Rising Tide

by Patricia Twomey Ryan

  ‘We have some questions. We know he was Ariana’s boyfriend.’

  ‘He’s a good boy, Inspector. He was crazy about her. I don’t know how much he can tell you; she broke up with him a few weeks ago. He’s been moping around ever since. Come inside, please.’

  Andrew Marsden was sitting on the couch, staring at the TV. His mother immediately went over and turned it off. ‘Andrew, don’t,’ she said. ‘This is Inspector Moller. He’d like to ask you a few questions.’

  Andrew stood up and held out his hand. He was tall and good looking, with dark hair and a face that still bore traces of teenage acne. He stammered as he spoke. ‘Inspector, I … I … don’t know what I can tell you. Ariana and I haven’t seen much of each other in the last couple of weeks, just a little at school.’

  ‘Please, sit down,’ Andrew’s mother said to both of them. ‘I’ll make some coffee, Inspector.’ Thomas would have said no, but he knew it would give her something to do and him a chance to talk to Andrew alone.

  ‘How long were you and Ariana going out?’ he asked.

  ‘About six months,’ Andrew said, his voice shaky. ‘We started dating just before junior prom last year.’

  ‘And you got along well?’

  His eyes welled with tears and he nodded.

  ‘And you broke up a few weeks ago?’

  He nodded again.

  ‘Can you tell me what happened?’

  ‘Ariana broke up with me. I don’t even know why. Things had been going great, like always and then something just happened. At first, she said she was busy, you know, with school stuff—’

  ‘When was that?’

  ‘It was around the end of October. At first I thought, OK. A paper, an exam. She always worked real hard at school. But then about a week later she seemed to distance herself from me, actually from all of us. You know, usually we’d all hang out together on Friday nights, but she stopped coming. She’d still hang out with Olivia and Zoe sometimes, but not when I was around. Then she stopped picking up her cell when I called and started avoiding me at school. I knew it was over.’

  ‘What did you think was going on?’

  ‘I figured there was someone else. She was so pretty and such fun to be with.’ The tears spilled over his eyes. He wiped them away. ‘Sorry.’

  ‘Was it someone at school?’

  ‘I don’t think so. I would have known. No, I don’t have any idea who it was. I hardly saw her anymore. I tried once or twice to talk to her about it, but she just said, “Andy, please, I’m sorry but it’s over.”’

  ‘Were you angry?’

  ‘Angry? Yeah, I guess I was angry a little. But mostly I just couldn’t understand. It happened so fast and there wasn’t anything. No argument, no fight. I don’t know.’

  Thomas talked to Andrew for a while longer but didn’t learn anything more. He asked about Ariana’s habits, what she liked to do, who her friends were. Just as he was finishing up, his cell phone rang.

  ‘Chief, it’s Grace. I think you’d better get over here to the Van Meeterens’. Things are heating up and it’s getting out of control.’

  Thomas took only minutes to get there. There were five TV trucks out front, their motors running and lights on. A scrum of print reporters and a couple of photographers jostled nearby. And standing on the front lawn was an enraged Christiaan Van Meeterens’. Thomas could hear him screaming as he got out of the car.

  ‘Get the hell out of here, all of you!’ His face was purple with rage. ‘What right do you have? This is my home, you have no right. God damn it … Can’t you see what you’re doing to us?’ His voice broke with anger. ‘Moller,’ he yelled, seeing Thomas. ‘Get them the hell out of here.’ And turning to the reporters, ‘What is wrong with you, you vultures …’

  Thomas could see the photographers moving forward and heard the whirring of the cameras. ‘Get back,’ he said, moving in front of Christiaan. ‘All of you.’ He practically charged them. ‘Get back now.’

  ‘Hey we have a right …’ one of them called out.

  ‘Don’t tell me about your rights. In one minute you’ll have the right to a jail cell. You’ve crossed the line and you know it. Now pull back.’

  Grace moved forward, signaling for them to move, and they slowly started to set up further away from the house. ‘Get a couple of uniforms up here, Grace,’ Thomas said. ‘And make sure they stay back.’

  Thomas went up to Christiaan, whose anger had suddenly dissipated. ‘Let’s go inside, Christiaan,’ he said quietly, placing his arm around him. ‘Don’t give them anything more.’

