by Mia Gold
Elaine sat in the same place as before, an untouched cup of coffee in front of her, staring vacantly out at the gorgeous view she could no longer appreciate. She murmured a greeting as Ruby sat down.
“The police called me this morning, asking if I had hired you,” Elaine said. “I told them I had, and they gave me a lecture about how that would only interfere with their investigation.”
Oh, great. Detective Anderson was checking up on her story. Either that, or the hotel security must have been concerned that their recent widow of a murder victim had been hanging out with some suspiciously poor white woman. They had told the cops, who then told them Ruby was a suspect. Either way, she could practically feel those security cameras staring at her, studying and judging her every move.
“If you don’t want to continue, I’ll understand,” Ruby said.
Ruby would keep investigating, though. The way the police were pressuring her, she had no choice. Their warning Elaine off of hiring her only showed how much they suspected her.
Elaine opened her purse and pulled out a wad of money. “Here’s your next two thousand. Sorry I didn’t get a chance to go to the ATM more than twice. The bank sometimes puts a hold on withdrawals if I take out more than two thousand in a day.”
“That’s very generous of you,” said Ruby, who hadn’t had two thousand in her bank account since she had come here.
She tucked away the money, promising herself to go home and squirrel it away right after this meeting. The police weren’t going to get it this time. She hoped she could get the original money back too.
A waiter appeared, the same waiter as the previous day. “Large breakfast and two Morning Glories, madam?”
“Actually just a black coffee and a fruit salad, please.”
The waiter nodded and left.
She didn’t have a need for that miracle drink today. Despite the stresses of the previous few days, her limbs felt lighter, her head clearer, the air smelled sweeter, and the sunlight on the palm fronds seemed brighter.
It had been a long time since she had felt this good in the morning. Then she realized it was because she wasn’t hungover.
Maybe I should drink only every other day.
Nah. Taking a couple of days off a week wouldn’t be a bad idea, though.
Or maybe one day off a week.
Or at least go light one day.
Yes, definitely make one day a week a light day.
Elaine snapped her out of her thoughts. “So what’s the plan of attack?”
Ruby took a deep breath and decided it was time to level with her, at least partway. Elaine deserved to know, and being forthright was the only way to get ahead in the investigation. “I’ve been searching around the neighborhood where he was found, asking people if they have seen Richard. Everyone said no, but I think at least one person is lying. That was the impression I got anyway. I’m getting the feeling that he left you alone several nights to go out. I think he actually came to the neighborhood where he was found willingly.”
Elaine looked stricken. “But why not tell me? I didn’t keep him under lock and key.”
Ruby shifted in her seat. She had to break it to her. “At least one witness said he was drinking.”
Elaine slumped, letting out a slow breath. She shook her head and took some time in replying.
When she did, her voice barely came out as a whisper. “Poor Richard. He struggled so much with his drinking, had been for years. I have to be honest. It created some tension in our relationship. He promised to go to AA. He did it for a time, relapsed, then got back into it. The night he proposed he presented me with a two-month sobriety token and then popped the question.”
“And he stayed sober after that?”
“They say the first couple of months are the hardest, until you get out of the habit. He got his three-month token, then four, five, and finally six just before we came here. I was so proud of him.” Her face pinched, as if she felt a sudden pain.
“But I didn’t support him enough!” she wailed. “I would drink right in front of him. Have cocktails at the bar every night. I should have quit drinking too. I’ve never had a problem with alcohol, so I never thought about it, but drinking in front of an alcoholic, that must have triggered his addiction. Oh, poor Richard! Looking at those drinks, smelling the alcohol, it must have been torture. He never said anything. Then the temptation got too much. I bet he slipped away to have a drink after I went to sleep, and then he fell right into it again.”
Elaine wiped tears from her eyes.
“So he felt ashamed and hid his drinking from you,” Ruby said. While she still didn’t like what Richard had done, this put things in a different perspective.
