Desperation on Wildflower Island

by Michelle Files

  Catherine really didn’t know where to start in an actual physical search for Emily. She had made a reservation at the Wildflower Inn and spotted it as soon as she was off the ferry. She decided that she would check in to the inn, then figure out her plan. She realized as she was walking up the road that she came woefully unprepared. However, Catherine felt it was something that she had to do. She had to find out what happened to her daughter’s body after Emily left the hospital room with her. She had to find out why no death certificate was filed. Did someone misplace it? Did Emily just not want to bother? Catherine needed to find out the answers to all of her questions.

  Since her husband had recently passed away, Catherine put the restaurant up for sale. She already had interested buyers. Therefore, there was nothing keeping her in Colorado. She would stay on the island as long as it took to get some answers. Money was not going to be a problem for her.

  “Good morning. Are you checking in?” A pretty blonde teenage girl greeted Catherine as she walked into the lobby, wheeling her polka dot suitcase behind her.

  “Hello. Good morning. Yes, the name’s Catherine Rossi.”

  “Hi, my name’s Piper. Let me just look you up.”

  Once Catherine got checked in and up to her room, she took a moment to take it all in. She was in a quaint room, decorated with pictures of beach scenes, anchors, and seashells, exactly the sort of thing you would expect in a hotel on the beach. Her room came with an ocean view. It was breathtaking and Catherine wanted nothing more than to just stand there all day, watching the seagulls in their frantic dance over the waves, as they searched for food.

  However, she had a lot to think about and it distracted her enjoyment of the view. In the past few weeks, she had lost her husband, put her restaurant up for sale, and started on her current quest to find out what happened to her baby’s body. It was a lot to take in and she laid down on the bed to take a quick nap before embarking on her quest. She was exhausted from her travels and fell asleep almost immediately.

  About an hour later, she woke, cleaned herself up, changed into a pretty lime green dress, and walked down the stairs to the lobby to find some lunch.

  “Excuse me,” Catherine said to the young blonde girl still working at the front desk. “Piper, right?”

  “No, it’s Mary,” the girl replied. “Can I help you?”

  “Mary? I could have sworn you said your name was Piper. I’m pretty good with names. But, maybe I’m more tired than I thought,” Catherine told her.

  “No, it’s not you,” Mary told her. “Piper is my sister. She looks just like me. Unfortunately,” Mary smiled.

  Just then, Piper walked into the room and sat down behind the desk, next to Mary.

  “Hi. How’s your room?” Piper asked her. “Everything okay?”

  Catherine looked back and forth at the girls and smiled. “Oh, now I get it. You two can really confuse a person,” Catherine told them.

  “Sorry. It happens all the time,” Mary told her. “People always get us confused. I don’t know why. I’m much prettier than my sister here.”

  “Ha ha, very funny,” Piper punched her sister playfully on the arm.

  “You two are cute. Oh and my room is fine, thanks. Is there a good restaurant around here? Within walking distance? I don’t have my car with me,” Catherine asked the girls.

  “We have a cafe right out that door. Our dad runs it. The food’s pretty good,” Piper told her, pointing toward the open door leading to the patio outside.

  “Oh, that’s perfect. I really didn’t want to have to go searching for a place. Thanks.” Catherine headed out the door, grabbed a menu off the wall, and found a table close to the water. Once she figured out what she wanted to eat, she spent a few minutes watching the surfers do their thing.

  Frankie walked over and took Catherine’s order. When she returned 15 minutes later with the food, Catherine started talking to her.

  “Um, Frankie?” Catherine said, after looking at her name tag.

  Frankie nodded. She had already put the food on the table and reached up to pull her unruly red hair back into a ponytail as the woman spoke.

  “Have you lived on the island long?” Catherine asked.

  “Not really, just a few months,” Frankie told her.

  “Oh. Do you by any chance know a woman named Emily Anders?” Catherine was hopeful.

