by Jaden Skye
“Dead, dead,” she kept muttering. “He must have jumped off the boat and drowned himself.”
The phone kept ringing and Cindy had to be the one to answer it.
“Is she doing all right?” It was Nina, alarmed.
“No, she’s not,” said Cindy.
“Should I come right over?”
“Not yet. The police will be here in a few minutes. There’s a procedure we have to follow. ”
The phone rang again. “Just keep her calm,” said Mattheus. “We have to complete identification of the body.”
“Was he in the water the whole time?” asked Cindy.
“The medical examiner will answer everything.”
Cindy begged Dalia to take some valium that she had in the house. Dalia barely heard what she was saying.
The doctor arrived quickly and when Dalia saw him, she started shrieking, “Get out, get out. I’m not taking anything. You’re not drugging me. Who called you anyway? ”
“Cindy did,” a tall, slender man said quietly.
Dalia turned her rage on Cindy then. “You want to see me drugged too? Then I won’t be a problem for you, will I? Then I won’t be a problem for anyone. ”
The doctor turned to Cindy, “She’s in shock,” he said. “They say all kinds of things when they’re in this condition. I’ve seen her this way before. She’ll quiet down eventually. ”
Dalia turned like a lion, “Get out of my house!” she said to the doctor.
I can’t stay if she doesn’t want me here,” he said.
“I realize,” said Cindy.
After the doctor left, Dalia resumed pacing, and Rosa came to the door of the room and then took a few steps into the room.
“They found Mr. Ames dead,” Cindy said to her bluntly.
Rosa’s eyes opened wide. “Where?” she whispered.
It was the first time Cindy had heard her speak.
“His body washed up on the shore, in a cove near Sculpture Park.”
“Was he in the rocks?” Rosa asked.
It was actually shocking to hear Rosa speak. She had a lilting voice.
“He was found partially in a rock crevice, partially in the water.” Cindy’s eyes met hers for a moment.
Rosa’s eyes were filled with alarm.
“Do you want to say anything to Dalia?” Cindy asked.
“No,” Rosa shook her head hard, bit her lip, and rushed out of the room.
The phone rang again. It was Dale.
Mattheus and Sand walked in with two other cops.
“This is no longer a missing person case,” Mattheus announced, “it’s a criminal investigation, now. We have to cord off the house to preserve evidence and go through everything. ”
“You did it already,” said Cindy. “People have been in and out freely for over a month.”
“Procedure,” said Mattheus. “Where’s Dalia?”
Dalia had gone out on the patio, and was pacing out there.
“I called the doctor in, but she wouldn’t see him. She’s called a Memorial for Ames for day after tomorrow. ”
“Look,” Mattheus said confidentially then, “this is where you can be helpful to us. Keep her as calm as you can. Go through the house again for us, see if you come up with anything else. It’s doubtful, but you never know. We need to focus on the fleet and the Captain. There’s big news about to break with that. We’re putting all our attention there. ”
“Fine,” said Cindy, pleased to be included.
“Go over everything again carefully,” said Mattheus. “Maybe something will hit you that we had no idea of. It could happen. ”
Cindy hoped it would.
“Don’t let anyone in here to visit. Make sure you’re at the memorial service with Dalia. People will be speaking about Ames. It’s a perfect place to catch something that we might not have caught before. ”
“What’s the news that’s just breaking?” Cindy asked directly.
“Drugs,” Mattheus said in a low, throaty tone. “Looks like Ames got in the way of a big deal. We’re all over his ships now. But you can find something too that can add to the picture. ”
“I’ll do my best,” said Cindy.
“I know you will,” Mattheus said, reached out and gave her hand a squeeze. “You’re quite a gal, you know,” he said.
Cindy felt warm inside.
*
The house was somber. Dalia was laying down, resting, and Cindy paced in her room, packing, feeling restless. She felt that her time here was coming to an end, and she packed her things with a combination of closure and remorse. She had wished things would have turned out differently.
