“This place originally belonged to Ames,” Dalia started. “He had it designed especially for him. Then, after he met me, he brought me here to live in his home. ”
Just then, the doors to the patio opened and a young, native woman came in carrying a tray with sandwiches and lemonade. She seemed to be in her late twenties, pretty and slim with smooth dark skin, long hands, but generally uneasy. She wore a strong vanilla perfume, and was dressed very simply, in a beige linen dress and sandals.
“Your luggage is in your room, ma’am,” she said in a muffled tone, looking down.
“Cindy, this is Rosa,” Dalia said.
“Hello, Rosa,” said Cindy.
Rosa nodded, still looking down, not meeting Cindy’s eyes.
“She’s very shy,” Dalia leaned towards Cindy, whispering. “Do you need anything else she can get for you?”
“No, it’s fine,” Cindy said, getting up to go to her luggage and get some notebooks she’d packed, with a list of questions on them. Dalia put her hand on Cindy’s arm, to stop her.
“Tell me what you need and I’ll have Rosa get it.”
“It’s not necessary,” Cindy said, “I can do it myself,” and she went into the room to open the luggage which Rosa had placed on the floor in her room.
Rosa slid to the side as Cindy passed, still not looking at her. If Cindy didn’t know she was there, Rosa would almost have blended into the woodwork.
When Cindy opened her luggage, she saw Rosa look at her out of the corner of her eye, then turn and leave the room.
Cindy took her notebook and pen out of the briefcase. She’d searched all the papers online and had read everything she could about the case before coming down here. There were mixed stories about what happened, and a lot to learn fast. From what Cindy had gathered in the articles, there was also a large cast of characters who’d been involved in Dalia and Ames’s life. One article said that nobody was beyond suspicion, and nobody could be called a suspect yet.
When Cindy got back out on the patio, Dalia was sitting with her head in her hands. Cindy felt terrible for her. She sat down next to her and opened her notebook slowly.
“Have some lemonade first,” Dalia said, her head still in her hands. “Have a sandwich. I’ll talk while you eat. ”
Cindy reached for a croissant filled with egg salad, and poured herself a glass of lemonade.
“Go ahead, talk,” Cindy said. “I’m all ears.”
“I don’t know where to begin,” said Dalia.
“Start at the beginning,” Cindy said.
CHAPTER 3
“No one ever believes this could happen to them. I still don’t believe it. ”
“I know,” said Cindy.
Dalia took her head out of her hands then and looked up at Cindy keenly.
“Yes, you do know. You see right through things, don’t you? You always did as a kid in school, too. You’d never take no for an answer. I remember you were always looking behind all the corners for all kinds of facts. ”
“I need information now,” Cindy said, “I want to hear everything you can tell me, even things you may not think matter.”
“Ames owns and operates a huge cargo fleet, and I own an art gallery in town. It’s his second marriage, it’s my third. He has a son from his first wife, Elizabeth, who lives nearby. Ames loves his son, he sees him a lot. ”Dalia spoke as if she were reciting these facts by heart. She must have repeated it many times during the investigation, Cindy thought. “We have a full, rich, beautiful life,” she went on. “This is an incredible place and there are plenty of wonderful people around us. There are also others who are not so great. It’s natural. ”
“Inevitable,” said Cindy, shocked to realize that Dalia had been married three times and was only in her thirties. “I had no idea you were divorced twice,” she said softly.
“How could you know that?” Dalia quipped, “we’d completely lost touch. So, I made some mistakes. Made some bad choices. It didn’t matter. This marriage made up for it. It was great. ”
Cindy took a deep, sharp breath. “What happened? I read all the articles, but I want to hear it from you. ”
“The papers lie,” said Dalia. “Don’t pay attention to what you read in the papers.”
“I pay attention to everything,” said Cindy.
Dalia smiled. “That’s the Cindy I remember,” she said. “Okay, it’s almost three weeks now since Ames went missing. The day he disappeared everything was fine, there was absolutely nothing out of order. Ames told me he was going out sailing with Dale, one of his business partners, that afternoon. They both belong to the International Yacht Club and love to sail. I told him to have a great day and expected him back for dinner.
He never came home. He still hasn’t. ”
Cindy hadn’t heard those details. “Have they questioned Dale?”
“Yes,” said Dalia fitfully. “It turns out he wasn’t on the island that day.”