Body on the Beach

by Maria Quick

  Safely in a new room that wasn’t a catacomb, I ran myself a bath and put on some music. I predicted George wouldn’t be back for another half hour at least, so I perused the bath oils, enjoying my first real time alone-

  ‘Hey.’

  Or not. He was standing in the doorway, looking deadly serious.

  ‘You’re kidding. It’s been five minutes-’

  ‘I know, I know. We have a problem.’

  ‘Another one? Don’t tell me, I’d rather not know.’

  I picked chamomile and lavender. They were supposed to be relaxing, right? Just in case, I poured in the whole bottle.

  ‘I can’t even smell and I can smell that,’ he sniffed. ‘Look, I know who Jorge is. Or was, I should say.’

  ‘If that’s the problem, keep it to yourself.’

  ‘Annie, we got caught up in something big. He’s a-’

  ‘NOPE. Shut up, George,’ I shouted, hoping that trick would work. It hadn’t worked since I was five, though, and it failed me again.

  ‘Annie, he’s a cop.’

  19

  ‘A cop?’ I repeated loudly, certain I’d misheard.

  ‘That’s right. A bona fide detective, member of the police force. Jorge Garcia was a cop.’

  ‘Then, how’d he end up delivered to my hotel room minus hands?’ I wanted to know. George could only shrug.

  ‘What the hell are we missing here?’ I sighed. This whole thing stank. I felt like I’d stumbled into something I didn’t even know existed. ‘Something’s not right.’

  ‘Really? Only “something?”’

  ‘Fine. Some things. Better?’

  I decided to unpack my stuff, since the bath didn’t seem so appealing now. George clucked in disappointment as I unplugged it, watching the sickly, overpowering oils swoosh down the drain.

  ‘Man, what a waste.’

  ‘I’m paying for it. Chill.’

  ‘That’s not really the- never mind,’ he groaned. He took one last look at the seventy cents worth of water I’d so carelessly discarded before following me out the room.

  ‘I thought you were leaving,’ he commented. I finished hanging my clothes up and flopped onto the bed. He joined me.

  ‘So did I. But now I’m intrigued, and I want to know what’s going on.’

  ‘With Ronnie?’

  ‘No, Jorge.’

  ‘Because I kinda think you dealt with him the wrong way,’ he said anyway.

  ‘Great,’ I replied, acknowledging his comment. ‘I need to find out who my neighbors were before I moved rooms. Can you do that?’

  ‘I guess,’ he said, hesitating. ‘What about Ronnie?’

  ‘What about him?’ I asked, a little exasperated. ‘Why do you keep bringing him up?’

  ‘We can’t just leave him. We travelled halfway across the country. You lied to your dad. You skipped school; although, that probably lifted the IQ of the entire student body, so I guess that’s not a big deal overall.’

  I took the obvious jibe, not in the least bit offended.

  ‘Technically, he left us. And I’m not about to run around Miami trying to find a lucy. I’d only end up finding someone completely different and getting involved in another mess.’

  ‘So? You’re the only one who can help. Why is it such a big deal for you?’

  ‘Um, remember last night?’

  ‘Okay, that was a little freaky, I admit-’

  ‘A little freaky? It was a damned dead body! Without hands and feet! How do you expect me to be fine with that?’

  ‘Alright, I know it’s scary, but come on. You have an amazing gift that a lot of people would kill to have.’

  ‘I know. I’ve met them,’ I shuddered.

  ‘You’d have help,’ he went on, as I got bored of the conversation and fired up my laptop.

  ‘From who? You? Because no offence, but if it came down to it, you wouldn’t really be of any help at all.’

  ‘Not me. Ally. Mickey. There must be other people out there who’d believe you, too.’

  ‘News flash, George. Nobody believes me. Ally believes in everything under the sun, and a lot of things over it, come to that. Mickey has no friends and a mom who doesn’t even acknowledge him. I’m the only person who’s ever been nice to him.’

  ‘Nice? I wouldn’t go that far,’ he muttered. I rolled my eyes.

  ‘Nicer than he’s used to. I’ve seen the way he looks at me. He doesn’t believe me. He doesn’t even believe that I believe me. He’s humoring me, that’s all. And- oh no. This isn’t good.’