  ‘They’re nothing but parasites, scum, feeding off the tragedy of others,’ Christiaan said as he sat down in the living room, his head in his hands. ‘How could people … The girls tried to go out earlier, just for a drive to get out of the house. They followed them, snapping their damn cameras, trying to get them to say something …’ His voice dissolved into sobs.

  Thomas waited. ‘I’m sorry, Christiaan. You know we can do very little to stop them. We’ll make sure they stay back but I can’t get rid of them.’

  ‘I know, I know. It’s just—’

  ‘How is Katrien?’

  ‘Terrible. She’s upstairs. She won’t come down.’

  ‘Can I go up?’

  Christiaan nodded yes.

  The yellow police tape that closed off Ariana’s room had been ripped down. Inside Thomas found Katrien sitting on the floor, a suitcase at her side, its contents pulled out. Katrien held a pale blue sweater.

  ‘She had already started packing for our trip,’ she said, looking up at Thomas. ‘She wasn’t sure about this sweater. Was the color too light for winter in New York?’ She put the sweater aside and picked up a soft, brown suede jacket. ‘But she loved this. We bought it together two weeks ago. She said it was …’ Katrien stroked the front, ‘… the softest …’

  ‘Katrien, don’t,’ Thomas said, but he wasn’t sure it was the right thing to say. How could anyone know what was? But Katrien appeared not to have even heard him.

  ‘She was so excited. So looking forward to visiting the colleges. We had made so many plans – Williams, I think that was her first choice, but she wouldn’t be sure until she saw the schools. Her sister is at Yale and she was thinking maybe that would be a good place. I wanted that, of course – the two of them together …’

  Seeing Katrien surrounded by Ariana’s clothes, holding them and stroking them, almost as if … It was unbearably sad. ‘Katrien, why don’t you come downstairs?’

  ‘Do you think that would have been a good thing?’ A tear spilled slowly down her cheek. ‘So strange. I worried about her going far away, like I did with her sisters. Would she be safe? She was looking at Columbia and I was a little nervous about the city … you know. And now … so strange.’

  Thomas heard a noise behind him and was relieved to see Annie coming up the stairs. She said nothing, just went in and sat on the floor next to Katrien. ‘Annie,’ Katrien said, holding up the suede jacket, ‘remember how much she loved this jacket.’ Annie put her arms around her and Katrien wept. Thomas turned and headed downstairs.

  The two girls, Ariana’s sisters, sat on the couch with Christiaan, one of them holding his hand. ‘How is she?’ Christiaan asked.

  ‘Annie is up there with her. I think that’s good for now.’

  Christiaan nodded.

  When Thomas got outside things had quieted down. The uniforms were stationed at the end of the drive and the reporters and cameras had moved across the street. Grace stood to the side leaning against her squad car, arms folded, a look of pure murder on her face.

  ‘Well, looks like they got the message,’ Thomas said. ‘I don’t think you’re needed here anymore. Let’s let these guys handle it from here. I need you for more important things.’

  Thomas headed back to headquarters, anxious now to get updates on Keary’s and Hendricks’ progress. If Ariana was at Charlie’s, other people must have seen her and might know who she was wi
th. It had been a Saturday night and the place would have been packed. He’d give the owner a call and see what kind of cooperation he would get. It was always tough in a situation like this. Bar owners loved publicity, but not this kind.

  There was a TV crew and a number of reporters out front when he arrived. ‘Chief Inspector Moller, anything new on the Van Meeterens girl?’ ‘We’ve heard reports that she was at Charlie’s bar on Saturday night. Is that true?’ ‘Have you interviewed the ex-boyfriend?’

  Thomas avoided their questions. ‘Nothing right now, fellas. We’ll be having another press conference at twelve-thirty,’ he said as they shouted at him.

  ‘Messages,’ he said to the desk sergeant.

  ‘On your desk, sir. I sorted them, put what I thought was most important on top.’

  Thomas rifled through them. The usual, mostly, except for two. One from Martin. ‘Please call when you get this message. There’s something I need to show you.’ Thomas didn’t like the sound of that. The other was from the owner of Charlie’s. ‘I think I need to talk to you ASAP.’ Hmmm … guess he’s seen the morning papers, Thomas thought.

