by Dick Waters
*.*.*
Ten minutes later they were enjoying the ‘Esso Steel Band’ in the ballroom. Jules ordered some refreshments. She thought about just having water, but she didn’t change his order. The steel band was excellent. She really felt like she had been on the island for weeks. The band changed tempo, making an announcement that the dance floor was now open.
Jules didn’t verbally ask her, but extended his hand. She wanted to get some of this built up energy out of her. He held her close. She could smell the sweet aroma even better now. The song was ‘Yellow Bird’. She wanted to remember this first island dance. Her head fit comfortably against his upper chest. She could feel his muscles as he guided her around the floor. He was a wonderful dancer.
“Jules, thank you for this lovely evening. We should have really split dinner…you didn’t need to pick up that tab.” As she looked into his eyes, they were saying shut up and enjoy being close. “You’re a wonderful dancer,” Holly added.
After the song ended, he guided her back to their table. He asked, “Do you have a curfew?”
She didn’t need to finish her drink on the table, but did. “I was hoping to get a full day in tomorrow on the investigation.”
“I understand that, but you didn’t answer my question.”
“No, I guess I don’t.” She could sense her rapid breathing, wondering if he noticed it. He was enjoying the sundress as much as she was…maybe more.
“Good. Do you still ‘trust’ me?”
“Well, you haven’t steered me wrong yet. What do you have in mind?”
He stood and offered his hand. “Let’s go.”
*.*.*
She could smell the ocean, but she also smelled coffee and bacon. The wood over the bed and around the small room was all finely finished natural wood. She looked under the sheet and noticed her naked frame. She remembered what happened last night and it was incredible. They sat on the stern of the boat talking for hours. Finally, one of them suggested getting some sleep so they could conduct the investigation tomorrow. Well, more precisely as it turned out, today.
He woke her to see the sunrise and they watched it sans clothes and made love again. She picked up the pillow, smelling his scent. She closed her eyes, wondering if this was a dream or a fantasy. She didn’t want to wake up or have it end. I missed a lot in my life, but there’s something about this island that is making up for it. She opened the small wardrobe closet and grabbed one of Jules’ large gray T-shirts, heading to the galley.
She stood at the entry, watching him prepare their breakfast. He wore gray sweatpants and nothing else. He looked up and smiled. “Are you hungry?”
“Yes, I guess you can say I worked up an appetite. Jules, thank you for last night. I guess I really needed that.”
He held his smile, studying her leaning against the door frame. “Holly, I’ve had this boat for over fifteen years, and I can tell you I’ve seen many beautiful sunrises, but I never enjoyed any sunrise as much as today’s.”
She went over and put her arm around him. “Do you think we’ll get any investigation work done today?”
He put the spatula down, turned to hold her and then kissed her on her forehead. “Let’s eat…we need energy regardless.”
Chapter 29
Bill Story and I were meeting with Stephen Strong along with members of his realty office and the Real Estate Board. The object of the meeting was to show everyone how the processes would work from the time a new property listing was received through publication to the various independent realty offices.
Bill and I arrived early to set up the microfiche reader and overhead projector in the large conference room. Bill placed three copies of the sorted existing property printouts along with the daily adds/change report and microfiche copies.
Soon everyone was seated except Stephen. I waited for him to arrive, explaining some of the basics about what the people would be seeing. Stephen came in, looking concerned about something. I hoped it wasn’t something pertaining to this session. He gave some quick introductions. I then commenced the presentation.
I covered the existing process with a flow diagram pointing out the problems from a realty office perspective. The main problems were a new office, or a new salesperson would not have a full copy of all of the available listings. It would take many weeks to have a complete hard copy of all of the available properties. Second, the update process was costly, not only because it required paper, but it involved mailing multiple copies to every office. Thirdly, it was time consuming and required every salesperson, or their office staffs, to remove sold listings, record any listing changes manually and file the new listings in their hard copy books.
I covered the new process, pointing out what the significant improvements were. Every sales person would have a complete set of available properties provided by the microfiche cards. The new sorted listings by; price, town by price, style of home would reference the proper microfiche card and image number. This would assist the salesperson in finding a suitable property for the prospective buyer. Currently, each salesman would have to look through the listing sheets, finding properties that match what the people were looking for.
Showing the full process and end result cleared up some of the initial confusion and questions asked in the earlier meeting. We covered the initial cost of the readers and publication process. I showed the initial savings figures, projecting annual savings. However, the process improvements and the resulting benefits at the real estate office were priceless.
Bill also conveyed details about a ‘white paper’ outlining the future of computers. He covered how they would take this process and make it even more streamlined. He introduced the concept of on-line or immediate access, versus the current batch update process. It sounded far-fetched, but he explained what was being explored right now at the MIT laboratory.