  All thought of my idiotic friends slipped out of my mind as I stared at the screen in front of me. I’d been checking local news, in case any other bodies had popped up that could be attributed to me. Luckily there’d been nothing so far on that front, but a small news story in Boca Raton had caught my eye.

  ‘What is it?’ George asked, on the alert. I didn’t answer and kept on reading. Annoyed, he whooshed through me to read it himself.

  LOCAL WOMAN’S BREAK-IN NIGHTMARE, screamed the headline. There were a couple of pictures next to the article. There was one of the garden, all dug up and disemboweled. There was another of the lounge, smashed up and totaled. And there was a picture of my aunt, looking even more devastated than her home.

  ‘I don’t understand,’ she was quoted as saying. ‘They don’t seem to have taken anything. My jewelry’s all there; not that it was expensive. But everything’s destroyed. The police think they were looking for something, but I don’t have anything! I’m utterly distraught.’

  She went on to say that she was seriously considering leaving the area. She didn’t feel safe any longer.

  ‘Isn’t your last name Mendes?’ George asked, on the ball as always.

  ‘Yep. And don’t bother trying to make me feel bad, okay? I already do,’ I told him quickly.

  ‘You feel bad? Good, you should. What about what your aunt feels?’

  ‘I know what she feels. I can read,’ I snapped.

  This was exactly why I hated helping lucies. They never understood the repercussions on the mortal side. It was all me, me, me. I want peace, I want revenge and absolution. And when it all goes to pot, like right now for Yasmin, I somehow get the blame. What was I, a miracle worker?

  ‘Shouldn’t you call her and apologize, at the very least?’

  Here we go.

  ‘And, pray tell, why would I apologize?’

  He zipped out of my body and looked me in the eyes, checking I was serious. I was. Deadly so.

  ‘Are you a sociopath or something? Do you genuinely not see how this is all your fault? Do you not feel a shred of guilt?’ he asked softly. I laughed. I couldn’t help myself.

  ‘I’m sorry, I don’t recall breaking into her house. I don’t remember smashing it to smithereens. And I certainly don’t recollect telling anyone to do so; help me out here, because apparently my memory’s severely lacking,’ I implored him.

  He took a step back, and looked at me as though he couldn’t believe what he was seeing. Frankly, I was thinking the same. I’d already said I felt bad, what more did he want? Did he expect me to burst into tears, maybe, or perform seppuku?

  ‘You practically forced-’

  ‘I didn’t force anybody to do anything,’ I cut in before he could accuse me of something ridiculous. ‘I acted on the suggestions of Ronnie, who thought I should pretend to be his daughter, remember? I had to make a story to cover my ass, and that unfortunately included my aunt. Now his wife has wrecked Yasmin’s home and possibly killed somebody else. Where is he? He’s gone. If anyone’s to blame here, it’s Ronnie.’

  ‘But Ronnie’s dead,’ he informed me.

  ‘Thanks, Captain Obvious.’

  He muttered under his breath and glared at me.

  ‘I meant, it doesn’t matter what Ronnie said. Nobody can hear him but you. If you have a problem with his ideas, don’t take them. You’re still living, remember?’ he sneered. ‘You have to deal with the consequences of your actions
sooner or later.’

  ‘Yeah, which is why I don’t help lucies any longer,’ I sighed, having come full circle.

  He reached his hands out to my throat, trying to threaten me, I guess. Cute.

  ‘You cannot be that obtuse. You cannot be that dimwitted!’

  ‘Don’t be such a do-gooder,’ I chided, pulling my tongue out. It was supposed to be playful, but it only infuriated him further. No matter. ‘She’s insured, she’ll be fine. She’ll move to a new area and it’ll be good for her. Maybe she’ll find a new girlfriend. She hasn’t been the same since Petra left.’

  ‘Wow, just when I think Yasmin’s life couldn’t get any worse. You’re a horrible person, Ann. A truly awful person.’

  ‘Man, quit with the amateur dramatics,’ I sighed. ‘She’s a big girl. She can handle a little break-in and break-up. There are cameras in her area. They’ll eventually spot Angela and Jose heading there, and arrest them. It’ll all work out.’