“Yes, that must have been what happened. I noticed he bought a big bottle of mouthwash and was using it up really quickly. That must have been how he hid the smell on his breath. But why didn’t the security cameras pick him up?”
“A friend who works in one of the resorts says that they can erase people’s movements for a price. I think Richard did that so he could hide the fact that he was drinking behind your back.”
Drinking and maybe doing a whole lot worse.
The waiter arriving with Ruby’s coffee and fruit salad stopped the conversation for a moment. Elaine dried her eyes. Ruby looked around and, sure enough, saw one of the resort’s security officers standing nearby.
“I’ll be talking with that guy who can trace ATM withdrawals later today. I’ll keep you informed.”
“How much is he charging?” Elaine asked.
“Three hundred.”
Elaine pulled out another wad of cash and counted out three hundred. Ruby glanced at the security guard and saw he was looking. He didn’t even try to hide it.
Elaine handed the money over. Ruby couldn’t decide which was more unbelievable—how much money she could throw around so easily, or how trusting this woman was. Ruby got the impression that she could have said five hundred or even a thousand and Elaine would have coughed up.
She’s out of her head with grief. You have to solve this, not just for you but for her. She deserves it.
But what if the truth about her husband is something she doesn’t deserve to suffer through?
Ruby had no good answer for that.
She said goodbye and took a taxi directly home, hiding all but five hundred of her pay in various books scattered around the house, smiling as she did so. She’d gotten the idea from Chris Rock, who had a standup routine about how burglars never looked in books.
Hopefully none of the local burglars were fans of Chris Rock.
***
Ruby sat on a bench on the promenade looking out at the sea. This was a nicer part of town, still within the city of Nassau and given over mostly to locals rather than tourists. A woman pushed a stroller past her, a little girl dancing along behind. An old couple hobbled past in the other direction. A businessman, brilliant in a white suit, hurried past.
Javon had given her strict instructions about what bench to sit on and the exact time his hacker friend would show up. He had refused to give any description of the man.
“He’ll know you. Just chill. He’ll show.”
Ruby checked her watch. It was 11:35. He was supposed to show right now.
A man sat down next to her, making Ruby jump a little. She hadn’t heard or seen him approach. He must have come up from behind.
Ruby couldn’t remember the last time someone had been able to sneak up on her like that. Well, John the bouncer had, but with that banging sound system she could barely hear herself think.
This man had crept up on her when there had been hardly any ambient noise at all.
He was a middle-aged Bahamian wearing tan slacks, loafers, and a polo shirt with a brilliant blue floral pattern. He carried a newspaper and looked utterly unremarkable. Ruby tried to imagine this square hanging out with the streetwise Javon and couldn’t. No saggy pants or flip caps with this guy.
“Do you have the money?” h
e asked without preamble. He turned and pushed the newspaper toward her, as if to hand it to her.
“Good morning to you too.”
Irritation flickered over his dark features. “Do you have the money?”
Ruby pulled out three crisp hundred-dollar bills from her pocket and passed them under the newspaper. The man snatched them away, gave the briefest glimpse to ensure he wasn’t getting ripped off, and stuffed them into his pocket. It was all done with a single fluid motion that took no more than two seconds. Ruby felt like she was in a spy movie.
“Take the newspaper.” His voice was level, businesslike.
She did, opening it up and finding a printout with a list of dates, times, and numeric codes. Next to each, in a different font, was typed an address.
There was a withdrawal for every night that Richard and Elaine had been on the island. Some nights had two. All had been for a few hundred dollars each.
“Impressive. How do you do it?”
The man sucked his teeth.
“Sorry, stupid question,” Ruby said. “Thanks for doing this so cheap.”
“Dead tourists are bad for business.”
The man got up and left.
