Mystery by the Sea

by David Sal

“That’s the same thing,” replied Lorenzo, uncomfortable with the sudden return of butterflies in his stomach.

  “Responsible in the sense that if I hadn’t invited Doris that night…Pedroza would still be alive. I never imaged that she would lose it and lash out like that. My goal was not for it to end like that,” explained Irma with renewed energy.

  Alexis and Lorenzo looked at each other, confused. Lorenzo struggled to find his footing, fighting physical and emotional feelings that he could not put into words.

  “Back up just a minute. Doris is completely innocent. You’re the guilty one,” Lorenzo conclusively claimed. He could not see any other angle, not at that moment. Tensing up after having relaxed from Irma’s supposed confession was causing an overwhelming strain on him.

  “But that’s impossible! I didn’t even go near the room. There are three witnesses who’ve sworn to it,” Irma stated firmly.

  “We know that you paid a man to do it. You can’t deny it,” added Lorenzo, shooting from the hip.

  “What?” asked Irma and Alexis in unison. Alexis had asked Lorenzo to leave that detail out during the interview because he deemed it a weak angle at best. But Lorenzo shot it off without thinking twice when he saw that the long-awaited end of the matter was slipping from his grasp.

  “A foreigner known to you. I watched you pay him good money,” Lorenzo shot back in a very unconvincing tone.

  “What nonsense is this? Mr. Mojica, are you going to allow this?” Irma demanded of Alexis, who opened his mouth to step in.

  “You can’t deny it. We know it!” exclaimed Lorenzo, interrupting his attorney.

  “Um, ‘we’ is a lot of people,” clarified Alexis, distancing himself from Lorenzo’s declarations. “I assure you that I see your point about that detail,” said Alexis to Irma.

  “I never gave money to any man, much less for a contract of that nature. Just the insinuation offends me,” declared Irma, clearly annoyed. She had made the transition from anguished to appalled in record time.

  “You’re offended? So, you deny knowing this person?” asked Lorenzo, showing her the photos that he’d sent to his cellphone in the hotel. “It seems to me that you do. Let’s just take a look at how close you two are here.”

  Irma wiped her eyes and took a few seconds to react. She could not believe what she was seeing.

  “Where’d you get that picture?” asked Irma, trying to keep herself from yelling.

  “Answer the questions. Do you know him?” insisted Lorenzo.

  “Do I know my own brother? Yes, of course I do.”

  Alexis buried his head in his hands on the desk. Lorenzo froze. Irma could see that she now had the upper hand and she was going to take advantage of it.

  “Oh, you didn’t know that? That’s as far as your detective work brought you?” she asked with a generous sprinkling of sarcasm.

  Lorenzo looked off into space, wanting to escape through the window. All of his reasoning had made perfect sense. But his pigheaded need for Doris to be innocent had not allowed him to see other likelihoods or possible angles in an extremely complex situation made up of many varied pieces. Letting everything spill out of his mouth and ricochet off real and intelligent human beings, who were defending themselves and fighting for their survival, was not the same as hearing it all in his head, where everything fit together perfectly so that he could arrive at the one and only conclusion that Doris was innocent—case in point. He decided to empty his last cartridge in a desperate attempt to save face.

  “Okay, but if he’s your brother, why is he staying at a hotel and not with family?” he challenged.

  Irma, aware that she now had control of the situation, settled into her chair and took a deep breath. Alexis was glued to the edge of his seat.

  “The last thing I should do right now is give you any explanations about my private life, but to rule out the harebrained ideas that you have about me, I will. Giuseppe is my brother on my mom’s side and has lived in Italy for twenty years. This week we have a family reunion planned and he’s going to show up. No one knows, except for me. That’s why he’s been in a hotel this whole time. It’s a surprise.”

  Lorenzo raised his eyes and, looking at Alexis, opened his arms wide at his sides.

  “Okay, that’s all fine and dandy. But that doesn’t change anything. You paid your brother to do it!” exclaimed Lorenzo. Alexis dropped his head in shame, both for himself and for Lorenzo.

