Cindy was shocked.
“She tried to get between me and him every chance she could. Jesus Christ, I worked for the guy, I ran the business. He needed me. We had big customers all over the place waiting for shipments. ”
“You ship rum?” Cindy asked.
“Rum, nutmeg, spices. You know this is Spice Island? ”
“Of course.”
“We’re one of the main distributors.”
“The two of you built quite an operation,” she said.
“No, the two of us didn’t build it,” the Captain corrected her, “Ames built it and I worked for him. You got to keep your ducks lined up straight. He built it with the help of some big money guys. I worked for all of them. ”
“You didn’t think that was fair?” Cindy jumped right on it.
“For plenty of years Ames was fair to me. Very fair. More than fair. He could be a prince. He could be a son. ”
“Did Dalia get in the way?” Cindy asked.
“You mean is Dalia the reason I got fired?” the Captain lunged a bit forward in his chair. Cindy didn’t know if it was from the alcohol or from the shock of actually realizing that he’d been fired and saying it out loud.
“Is she the reason?” Cindy asked, alarmed.
“Nah, she’s irrelevant. To everyone, including Ames. She snipes and bitches and that’s about it. You think he pays any attention to what she says? Nah. He brushes her off like a little fly. Deep down he can’t stand her, if you ask me. ”
Cindy was horrified.
“Women don’t have any say down here on the island, where business is concerned,” he continued. “That’s something, anyway. Give thanks for small favors,” and he poured himself another glass.
Cindy was afraid to actually ask him why he’d been fired. She needed to know, but felt as soon as she asked, he’d back off. Something about her allowed him to talk to her freely on his own, though. Cindy thought it was because she was not pushing, just going along with his remarks.
“Ames has been missing three weeks and eight days,” the Captain said then, his words becoming a bit garbled. “I was fired a week before all that.”
“Ames fired you?”
At that the Captain stopped and sneered. “Now you’re pushing too far.”
“I’m sorry,” Cindy said and she was.
The Captain felt her concern. “I don’t know what in hell you’re doing down on the island. You’re nothing like Dalia. How the hell did you two become friends anyway? ”
“We met in high school,” Cindy said. “It’s been years since we’ve been in touch.”
To Cindy’s surprise, he looked up and listened as she spoke. He seemed interested in who she was and what she was saying. Despite everything, he liked her, and she liked him too.
“Well, if you were my daughter,” the Captain said, “I’d tell you to get the hell off the island, fast. There’s nothing good for you down here. Your friend’s changed over the years, and you can snoop around all you want. Neither of you are going to find Ames. ”
Cindy knew, of course, that Dalia had changed. Everyone changes. But she wondered why he was so certain that they wouldn’t find Ames.
“Why won’t we find him?” she quickly asked. “Is he dead?”
“Hell, how do I know?” the Captain was taken aback by her blunt talk. “I sure hope not. Dead is forever. Whatever happened, he didn’t deserve to die. Look, there are weasels on this island, all kinds of lousy, rotten deals going on. I’m not going to say he was beyond making some himself. But, he didn’t deserve to die. ”
“Deals related to drugs?” she said.
The Captain looked up at her with intensity then. “There’s all kinds of rumors. Everyone likes to blame everything on drugs. But I’m going to tell it to you straight. There were no drugs on this boat. Not that I knew of, not as long as I was the Captain! I gave Ames my word about that. And I kept it, believe it or not. ”
Cindy believed it.
“I never let any rotten drug dealers, or sex dealers come close. These jerks traffic everything through these waters. But not on my boat! If someone put something on my boat, it wasn’t me. And, I didn’t know about it!”
He looked at Cindy pleadingly. Was that why he was fired, she wondered? Because he refused to carry drugs?
“What happened to Ames?” she asked him once again.
His eyes cleared then and he sat straighter. “There’s a lot more going on down here than drugs. Ames was a member of the Millionaire Yacht Club. They come to the island regularly and race. It’s an international club, with big money attached. Ames was dazzled by the rich sea crowd. Dazzled. His life dream was to belong. And he finally made it. I don’t know if you know this, but he was born poor and saw his dad die young, because they couldn’t afford medical treatment. He never got over it. ”