by Marie Reyes
***
After the museum had yielded no results, Julio drove them back in the direction of the port. Near to the main dock where the larger ships left from was a private port where Julio’s boat was situated. Julio parked up in front of the main arched entranceway and led them down a set of concrete steps. They followed a gangway to the wooden pier that stretched into the sea, and their footsteps sounded like a drumbeat against the wooden planks. Two rows of large boats and small white yachts swayed on the water, tethered to their moorings. Michael watched with interest as Julio jumped onboard the boat and started up the engine, wondering how Julio could afford a yacht, yet his hotel was like a ghost-town.
“What are you waiting for? Get on.” Julio swung his arms, gesturing at them to jump onboard.
Josie stepped over the side of the boat and waited for Michael to join her.
“Sit, sit,” said Julio, and as he climbed up on the side of the yacht, untying the bowline from the mooring, the boat started pulling away from the dock. Some people found the unnatural movement on water made them sea-sick, but it soothed Michael. The gentle side to side was comforting, maybe it harkened back to being a baby and being rocked in his crib, not that he remembered that, but he could imagine his mother sat over him, singing some sort of lullaby, back when she was alive.
Julio reached into a white cooler at the front of the boat and pulled out three bottles of beer that had probably been sat out in the sun for days. Still, Michael wasn’t complaining. “Let’s get this started.” He smiled and continued steering. “Enjoy. We should see Belize soon across the water.”
“Thank you.” Michael said, pulling off the twist top of his beer. It was lukewarm, but this didn’t phase him. As they got further away from the dock, the smell of boat-diesel dissipated, leaving the fresh salty sea.
Josie looked hesitant before she spoke. “So is there much crime here?”
“Chetumal is very safe. You’re safe here.” Julio looked in his element playing sailor, and they continued cruising along the calm water. Green strips of land flanked them in the distance, and the sky above was almost a perfect canvas of powder-blue with a smattering of feathery clouds. The boat started rocking with more gusto as they picked up speed and got further out. The water got a little more turbulent, but was still relatively calm. After they had sailed for around 30 minutes Julio stopped the engine. Michael hadn’t realized how loud the engine had been until Julio switched it off and they were just left with the sound of lapping water. It was like a different world on the sea. All the bull-shit of land left behind, and now they were just surrounded by sea, sun and sky. This is what Michael had had in mind, how he’d wanted to spend his last few days. Only now he got to share it with Josie. Not that she could appreciate it. He could sense it on her, the weight. Every now and then it would leave her, like when they danced on the hotel steps in Tulum. He hoped, whatever this trip brought, that she could let go, if even just a little. There are things in this life that you cannot control, and the more you fixate on them, the more they control you.
Chapter Fourteen
“I think I’m going to go back to asking random people on the street,” Josie said, idly shuffling a pack of cards against the table back at La Cocina de Maya in Arelanes. Somehow the clear skies of earlier were long gone. A dark cloud permanently hung over Arenales like it didn’t deserve the light. “I don’t know what was going through my head, really. Like what did I think was going to happen? I would come here, ask a couple of questions and somehow manage to find someone the police couldn’t find, with all their resources. My parents were right. What a joke.” She tossed the pack of cards to one side and slumped on the table.
“Back at the hotel. You said that coming to the last place she was would make you feel closer to her. Has it?”
“You know what, it kind of has. You know how twins say stuff like, ‘oh I feel the other one’s pain,’ and stuff like that. I kind of get it. It’s like a feeling. A sixth sense, maybe. I know that sounds ridiculous.”
“Well, I wouldn’t know. Only child here.”
“You know what they say about only children, right?” Josie’s smile re-emerged.
“No, enlighten me.”
“That they’re weirdos.”
“You got me.” He raised his hands in submission before taking a sip of beer—cold this time. “Today was weird, don’t you think? My brain was like, you are so going to be dumped in the ocean, sleeping with the fishes. Don’t know why. I think you’ve made me paranoid.”
“I had the weirdest dream last night. Tanya was in it. I was wandering through the desert and I swear I could see her in the distance. So I hurried, and hurried, but I could never catch up to her.”
“Strange. Maybe it was a premonition.”
“I doubt it, I then found a Bugatti Chiron and started cruising through the desert.”
“Nice.” Michael considered asking Eduardo for another drink, but got the feeling Josie was keen to go. “Shall we go interrogate some people then? You can be bad cop, I’ll play good cop.”
“Why do I have to be bad cop?”
“You’re better at it then me. I could just see you water-boarding someone.”
“Holy shit. When did we get on to torture?”
“Come on. We should go ask around before it gets dark.” He put some money on the table and they walked out together.
The clouds swirled in the air, coming together into one dark formation as they walked in the opposite direction to the hotel. As always, it was extremely quiet. Quiet enough to make them feel conspicuous. The first person they came across was a local woman hanging up washing out the front of her house. Josie honed straight in like a homing missile, and he was impressed with her confidence to approach anyone. Again Michael stood on the sidelines with nothing to offer. At first the lady looked disinterested, concentrating on her washing, but as Josie continued, the woman put her basket down and got closer. As they stood face-to-face, Michael started paying attention to what they were saying as the woman switched from Spanish to English.
