She smiled before closing the bathroom door behind her. "If I do, you can come in and remind me."
It took a while to connect as it always does in Spanish speaking countries, probably so someone could listen in. Seth Halliday, paranoid cynic. Sonny's phone rang twice before he picked up.
"Sonny's Excursions."
"Seth here, Sonny." I lowered my voice in case the shower wasn't sufficient to prevent Caroline from hearing. "I need you to bring something with you when you come tonight."
"Man, you cut it close. Me and Harry are taking off now."
I could hear the fan-boat slowing. Sonny's boat was moored at Dinner Key but he kept his plane in the Glades. I'd waited too long. I had an idea.
"Sonny, you think Del Rio might have one of those tape recorders set up for the minis?"
Del Rio ran the Flying J restaurant located deep in the Glades. It was neutral ground for both cops and smugglers. Cops wore blinders when they were out that far and the bad guys didn't try to shoot them.
"Damn, dude, you don't want much, do you? How about somethin' really obscure, like a good rap album?"
"We both know one doesn't exist, but those mini-cassette players do."
"What the hell you need one of those for, anyway?"
As quickly as I could, I outlined it for him. He was quiet for a few seconds when I finished.
"How's Caroline?"
"She's fine. She only saw the girl after, which was awful enough. But I think it would have been worse if she'd seen her alive, falling."
"Frak, yeah."
I smiled. "You been watching Battlestar Galactica again?"
"Hey, man, that's some great TV, before it became all this reality crap. You like it, too."
"True, but I don't say frak or dream about Cylon chicks."
"Each to his own, man." I heard something that sounded like fingers snapping. "Hey, I might be able to get you one of those things after all, but I'll have to have it back."
"Del Rio?"
"No, little Fukswi."
Fukswi, whom I always confused with Fook Mi and Fook Yu from the Austin Powers movie, was Del Rio's tiny bought-and-paid-for bride from one of those Asian countries where it isn't frowned upon. She was cute as a button, and as far as I could ever tell, completely happy. Of course she looked like a schoolgirl, but in certain places in the deep south she was legal. Probably. I'd always been a terrible judge of age when it came to Asian girls.
"Will she let you borrow it?"
"Yeah, probably, but she's doing this course or something in English and practices on the little tapes, so she'll want it back."
"Tell her she'll get it back and I'll give her a Victoria’s Secret gift card."
"I'm sure she'll go for it, man. That girl loves to shop. She must spend at least half of what Del Rio makes running that place, on the internet."
"I'm certain there must be an upside."
Sonny laughed. “Hello, Kitty.”
I laughed. ”The shower just stopped running, so I'll let you go. Caroline says Hi."
"She doesn't suspect? About the party?”
"Naw, not a clue."
"Good. See ya later tonight.” He hung up.
With perfect timing, Caroline opened the bathroom door as I set the phone in its cradle. A huge white bath towel was wrapped around the hot spots, but left a lot of lovely white skin showing. She was smiling as I walked over to her.
"Wanna see my birthday outfit?" she asked, trying not to blush.
I reached around and found the knot, then watched as the towel slid to the carpet in a heap.
"Oh, my," I whispered. "This is the best gift anyone has ever gotten me.“
"Carry me over to the bed and you can play with it all you want.”
And that's how we spent the rest of the day.
Six
Night had fallen on Manta by the time we awoke and a cooling breeze was rustling the palm fronds of the tree outside our window. We could hear laughter below as the nightlife of Manta got underway. Girls dressed for clubbing were leaving the hotel hoping to have their world rocked after a night of dancing and wake up to discover he really was Prince Charming in disguise. In truth he would be the tatted-up, dumbed-down, self-involved bad-boy they’d been drawn to like a moth to a flame after several drinks, because he was the male mirror-image of them. The tap-tap of high-heeled shoes designed to accentuate the girls’ derrieres sounded like an ancient tribal mating song being drummed out on concrete.
I was leaning out the window watching the swaying rear end of a short-skirted little Ecuadorian girl with great legs when I felt Caroline’s soft warm body pressing against my back. She wrapped her arms around my neck. “You’ll go blind looking at girls.”