  It maybe wouldn’t be the justice that Ronnie was looking for, but it’d be the best I could do for him. And I guess the police would eventually tie Angela to Jorge, too, because they were somehow connected. They had to be. Unless his body was completely random, but I couldn’t see that happening. That was a little too random.

  ‘They don’t even know they’re looking for Angela in the first place.’

  ‘But they will,’ I assured him confidently. ‘And if they don’t, I’ll send an anonymous letter pointing toward her. It’ll work out, I’m telling you.’

  He was still looking pretty anxious, so I shot off a text to Yasmin asking how she was.

  ‘There. Happy?’ I asked him, exasperated.

  ‘Do you care about anyone but yourself?’ he asked, shaking his head. ‘The only time I’ve seen you emotive is when you were face-to-face with a gun. Or a dead body. Basically, whenever something will only affect you.’

  ‘Duh, isn’t everyone like that? We’re all pretty selfish. And almost dying is not the same as getting robbed. In any way.’

  ‘That doesn’t matter. It sounds like it’s the same for your aunt. She’s terrified, Annie. She’s lost everything and she doesn’t know why. When my cousin got beaten half to death four years ago by his girlfriend, I rushed right over. Even though he was in another state, and we weren’t really close, I still went. I was there for him. Because that’s what family does.’

  ‘Thanks, Barney,’ I murmured.

  ‘Why is everything such a joke to you? Why are you trying to hurt people who are close to you?’

  ‘I’m not hurting anyone! Yasmin has friends, she’ll be fine. She’ll recover. The people who did this to her will be arrested in due course.’

  ‘And what about when she finds out it’s your fault in the first place?’

  ‘When and if that happens, I’ll apologize. Profusely. Anything else you wanna throw at me?’

  ‘Yeah, actually. Your dad,’ he claimed, settling into his new role of making me feel bad.

  ‘How’s that?’

  ‘He was happy with Stacy. You took that away from him.’

  My God, a pair of fake breasts could really mess with a guy’s head. He had the gall to appear indignant, but I knew what his mind was really on.

  ‘She was after his money. I actually helped him on that score, remember?’

  ‘His money. His life. He chose her. Nothing to do with you.’

  ‘It has everything to do with me! He thought he was happy but she’s manipulative and- you know what, I am not having this conversation again,’ I decided. ‘He might be angry now, but he’ll thank me later. End of. Now, I need you to go back to my old room, and find out who were in the rooms next to mine. Can you do that, or are you going to bring up more arguments that don’t need to be had?’

  I could see which one he really, really wanted to go for, but he couldn’t. Because all I’d do is ignore him for the rest of his days. I called the shots here, not him. He could bully and wheedle and pressure me all he wanted, and it would still have no effect. Without me, he was nothing.

  And he knew it.

  He swept out of the room without mentioning another word. I missed Ronnie.

  I decided to run myself another bath again. At least now I would definitely have time to enjoy it, and I was utterly stressed and exhausted. I needed it. As the water finished pouring out, I began to relax and chill out.

  Then came a damned knock on the damned door.

  My stress levels shot skyward as I walked over to it, hesitating.

  ‘Who is it?’ I called in a shaky voice. Great, now I sounded afraid.

  No answer.

  Well, I was going to die. Seeing as I couldn’t exactly pretend I wasn’t in, I had no real choice but to open the door and hope I wouldn’t get murdered.

  That hope was immediately shot to pieces.

  It was Jose. And he was alone.

  20

  ‘We need to talk,’ he declared in a gruff voice.

  ‘Jose?’ I asked, simply to make sure it was him. I’d only seen him a couple of times but he didn’t exactly have a memorable face. I’d tried my hardest to avoid looking at him, too, which didn’t help at this very moment in time.

  ‘Yes.’

  He was wearing the same outfit as yesterday, with the added bonus of a frayed leather jacket. No gloves, I was quick to note. So, he was unlikely to kill me on this visit. Unless, of course, he had a pair hidden in a pocket. Along with a gun and torture tools. Okay, I think I was going to tell him to leave.

  Unfortunately, I’d dithered too long and he shoved his way in, slamming the door behind us. I searched for George, hoping he was as quick as he’d been before, but he hadn’t returned yet. I took a deep breath and faced Jose down.