Ruby let out a great gust of relief. That man seriously unnerved her. Someone like Javon—for all his bluster—was far easier to deal with. Their paths didn’t cross except in the bar. When she saw dealers on the street, she’d walk on by without looking at them and they wouldn’t pay her any attention either.
This guy, though, lived in an invisible world. He could find out about anyone, know more about them than their own spouse. It was unnerving.
And now she had to venture into that invisible world, because as she looked at the series of addresses, she saw Richard’s quick spiral into degradation.
The first night he had stayed in the area around the Coast of Dreams. On the second night, he had ventured further down the shore to the second-class resorts where the package tourists stay. Ruby chuckled. Perhaps those were this guy’s idea of slumming.
If they were, he quickly got hardcore, because the next night he came to the neighborhood where Ruby worked. Had that been when Bimini had met him?
The next two nights, however, there were withdrawals from ATMs bordering an even worse neighborhood, the worst of all.
The Maze.
A place unknown to tourists, unvisited by any but the most desperate Bahamian. It was an old neighborhood tucked away inland and out of sight, surrounded by slums. The Maze was the slum of the slums.
Had Richard Wainwright gone in there? There were several withdrawals from ATMs bordering the Maze, which hinted that he had. There were no withdrawals from inside that no-go area. Ruby wondered if the banks even set up ATMs there. Probably a bad idea.
Assuming Richard had gone into the Maze for two nights running, how had he managed not to get mugged? Maybe he had. But why go back? Why go at all? Had he been killed there? The last withdrawal was on the night of his death.
Ruby stared at the printout. What had he been looking for there? If it was booze, gambling, and prostitutes he was after, he could get those anywhere on the island.
Had he been looking for some special type of depravity, something even her neighborhood couldn’t or wouldn’t offer?
Ruby shuddered, because she knew she would have to find out. She’d have to dig even deeper into the muck beneath the glitter, descend into the hell of the holiday heaven.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
The Pirate’s Cove seemed like a homecoming after all she’d been through since the last time she had worked. It was six in the evening, the start of her shift. Some of the regulars had already arrived. Reece, the retired insurance salesman, raised a glass to her and nearly fell off his barrel. His friend Perry hadn’t made it yet, probably busy stowing his scuba gear, but there was a glass of rum already poured and waiting in his spot. Javon sat alone in a corner, enjoying a drink before starting his own shift.
About a dozen others mingled and chattered. Many gave her a nod or a wave as she passed behind the bar. Kristiano set down the drink he was mixing and gave her a hug.
“You doing all right?” he asked.
“Been better. Been worse,” she answered in all truth. “Have the cops been back?”
“No, but the health officials came back looking for proof that we had hired a contractor to redo the bathrooms. They also found a few nitpicks around the place and slapped Neville with a two-hundred-dollar fine and a warning.”
Ruby cursed under her breath. The cops were putting them up to it, she felt sure. The health inspectors had never much bothered with them before.
“Where’s Neville?”
“In his office, going over accounts. It doesn’t look good. That bathroom remodel is going to cost a lot, and the margins have never been too wide at this place.”
Ruby bit her lip. The reason the bar was so popular was that Neville kept prices low. Most of these folks couldn’t afford more. If he raised prices, sales would go down. They might even lose some of the regulars. But Neville couldn’t stand a cut in profits. He had to pay alimony and child support.
Ruby didn’t feel good about what she had to do next, but she didn’t see a way out of it. She walked into Neville’s office.
Flynn the parrot sat on his perch preening himself. Neville sat at his desk in his pirate costume, his eye patch pulled up to rest on his forehead as he ground his fingers into his thinning hair and stared at a balance sheet. Ruby had the impression of a little boy who had just seen his report card and was wondering how he was going to break the bad news to his parents.
“Hey,” Ruby said softly.
He started a bit, showing that he hadn’t even noticed her. Then his features softened, grew worried. “Oh, hey. You doing all right?”
Ruby smiled. There was genuine concern there. This guy faced ruin and suddenly he was entirely focused on her and her problems.
