ISLA HEREDIA
22
—
Abel was still well offshore when he knew that Monti Ruiz had seen him. That was because Fat Monti did what he usually only did at the end of the day just before sunset—he got out of his chair—and started to walk down the pier. He stood at its end, and when Abel finally pulled the old trawler up alongside it, Monti grabbed ropes from its side along with Abel and moored it securely. Once that was done, he gave Abel a big bear hug and clapped him on the back.
“I knew it, by the Madre!” he cried. “Our hero has returned to us, as no one has for years and years!”
“Better be careful,” said Abel under his breath. “Someone might think I was out on the island rather than down the coast.”
“Ah, you are right. Of course, my friend,” he confessed, “but you can’t imagine how concerned I was. After all, it is tomorrow night that my investors arrive, and the next day, they will tour the ‘facility.’ I am assuming that it is now safe and that no one going over there will be disappearing into thin air?”
The two began walking toward Monti’s throne room. “I’m afraid no one ever disappeared into thin air over there,” said Abel. “Their bones are all over the place, plus old weapons, ammo, food containers, shreds of clothes, you name it. That’s what I’ve got to do tomorrow—make sure everything’s cleaned up, burned, whatever.” The two sat down under Monti’s big umbrella in a couple of comfy beach chairs. “I can sure see why they used to call that place the Green Cathedral. The jungle’s breathtaking. The clouds that form on the volcano keep things cool. The stream’s amazing as long as you don’t mess with the crocs. It’s an awesome place to set up some kind of eco-tourist stuff. I wouldn’t mess too much with it, though. Just wouldn’t want to see someone fuck up the beauty.”
Monti gave Abel a strange look as he went on about the island. “There must truly be something spooky about the place,” he said finally. “You look different, like you’re glowing or something. And I’ve never heard you call anything beautiful or amazing or awesome before. It’s almost like you’re in love or something.”
Abel silently kicked himself in the ass as he continued. “Well, I am, I guess—with the island. It’s just like paradise. I’ve never seen a place like it. You really are going to make it into a nature attraction, right, not Disneyland or whatever? To see that place destroyed like that would just about break my heart. I mean, it’s one thing to look at it, but a whole other thing to actually be there. That’s why I didn’t come back here overnight. It’s a whole other world at night. When the moon’s full, it shines out there like a big light bulb in the sky, and—”
“Yes, yes.” Monti sighed. “I will see what I can do, but it will be almost all up to my investors. Now, I must know,” and here he lowered his voice considerably, “what was the evil presence on the island that caused people to be terrified and killed all my men so many years ago?”
Abel gazed away for a moment, took a deep breath, and then said, “It was a girl.”
“Madre de Dios, you are in love!” moaned Monti.
“Hell if I am!” answered Abel. “She was some wild child, as feral as a lone wolf. Could talk to the animals and all that shit, moved like a cat, hissed, and talked funny. Must have been some kid that got washed up there after some shipwreck somewhere and didn’t have any way to get to the mainland. Her fingernails and toenails were all like claws, and she may have even had bigger canines than normal people in her jaw.”
“How old would you say?” asked Monti. He was fascinated.
“Don’t know,” said Abel. “Could be teens, twenties, maybe even thirty. Hell if I know. She was like chasing a ghost to track down, but I finally did. I had to kill her, and when I did, a bunch of big cats attacked me, jaguars, ocelots, even a couple of black pumas. They got the drop on me, but I finally got them all. That’s another reason I had to stay out there so long—I couldn’t walk for a couple days.” He showed Monti his scarred legs.
Monti was amazed. “What about other animals? Is the place safe now?”
“Pretty much,” said Abel. “The tamer ones like sloths and coatis and the monkeys and all the birds are still there. And there may be a big cat or two. I’ll check again tomorrow when I go out there. Oh, and thanks a ton for getting me that sniper rifle. I bet I killed off every croc in the whole place, and all from such a long range that I never got anywhere near them. Reminded me of target practice when I was with the SEALs.”