  “That’s impossible,” assured Irma calmly.

  “Why?” grilled Lorenzo.

  “Because he arrived on the island on Saturday, the day after Pedroza was murdered,” asserted Irma with a victorious smile.

  “Okay, we’re done,” said Alexis, jumping up from his chair like a spring. “Thank you for your time, Mrs. Alfonso. I’m sorry for what has transpired,” he said to Irma as she got up out of her chair and headed for the door. “I assure you that we won’t bother you any more about this case.”

  “Liar! Let the evidence speak for itself. Where’s the plane ticket? I saw when you paid him,” Lorenzo continued screaming, out of control.

  “Lorenzo, that’s enough!” shouted Alexis, worn out. “This isn’t a trial. You had your opportunity. Now let me do my job. I’m begging you,” pleaded Alexis earnestly.

  Irma stopped at the door and turned around to look at Lorenzo, face-to-face.

  “You told me that your only desire was to know the truth. What you didn’t tell me was that the only truth you would accept was the one that was most convenient for you. You could spend the rest of your life looking for that and not find it—because it doesn’t exist. I’ve accepted that I’m partly to blame and I’m prepared to face the consequences. You should do the same,” concluded Irma, spinning around on her heels and swiftly leaving the office for the stifling heat of the street.

  Shame, humiliation, disgrace, embarrassment, ignominy, mortification, indignity. It did not matter what word you used to describe it; Lorenzo was feeling it at that moment. Exhausted, Alexis threw himself into his chair. He considered himself partly responsible for the spectacle they had just witnessed. He had lost control of the interview, something that, as an attorney, he could not afford. The only thing he could do now was walk away with the lesson learned.

  “Look, Lorenzo, what we have to do now is…”

  Lorenzo left the room, closing the door behind him with a bang and leaving Alexis’ words to hang in the air.

  “Clean up the mess you made,” concluded Alexis to himself.

  Chapter 17

  The rest of the day was a blur for Lorenzo. When he got home, he changed the sheets that were covered in dirt and threw himself down onto the bed. He instantly fell asleep, losing all consciousness and sense of time. He did not dream or wake up at all. He was not hot or cold or hungry. In essence, he ceased to exist for 14 consecutive hours. When he finally opened his eyes, he gradually became aware of the sounds surrounding him, as if the world were turning up the volume little by little. His favorite sound, the sea’s waves, stood out above everything else, resulting in an uncontrollable impulse to reunite himself with them.

  He got up and stripped off his clothes from the day before, which he was still wearing. He pulled on a swimsuit and grabbed a beach towel from his wardrobe. He headed down the stairs and crossed the patio, noting how messy it was. It had been a while since he had cleaned the patio, as was his habit years earlier. He preferred to pay someone else to do it. But given Doris’ situation, he had also forgotten to call the boy who cleaned for them. Promising himself that he would not forget, he continued to the back of the patio, where there was a small gate that allowed access to a narrow path leading directly to the beach.

  When the path ended, the beach’s hot sand pressed down under his feet as he walked straight for the water. He dropped the towel under a palm tree without stopping. He proceeded until his feet felt the caress of the smooth wet sand along the shore. He immediately waded in to his knees, then his waist, and finally dunked his h
ead in. Then he let his body float, faceup. He spent a few minutes floating with his arms and legs stretched out, feeling the contrast of temperatures in his body. The sun warmed his face and chest while the water cooled off his back. It reminded him that there are two sides to every coin. Even an absolute truth can be seen differently by different people. For as much as he wanted and believed that Doris was innocent of the crime with which she was charged, that did not change the facts. It was just a matter of looking at it in a different light, through another lens.

  Lorenzo tried to concentrate on the sensory stimuli that his brain was receiving rather than continuing to run through the case again in his mind. He floated placidly without noticing anything, not even time. He simply disconnected from everything that was not the sea. Then he submerged his body and stayed there until he could not hold his breath any longer, and with a push he popped to the surface, taking in a huge mouthful of air. He emerged feeling like a new person, like he had a new north.