“I’m sure that’s just an urban legend,” I laughed.
“It won’t be if your wife pokes your eyes out!”
I turned around and we both laughed. I kissed her.
“We should do something, Seth. Go down for dinner or something. I bought a pretty dress at the market I can wear.” She didn’t know she was playing right into my hands.
“Okay. Hurry up and we’ll beat the crowd.”
As she started to turn I wrapped my arm around her and pulled her to me. I had put on my pants but she was still naked. I kissed her. “You were wonderful, by the way.”
Her smile started in her wan blue eyes, as it always did, and the room got brighter. “You weren’t so bad yourself, Mister.”
She was almost to the bathroom when I said, “Caroline?”
She stopped and looked back. “What?”
“I love you.”
For a fleeting moment she looked as vulnerable as she had the very first time I’d seen her; sitting beneath a fountain in her tattered bell-bottom pants and worn Converse high-tops, eating a stale sandwich and suspect apple she’d removed from a ragged, once purple backpack whose color had faded long ago. She whispered back, “I love you, too, Seth.” And then she disappeared behind the door to change.
I used the hotel phone to call Sanchez’s cell. Unlike Harry and I, Sanchez had no aversion to technology; other than how stupid it was making people, at least. Einstein had said something to the effect that he feared a day when technology would advance more than society, producing a generation of idiots. We’re there now, Albert, I thought.
Sanchez picked up on the third ring.
“Hey, amigo, where you at?”
“At the Sueños Celestiales, fixing to head downstairs as planned. It’s working out perfect.” Well, perfect if you didn’t count the young blonde girl who’d been thrown from a plane. “I haven’t heard from Florencia, but she said everything would be ready by eight o’clock. She was flying in early with her husband from Uruguay to get things all set up.”
“We’re almost there now, maybe another fifteen minutes in traffic.”
“So who’s the mysterious other half of ‘we’ you’re bringing.”
He hesitated, which wasn’t like Sanchez at all. “When you see her, you’ll guess, if you’ve got any kind of memory.”
“You mean I’ve met her?”
“Not exactly.”
“Alright, if you aren’t going to tell me, I’ll figure it out when I see her. You don’t have to be embarrassed because of that huge mole on her nose and that goiter, you know.”
“Uh-huh.” A pause. “You run into a cop named Lovato today?”
“Yeah, why?”
“He called me, sort of feeling me out about you, unofficially.”
“So what did you tell him?”
“I told him you were a white racist bastard ex-cop from Miami with no redeeming qualities other than a pretty wife you didn’t deserve, and that you were probably lying through your teeth and up to no good.”
“So, just the truth.”
Sanchez laughed. I heard a faint feminine voice in the background, asking him what I’d said. I heard him whisper, “Later, babe.”
“I’ll fill you in when we get there. It’s pretty nast
y business.”
“It would have to be. Lovato doesn’t like asking anyone for anything. He runs the show over there.”
“That was the impression I got too, among others. Caroline and I will be there in a couple of minutes. See you then.”
“Alright, we’re just pulling up. I see Florencia now.”
“Okay, be right down.”
Caroline stepped from the bathroom as I hung up, looking bright and colorful, and smelling lovely. Her dress was long and thin and looked beautiful on her. Her sandy blonde hair played off the many colors, especially the darker shades. The dress was loose, yet moved with her; very feminine, and very Ecuador.
“I approve. You look gorgeous.”
“Thank you. I’m glad you like it.”
“Let’s go, so I can show you off to the natives.”
She sighed. “It’s hard being your trophy wife, but someone has to do it, I guess.”
I gave her gorgeous rear a little love-tap on the way out the door. I said, “And here I thought I was your trophy husband!”
She giggled and took my hand in hers and squeezed as we got into the elevator. She said woefully, “Honorable mention again.”
She yelped and began laughing in earnest as I grabbed her and made a show of kissing her with everything I had. When I let her go I said, “Honorable mention, my ass.”
