That's Not My Suitcase

by Laina Turner

  “Sterling.”

  “Yes.” I looked up from where I was signing for the bill.

  “The more I think about it, the more I’m worried about what happened on the boat earlier. I don’t think that was an accident and if it wasn’t an accident, there’s a chance it could happen again.”

  “I don’t either but I also don’t know what else to do. You saw the reaction of the police. They think I’m a crazy tourist lady!”

  “You’re not a crazy tourist lady, and you’re right, they did seem skeptical. You just need to be careful.”

  Chapter 12

  I was back in my room waiting for Wendy. She had called after my lunch with Steve and asked if I wanted to hang out for a while, her sister wanted to take a nap. I had told her I would love the company and was looking forward to chatting with her.

  There quickly came a knock on the door and I let her in. In true Wendy fashion, she quickly pulled a bottle of wine from her bag and boy, was I glad she did.

  “Those bartenders are going to start to think you have a problem!” I joked with her.

  “Honey, people do it all the time. At a place like this, they’d give us a pitcher of margaritas for breakfast if I asked without batting an eye, whatever the guest wants. It just comes with a high price tag.”

  “I guess I wouldn’t have even thought about asking. Until I met you.”

  “My dear husband number two and I used to take mini vacations quite often and he loved to get chatting with the staff, especially the bartenders. People liked him and we’d always get the inside scoop on stuff. This is a service industry and people pay good money for service. These guys know it.”

  “I know you told me your third husband died. What happened to the second and the first, if you don’t mind me asking.”

  “Oh goodness, not at all. The second husband, he was a good guy. We just didn’t get along so well and ended up going our separate ways. In hindsight, he was a rebound from my first marriage, who was my high school sweetheart and after ten years developed a wandering eye and I quickly booted him.” She noticed my expression. “Yeah, I don’t have the best track record with men, but I’m not a quitter, I still believe in true love and happily ever after,” she smiled.

  Wow. I thought my life was complicated. I couldn’t imagine three husbands.

  “And you were willing to look for love the third time? Wendy, I commend you for that. I’m not sure my heart could take it.”

  “I’m a hopeless romantic, love. I know my prince charming is out there somewhere. In fact, husband number one has recently divorced and we’ve been talking. Thanks to Facebook,” she said. “If you can’t meet new men, you can always recycle, that’s my new motto.”

  “That should be on a t shirt,” I said and started laughing, “Though I’m not sure I would have any desire to recycle Brian.”

  “It’s not for everyone, but for us, we were both young when we married the first time, too young, and we’ve grown up since then. Maybe this time it will work. Besides it’s not even anything to speak of at this point, so who knows. Now, enough about me. Fill me in on your day with Steve! Let me live my love life vicariously through you.”

  She laughed when I told her about Tom stopping by. “Bet you never thought you would go on vacation and have two men fighting over you.”

  “I wouldn’t say they were fighting over me exactly, in fact, I felt like a tramp. It was embarrassing.”

  “Don’t be silly. You’re having fun. As a newly divorced woman you deserve to have fun, in fact you need it.”

  “I’d have more fun if I didn’t have people breaking into my hotel room or trying to drown me.”

  “What! Something else happened?”

  I proceeded to tell her about what had happened today snorkeling and she was horrified.

  “I agree with Steve. These things all have to be related. This is a five star resort. These things don’t just happen. It’s like someone is after you.”

  “But based on today’s reaction, I don’t think the police believe me. I got the impression they thought I was being a dramatic tourist.”

  “But didn’t you say the boat captain seemed more concerned after he saw the marks on your leg?”

  “Yeah, but they faded and by the time the police saw them, it just didn’t look so bad. I can understand why they would be skeptical. Steve thinks I should go back to the police with everything that’s happened and not leave until they believe me.”

  “I agree with him. I’ll go with you, if you want.”

  “What do I do? Just arrive at the station and demand they believe me when I say all these things are related? What if they think I’m a crazy person?”

  “So? You have to get them to take this seriously somehow and it certainly couldn’t hurt.”

  I thought for a minute, then got up and grabbed a paper and pen from the hotel desk.

  “Maybe if I make a timeline of everything that has happened and show it to them, they would be more apt to pay attention? You know. If it was right there in black and white!”

  “That’s a great idea!” Wendy said. “Anything that might make them take it more seriously.”