“This all sounds very exciting, and you cannot imagine how relieved I am that you are back and have given such a full report. Tomorrow night, I shall welcome my investor, and the next day, we will visit the island for his evaluation. You may come if you wish or stay here in town. I will not transfer your fee until after I have been to the island with the investor. If I like what I see, and we all feel safe, I will send you your one million dollars regardless of what the investor says.”
“No good,” said Abel dryly. Monti did a double take, as if no one had ever disagreed with him on a deal before (which they hadn’t). “I’ve just spent I don’t know how many days out there groveling around in the jungle, hacking my way through grass taller than I am, tracking down some monkey child that knew every inch of that island like the back of her hand, been attacked by multiple big cats, and made it back safely, and I get nothing at all unless you like it? I want half now, and I’ll take the other half when you’ve been out there.”
Monti laughed out loud. “Who do you think I am, some fool like the people that run the sodas here? With that kind of money, you’d skip town and say to hell with the rest, even if I was killed by a crocodile as soon as I stepped onshore. I can give you twenty-five thousand now, that is all.”
Now Abel laughed. “That’s not enough to even put a down payment on a house. What if I missed a croc, and you do die out there? I get nothing.”
“Because you didn’t make it safe,” retorted Monti.
“And maybe that croc wasn’t even there the day before!” boomed Abel. “I get where you’re coming from, but I’ve got to have at least two hundred thousand upfront today. That’s twenty percent. I’d say that’s pretty generous of me.”
“One hundred fifty thousand, and I give it to you in cash tomorrow morning,” said Monti. “That’s the best I can do.”
Abel sighed. “It’s a deal. I’ll meet you here—when there are plenty of people around.”
Monti frowned. “I don’t flash cash around like that in front of others.”
“You won’t have to,” said Abel. “Bring it in a duffel bag. I’ll check out what’s inside, and we’ll all go home happy.”
They rose and shook hands. Monti said, “And if I like what I see two days from now, I’ll transfer the rest to whatever account you wish, but if I don’t—”
“Let’s not be negative,” said Abel. “Two days from now, we’ll both be very happy men.” He picked up his backpack and slung it over his shoulder. “And now I’m off for a nice double cheeseburger and milkshake at Ron and Elaine’s, and then I’ll head over to the inn and make sure Faviola hasn’t given away my beach house.”
Monti laughed. “I can make no guarantee of that!”
23
—
After stuffing himself with cheeseburgers and a giant milkshake at Ron and Elaine’s All-American Diner and shooting the shit with them for an hour or so, Abel walked into the midmorning sunshine and headed for what he hoped was still his motel. No offense to Bibs, but the cheeseburgers he made from whatever he made them from were nothing compared to the real thing at Ron and Elaine’s. And the milkshake? Well, Bibs had never really gotten the knack for making those.
Abel felt quite good about how things had gone so far in his visit back to Playa de Palma. His main goal with Monti had been achieved with comparative ease. When he picked up that duffel bag in the evening, he and Rimi should have enough cash to suit whatever they
might need moneywise for quite some time, and who knows, maybe Bibs could figure out how to duplicate tens, twenties, and hundreds by the time they ran out. The rest of the money he honestly didn’t care about, which shocked him somewhat when he realized it as he strode down the road to the bridge over the Rio Palma. Being with Rimi and living in the Green Cathedral must really have been changing him if he didn’t care about whether he closed on a million-dollar job or not. The only use for it, as he could see now, would be to possibly buy the island from the town (if that’s who it belonged to) and just tell Monti to keep his money. It would be nice if things could be so simple.
After talking with Monti, Abel was much less calmed by his references to his investor and what he envisioned for the island. He didn’t seem particularly interested in the island itself and what was there, just that it was safe and that whoever or whatever had killed his men years ago was now eliminated. As before, Abel had a very wary feeling about what Monti was up to, and he hoped that when he talked with Faviola, she might be able to tell him more.