“There is nothing for you here. You should go back home. Don’t think they don’t know you’re here. They know. They know everything that goes on here.”
Michael came up alongside Josie as a man came out of the house carrying a child in his arms, looking them up and down.
“Maria. Vuelve adentro.”
As the lady went to go back inside Josie raised her voice. “Who knows? Who’s they? Quien?” The woman didn’t turn back, and the man looked up and down the street before closing the door behind her.
“Oh my god Michael. Did you hear that? I can’t believe it. I’m on to something.”
He didn’t know what to think. All he knew was his stomach felt like a lead weight. “It could mean anything. Maybe they just don’t want you stirring up trouble. Didn’t that scare you?”
“Scare me? This is what I’ve been waiting for, I’m fucking ecstatic.”
“Okay. Well, where do we go from here?”
“Let’s carry on this way.” She continued down the path, looking back, waiting for him to follow her. Her hair swayed behind her as the wind picked up.
As they got to the outskirts of the village, they stopped at the dirt road lined with dogwood trees, to decide which direction to turn. The trees seemed more full of life than the village, birdsong, the chirps of insects, reminding Michael of the particularly itchy mosquito bite on the side of his arm.
“There’s not much up here. We should probably turn back.”
“It won’t be dark for a couple of hours, might as well make the most of it.”
“If we go left, then do a loop, maybe. I can’t see anything up there,” she said, squinting as she looked up the path to their right. Stony dirt scraped under their shoes as they clung close to the side of the road. A break in the clouds revealed their shadows, which stretched down the road. There was no pavement, not that there were any cars around to make way for. Most of the dilapidated houses looked a
bandoned, overgrown with plants, graffiti on the walls. Gray concrete against the natural browns and greens. A small store sat, abandoned on the corner on their left-hand side, sun-bleached red paint now orange, bars on the window and a faded Cristal logo on the wall. At the end of the next block, two local teenagers sat slumped against the wall.
“Hola,” she said as she approached them. If anyone was going to talk to them, it would be these two. Flopped out on the pavement, grinning like idiots. Michael tried to recall if he was even carefree at that age. As they turned to look at Josie, they raised themselves up from the floor. Their faces changed in a micro-second. Something had put the fear of god into them. The pair ran, taking off around the corner.
Chapter Fifteen
“Josie!” Michael grabbed her by the arm and yanked her in the direction of the alley in front of them.“What?” she cried with surprise as she got dragged along. She glanced back and saw him, dressed in black, marching towards them with purpose. He reached behind his back and they dived into the alley, weaving past a streetlight that leaned to one side. Josie scream and a cracking sound pierced Michael’s eardrums.
He was incapable of making a sound now, except panting as he ran. The wall next to them splintered as the brick obliterated into an explosion of powder. His ears rang as the blood pounded around his head. Gravel shot up near his feet as another shot fired. They turned the corner. Michael had never run for his life before. Surprised at how fast his body could take him. Sprinting so quickly, lactic acid already built up in his legs and they tried to drag him down.
The wall to their right was short. If they had a few seconds, they could probably scale it and put a few inches of concrete between them and him. A split second decision, there wasn’t time. They turned to the left. If they did a loop, maybe they could get back to the hotel. Would they even be safe there? His heart and lungs pounded and burned in his chest, and he wondered how long he could keep up this pace. He daren’t look back, as there was no time.
Back on the main street, they clung close to the walls as they ran. Barely able to breathe, Michael ducked behind a large stone building, shielded by the wall for a few seconds. They stood in front of a small dull-yellow house set back from the rest. Michael put his foot on the crumbling front wall and levered himself up to the roof with an unstable rusty pipe and helped Josie up the way he had come, pulling her up by her arm and onto the concrete roof. From the top of the house he could see telegraph wires, palm trees and the other rooftops.
They climbed up onto the roof of the house next door, only slightly higher than the one they were standing on. Rough debris and rocks grazed his knees as he scrambled up. They looked down the other side to see a row of small gardens between the parallel lines of houses. If they lowered themselves down into one of the gardens, they might end up trapped.
“We should jump over.” Michael wasn’t even aware if this guy was still on their tail any more or if he had ran off. All he knew is he didn’t want to wait around to find out. “We can jump over.”
“No way we can make that,” She panted as she knelt down to catch her breath, chest heaving.
They found a break in the gardens and walked across the roof of one of the larger buildings that joined the two rows. The street with their hotel on devoid of people. The guy could be anywhere now.
“The hotel is really close. We should just make a run for it,” Josie said as her eyes scanned the street below.
“Agreed.” Michael prepared to drop to the ground.
***
As they rushed through the front door, Julio looked up from his phone. They both spoke over each other at the same time, incomprehensible and panicked. Michael tried to get a hold of himself, to make sense, and the harder he tried, the harder he failed.