“Maybe it was the Grand Prize,” she said smiling. She leaned against me and wrapped her arm around my waist. “You know how I forget things, sometimes.”
“Well, I hope you don’t forget tonight,” I said softly.
She looked quizzically at me as the elevator doors opened. After a short walk down a carpeted hallway we came to the big dining room. It was filling up fast. Florencia must have given special instructions because we were ushered across the dining room to big glass doors on the other side. “Your table has been reserved.”
The waiter closed the glass doors behind us as we stepped onto the patio. A massive round table as elegant as those inside had been set up next to the big pool. A beautiful flower arrangement featuring bright yellow and deep orange had been placed as the centerpiece. The pool area was surrounded by tropical trees and bushes. The artificial lights shone brightly on the verdure and the pool, bathing the table in a soft, romantic glow. A small stack of gift-wrapped presents had been placed on the concrete behind the table.
“It’s beautiful,” whispered Caroline, “but whose birthday…”
Just then everyone jumped out from behind us and yelled, “Surprise!”
Caroline shrieked and nearly jumped a foot in the air. She recovered quickly and pushed Sonny so hard he almost fell into the pool. He might have if Katarina hadn’t grabbed his arm so quickly.
“You scared me to death!” Caroline exclaimed. Florencia was holding a big cake and tilted it just enough for Caroline to read it: Happy Birthday Caroline!
Harry shuffled forward and hugged Caroline. He’d always reminded me of Walter Brennan, my Harry. I couldn’t tell whether he’d missed Caroline more or she’d missed him more, but they held on a long while.
Sonny said, “We figured today was as good as any for your birthday.”
I nodded to Florencia’s husband, whom I’d never met. He was tall and lean, like a beanpole. Even dressed casually, you could tell his clothes were expensive. But there existed an easygoing aura in the way he smiled, as if he were embarrassed to wear good clothes and expensive cologne. He reminded me of a professional golfer. He had that look. Flo introduced him.
“This is my husband, Mike. Mike, this is Seth and Caroline.” Obviously he’d already met everyone else, if only briefly, before they’d hidden to surprise Caroline.
“Nice to finally meet you,” he said, holding out his hand. We shook, and he nodded to Caroline. “You, too, Caroline. Happy Birthday.”
“Thank you. I don’t know what I’d have done without Florencia’s help at our wedding.” Caroline always called her Florencia. She was so beautiful, Flo didn’t seem to fit, at least to Caroline.
Florencia certainly looked beautiful tonight. Long, soft black hair, straight but curled at the ends, cascaded over bare shoulders and past big breasts you knew would be just as lovely as the rest of her. Tonight she’d worn a charcoal-colored dress that accentuated her frosted pink lipstick. Her eyes were almost clear, but with a suggestion of green and a hint of gray. The first time I’d seen her on Cozumel I’d thought of a Mayan or Aztec Princess, especially with those exquisitely sculpted cheekbones. But there was something soft in her that offset that, making her kind and accessible.
She wasn’t the only one dolled up. Katarina had worn a cream-colored number that wrapped around her — tightly — and ended a couple of inches above her knees. I hadn’t seen her for a good long while, but she still reminded me of Jacqueline Bisset at her sex-kitten sexiest.
As talk ensued and we drifted toward the tables I found my eyes drawn to Sanchez’s date, however. She was young, maybe about the age Caroline had been when she came to Cozumel and ended up staying because she’d had no place else to go after what happened to her. A college girl, perhaps. Gorgeous, light skinned but a hint of Spanish in her dark eyes. She looked incredible in a basic black cocktail dress. Her hips were just magnificent —
Sanchez flashed me a look, realizing from my expression that I’d finally caught on. I flashed him a look in return, which screamed, “Have you gone mad?” There was a bit of her father in her face, mostly in the eyes, but everything else she owed to her mother, Anna Marquez. I could easily imagine that many years ago, Anna Marquez had looked exactly like her daughter. She was pretty spectacular still, Anna Marquez, especially her hips.