The meeting concluded with action items to; develop an implementation plan for the Boston Area listings, how training would be conducted, and a roll-out plan for the remaining listing areas. Stephen thanked Bill, me and the attendees. There was only positive support for the new process and some expressed anxiety about how long it would take to implement.
*.*.*
Following the meeting, Stephen asked to talk with me privately. Bill was going to take the equipment we brought back to our office.
I followed Stephen to his office. He pointed to a chair facing his desk, went around and sat down at his desk. Something was indeed bothering him and my mind was racing on what it could be.
“Scott thanks for meeting with me. Here’s what I want to talk to you about. It involves for the most part my daughter Melanie.” He watched my reaction.
I tried to act as calmly as I could, but there were many emotions tied to her. “What about her?”
He didn’t immediately answer, sitting twittling his thumbs. “I obviously know about what happened to you. Mercedes has given me the shocking details of what had happened and what she observed when she located Melanie…well their facility. I need to share some things with you about Melanie since we’re working closely together. There are some things that I can’t continue to hide from you. I hope you will bear with me so we can be on the same page.”
I nodded my head, but I really didn’t want to know anything about her or to relive that experience.
He resumed speaking, “As you know, I had two daughters. Melanie was two years older than Mercedes. Melanie and Mercedes were not my only two daughters.” He paused letting that set in. “Melanie was really two people. She had a split personality. She had a good side and a bad side. You only saw the bad side. Unfortunately her bad side consumed most of her existence.”
“She was raped by our next door neighbor and his friends for an entire weekend. I believe, as do the doctors, that that trauma set off most of her actions from that point in time. She eventually tried to burn down his house. That particular action wound up getting her committed to an asylum.”
“However, as you know she
was released. I believe her good side was a major factor in her release. For a few years she worked right here in this office, with things looking like they were pretty normal. That is until she linked up with the other three women to get revenge on the men who had either raped them, or someone in their family. Along came the investigation into the men’s disappearance, you being held and almost killed. So why am I telling you all of this?”
“Mercedes has talked to me about the case she’s working on involving missing men in Bermuda. As you know, her role as a profiler has given her unique skills. Well, she has shared her thoughts about the type of person who might be behind the abduction of these men, and the murder of one of them. She believes the profile fits someone very much like Melanie.” He watched me closely, but I tried not to respond. He shared, “I’m telling you this because she might not be dead. If her body was discovered, there wouldn’t be any question about this. However, Melanie’s body has never been found which is very strange since every murdered man’s torso was discovered.”
The thoughts of her being alive sent a chill down my spine. “Do you really believe she could still be alive?”
“Melanie had her bad side, but she was also extremely capable and when she put her mind to something it was hard to alter her course. I give it about a one percent chance of her still being alive, but Mercedes felt uncomfortable enough to share her thoughts with me. So why am I sharing something so obscure with you?” He paused, then admitted, “I don’t really know why. I told you I thought you were a fine young man, and Mercedes has told me she’s now seeing you. I guess I just want you aware of this. Like I said, once Melanie put her mind to something it was hard to alter her course.”
“Thanks for sharing your thoughts with me.”
He went in his bottom right drawer and pulled out a frame. “This is her picture. I’m not comfortable displaying it in my office. I’ll give you a short example of something which might give you a better feel of what she was like.”
“When Melanie and Mercedes were in their early teens we were fishing, the four of us; my dad, Mercedes, Melanie and I. Melanie hooked onto something. We were just bottom fishing, but she hooked something and battled whatever it was for over two hours. It got late and we had to pull anchor and head back to port. We told her she had to either bring it in, or let it go. She fought another fifteen minutes and was taking in some of her line but then the line snapped and she lost whatever it was. Well, she forced her grandfather to go back to that spot each weekend for several weekends trying to catch whatever it was. She never did catch it.”
“Mercedes is worried about the profile she’s developed and feels ‘you’re the one that got away.’” He looked at the picture and put it back in his bottom drawer. “Scott, if she’s still alive, I’m worried about that now too. I would keep my distance from Bermuda, just to be on the safe side.”
“Thanks Stephen for sharing your thoughts with me.” I stood up and he did too, and we shook hands.
He smiled, came around his desk and grasped my shoulder with a strong grip. “You did an excellent job this morning. I need you more than ever to see this through to a successful conclusion.” He added, “I’m talking about the new process implementation.”
I had a feeling he was talking about more than that.
Chapter 30
I returned to the office and met with Paddy, Mike and Bill. I mentioned how much I appreciated Bill’s help to set up the physical side of this presentation and how successful the meeting went. However, my mind was still playing back what Stephen had shared with me. Could Melanie still be alive, and could I still be her target.
I indicated the next actions we needed to take and that I would be working on them over the next few days. Bill would be obtaining bids on the equipment we needed, and also meeting with the microfiche production people to set up the needed process.