  He turned on the TV in the corner, hoping to catch the noon updates when a breaking news story flashed on the screen. A woman’s face appeared. She was leaning out of a taxi window right outside of the Bluffs, talking to a reporter. Thomas recognized her immediately – Martin’s sister-in-law, Joanne Maitland.

  ‘I told that young officer I saw someone with her, a young man, on Friday,’ she was saying animatedly. ‘I couldn’t give them a description. I have bad eyes. But I’m not the only one who saw them.’

  You could tell the reporter was excited to get this news. ‘Can you tell us who else saw this young man?’ he asked, pressing her for an answer.

  ‘Well, the mother of that baby, the baby that she was minding.’

  ‘Was that a guest here at the Bluffs for the wedding?’

  ‘Yes, yes. Peggy something. She also saw the young man.’

  ‘Can you tell us anything else? What’s it like in there? Seems like they have this place pretty well sealed off.’

  ‘Oh, they were doing lots of interviews yesterday, guests, staff. It was a madhouse. I had to wait almost an hour for my interview. Lots of questions and something about a gold bracelet.’

  Thomas moaned, then cursed.

  ‘What gold bracelet?’ the reporter asked, practically jumping into the car.

  ‘Well, I have no idea. I thought it was a strange question but that was it,’ Joanne said as the reporter cut away.

  ‘So, new information from the sister-in-law of Island Bluffs owner, Martin Maitland. As you just heard,’ the reporter continued, ‘it sounds like we have two witnesses and a mysterious gold bracelet. We’re hoping to get more information on these developments in the murder investigation of Ariana Van Meeterens at the news conference now scheduled for twelve-thirty. Meanwhile, in downtown San Nicolas …’

  Thomas’ phone started to ring almost immediately and the first call was from the commissioner.

  ‘What the hell is going on?’

  Thomas did his best to explain but the commissioner’s parting words were ones he was thinking himself. ‘I hope you’re not losing control of this investigation, Thomas.’

  TWENTY

  Thomas spent the next hour trying to play catch-up. He met with Keary, Hendricks and Millard to go over the morning’s interviews. Millard didn’t think there was much to the two couples arguing on the beaches. The one on Palm was too early and the one on Eagle was the wrong hair color. Keary had a little more luck with the Charlie’s guy. ‘Sounded like Ariana had definitely been there, sometime after midnight,’ he said.

  ‘OK, you handle this message from the owner of Charlie’s. Sounds like he might have some information for us. Millard, you head over with him. We need to know what he knows and who else was in that bar. I’m sure there were a ton of tourists − they might be hard to track down. We’ll have to do an appeal on that. But I’m also sure there were lots of regulars – there always are. I want those names. Also, find out if Ariana was a regular.’

  ‘Got it, Chief,’ they both answered.

  ‘Hendricks, what did you find out from the friends?’

  ‘Well, the Ashruf girl,’ he looked at his notes, ‘Olivia … Olivia Ashruf, didn’t have much to say. They were good friends, did a lot of the same activities in school, studied together. She’d no idea who might have done this. Everyone loved Ariana – she was sweet and fun to be with. She didn’t see her on Friday night or Saturday and knew she was babysitting on the weekend. They saw each other at school all the time and sometimes after. She knew the ex-boyfriend, Andrew Marsden – great kid. Didn’t know why they broke up. They went out a couple of times on Friday and Saturday nights, especially after Ariana broke up with the boyfriend. She was vague about where they went. I think they had started going to some of the bars, but she didn’t want to say. Bottom line – she’s hiding something.’

  ‘And the other one?’

  ‘Zoe de Veer. A little more forthcoming. Basically, the same stuff as Ashruf, but said she hadn’t seen as much of Ariana lately. I pressed a little, you know, new crowd, new boyfriend maybe? But she didn’t seem to know anything. Still hung out with Ariana at school but not as much after. Said Ariana spent most of her time with Olivia and another girl, Liliana Florek. Gave me an address and phone number for her. I got the sense that she was a little put out that they weren’t hanging out with her anymore. Said her parents were really strict so she couldn’t go with them on Friday or Saturday nights. I asked her if she knew where they went. She said no but I think that’s a lie … Oh, and she said Ariana had dropped out of the school play.’

