by Jaden Skye
“No one,” Olivia replied.
“Did he interact with anyone at all that you can think of?” Wayne continued.
“No,” Olivia repeated. “People at the restaurant looked at us as we walked in. Some seemed particularly taken by him.”
“That’s normal, of course,” replied Wayne.
“Of course,” Olivia echoed. “Who are you looking for, a man or woman?”
“Most feel that poison is a woman’s weapon,” Lorna joined in again. “But, in fact, the majority of convicted poisoners are men. When the victim is a woman, overwhelmingly, the men have done it. However, when the victim is a man, the poisoner is likely to be a woman.”
Olivia was amazed at how much information Lorna had at her fingertips. “You know a great deal about this,” Olivia remarked.
“Todd’s death has gripped me,” Lorna replied. “I was concerned about Tomas from the start, worried that he might escalate.”
Blake ate slowly, listening intensely. “Are you also concerned about Tomas?” he asked Wayne.
“The personality characteristics of a killer who poisons do not fit Tomas,” Wayne answered carefully.
“I would love to meet and talk to Tomas myself,” said Olivia suddenly. “After all, it was my fiancé who was killed.”
“That’s not possible right now.” Wayne looked at Olivia oddly. “He’s in custody.”
*
After Wayne and Lorna left, Olivia and her father stayed at the restaurant, finishing up their coffee.
“What did they really want with this meeting with us?” Olivia asked her father.
“Good question,” he replied. “I was thinking the same thing myself. Like the rest of them, they’re probably snooping around for anything they can find on you.”
Olivia felt unnerved. “I’m not sure who’s on my side and who isn’t,” she said. “It’s going to be up to me to clear my name.”
“Time will clear your name,” said her father. “The truth will come out sooner or later.”
“I still wish I could talk to Tomas directly,” Olivia insisted. “There’s probably a lot he would tell me that he might not tell others.”
Upset, Blake looked off into the distance. “You’re probably right,” he agreed. “It’s not a bad idea for you to talk to Tomas.” Olivia and her father suddenly looked at each other silently. “Listen, let me put a call in to the lawyer. He has all kinds of contacts down here. I’m sure he can arrange for you to have a few minutes alone with Tomas, whether he’s in custody or not. After all, by law, anyone is allowed to visit someone in jail.”
*
True to her father’s expectations, his lawyer arranged for Olivia to meet Tomas late that afternoon at the police station. Olivia felt greatly relieved. The more information she had right now, the better she seemed to feel. Most of all, she desperately needed to know whether or not Todd had taken the arsenic himself. Was all of this her fault? Had she done or said something unknowingly to push him over the edge?
After lunch, Olivia took a little time to rest and then showered and changed into a soft blue linen dress with a matching shrug. She wanted to look strong and capable, not as if she were falling apart. And, to her amazement, she wasn’t. In fact, at this moment Olivia felt more angry than anything else.
As soon as she was ready, Olivia went downstairs and took a quick cab to the police station. The cab pulled up, and Olivia got out and walked inside briskly. Once inside an officer greeted her immediately.
“You’re just on time. We’re expecting you,” he said. “Please follow me.”
“Thank you so much,” said Olivia as she followed the officer down the long, narrow corridor she’d walked down right after Todd had been killed. The memory of those early moments overcame her suddenly, and she trembled and bit her lip.
They turned a slippery corner that came up fast and then walked to the end of the next hallway. It was surprisingly dark, chilly, and dank down here. You’d never know that outside a tropical sun was still shining and that people were tanning in it, having a beautiful day.
At the end of the corridor was a small metal door. The officer opened it and they walked into a dark room with shades drawn over a little window.
“Go in,” the officer said to Olivia.
As soon as she entered, Olivia saw Tomas, a young, slim guy in his early thirties, sitting there in a metal chair. He had a shock of raggedy brown hair hanging over his forehead and Olivia was taken aback at how frail he seemed.