  Frankie thought for a moment. “No, sorry. I’ve never heard that name. But, you should ask one of the Carmichaels. They own this place and have lived here for a lot of years. I think they know everybody on the island.” Frankie turned and went back to her waitressing duties.

  Catherine ate her hamburger and fries, while people watching. The beach contained mostly teenagers who were having a great time hanging out with their friends. She couldn’t help but smile at their raucous behavior. Oh to be that carefree again, Catherine thought.

  After lunch, she walked back into the inn’s lobby and found the twins both still sitting behind the counter.

  “How was your lunch?” Piper asked her.

  “Oh, it was really good. Thanks for the recommendation. I have a question for you. I heard you have lived here a long time?”

  “Yes, we were born here,” Mary replied.

  “Oh great. I was wondering if you know someone named Emily Anders. I’m looking for her and heard she may live here on the island.” Catherine raised her eyebrows in anticipation of their answer.

  Both girls looked at each other and shook their heads. “No, we don’t know anyone by that name,” Piper told her.

  They could see the disappointment in Catherine’s face.

  “Do you know any of her friends or family? Maybe we know some of them,” Mary chimed in, wanting to help.

  “No. I don’t, unfortunately. I don’t even know what she currently looks like,” Catherine admitted.

  “That’s kind of strange. You are looking for someone you don’t even know?” Piper asked her.

  “Piper, that’s rude,” Mary said, elbowing her in the side.

  Piper looked over and scrunched up her face at her sister. “No it’s not. She asked.”

  “No, it’s okay, really,” Catherine jumped in. “She was a nurse that helped me out a few years ago when I was in the hospital. I just want to…thank her.”

  Catherine hesitated, because she wasn’t quite sure what to say. She felt it wasn’t really appropriate to be telling two teenage girls that she just met, that her baby died and Emily helped take care of the body. That was way too much information for strangers to take in. She didn’t want things to get awkward.

  “Oh, I see,” Piper replied. “Well, I work at the hospital part-time. Maybe I can see if she works there. Do you want me to ask around?”

  “Yes, that would be great. Thanks,” Catherine said.

  Catherine spent the next two weeks wandering around the shopping areas of the island. There were a few towns scattered about the island and she was working on searching them all. She asked around, but no one had ever heard of Emily Anders. Being on a small island, as they were, she found that very odd. No one on the island had ever met her? She wondered if perhaps Emily never moved there after all. Maybe she intended to, but life took her in another direction. It happened.

  Of course, she hadn’t asked everyone on the island yet, not even close. It could just be that Emily kept to herself. Or worse, she had passed away a long time ago. There were so many possible outcomes to where Emily ended up. Was Catherine on a wild goose chase, just wasting her time? Luckily for her, she had the time to spare. Finding out what happened after her daughter died was important to her and she intended to keep looking until the mystery was solved, no matter how long that took.

  After one long day of searching the island, Catherine was exhausted and went back to her room to rest. She had left her phone in the room while she was out. She hated the thing and only had one for emergencies, rarely using it. She longed for the days before cell phones were a thing. It was ringing just as sh
e walked in the door.

  Chapter 12

  “Hello.”

  “Hi Cath.”

  “Oh, hi Donny,” Catherine replied when she realized who was on the other line. It had been quite some time since she had heard from her ex-husband.

  “How are you, sweetheart? You sound a bit down.”

  Donald could always sense her moods and always wanted to try and help. It was something she loved about him. Used to love about him. He had been in prison for several years and she no longer loved or wanted him. He knew she had remarried, but she still couldn’t seem to shake him. He still called her every once in a while to talk. He had asked her many times to come to the prison to see him. She was polite, but had no intention of ever visiting him. Catherine knew that disappointed him, but she was done with Donald Sharpe and never wanted to lay eyes on him again. She didn’t mind the occasional phone call though. He was always nice to her on the phone. That’s the only way she felt safe.