  ‘OK,’ Thomas said. ‘I’m going to see if Turner can talk to the Van Meeterens again. I’ll have her head back to the house and maybe she can talk to the sisters too. We have to find out a little more about what was going on with Ariana. They mentioned she had missed a couple of curfews recently – let’s find out when exactly and if they know who she was supposed to be with. Then we can go back to these two girls. Hendricks, follow up on this Liliana Florek, see what she has to say.

  ‘I have one call to make and then the press conference. I’m sure it will be a free for all, what with the statement from the sister-in-law and the news about the bracelet. I’m going to try to play that down. Bracelet found on her, trying to find out what we can about it − nothing about the inscription if we can help it. I don’t like this talk of witnesses. None of that is firm. I’ll head over to the Bluffs after to see what I can find out. Let’s try to meet back here about three.’

  Thomas put in a call to Martin. ‘Thanks for getting back to me, Thomas,’ Martin said, sounding worried. ‘I need you to come to the Bluffs. There’s something I need to show you.’

  ‘No problem, Martin. I was going to head over there anyway. I need to talk to Peggy … Martin, have you been watching the TV coverage?’

  ‘No, we’ve been so busy trying to get some sense of normality back in here. Why, what’s wrong, Thomas?’

  ‘Your sister-in-law, Joanne, gave an interview to ATV—’

  ‘Oh, dear God, no.’

  ‘I’m holding a press conference in a few minutes but I’m sure they’re replaying that over and over. Take a look; we can talk about it when I get there.’

  ‘I’m so sorry, Thomas … What can I say?’

  The press conference was as harrowing as Thomas thought it would be. He tried his best to keep control of the room but without much success. His opening statement kept to the facts that they knew. Not much. Then Van Trigt gave a preliminary autopsy report. There were the usual questions about alcohol and drugs but it would take weeks for the toxicology screens to come back. The more painful were the ones about sexual assault. For once, Thomas appreciated Van Trigt’s brusque demeanor. It didn’t matter how many times the reporters asked the same question, he answered with the same brief response until they finally stopped asking.

/>   When he returned to the mike to take questions the room erupted. Twenty hands flew into the air and as he called on one reporter, another would shout over him. They all had pieces of information – about San Nicolas and Charlie’s bar, about the Bluffs, the witnesses and the gold bracelet, about who her friends were and where they usually hung out, and a ton of unfounded rumors – a boyfriend who assaulted her, a drug habit, even involvement in the red light district.

  Thomas answered what he could as honestly as he could, but he held back the information about the inscription on the bracelet and Peggy’s last name. He knew it wouldn’t take long for them to find that out, but he hoped it would give him time to get out to the Bluffs, talk to Peggy and find out what else was going on there. He dispelled as many of the rumors as he could, but he knew his answers wouldn’t stop them. Those rumors made good copy, even if they weren’t true, and at this point, Thomas didn’t even know what was true and what wasn’t. He ended with a plea for anyone who was at Charlie’s bar after midnight on Saturday night to contact the police. He knew this could be a nightmare, bring out all the hangers-on and crazies, but they had to talk to the people who were there. They had to find out if anyone saw Ariana with someone. As the last questions were thrown at him, he made a quick announcement that further updates would be provided late in the afternoon and left the room.

  Several miles away, Billy Dunlop stared at his TV set. The bracelet, the goddamned bracelet. Why had he given it to her? What had he been thinking? So fuckin’ stupid. He’d had it in his pocket on Saturday night – he hadn’t been planning on giving it to her, he’d been planning on selling it. Hadn’t even taken a good look at it. He should have been more careful but … he knew how she’d be about it. How much it would mean to her. How she’d treasure it always. Wear it to the States … for good luck. He’d needed her to want to do anything for him, and he just thought, hey, might as well give her this. Later, when the argument started, he’d forgotten all about it.

  How had he gotten it so wrong? He’d thought for sure that she’d agree to his plan. She’d certainly fallen for him. But when he’d pushed the issue on Saturday night, she’d said no. Oh, she said she loved him all right, but she just couldn’t do it. Stupid, naive girl. Said she could help him. Her father could find him a job. A job? What, bus boy at the Bluffs? Parking attendant at the mall?