Cindy reached for her phone charger, plugged into the wall, but she couldn’t get it out of the outlet. She pushed back the heavy dresser, trying to reach it, and as she did, suddenly she noticed something on the floor, crammed between the dresser and the wall.
She slowly reached out and pulled it out. She was surprised to see that it was an old photo album. It must have fallen off the dresser and got wedged between the wall. It was a pale ivory photo album, decorated with roses. Cindy opened it up. There were no pictures inside, though. Inside were letters, inserted into the folders. One letter a page.
Cindy took the book in her arms, and looked at the letters. She began reading the first one:
Dalia,
What would I do without you? Since I met you my life has turned around. At night I dream about you, during the day, I walk at your side. You have healed the pain I have carried for years about my past. What did I do to deserve such a gift? How can I ever repay you?
At the bottom of the letter was a pencil drawing of a scraggly heart.
Cindy found the letter odd. She read the next one. It was a variation on the same theme, with the same scraggly heart at the bottom. The third letter repeated it, and so did the fourth.
Cindy looked closely at the letters. The handwriting was delicate. She looked more closely and her heart stopped. Suddenly, in a flash, she ran over and grabbed the handwritten note on her bedside table, the one from Dalia, welcoming her. She compared the two: it was identical.
Dalia had written these notes to herself.
A chill ran through Cindy’s spine.
Suddenly, it hit her. The light shone. Was it possible that she was covering up the truth of a marriage that had gone terribly bad? Did Dalia call Cindy down to Grenada to make herself look eager to find Ames, to cover everything up?
“What are you doing?” came a voice.
Cindy screamed and spun around.
Dalia was standing at the door. Her face was white and her hair was piled up high on her head.
Cindy furtively crammed the album back behind the wall, reached out and grabbed her charger and displayed it.
“Just getting my charger,” she said, in a chipper tone, hoping she hadn’t seen the album.
Apparently, she hadn’t. She turned and looked away.
“Sit down with me,” Dalia said, bitterly, and walked over to the bed, sitting on its edge.
Cindy’s heart pounded inside her, as she slowly walked over and sat beside her.
How could she have written these letters to herself? She wondered. There was only one explanation: she was a split personality, psychotic. She wrote letters to herself and believed they were coming from someone else.
And if she was psychotic, what else had she done? Killed her husband?
Cindy wanted to flee, but sat there, quietly.
“This is a whole new situation,” Dalia started.
“Yes, it is,” said Cindy.
“They’re positive it’s his body,” Dalia spoke blandly, “I’ve been on the phone with them. It must have been an accident. A terrible accident. ”
“You don’t think someone else on the island may have done it?” Cindy asked quietly.
“NO,” Dalia said emphatically, stamping her foot. “I thought they may have had something to do with his being missing, not being dead. I never expected to find
a body. Never. ”
Nobody expects that, Cindy thought, remembering when she’d heard that Clint’s body had washed up to shore. It was an indescribable moment, when the whole world as you knew it completely disappears.
The more Dalia spoke, the more Cindy heard the craziness in her voice. What she was really capable of?
Her body shaking, Cindy stood up and went back to the wall. She extracted the album. She had to know the truth. Cindy was fearless now, and couldn’t hide from it. She had to confront Dalia.
Cindy looked up and over at Dalia. “Was this Ames’s handwriting?” she said.
Dalia flushed at the sight of the book.
“Where did you find that?” she asked.
“Is it?” Cindy asked again.
Dalia scowled. “What a cruel thing to say!” she burst out.
“These love notes,” Cindy went on. “You wrote them to yourself, didn’t you?”
At that Dalia raised her hands as if to lunge at Cindy. “You’re a monster, a witch.”
Dalia yelled, hurried over, and snatched the book from Cindy’s hands.
Cindy felt her skin crawl.
“GET THE HELL OUT OF MY HOUSE!” Dalia suddenly roared, spit flying from her mouth.