  “All right, I guess.” She answered him quietly, not really wanting to elaborate.

  She was sitting on the bed in her hotel room, wondering what to do next. She had been on Wildflower Island for two weeks and still had no leads. Nothing. It seemed as if Emily Anders had never really existed. There was nothing on the internet, which seemed kind of crazy to Catherine. How in the world does someone hide from the internet? Catherine didn’t think there was anything that anyone could do these days to stay completely anonymous, but Emily had somehow figured out a way. She even called the department that overlooks nursing licenses. They told her that Emily’s license had expired years ago and there was no current record on her. The only conclusion that Catherine could come to was that Emily Anders was either living in the outback with no communication with anyone, or dead. Probably the latter.

  “Something’s wrong, dear. What is it?” Donald pressed.

  Catherine took a few seconds to mull over whether she should tell him what was going on or not. She had spent years not telling him about their daughter, mostly because she rarely spoke to him and because it really didn’t matter if she told him or not. It wasn’t going to change anything. That’s what she told herself anyway. The truth was that she was a coward. She was afraid of what his reaction might be. It was easier to just leave it alone.

  “Well, I guess I might as well tell you, since it seems I’ve reached a dead end anyway.” Oh that was an unfortunate choice of words, she thought to herself.

  “What are you talking about?” he asked.

  Catherine took a deep breath. “Okay, but don’t get mad. Promise me.”

  “Just tell me what’s going on.” Donald was starting to get impatient. He wasn’t about to promise her anything.

  “Okay, okay, I’ll tell you.” She sat down on the bed and folded her legs in front of her, pulling off her shoes in the process. “Well, right after you went to prison, I found out I was pregnant.” Catherine held her breath, waiting for a reaction.

  “What?!” Donald shouted into the phone. Then he paused for a moment. “Wait…we have a kid?”

  “Well…no. Let me explain.”

  Catherine spent the next few minutes telling Donald about her pregnancy, and the subsequent birth and death of their daughter. Then she told him about Emily and the missing death certificate, and finished her story with her search for Emily on the island to find out what exactly happened after their baby died.

  “Oh my god. Why are you just now telling me all of this? Didn’t you think that I had a right to know that I had a child?”

  Donald sounded angry to Catherine. Of course he was. He had a right to be and she couldn’t blame him. Though she still felt that she did the right thing at the time. She was terrified of him back then, and since she didn’t know when he would get out, she didn’t want him to know she was pregnant. Then when their baby died, she didn’t think there was any point in telling him. Funny how time can change your perspective on things, she thought.

  “I’m sorry, Donny. You were going to prison for a long time and I just wanted to separate myself from you. I actually planned on telling you after she was born, but then she didn’t make it. So, I didn’t see any point in hurting you with the news. Maybe that wasn’t fair of me, but I thought it was the right thing to do at the time,” Catherine tried to explain it all to him.

  Donald paused for a moment, thinking about what she had just told him. “Yeah, I can kind of get that. But I really wish you had told me. I had a right to know.”

  Donald sounded sad, and surprisingly forgiving, to Catherine. She thought she even heard a bit of cracking in his voice, as if he might be quietly crying. She felt a bit sorry for him as she realized why. She had had years to recover from the reality of their daughter dying. Donald just found out about her. To him, their child just died.

  “I want to come and help you search. There has to be some trace of that woman if she ever lived on that island.” Donald wasn’t asking her permission.

  Catherine suddenly perked up, sitting straight up on the bed and unfolding her legs.

  “Wait, what do you mean? How can you come here if you are in prison?” Catherine was terrified of his answer.

  “Sweetheart, I got out months ago. I’ve been trying to get my life back in order before telling you. Now is the perfect time for me to come see you. We have a lot to talk about,” Donald told her.

  He sounded sincere to her. But she had never forgotten his drunken confession of killing two people, all those years ago. Did he know she knew? She didn’t think so, but she was still afraid of him anyway. She knew what he was capable of and it frightened her. She always felt safe talking to him on the phone, while he was in prison, but not now.