Mike asked, “Are you okay Scott? You look like you’re someplace else.”
“I guess I didn’t get much sleep last night thinking about this morning’s presentation.”
“Scott, its Friday. Why don’t you take the rest of the day off and make it a long weekend. There’s not much you can do this afternoon, so I’m sure the long weekend would recharge your batteries.”
“If that’s okay with you guys, I think I will call it a day.” I had never taken any hours off and felt strange agreeing to it.
*.*.*
Back in my apartment, I wondered if I could reach Mercedes in Bermuda before she left. Why? What’s the point? I looked for the note with her flight times. Once I found it, I realized she was probably headed to the airport by now.
Why hadn’t she shared her concern about the profile with me? Why did she share it with her father? What if she was right about Melanie being alive, and what if she was right about it being Melanie actually kidnapping these men? I had taken a statistics class. This blew my mind about how unlikely that scenario could be.
She would have had to survive her plunge into the ocean. She would have had to survive the ice cold water in the middle of winter. She would have had to get to shore without being seen. She would have had to get a new identity. She would have to get to Bermuda, establish a new life there, be able to fund her existence, be able to kidnap these men, dispose of their yachts, keep them alive for many months, and keep the authorities from learning what she was doing. More importantly, she had to keep anyone else from knowing what she was doing. So, based on all of that why am I uncomfortable? Because Mercedes is.
Chapter 31
Holly and Jules got a late start. She put her clothes on from last night, but didn’t feel comfortable with any of that. Their first stop was the hotel so she could quickly clean up and change clothes. Jules waited patiently in the lobby, or they would be getting an even later start.
She felt comfortable about last night. Jules, she learned, was ten years older than she, which didn’t concern her. Other than wearing her clothes from yesterday, she felt like a new door opened for her future. It was amazing the number of things she thought about since last night. Could she throw everything else away and stay here in Bermuda with Jules? As absurd as that sounded, she was weighing the pros and cons of that possibility. However, she had a job to do and needed to focus on that.
*.*.*
She dressed in comfortable Bermuda shorts, pink blouse and sneakers. She was wearing her prescription sunglasses when she approached Jules. He immediately folded the paper, standing up to greet her. His quick appraisal of her told her the choices she made were good ones.
She whispered to him, “Okay Mr. Bennett, you’ve kept me prisoner long enough. We’ve got to make some real progress today, or we’ll be working late tonight. I’d rather not do that.” She grabbed his hand, leading him towards the lobby exit.
He held the car door for her and they were out of the hotel parking lot in a flash. “Where do you want to go first?” he asked, as he drove away from the hotel.
“It seemed like the police would have tracked down the men’s last known whereabouts. Let’s take the boat descriptions, checking to see if we can find anyone that has seen any of these yachts. Let’s take the most recent one, starting with the refueling stations. If the yachts aren’t in Bermuda, as the police have confirmed, they would have had to take on provisions including fuel. Let’s start there.”
*.*.*
Jules was very familiar with all of the fueling depots on the island. He picked the closest one in Hamilton Harbor. He pulled the cab into the parking lot, asking her if she wanted him to accompany her. She told him it would be best if she did this on her own.
She asked the attendant who she should talk to about the missing yachts. The young man pointed to a shack at the far end of the pier.
As she approached the small building, she wasn’t optimistic about finding anyone inside. She hesitated knocking loudly, as the door looked like it might fall off. The door swung open, making her step back.
A very heavy man with a full white beard fille
d the entry. “Yes, what can I do for you?”
Holly smiled at him. “Hello, I’m Holly Compton. I am interested in the missing men’s yachts. Can you help me?”
He angled himself sideways out of the doorway. “Well I’m not sure I can help. What did you want to know?” He headed past her to the side of the pier, sitting down on one of the benches. It made a crunch sound as he sat down. He patted the seat beside him.
“That’s okay, I would rather stand.” He looked much friendlier sitting on the bench. She thought, if he had a Santa Claus suit, he would be right at home. “Once again my name is Holly Compton, and yours is?”
“People call me White Beard, but you can call me that or Billy. How can I help you?”
“Billy, as you know, four men have disappeared over the last eighteen months. One of them was found murdered. The other three are still missing. All four of them had large yachts, which have also disappeared.” He nodded. “The last missing man is Nils Nielsen. His boat was the ‘Import-ant.’ Do you remember that boat by any chance?”
He stroked his beard, looking like he was searching his memory.
She added, “This would have been about two months ago. Here’s an insurance report on the boat.”
He studied the picture and description. “No ma’am I can’t say as I recall it at all. We see many a fine yacht, as you can imagine. After a while they all seem to blend together. I’m sorry I couldn’t help.”
“Thank you anyway, Billy. I’m staying at the Bermudiana Hotel. If you do think of anything regarding the missing yachts, or the men, please call me there. Thanks again for talking with me.”