Agitated, Tomas spun toward Olivia and narrowed his eyes. “Who are you?” he asked. “I never saw you before.”
“This is Olivia Wells,” the officer spoke in a bland tone. “She is the fiancée of the man who was just killed. I’ll leave the two of you alone to talk for a while.” Then he walked out.
Tomas looked as surprised as Olivia felt. “Lousy luck, terrible about your fiancé,” he said. “But what do you want with me?”
“I just wanted a word or two with you.” Olivia stepped forward quietly. She had no desire to stir up more fear or confusion. “I’m just as confused about this as you are,” she added. “I thought maybe you could help.”
To Olivia’s delight, Tomas quieted down and smiled a wobbly smile.
“I’ll tell you one thing. I didn’t do it!” he said. “Why would I? I didn’t know the guy at all.”
Olivia felt herself sinking. “None of this makes sense to me,” she replied, “and I desperately need to understand it.”
“Of course you do,” Tomas mumbled. “But finding the truth is like finding a yellow tortoise that lived here a thousand years ago,” he said.
Olivia was touched by his comment.
“I just wanted to meet you and see what you could tell me,” she added softly.
“Why me?” Tomas leaned forward agilely. “You know why I’m in here? Because they haven’t got anything else, not a hint of who did it! So it looks good for the police when they’ve got someone to lock up. I’m in here for public appearance, that’s all!”
That made perfect sense to Olivia. “I see,” she said calmly.
“What do you see?” Intrigued, Tomas seemed to feel safe with her.
“I see what you’re saying,” Olivia added.
“Good,” said Tomas, “because nobody else does. And, by the way, I’m very sorry your fiancé died. I really am.”
“Thank you,” said Olivia. “You never even saw Todd, even in passing?”
“No,” Tomas repeated emphatically. “All kinds of people regularly come down to Key West. Most come looking for strange excitement. Others want trouble, they live off it.”
“What kind of trouble?” Olivia shivered.
“You name it.” Tomas smiled slightly then. “Weird sex, drugs, deals with quick, easy money. I hope your guy wasn’t one of those.”
Olivia’s eyes opened wide. “Todd and I just got engaged the night he died,” she said. It was easy talking to Tomas somehow. He held nothing back and she appreciated it.
“That same night? That’s bum luck if I ever saw it,” Tomas exclaimed. “Someone around here jealous of you?”
“I’ve never been down here before,” said Olivia. “I don’t know anyone.”
Tomas’s eyes flashed. “That doesn’t mean that some of the idiots down here don’t know about you. Word travels fast.”
“No one heard about me before we got engaged,” Olivia said quickly. “Todd kept our relationship quiet.”
Tomas rubbed his hands on his windswept face. “That’s probably why he did it,” he said. “I heard that your fella knew plenty of people down here. He must have known there were snakes crawling around, just waiting for him. It’s not just the people, either. The cops down here can be rotten as well. Be careful of them. They’re just waiting to pounce.”
Olivia couldn’t take her eyes off Tomas, and he seemed to sense her fascination.
“Look, I didn’t do it,” Tomas repeated, “I had no reason. They like to blame me for everything.
I didn’t do the food poisoning either. The hotel had lousy hygienic practices in the kitchen and everyone knew it. Some nights they left the meat out, other times they put in old, moldy spices. They needed a scapegoat for their precious tourist trap. That was me. Ask Alana, if you don’t believe me. She works as a waitress in the kitchen. I’ve known her forever. Alana’s a good person, she won’t lie to you.”
“But Todd didn’t die of food poisoning,” Olivia said.
“I know he didn’t, but if you really check into the hotel kitchen you’ll see I couldn’t have done the food poisoning either,” Tomas insisted. “I’m a sweet guy, really, though no one realizes it, except Alana, that is.”
Olivia realized it, though. She felt Tomas was not only sweet, but also unable to protect himself. He seemed like a leaf floating in the wind.
“Do you have other friends down here in Key West?” she asked him.