  Lorenzo walked to the shore and sat down on his towel in the sand. He noticed that some more people had arrived and had settled down in different areas of the beach. One of the groups had set up a charcoal grill and the grill’s unique smell flooded the area. The aroma transported him to another period of his life: his childhood. Going to the beach required only putting on a swimsuit and following his parents’ instructions. They would take care of the rest, while he, along with his brothers and friends, enjoyed the aquatic activities. When they were called to get out of the water, the food was already prepared and ready to be eaten by the hungry boys, who then had to wait thirty minutes before returning to the water.

  Lorenzo aspired to carry out the role of father and make his child feel the carefreeness and protection that his parents had made him feel during those unforgettable years. In the meantime, he was content to watch others enjoy that stage. He paid particular attention to a little girl, no more than four years old, playing with a beach ball with her mother. He watched the happiness and joy that emanated from them both because of the moment they were enjoying. He saw a sense of pride in the mother’s eyes with every movement and leap that her little one made. Each one was an achievement worthy of celebrating and savoring.

  On one of those leaps, the ball escaped and rolled toward Lorenzo, stopping at his feet. The little girl ran over to look for it without thinking twice. Lorenzo picked it up and held it out, smiling at the little girl, who instinctively returned the smile. They looked at each other for a few seconds and he asked what her name was. Before she could answer, her mother, who jumped up from where she was seated and ran over to catch up with her daughter, grabbed her by both arms and carried her off, shooting Lorenzo a nasty look and getting away from him as quickly as possible.

  While Lorenzo did not take it the wrong way, it still hurt. He knew that, unfortunately, unscrupulous people were on the prowl everywhere. But just then there was no reason not to at least disguise the fear a little. After all, he was only giving her back her ball. He understood that her action of motherly instinct was not much different from his actions over the past few days. His paternal instinct brought him to do and say the unspeakable to save his family, without worrying about the effect it would have on others. He needed to redirect those efforts through a channel that would produce better results.

  He decided to leave everything that had to do with the case in the hands of his attorney. He hoped that his slip-up with Irma would not bring him additional problems, like a defamation lawsuit or anything of that nature. He already had enough on his plate as it was. Now he would concentrate all his energy on supporting Doris as best as possible. He wanted to be with her throughout the entire process, to the end. And he wanted her to know it and feel it, too.

  It was also time to prepare himself to be a father. It would not be easy to care for the little baby on his own. It was time to leave his past behind him; what’s done is done. He would not get anywhere by complaining or feeling ashamed. It was time to accept help and put his hands to work. It was time to make a real effort to find employment wherever he could and not be picky. He promised himself that, from now on, he would only look straight ahead.

  •••••

  Lorenzo was driving his car to the hospital when he saw something that attracted his attention. There was a huge billboard announcing the development of a residential construction project that read: “Vistamar Courts, live with the prominence that you deserve, in front of the sea.” He had passed by here hundreds of times, but this time was different.

  Mainly, his eyes were focused on the photograph of a smiling family, enjoying the good life promised by the advertisement. Lorenzo stopped his car and studied the part of the project that had already been constructed. It seemed that all of the buildings in the complex were started, but none were finished. The red clay soil coated everything inside the construction project’s plot. Lorenzo put his car in reverse and entered through the entrance’s open gate. It seemed odd to him that there was not anyone working. It was not a holiday or the weekend.

  He got out of the car and walked to the main office, where the security guard was sitting down reading a newspaper. Lorenzo could not imagine what this man, who was clearly over 65 years old, would be able to do in the case of a robbery or any other emergency, aside from calling for help. Next to the chair was a little table with three additional newspapers and a small radio tuned in to a news broadcast. The guard greeted him without getting up.

  “Hello, good morning,” greeted Lorenzo. “Where can I find a job application?”