When he came to the bridge over the Rio Palma, he checked around the mouth of the stream, and sure enough, there was the toothless crocodile lurking lazily beneath the surface where the stream water and the saltwater met, his snout and his eyes making little protrusions in the otherwise smooth surface. Abel smiled, crossed the parking area, and went into the lobby. A young man, the same one who had met him when he’d first come to the inn, was standing at the front desk, straightening displays of brochures and dusting the counter. Because it was midmorning, there was no one in the lobby.
“Hi,” said Abel. “My name’s Caleb Forrest. I’m renting the guesthouse closest to the beach, but I’ve been out of town for a few days unexpectedly. I’m hoping that it’s still in my name.”
“Yes, Mr. Forrest. I remember you. I can help you with that, sir,” said the young man in perfect English. “Can I ask you, did you check out before you left?”
“No. That’s what I mean,” said Abel. “My absence was unexpected, so I didn’t get a chance to check out.”
“Well, then, we should still find it in your name. Let’s just see now . . .” The young man fiddled with the front desk computer. “Ah, here it is! Yes, Señor Forrest, the first beach house is still assigned to you. Do you have your key card?”
“Actually, probably not. Can you make a new one for me?”
“Of course,” said the young man.
As he went about his work, Abel asked, “So where’s Faviola today, taking the day off?”
The young man laughed as he handed Abel his new key card. “Ha! That is funny, señor! Señora Faviola misses about as many days of work as there are rainy days during high season! She is out making her morning rounds. She’s usually picking up trash on the beach by now. If you’re going to your beach house, you’ll probably see her.”
“Well, I’ll just do that then . . .” Abel squinted at the young man’s smart-looking name badge, “Javier. That’s right. I remember now. I’ll mention how sharp you are behind the desk, too.”
“Gracias, Señor Forrest. Enjoy your beach house, and if anything has been disturbed, please let me know.”
Abel shoved open the door and headed down the little road through the palms to his beach house, impressed even more by Faviola and the tight ship she ran at her inn.
Sharp woman, he thought. And sly as a snake, too.
When Abel got to his beach house, he was amazed to find that nothing had been disturbed. The bed had been made up just as always during the days he’d been there. The bathroom had been cleaned, and the towels changed. Most importantly, every one of Abel’s pictures was still push-pinned to the wall, exactly where he’d left them. Looking them over, he was disappointed that, for all the time he’d spent with Rimi and Bibi, he had no pictures of either of them, or of the myriad activities they’d done, things they’d seen, or anything.
Just as he was about to chastise himself for this appalling oversight, his more practical side reminded him of some crucial things. Though he felt safe, especially now, at the inn with Faviola in charge, he was not necessarily among friends in Playa de Palma. Ron and Elaine had as much as told him that when they’d spilled the beans about how they and most everybody else knew of Monti’s “business” and understood their roles in it. And Monti, for all his obsequious behavior toward him because of his DEA connections, was no more his friend than the serpent had been to Adam and Eve. Anything Abel might have that showed who the wild child really was and that she was very much alive, as well as Bibi and all the rest of what the Green Cathedral was about, could not only be used against him but could put Rimi and her entire way of life at risk. Perhaps some subconscious instinct he’d developed after so many years living a clandestine life had kept him unwittingly in check. He heaved a sigh of relief after realizing what such perfectly normal carelessness could have cost him and Rimi.
Suddenly, he felt a presence in the room, and, a voice interrupted his thoughts.
“So, the prodigal scalawag returns at last!”
Faviola stood, smiling a sly grin, on his front doorstep. She had a ridiculously floppy sun hat on and wore flip-flops rather than her spiky high heels, which made her hip-hugging business-suit skirt and camisole-like shell look utterly incongruous.
Abel gave her one of his crooked grins. “I’m guessing the suit is a corporate thing, right? The manager of the property always has to be professionally dressed, even when she’s doing garbage-picking duty on the property’s beach?”
