“Your daughter still could be alive.” Cindy stood her ground.
“Not anymore.” Rod face grew darker. “I’m convinced she drowned in an undertow.”
“She was a marathon swimmer.” Cindy took him on directly
“That’s exactly why it happened,” Rod exclaimed. “Like all women, Kara thought she was stronger and better than she was. Whatever I said to her meant nothing. She always took
chances she never should have. Even when she was little, no matter how rough the ocean was she couldn’t resist the temptation to jump in. She must have done it again down here, but this time the water was unforgiving. The tides pulled her out. She couldn’t fight them.”
“Rod knows his daughter,” Mattheus said sadly, his eyes returning to the painful photo.
“Let’s go upstairs and hang out with Rowley,” Rod burst out. “After seeing this picture, the poor guy must be climbing the calls. He could use some male backup right now.”
“Rowley said he wanted time alone,” Cindy broke in.
“Yeah, he always says that,” Rod nodded, “but the guy doesn’t know what he really needs now. How could he? He just lost his wife on the honeymoon. It doesn’t get much worse than that.”
Cindy and Mattheus nodded in agreement and the three of them walked together to the elevator without saying another word. As they walked, Cindy glanced at Mattheus, pleased to see that he looked as perturbed as she felt.
The silence continued as they rode up to their floor. Each of them was probably turning the photo over in their minds, thought Cindy. They had to be wondering where it would lead them, if it were even remotely possible that Kara was still alive.
As soon as the elevator stopped on Rowley’s floor, they got out and walked down the hall quickly. This time when they arrived at the room, though, to everyone’s surprise, the door was shut.
“That’s strange,” said Rod.
“Rowley probably meant what he said,” said Cindy, “he wants to be alone.”
“Right now it doesn’t matter what he wants, I’m going in.” Rod pushed the door, but it didn’t budge.
“Let me open it,” said Mattheus, stepping in front of Rod and jostling the door knob. It still remained shut tight. “He must have locked it.” Mattheus was disgruntled.
“Why?” asked Rod. “He never did that before.”
All kinds of reasons, thought Cindy.
“It doesn’t matter, we’ll get in anyway,” Rod continued. “I’ve got a key.”
Rod fumbled in his pocket, pulled out a hotel card, slid it through the slot, and finally kicked the door open.
The three of them rushed in quickly, but no one was there. The room was empty. The silence was deafening. Oh God, thought Cindy, chilled, he’s run away.
“Where the hell are you, Rowley,” Rod called out in a hoarse voice, “in the bathroom?”
Mattheus rushed to the bathroom and pulled open the door. Nobody was there. He then yanked open another door of the suite, ran in, and came out quickly.
“Rowley’s taken off,” Mattheus pronounced.
Cindy trembled. Rowley’d escaped as soon as he’d heard the news, she thought.
“Slow down, cool it,” Rod insisted. “He’s probably in his parents’ room. I’ll put in a call.”
Rod called Rowley’s parents immediately. Rowley wasn’t there and they were equally horrified to hear that he was gone. Rod looked shaky as he spoke to them. “It’s okay, it’s okay, he probably went downstairs to get something to eat. He was probably sick of sitting in here alone.” Rod tried to calm them.
Mattheus immediately put in a call to hotel security to find him. “If he’s on the premises, we’ll know it quickly,” he said.
“If not, he could be in town?” Rod continued.
“Not likely,” Cindy murmured.
Mattheus turned to Cindy with the urgency in his eyes she’d been so familiar with.
“Don’t worry, we’ll find him, we have to,” said Mattheus.
“Of course we’ll find him,” Rod thundered.
“Maybe?” said Cindy.
Rod’s hands clenched into fists. “How is it possible that we couldn’t find him? Where would he be?”
“That’s the question now, isn’t it?” Cindy replied.
CHAPTER 19
The word was out, the search was on. The police returned to the hotel, fanning out into all corners. Photos of Rowley were now being shown to the guests. Once again the family was detained, could not leave the island. Mattheus linked up with the police, determined to find Rowley himself.
“Everyone has to calm down,” Mattheus said to the family over and over. “Rowley’s taken off on his own. He’s still definitely alive.”
Rowley’s mother, Bea, would not speak to anyone and Pete did his best to remain calm, to provide an anchor in the storm. Several times Cindy caught Pete’s glance looking at her, silently asking what had happened?