“Policia!” Josie demanded. One simple word that got their point across.
Julio stood up from his chair, a look of confusion, or maybe hesitation.
“Police. We got shot at.” She stomped to the front desk and reached for the phone. Julio snatched the phone away before she could pick up the receiver, so she grabbed her cell-phone from her pocket.
“No,” he said. “I take you. We must get away from here. Come.”
Josie and Michael looked at each other. Were they going to go with him? All they knew was they wanted to get as far away as possible. “Come. I will explain.” He held his car keys in his hand and ushered them out of the door. They ran around the back of the hotel to Julio’s Chevy. They got in the back and Julio started up the engine, taking off in a hurry.
“Do you know what’s going on?” Josie asked as she looked out the back window for any sign of the shooter.
“I can take you to police, but not a good idea.” He cruised along, not stopping at the intersection.
“Why not? Do you know who tried to kill us? Is it to do with my sister?” She banded out questions faster than Julio could answer them.
“The police will do nothing; it is not in their interests to go against him.”
“Against who?”
“Listen, I don’t know about your sister, but you’ve pissed someone off.”
“Him. You said him. Can you take us to the police station? I want this on the record. In case something happens.”
“Okay. I take you.”
Josie stopped with the stream of questions and sat in silence, deep in thought. Michael wondered yet again what they had gotten themselves into. Before agreeing to help her, he thought the biggest danger they would probably face would be getting mugged or something. Ultimately, he had pictured her leaving the country alive, but had no idea what to think now. He was due to take his pentobarbital in just a few days. The bottle was still in a locker in the hotel reception. He supposed he could always buy more if his bag were to be stolen, or if he was unable to return to the hotel for it. No matter how out of hand things got here—he would make it back to Tulum—he had to.
The thought of going to the police did not appeal to him; he would rather hightail it out of there and be done with the whole thing, but there was no way Josie was going to let it go, not now. They were clear of Arenales and on a main road. Maybe they were safe now; maybe not. Michael had no idea how long it was to the next town, but assumed that was where Julio was taking them. They took an exit off of the main highway along a two lane road with trees running along each side and the odd car speeding past them.
Josie fumbled with her phone, and he looked over to see what she was doing. She loaded up a GPS application and honed in on where they were.
“How far is the police station?” Michael asked. Josie ignored him and leaned forward.
“Julio, why are we going this way? We should have stayed on Carre Merida, shouldn’t we?”
A switch went off in Michael’s mind as soon as he heard the click of the child-locks being activated. Before Josie even knew what was happening, Julio reached into the back and grabbed the cell phone straight from her hand. “Yours too,” he demanded, glaring at Michael before pulling into a dirt layby. Josie yanked at the door handle as Michael reached into his pocket.
“It’s not here. I must have dropped it when that man chased us.”
“Bullshit.” Julio’s change of demeanor shocked Michael so he could barely hold a thought in his head as he tried to remember where he last had it.
“It’s not here. I swear,” he stuttered in time with his racing heartbeat.
Josie was still struggling to open the door despite it not opening on her last few attempts—the definition of insanity.
“Stop.” Julio’s voice blasted like a deafening siren as he reached into the glove compartment, pulling out a gun. Michael knew fuck all about guns. He’d briefly considered it as a suicide option, but after an afternoon spent looking at photographs and videos of gunshot victims on the Internet, he had decided against it. The mess they left behind was not like the movies, a neat hole. He’d seen waterfalls of blood, crushed, distorted faces that didn’t resemble humans anymore. The backs of exploded h
eads from the exit wounds. Skull fragments. Brain fragments. He didn’t want anyone finding him like that.
He looked Michael up and down, sizing him up. “If you lie to me, I shoot your girlfriend straight in the head. You hear me?” He started the car back up, kicking up dust as he turned back onto the road.
“Where are you taking us?” Josie asked. Michael wished she would keep her mouth shut. He didn’t want this guy angered anymore than he was already. Maybe if they sat quietly—they could think—formulate a plan. Julio didn’t respond to her anyway and kept his eyes on the road ahead.
Michael didn’t know whether to look at her or not, whether Julio would decide they were colluding and pop a bullet in their heads. He took the risk and looked up from the floor just long enough to shoot her a glance. He had expected her to look as scared as he was, but if anything, she had a fire in her eyes, a fury waiting to be unleashed at the first available opportunity. She took his hand firmly, interlocking her fingers with his as if telling him with certainty that everything was going to be fine.
Perhaps together they could overpower him, make him lose control of the car, get the gun off of him, climb over and get out the front. Too many ifs and buts, all they could do was bide their time. See whoever he was taking them to, reason with them. He got the impression that all she wanted was the truth, at whatever cost. The truth was worth dying for to her, and he was okay with that. The light changed as the orange hues of sunset formed in the sky ahead. If it weren’t for the circumstances, it would have been beautiful.