“You never know when the big bosses might show up,” Faviola replied.
Abel tossed a few things out of his backpack—sans the weapons—and began to put them away in drawers and the bathroom.
“Well, if they showed up now, you wouldn’t have to worry about the front desk. Your man Javier’s one consummate professional. Got any future plans for him?”
“He’s going to university right now. He’ll return as soon as high season is over. He has two more years, and then he’ll be my full-time assistant manager. That’s good because I’m not getting any younger. One day, he hopes to buy out the franchise from the bosses in San José,” explained Faviola.
“He sure seems sharp enough,” said Abel as he continued to rummage around.
“That he is, mi amigo, and he’ll learn even more in the university, but, of course, I’ll also have to educate him a lot as well.” Her smile disappeared as she and Abel exchanged knowing glances. “Perhaps we can take a walk on the beach.” Abel nodded, and they left out the front door.
***
“I’m glad we’re out here,” said Abel. “I think Monti may have—”
“Of course he has,” interrupted Faviola as the two walked along the line where sand and surf met. Both were barefoot. “He has bugged the rooms of just about any important guest that’s ever come here. He still has to come to me and inform me who he’s listening to and why, but there’s not much else I can do about it. He pays my bosses well.” Faviola paused for a moment, then continued. “I need to let you know of two things,” she continued. “The first is that I know you’ve been on the island this whole time.”
Abel gave her a puzzled look.
“I have a friend—more than a friend—who lives in La Catedral Verde,” said Faviola. “About twenty-five years ago, when I had just taken over the motel, I started seeing her walking around the town as if she were lost. I watched her many times. She would go in and out of the shops and the sodas. Sometimes, she would eat something, sometimes buy something. And then she’d be gone for a long time, then suddenly show up again. No one really talked to her, and she never approached anyone to do anything more than get directions or find out how much something cost. She was always dressed like she’d just come from the jungle, and her green eyes seemed so big. I always knew when she was back because others would talk that the ‘green-eyed girl’ was in town once again.
&nb
sp; “Once when I was going through town during high season, I saw her being teased by some high school bullies who were home from school. They were especially making fun of the blood that was dried all over her thighs. She didn’t understand, but I could see that she was becoming outraged, and I was afraid of what might happen, so I scolded those kids and took her back here to the inn. The inn was much smaller then. I had inherited it from my father when he and Mama died.” She stepped delicately around a hermit crab that skittered along the sand as she continued.
“When we came to the inn, I helped her with the blood. Of course, it was her time of the month, and apparently, she knew nothing about how to take care of herself. I showed her what to do and gave her some products. We had dinner together at my home, which used to be on the same property as the inn, and then she said that she had to go home. I asked her where that was, and she didn’t say, only that she stayed with someone named Bibi, who would be worried that she hadn’t come back.”
“Son of a bitch,” said Abel with surprise. “You’re Rimi’s friend that she comes to see in town. She talks about you a lot but never says what your name is or where exactly you are. I sort of thought she was making the whole thing up.”
Faviola turned, and for the first time, Abel saw her for who she really was instead of her brash facade. Her smile glowed, her eyes danced despite their wetness, and she looked as though she would burst with both pride and affection.
“From that day on, Rimi has come to see me many times and on many occasions. We’ve bought clothes so that when she comes, she will blend in rather than stick out, and we have learned so many things together. At first, she hid from me who she really was, but over time, as she trusted me more, she told me who Bibi was and where she lived and so many other amazing things. She is not from this world, you know. And she and her kind age very slowly here. Her first memory is of seeing a little Costa Rican boy and his white-skinned father on her island shortly after she landed there. I think she saw my grandfather Juan when he was just a little boy. She says that the boy she saw was with a lighter-skinned man. My great-grandfather was a white American who had worked on the railroads to Puerto Limón long ago.”
The Green Cathedral Page 20