Heart pounding, Cindy grabbed her suitcase and fled from the room. She hurried down hallway after hallway, hearing footsteps behind her, and prayed that she would get out of there with her life.
CHAPTER 19
Cindy got into a taxi filled with alarm. Why hadn’t she realized the truth sooner? If only she’d picked up the little signs.
“The Grand Hotel,” she told the driver.
She was relieved to get away from Dalia for now, but had no intention of leaving the island. This case was far from finished. Cindy knew the Captain hadn’t done it, but needed more specific facts about Dalia and her life.
She texted Mattheus to let him know where she was going and watched the landscape blur by as if in a dream. Would those love letters be considered proof? Were they enough to get the Captain off the hook?
The taxi pulled up to the rolling entrance of the hotel, Cindy got out, got her bags and checked in. Then the porter took her to a beautiful room on the second floor. Her room overlooked palm trees, sand and water and reminded her very much of the room she and Clint had shared on their honeymoon. The shock of seeing the truth about Dalia, shook her to her core. Her heart felt like it weighed a thousand pounds. She sat down on the edge of the bed, and couldn’t move. She couldn’t even unpack.
Cindy sat there for what seemed like eternity, until she heard a knock on her door. She got up, opened it up and Mattheus stood there. .
He walked in quickly, unnerved. “What are you doing here?”
“The case—” she began.
“Take a deep breath,” he interrupted, holding up a hand. “Case closed.”
“What?” Cindy said, shocked.
“The Captain is being arrested as we speak. Police got the crew talking. They led us to drugs all over the boat. Ames fired the Captain when he found out about the stash. Drugs were one thing Ames wanted no part of. The Captain went nuts when he was fired. We have the first hand evidence we need. ”
“That doesn’t link the Captain to the murder, necessarily,” Cindy said.
“Pretty close,” said Mattheus. “What’s wrong?”
“It wasn’t the Captain that did it, Mattheus.”
“What are you talking about?”
“I know who it was.”
Mattheus stared at her.
“Tell me.”
“I’m not exactly sure. I need evidence, more evidence,” and she started to breathe fast.
“Cindy, what’s wrong?”
“Dalia did it,” Cindy said softly, as if half in a dream.
Mattheus took both of Cindy’s hands in his. “Calm down, start simply,” he said, “tell me what you’re talking about.”
Cindy went over what happened, step by step. Mattheus listened without saying a word, fixed intently on her every word.
“I never really thought it was the Captain,” he murmured softly.
Cindy felt better when he said that. She had been afraid he would think she’d lost her mind.
“Those love notes, are they proof?” asked Cindy.
“She’ll get rid of them immediately.” Mattheus said. “Besides, they’re circumstantial. Plus, there’s no motive. She was rich. What’s her motive?”
He started pacing back and forth.
“Listen,” said Cindy, there’s one way to get the evidence we need now. ”
“What is it?” Mattheus said.
“We need to get it from Dalia. . What if I can get her to confess, and you record it? ”
Mattheus stared back at her, surprised, silent.
“I can call her and tell her I want to meet her and work things out before I leave the island. I’ll say I’m sorry I made her so upset. She’s nervous now and needs someone to talk to. We’ll go somewhere private, and you can wire me, and back me up. Once Dalia sees me, she’ll have nothing to lose. She’ll talk. She’s two people in one body. Sometimes she loves me, then she sees me as her enemy and hates the ground I walk on. ”
Mattheus seemed impressed. “You up for something like this?”
“Absolutely,” said Cindy, “one man has died at her hands. And who knows who else? ”
“Okay,” said Mattheus. “Let’s do it.”
*
When Cindy called and Dalia answered the phone, Cindy knew she’d been right on target. Dalia seemed glad to hear from her again.
“I’d love to talk to you one more time,” said Cindy, “before I leave the island for good.”
“When are you going?” Dalia seemed nervous that Cindy was leaving.
“Tomorrow,” Cindy said.