We were all close in proximity, so I couldn’t corner Sanchez yet to find out if he’d gone completely off his rocker, messing around with old Fernando’s daughter. I couldn’t even imagine how they’d met. She attended Miami U, or so I’d heard.
“The cake looks scrumptious!” Caroline said as we spread out around the big table. I counted twenty-five candles, which was probably about right, though no one, not even Caroline, knew for sure.
“Florencia made it, so it should be great,” offered her husband. “It’s all I can do not to get fat, she’s so good with sweets.”
It seemed like an overstatement from a slim-Jim like Mike Garcia, but he was obviously sincere.
Florencia had arranged for a buffet type meal — what a dream girl — and we took turns filling up elegant dinnerware like we we’d never eat again. Well, at least all the males present did. Florencia mimicked the males of the species, but Caroline, Katarina, and Anne — obviously named after her mother — took smaller portions. Harry asked if there was anything to drink. Caroline asked, “Have you been good, Harry?”
“Course I been good, just ask Sonny, he’ll tell you.”
“Yeah, he’s eaten me out of boat and fuel, but he’s been good,” Sonny admitted.
Caroline looked to Florencia, who smiled. She reached underneath the food cart and opened a little cooler full of Coronas. I stuck with my Coke, and so did Caroline, but everyone else grabbed a bottle or two. Flo grabbed two and put them next to Harry’s plate. He smiled like it was Christmas. You had to manage Harry’s intake because he couldn’t. Take it away completely and he was worthless, give him too much and he was worthless.
We spent the next hour and a half catching up. We shared where we’d been and how much we’d enjoyed it — Caroline did most of that, really; I just nodded a lot. Sonny told us about the big one that got away on one of his fishing charters. Katarina described the beauty of the Tuscan Valley in Italy but never quite got around to mentioning why she’d been there. I doubted it was vacation. I asked about Vlad, an old Russian acquaintance of mine, and she smiled and said he was still around.
Finally, after we were done eating from the buffet, Florencia lit the candles on the cake and Caroline blew them out. While she was cutting and doling out pieces around the table Sanchez asked me, “So what’s up with Lovato?”<
br />
That got everyone’s attention because no one sans Sonny knew who he was talking about. But they could tell from his tone that something was up.
I described what had happened, glossing over any unpleasant descriptive details.
Sonny pulled a little tape player from his bomber jacket pocket and handed it to me. “Let’s have a listen.”
“Let’s finish the cake first, just in case it’s something we don’t want to hear while we’re eating.”
As it turned out, I was glad we waited.
Seven
We waited until the cake was almost gone and I decided to let Caroline open her presents before listening to the tape. She wore a perpetual smile while opening her gifts, those pale blue eyes alive and happy that so many people had gone to all this trouble just to give her a faux birthday.
For so long Caroline had had no one but Rosita, who had taken care of her and looked after her like a mother. Caroline had a sweet nature so she had made the best of her situation after the brutal rape and the drugs which had scrambled her memories. But she had to have known in her heart that Cozumel would probably be the end of the line for her. Caroline would probably say that I walked into her life and changed all that, but it was her entry into my life which changed everything from my perspective.
I had made a quick, rash decision based on a feeling in my heart, a feeling that had been there from the first moment I saw her. She had proven my instincts and my heart to be correct, being just as wonderful up close and personal. I counted myself lucky that she’d felt the same way about me.
Caroline had been waiting for me in a way; I knew this because she had told me so. She’d been hoping for a white knight to come along and rescue her, just to hang on to her dreams, most of which were shattered the night she had been raped and brutalized. I had been waiting for her, too, without realizing it until I found her. Caroline hadn’t minded that my armor was stained with Escobar’s blood. She only cared about me, and about us. She might not have been the whole girl she had been when she’d first arrived in Cozumel, but the girl I’d found was the girl I loved. I might not have been the whole man I was before I crossed that line and murdered Escobar in the Florida Keys, but I was the fella she loved and needed. Together we made each other whole, and happy. We were okay with who we were now, preferring to go on together rather than look back.
The Long Gray Goodbye: A Seth Halliday Novel Page 4