“I have people who know me.” Tomas spoke in a hushed tone now. “How many down here have real friends? That’s why they’ve got me locked up now. I told them I was at Sketches with friends, but nobody said they saw me there. So what? The club was mobbed to the hilt. Of course people saw me there, everybody sees everybody. They just didn’t notice me.” Tomas’s voice took on a whining tone. “Nobody pays attention to exactly who’s there. They just have fun. They get drunk, they get high, then they forget whatever happened.”
Olivia nodded sadly; somehow she believed every word he said.
“Look, I already did time for the food poisonings,” Tomas went on, “even though nobody was sure exactly what caused them. There’s no reason for them to grab me for this now.”
Olivia smiled. She wanted to help him. She liked Tomas. He seemed simple and straightforward in his odd kind of way.
“How can they keep you here now?” she asked, sympathetically.
“Because my alibi isn’t cutting it,” Tomas replied. “And on top of that, when they looked at the video, they saw me in the hotel the night Todd died. I was back in the kitchen, my favorite spot.”
“What were you doing there?” Olivia asked, disturbed.
Tomas shrugged. “Visiting old friends. No crime in that.”
Olivia’s stomach suddenly clenched. She didn’t know if Tomas was telling the truth.
“You know people, you know what goes on down here. Do you have any idea who killed Todd?” Olivia suddenly cried out.
Tomas rubbed his face in his hands for a long time, sighed, then grew quiet. He stared at the floor, and he looked a thousand years old at that moment.
“You’re a sweet woman,” he said. “I wish you could just leave, get away from all this. But you can’t. I can see that. I wish you could just say goodbye to your fiancé, think of him as a good man and live with his memory intact. But if you keep digging, you’re going to learn that no one is a saint. Not even your Todd. Your memory of him is not going to be what you want it to be. And that’s even worse than losing him. Are you sure you want to keep going down this road?” he asked.
Olivia felt a chill creep over her arms.
“What are you talking about?” She was almost afraid to ask.
He sighed one last time.
“Talk to Alana. She knows everyone who comes and goes out of that restaurant. She’s served them all. No one enters there without catching her eye. Even your precious Todd.”
Tomas looked at her right in the eye.
“And I don’t think you’re going to like what you find out about him.”
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Olivia clutched the cab’s strap as it swerved on the winding roads, taking her to Alana’s house. The cab wound its way down to the edge of the island, toward a low-lying basin where ponds gurgled and wild birds flew unrestrainedly. Unpaved dirt roads lined by scraggly, uncared for trees sprawled in every direction.
“Who lives down here?” Olivia asked the cab driver, uneasily.
“Plenty of poor people,” he answered quietly. “It’s cheap here, it’s easy. There are all kinds of shacks.”
The taxi pulled up to a little hill beyond which there was no road. “The address you’re going to is down at the bottom of the hill,” he said.
Olivia thanked the driver, paid, and got out of the cab. She looked down the sloping hill where she would have to proceed on foot the rest of the way.
“Be careful,” he warned, as he motioned toward the hill. “Snakes live in the grass and rocks.”
Olivia picked her way through the treacherous landscape, on edge, looking out for snakes.
The moment she arrived at Alana’s ramshackle home, she saw her peering out the window, looking confused and unkempt. Alana’s long, messy, curly hair was strewn all over her face, as her fingers tapped on the windowpane of the open window.
“I was wondering when you would come,” Alana said, before Olivia could utter a word.
Olivia stared back, stunned. “I don’t know you,” she said.
Alana smiled a crooked smile. “But I know you,” she said. “Come in.”
To Olivia’s surprise, even though Alana was only in her thirties, she looked older, creased and worn. Dressed in a tattered cotton dress with old sandals, she pulled the door wide open so Olivia could go inside.
It was dark inside with candles lit. For a moment Olivia felt as though she’d walked into a hidden church.