  ‘What do you want?’ I asked, cramming every ounce of bravado I could into four words. I folded my arms, matching his stance, hopefully giving off the impression that we were equals. I’m not actually sure that worked.

  ‘You’re getting involved in something that is of no concern to you,’ he graciously informed me. ‘Stay away from Angela, or it won’t turn out great for you.’

  ‘Is that a threat?’

  ‘Was that not obvious?’ he frowned.

  ‘And what to do you mean, no concern to me? This involves my father. I will follow this to the ends of the Earth to find out what happened to him,’ I claimed, hating myself at the same time for saying it.

  ‘If I were you, I wouldn’t,’ he warned.

  ‘And what does that mean?’ I huffed, deciding he wasn’t going to hurt me. Hey, if he hadn’t yet, I was pretty safe. Today.

  ‘Your father spent the last eighteen or so years not even thinking about you. Suddenly, you come into his life and he disappears. For good.’

  ‘I guess he has a lot to think about,’ I sighed, as my cell rang. I glanced at the screen and quickly hung up. It was my dad. My real one. I didn’t want him calling right now.

  ‘Please, cut the crap,’ Jose spat, uninterested in my call. ‘We were all at the beach the other day. We overheard you saying to your friend. You know, and we know, that Ronald is dead.’

  Boy, I really wished George would come sailing back any second now. I wondered if I screamed, how far that sound would travel. Probably not far enough.

  ‘Alright. Then, you’ll know that I know that Angela killed him.’

  ‘You don’t know anything,’ he sneered. ‘Besides, who’s the likely suspect? His loving wife of many years, or a needy bastard daughter he didn’t know he had? Perhaps you were angry; you said as much yourself. Maybe he rejected you, and you lashed out. Stranger things have happened.’

  Oh no, I could see where this was going. He wasn’t exactly being subtle about it anyway, but at least I knew the reason for the random visit. It was more annoying than anything else. I’d been accused of murder so many times I could actually commit it and safely get away with it. That was pretty depressing, actually.

  ‘You can’t pin this on me, so don’t even try,’ I groaned.


  ‘Who said anything about pinning?’ he asked innocently, smiling creepily. ‘He was a bad father and bad husband. You are both better off without him. And so is the world. Go back to your mother. She needs you right now.’

  ‘You mean because you wrecked her-my home?’ I corrected quickly. My cell rang again and I switched it off. Later, Dad. I promise. Jose gave me a suspicious look, clearly feeling something wasn’t right with me.

  ‘And yet, you’re still here. Strange. Why is that?’

  ‘I want justice for my father. You can’t stop me from getting it.’

  The cold look he gave me suggested that he can and will. I quickly changed tack.

  ‘Besides, I have something you want, remember?’

  I’d like to say he perked up, but I’m not sure he did. He’d been leaning on the TV cabinet the whole time, moving no unnecessary muscles. The vague talk of money didn’t provoke him, either. He was a tough nut to crack. I wondered what Angela saw in him. And vice versa, come to that. It was a weird combination.

  ‘I don’t know what you mean.’

  ‘Then, Angela hasn’t told you the full story. Tell her I have it.’

  ‘“It?” What “it” is it?’

  ‘Is there more than one “it?”’ I asked, perplexed.

  ‘Why are you speaking in riddles?’ George asked, coming through the door at a most opportune time.

  ‘George!’ I spurted before containing myself.

  ‘Rookie mistake,’ he whistled, admiring the scenery. ‘Whoa, what’s this guy doing here? Whoa, why’s he trying to kill you?’

  Apparently, I’d said a magic word of some sort. The instant I’d mentioned George’s name, Jose had burst into life, coming toward me like his life depended on it.

  ‘You know George?’

  It was like someone had flipped a switch. He seemed inquisitive, friendly. I freaked.

  ‘You know George? Oh my God, I was right,’ I said to my George, getting a little confused about all the Georges. ‘He did know him. He did send him.’

  ‘Send him where?’ Jose asked, oblivious to my other random conversation with thin air.

  ‘Uh, to my hotel room, remember? A dead, practically limbless body. Thanks for that.’