreats, shelters, sanctuaries, asylums.

A sandy island of nine thousand acres sits between South Carolina’s Pee Dee and Waccamaw Rivers. In that retreat, a merchant prince obsesses about commanding his family as he does his businesses.

One of his brothers narrates an Ariadne strand from the underworld that could save the Hemming family.

Note

¹Translations of non-English words and phrases appear in adjacent brackets.

²Interior thoughts appear in italics.

Contents

Dedication

Epigrams

Introduction

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

PLOT SYNOPSIS

PITCH SYNOPSIS

CREDITS

Works by Lewis W. Heniford

Chapter One

Wade

My family is straight out of Tennessee Williams. Throw in some Faulkner. A bit of McCullers. We Hemmings in this generation—Millie, Oaks, James and I—have lived dangerously. Millie, the eldest, tried to save us. Oaks had his own ideas about that. My twin James tried, too.

This story describes the furies’ harrowing of us four, but chiefly it’s about the first to go, my other self, my twin. It happens on both sides of America in 2019. Let me open by listing far-flung places: Wacca Wache Marina, San Francisco International Airport, my twin’s California high school theatre, a West Coast cryogenics lab, my aunt’s office in Foggy Bottom, D.C., my uncle’s Interstate Cargo Transfer in Myrtle Beach, a johnboat for a one-eyed fisherman stalked by a one-eyed alligator, a river taxi serving an isolated black townlet, and, to be sure, Sandy Island itself, a primitive retreat between South Carolina’s Pee Dee and Waccamaw Rivers.

Oak, cypress and palmetto trees surround the first locale, Wacca Wache Marina. The slanted golden light of evening dusk coaxes boaters to relax.

This unspoiled freshwater harbor and moorage lure customers seeking recreation or adventure. The marina features a store, wet slips, rack storage, boat trailer spaces, fuel services, brand new clean restrooms and showers. The store, located on the second floor, stocks basic boat supplies, along with ice, snacks, soft drinks, insulating koozies, and t-shirts. The facility sits at ICW [Intracoastal Waterway] Marker #57 on the Waccamaw River in Murrells Inlet, just off Kings Highway in South Carolina. Telephone [phone].

Three thousand miles away, mid-afternoon light at SFO [San Francisco International Airport] shines as unpredictably as the City itself. Currently, North Bay wildfires cause the atmosphere to play tricks, impacting some air traffic. Thirteen miles south of downtown Union Square and Maiden Lane, SFO, this gateway to the Pacific, ranks among the busiest top thirty airports worldwide.

A bit south in Silicon Valley, nefarious dealings at California Cryogenetic need night to cover theft of sperm.

Further south in Monterey County, my high school students have produced on their locally-renowned stage an eclectic range of plays from Sophocles to Shaw. Their current staging of Arms and the Man will receive a San Francisco Chronicle review, because in a few hours, a crime involving a pink Cadillac begun in the daylight will end on a stormy night.

At the State Department in Washington, D.C., Aunt Millie’s work caps her brilliant career. Just now, though, she has left Foggy Bottom to join James and Oaks on Sandy Island.

Let me show you my brother Oaks in action.

The 2019 Lincoln luxury SUV Navigator serves as a mobile office where, using a Bose wireless in-ear receiver, Oaks can manage voice-activated smartphone conference calls while negotiating heavy road traffic with one hand and shaving with the other.

Waiting at a stoplight, he checks his phone diary, consults correspondence spread on the dashboard, and checks an open laptop sitting on the console. A mini-printer, paper, and a stack of square envelopes wait within reach.

A South Carolina motorcycle highway patrolman adorned with helmet, mirrored aviator shades, shoulder patches on a gray-blue short-sleeve shirt, thigh-hugging black pant, shiny knee-high black boots, and a holster packing a full-sized Glock 17, sidles past the Lincoln with a snappy salute. He accepts Commissioner Hemming’s echo salute. The cycle’s siren wails; the lawman directs traffic flow toward the road berm. This enables Oaks’ 450-horsepower twin-turbo V6 to pick up speed with a slight squealing of tires. The patrolman salutes again as Oaks passes him on the opened road.

Oaks’ rear-wheel drive SUV swerves into the air facility’s main entrance and stops in the No Parking Zone.

The security guard, wearing shades like those of the motorcycle highway officer, salutes.

Noise from plane landings whine anew with each arrival on the tarmac.

Millie’s plane from Washington, D.C., lands smoothly on its runway.

Amid the crowd and noise, Millie and Oaks laugh as he collects her luggage.

Soon enough, James’ flight from San Francisco-Charlotte lands flawlessly.

Oaks retrieves James’ luggage. Amid the crowd and noise, Millie, Oaks, and James engage in desultory chat, deferring meaningful talk for later.

At the main entrance they pass an information kiosk touting tourist attractions, hotels, and restaurants. Welcome to Myrtle Beach and the Grand Strand. Oaks forges ahead. Millie and James follow through the crowd to the main entrance. Oaks’ automobile, bearing license plate 1, the South Carolina Highway Department logo, and large embossed letters announcing Highway Commissioner at Large, waits in the No Parking area. The security guard escorts Commissioner Hemming to the car, stows the luggage, sees to safety and comfort, hands over the keys, accepts a fold of paper money, blocks traffic, and salutes as Oaks drives off. The guard does not need to inspect his tip; it is always a Ben Franklin.

Oaks is driving the Lincoln, having disappeared his mobile office regalia for the moment. James sits belted in the shotgun seat, Millie behind him. They