“I’m all right, considering. I, um, need to ask you a favor. I’m helping Elaine, that’s the widow who came in here, investigate the murder.”
Neville cocked his head. “You? Why?”
“She doesn’t trust the police.”
“Smart woman,” Neville snorted.
“She thinks I can do something. I spent all of my day off following up leads. This guy was a real piece of work. Turns out he was going around behind her back. Drinking, gambling, prostitutes, the works. All that time he was pretending to be a model citizen.”
“That sort of people are the lifeblood of the alcohol industry,” Neville said, feeding the parrot a sunflower seed.
“Yeah, well I need to ask a favor. I need to take part of my shift off, from eight thirty to about ten.”
“That’s just when things are picking up. Where do you need to go?”
“An AA meeting.”
Blank stare. A twitching at the corner of the mouth. Then Neville burst out in peals of laughter.
“An AA meeting! That’s rich! Ohmigod, thank you, Ruby. I needed that.”
Ruby flushed. “No, I’m serious.”
Neville stared at her for a moment, then burst out laughing all over again.
“So can I go?” Her anger was rising. He had been nagging her about her drinking for months, and she’d been deflecting that nagging all that time. That game had been going on as long as she’d known him, and he had just scored what might be the winning point.
Neville couldn’t speak. Tears flowed from his eyes as he kept laughing. He nodded and waved her off. Ruby resisted the urge to slap him.
“Walk the plank! Walk the plank!” Flynn the parrot squawked as she left the room.
“What was all that about?” Kristiano asked as she came out. “Neville sounds like a hyena.”
“Never mind. I’ll start in a sec.”
She walked over to where Javon sat texting with one hand and sipping a beer with the other. She sat down opposite him.
“You traitor!” Reece called over. “You leaving the Booze Brigade to becom
e a stoner?”
“It’s even better,” Neville said, appearing behind the bar. “She’s going to an AA meeting.”
A burst of laughter rang through the bar. She gave everyone the finger and turned to Javon.
“You want ten grams or a hundred?” he asked with a smile.
“Very funny. Do you ever go into the Maze?”
The young tough grew serious. “The Maze? Hell no, girl, do I look like a fool? Wait, you ain’t planning on going there, are you?”
“I need to.”
Javon shook his head. “The only people who need to are broke-ass junkies and hoes who can’t make it with the tourist trade. Stay away, Ruby. Stay far away.”
Ruby paused. What he said made lots of sense. But she didn’t have the luxury to do what was sensible. Summoning her courage, she said, “I need a guide.”
“Call a tourist agency.”
“No, I’m serious.”
“I don’t know anyone who would do it that I’d trust enough to send with you. That place is for punks, or crazy dudes who don’t give a damn who they kill.”
“But you do know people who could help.”
“Are you listening, girl? I said I didn’t know no one I trusted. I ain’t sending you with the people I do know who’d go there. You’d end up sold into slavery or dead in a dumpster.”
Ruby jerked back. “That was a hell of a way to put it.”
“Trying to open your eyes. Lone white girl in the Maze? You crazy. Don’t matter how good your roundhouse kick is.”
“I can pay.”
“I’m making stacks without killing off my favorite bartender. The answer is no.”
Ruby let out a sigh, stood up, and went behind the bar to start work. She’d have to find another way. Tonight she needed to go to the AA meeting. That would be enough of a challenge.
***
The meeting was held in an ugly concrete community building downtown, in between a supermarket and a machine shop. There was a liquor store across the street. Ruby wondered if AA had decided to hold their meetings in this building out of defiance, or if the owner of the liquor store had heard about the meetings and decided to set up shop close to some potentially great customers. Ruby walked down a hall past a senior citizens’ guitar group, someone teaching a couple of kids how to read Braille, and Sex Addicts Anonymous. Ruby peeked in there, feeling tempted. She hadn’t had a fling in a while.