“So soon,” said Dalia, as though everything was normal, and she’d never kicked Cindy out of her home. “Okay,” let’s meet at Sculpture Park. ”
“Perfect, “Cindy said.
*
The slanty beach off the cove near Sculpture Park was filled with pebbles and large stones to sit on. Sculpture Park had many sculptures carved out in stone, and it was as if their shadows dwelt over this odd beach. In the distance, Cindy could hear the sound of birds, calling.
Cindy got there early, and sat down on a large rock. Mattheus, backing her up, was hidden behind a cluster of boulders, not far from where she sat. As Cindy sat on the rock and looked out over the water, she thought that even in her most bleak moments with Clint, she never felt the way she did now, caught in a terrible, confusing web. Someone she had thought was her friend had turned into the killer. Was there a chance Cindy was wrong? The thought tortured her. Cindy’s head spun around and around.
Dalia got there a few minutes later, walking barefoot, slowly, onto the beach. She wore an orange sundress with a wicker bag and looked lovely and graceful walking along, as if she were a part of the lush flora and fauna the island produced.
For a moment Cindy was happy to see her, as if they were old friends again.
“They caught the killer,” Dalia said. “That’s something at least. I feel good about that. ”
Cindy had to fight the sense of safety and normalcy that was coming over her. She had to realize that Dalia was not her friend, but could turn at any moment into a violent killer.
Cindy looked at her defiantly. She knew she’d have to press on and destroy Dalia’s fragile balance to get her to really talk.
“There’s nothing to feel good about,” Cindy defied her. You said your marriage was perfect. And we found out that it wasn’t perfect though, was it? ”
“What’s perfect in this world?” Dalia said casually, trying to behave as if everything were normal.
“You lied to me, Dalia.” Cindy moved in on her, hungry for the truth. “You hoped your marriage would be perfect. But he cheated on you. He took your money. ”
Cindy watched Dalia’s face grow bed, before she burst out in a yelp.
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“Shut up,” Dalia gasped and then screamed, so loud her voice stabbed through the rocks and bushes, startling the birds that were flying overhead.
“He lied and cheated. You didn’t deserve it,” Cindy was relentless. “Especially after you gave him all that money.”
“No, I didn’t deserve it,” Dalia yelled, “he was mean to me, cruel to me, made a fool of me with everyone. He didn’t come home, he went with others. He laughed at me when I asked him where he was. He used me, like all the other guys used me. Then, when I told him I had no more money for him, he had the nerve to ask me for a divorce!”
Cindy was amazed. Dalia had lied to her all along.
“It was too much. I couldn’t let it happen. There’s only so much a person can take. ”
“It was one failure too many for you,” Cindy continued, “You felt you’d never find the love you needed in this world.”
At that Dalia dipped into her bag and pulled out a long, glistening knife, and held it up above her head.
Cindy gasped, and stepped back. But she couldn’t let this go: she was determined to get to the truth. “Did you stab Ames, too?”
“I wanted to,” Dalia said, “right in the heart, but I didn’t have to. I just took him out on our sailboat and put something in his drink. He got dizzy, and I sailed the boat to a stone tunnel at the edge of Sculpture Park. By then he was practically unconscious. I just tipped the boat over enough to get him out of it and held his head under the water for a few minutes. He floated a little and then I stuffed his body into the tunnel. It wasn’t hard. He fit there perfectly. ”
Cindy could barely catch her breath.
“It was a narrow tunnel, and there was no way, I thought, he could get out. Shallow water came in and out, and there were lots of fish there that could eat him. I thought his body would disappear in time. ”
“Dalia, stop! Enough!” Cindy shouted. She thought of Clint, and his body, and she couldn’t bear to hear any more details.
“I had no choice then—and I don’t have a choice now!” Dalia said raising her arm higher. “You have a right to know what happened before you die, too. I owe you this at least. ”
“You knew what you were doing each step of the way?” Cindy asked incredulous.