  “What? How come I didn’t know you got out? Why wouldn’t the prison notify me?” She tried to sound calm, and not use the high pitched hysterical voice that was threatening to reveal itself.

  “How should I know? I think they only notify the victims. I don’t know. What difference does it make anyway? Don’t you want to see me?” There was just a tinge of anger in his voice.

  “Oh, well, I guess. I mean…yes…of course I want to see you.” She knew how that must have sounded. She stuttered through the entire sentence. “How about I come to see you when I’m done here. It shouldn’t be too much longer. It seems that I’ve already talked to most of the people that live on this island.” Catherine tried her best to stop him from showing up. A visit from Donald was the last thing she needed.

  Donald didn’t seem to notice. “I want to help. She was my daughter too,” he explained. “I’ll be there in a couple of days. I’ll call you when I get there.”

  With that, he hung up the phone. Catherine just sat there staring at it, as if she was uncertain of what had just happened. After several minutes of being in complete shock, and unable to think straight, she got up and headed to the Wildflower Inn bar. She needed a drink. Or several.

  “Hello,” Catherine said to the pretty bartender as she pulled up a barstool. “Can I have a white wine please?”

  “Sure, give me just a moment and I’ll be right back with that.”

  Catherine looked around the bar and there were only a few people in the place. No one else was sitting at the actual bar, they were scattered around the room, at the tables. Most of the people in the room were men, sitting alone, drinking and looking at their phones. Catherine just smiled at the way the world had changed. It was a rare sight to see anyone alone that was not looking at their phone. It was actually pretty rare to see even a group of people where most of them weren’t looking at their phones. It seemed that socializing in person was not the thing to do anymore. That fact saddened her. She still much preferred the company of other people, to getting on social sites.

  “I’m Cecily,” the bartender said as she put the drink on the bar in front of Catherine. “Please let me know if you need anything else.”

  “Thank you,” Catherine replied as she took a sip of her wine.

  Catherine was wearing a pretty w
hite summer dress. It was still plenty warm enough that she didn’t need a sweater. That would change soon, as the year was heading into Fall and the leaves were just on the verge of turning their many shades of wonder. The island would soon be alive with trees of red, orange, and yellow. It was Catherine’s favorite time of year, though she didn’t expect to be on the island long enough to enjoy the upcoming beauty of the season.

  About a half hour after Catherine sat down, a striking man walked in and sat down next to her. He smiled at her, in what she was sure was just his natural charming way. It didn’t seem forced at all. She was instantly attracted to him and felt a tingling sensation in her core. It was something she had never experienced so quickly before. Usually she had to get to know a man before she really felt the kind of attraction she felt then. Even with her recently deceased husband, Antonio, who she loved very much, it took a while for her to get all tingly with him.

  “Can I buy you another wine?” he asked her, looking down at her empty glass. He looked back up at her with his beautiful green eyes and she couldn’t help but smile. She wanted nothing more than to run her fingers through his already tousled dirty blond hair.

  She nodded. No words were needed.

  “My name’s Sebastian.”

  “Oh hi. I’m Catherine. Nice to meet you.” He was one of most gorgeous men she had ever met.

  No one spoke for what seemed like an eternity as they just looked at each other, smiling.

  “Sebastian, leave the nice lady alone.” Cecily interrupted their ‘moment’ and they both looked away awkwardly.

  “Oh hey, we are just having a nice conversation here,” he told Cecily. Then he turned to Catherine. “Aren’t we?” he asked her.

  “Um, yes. He’s very nice. No problem here. Really.”

  Cecily wondered who the woman was trying to convince. He was not Cecily’s problem.

  “Another wine for my friend here,” Sebastian told Cecily.

  Cecily nodded and walked away. It wasn’t any of her business and she knew it.