“I prayed that someone would come to see me,” Alana whispered, not taking her eyes off Olivia. “It was your fiancé who just got killed, wasn’t it?”
“Yes,” said Olivia, frightened. “How do you know me?”
Alana spun around and walked into the main room as Olivia followed her in. A long, wooden bench inside, covered by colorful, hand-woven cushions, was placed along a wall under the far window.
Alana didn’t sit down, however, but stood in front of Olivia, gently rocking back and forth.
“I was there that night,” she finally said. “I served you. Don’t you remember?”
Try as Olivia did, she could not recall her face. Then, slowly, it came back to her, fuzzy. Yes, she was one of the servers.
“I even saw the two of you enter the restaurant. You looked like royalty or something, everyone’s eyes were on you.”
Olivia gasped. How come the cops hadn’t really listened to Alana? Olivia wondered.
As if reading her mind, Alana replied instantly. “The cops asked me a few questions and let me go. I told them everything was normal in the kitchen that night. Tomas wasn’t cooking, the food was perfect and clean. Things were running smoothly, people were enjoying their meals, and no one got food poisoning! That’s not how Todd died. Nobody in the hotel killed him.”
Olivia felt the room start to whirl. The thought that Todd had been killed suddenly struck her again, forcefully. Once again she wondered how the arsenic got into his system. The only way she could think of was that he took it himself.
“What happened to Todd?” Olivia asked directly, not wanting to waste any time, desperate to know, sensing Alana knew something. “Did you see who poisoned him? Was it you?”
A heavy tension ran in the air, until finally Alana smiled wider.
“I saw that you two were happy together,” Alana finally replied.
“Yes, we were,” Olivia whispered.
“I could see it in your eyes,” she continued. “The way he held your hand. The way you didn’t look away. Maybe I look funny, but I’m smart. I listen to everything. It wasn’t Tomas who killed him, you know that.”
Olivia nodded, feeling that to be true. “I do,” she replied.
“And it wasn’t me,” Alana added.
Olivia felt a rush of relief. “Then who?” she pressed.
Alana started rubbing her hands on her face.
“The police down here need a suspect,” she continued. “They always need a suspect. They know it’s not Tomas, but they can’t release them. That would make them look bad. And until they release him, they will never really look. So if you want to find his killer, you mus
t help Tomas get out of jail first.”
Olivia stared, wondering. “How?” she asked.
Alana smiled an unsettling smile. “Simple,” she replied. “Bring them his alibi.”
Olivia was confused. “What alibi?” she asked. “He has none. If he had one, he would have told them himself.”
Alana shook her head and stared at her candles.
“You are a very simple girl,” she replied. “You don’t understand our way. Sometimes it is less painful to be in jail than to have the whole world know the truth.”
Olivia wondered. “What truth?” she asked.
“Tomas’s truth,” Alana replied. “His alibi. The man he doesn’t want the world to know about. The side of himself he doesn’t want the world to see. He’d rather rot in jail than live in shame. But that won’t help him or you, will it?”
Olivia let the heavy silence linger, wondering if Alana were mad or telling the truth.
Alana tore a piece of paper, scribbled something, then reached out and handed it to her.
“This is the address,” she said, as Olivia struggled to read her script. “Visit and ask.”
Olivia looked at the piece of paper, struggling to read Alana’s handwriting.
“But getting Tomas out is only a start,” Alana continued. “Then you will need to find who truly killed Todd.”
“Stop playing games with me,” Olivia demanded. “Tell me! Who did it?”
Alana sighed. “If I knew that, I would tell you, and the police. I do not. I only know who did not do it. And I know one other thing: you will never find the truth until you acknowledge the real truth about your fiancé.”
Olivia felt her hands trembling.
“What truth?” she asked, her voice barely a whisper.
Alana sighed, looking her over.
“My guess is you fell for this guy. As soon as you met him you put your brains on hold. It’s okay, we all do it, honey. You didn’t consider he might have faults. That he might have secrets.”