  The man folded his newspaper in half and set it on the table. He looked Lorenzo up and down before answering his question.

  “What type of work are you looking for?”

  “Whatever, I’ll do anything. If I don’t know how to do it, I’ll learn. But I have experience operating heavy machinery,” Lorenzo informed him.

  “All right, well, right now, as you can see, there isn’t any work. The project is at a standstill and I don’t know when it’ll start up again. There’s a ruckus over someone who seems to have been scheming and robbing a bunch of money. And now that the owner was killed, no one knows what’s going to happen,” the guard gossiped.

  “The owner was killed?” asked Lorenzo out of curiosity.

  “Yes, Mr. Pedroza. It’s been all over the news. He was a millionaire. Haven’t you seen his mansion on the beach? He was practically dripping money.”

  “Yeah, I’ve seen it,” commented Lorenzo. Up until now he was unaware that Pedroza was involved in construction projects. He guessed that to amass that type of fortune, though, one business was not enough.

  “He had a ton of businesses and properties. Now his wife is left with everything, like always,” grumbled the guard, crossing his arms and leaning back in his chair.

  Lorenzo meditated, motionless, for a moment. He thought about all the unresolved matters that Aurora Pedroza now had to contend with. She would have to make important decisions, like choosing the appropriate people to head several businesses and companies. She would also have to fight against the wolves that could certainly already smell the opportunity to make out amidst her tragedy. All of that on her back, in addition to the weight of having tragically lost the most important person in her life: her partner, friend, and husband. He felt bad for her and sincerely hoped that she could successfully bear what awaited her.

  Lorenzo realized that he was not going to find work with this project at the moment, but he was happy that he had taken the first step. He broke the ice. He was officially looking for a job, and now it was just a question of landing one.

  “Well, I’ll keep looking,” Lorenzo said to the guard, putting his hands in his pockets and shrugging his shoulders.

  “If you’re interested, you can wait and see how the problem is resolved. When you see activity, stop by and see what they offer you,” recommended the man with a smile.

  “Thanks, I’ll keep that in mind,” said Lorenzo, waving goodbye and setting out on the r
eturn trip to his car.

  When he got to his car, he wanted to call Alexis and make arrangements to meet with him before heading to the hospital. Part of his plan of personal reorganization included formally apologizing to Alexis for his behavior over the past few days. The attorney had worked hard to help them, while he, on the other hand, had unraveled all of his efforts.

  Alexis’ secretary informed him that he had taken the day off. Lorenzo was sure that he had done so because of the incident with Irma. He felt even worse and called Alexis at home, but no one answered. He thought he remembered Doris' commenting at one point that Alexis kept a boat along the shore and that he spent much of his free time there. He decided to head over there, but first he needed to make another call. It did not surprise him to see that he had exactly 43 missed calls from Edgar registered on his phone.

  •••••

  Edgar wrung his hands nervously. Seated in front of his blank computer screen, his leg would not stop shaking, producing a rhythmic squeaking of the chair. He was not up to date on what had happened at the meeting between Irma and Alexis, but he had a feeling that something was not right. The atmosphere in the office was heavy that morning. The guards did not say hello when he entered, as was their custom, and he had not received any assignments from his boss, as was her custom. But what most worried him at that moment was…

  Edgar jumped out of his seat when he felt his cellphone vibrating in his pocket. When he saw that it was Lorenzo, he took the call immediately.

  “Hello. Finally! I’ve been trying to get ahold of you forever. What happened yesterday? Did she confess?” Edgar asked anxiously.

  “I’m sorry. I just wanted to disconnect for a while. I’m on my way to the coast to see Alexis. I need to speak with him personally to patch things up.”

  “Patch what up? Did something happen?” asked Edgar, more worried than intrigued.

  “Irma confessed to the report and the invitation but then went on to explain who the man was that I saw her with. It turns out it was her brother, visiting the island. And, well, needless to say, I messed everything up. She hasn’t said anything to you?”