  She sat there and watched me as I wrote down in chronological order all the events that had transpired since the point when I lost my luggage. When I was done, I handed it to Wendy to look over.

  After a few seconds she nodded. “I think this seems compelling. When it’s all written down like this it really seems like a lot has happened. More so than just telling the story.”

  “I know, it really does.”

  I heard a phone vibrate. “Is that you or me?” I said to Wendy, looking around the room for where I left my phone.

  “It’s yours. Over there on the table. You set it there when you grabbed the paper.”

  “Ah, thanks,” I said, jumping up off the bed where I was sitting to grab it. It was Nadine. “Do you mind?” I asked Wendy, not wanting to be rude.

  “Not at all! Don’t mind me. I’ll just sit here and enjoy my wine.”

  “Thanks! Hey Nadine.”

  “Oh, Sterling, I’m so glad you answered.” Nadine sounded a little frantic.

  “What’s wrong? Don’t tell me Brian got married again?” I joked.

  “No, nothing like that,” she said not laughing at my joke. Something must be up for her to ignore my comment. That wasn’t like her. “I called and talked to a prosecutor in Miami about those robberies and he was very interested in the statue you have. He wouldn’t tell me much, but he did say they had received a tip the robbers had split up and headed to some of the islands until things died down.”

  I thought about the list I had just made, with what Nadine had just told me. Now it seemed even more like these events were related and the likelihood of the man who Wendy and I had seen in town not being a coincidence.

  “What should I do?”

  “These guys don’t have a history of violence but you can’t be too careful. You should tell this to the local police.”

  “Thanks, Nadine.”

  “Call me later, OK.”

  “I sure will.” I hung up and turned to Wendy, who had been listening to my side of the conversation.

  “My friend Nadine’s an attorney and she called the prosecutor in Miami,” I explained. “There was some indication the people they think stole the statue from the house in Miami could have been headed this way.”

  “Oh no! That just gives more credibility to what’s been happening to you as related events.”

  “Exactly. I definitely think I should go to the police with this and demand they do something.”

  “Then let’s go! If we hurry we can catch the next shuttle that leaves in five.”

  We rushed downstairs, just making it and barely finding a seat. It was just before dinner time and many of the hotel guests were heading into town to shop and walk around before dinner.

  Wendy and I were settled in a seat finally when I saw Tom get on. I whispered to Wendy, “That’s the T
om guy I was telling you about.”

  “He’s cute and young!” she teased.

  I wasn’t sure why but I almost hoped he didn’t notice us, which wasn’t very likely to happen because the bus wasn’t that big. As I expected, it didn’t take more than a few glances around for him to spot me and he smiled broadly and looked over at the couple of empty seats left. One of which was right behind us. He quickly claimed it.

  “Sterling, how great to run into you again! Who’s your friend?” he said.

  “Wendy, meet Tom. Tom, Wendy.”

  “Nice to meet you, Wendy.”

  “Likewise.”

  “So how was your lunch?” Tom asked, and while lunch had only happened a few hours ago, it seemed like a lifetime.

  “It was good. This resort definitely has great food,” I purposefully wasn’t going to bring up Steve myself. I still felt uncomfortable about it.

  “And the gentleman you were with?” he asked.

  “A lady doesn’t kiss and tell,” I said, trying to casually dodge his inquiry.

  Wendy helped me out by asking Tom a question of her own and effectively changing the subject and taking the focus off me.

  “So what brings you into town?”

  “I felt restless and thought a trip into town would be fun. You know just walk around, maybe grab some dinner. What are you ladies up to?”

  “The same,” I said. “Little shopping, people watching.”

  “If you don’t mind some company, I’d love to be part of your group.”

  I did mind. For some reason I didn’t want to share we were going to the police station. It seemed like such an odd thing to be doing on vacation and I guess I didn’t want one more semi-stranger on this vacation to think I was crazy. However, I had no idea how to get rid of him without being rude or having him ask too many questions.

  “Sure,” I said with a forced smile, thinking I could figure out a way to ditch him later or would just have to come back into town tomorrow morning. A few more hours probably wouldn’t make that much of a difference and he would be fun to hang around with.

  Once we got to town, I actually forgot about the visit to the police station temporarily because Tom was a hoot.

  He entertained us with his witty comments and tried on hats at every store we went into, which just cracked us up. Nothing funnier than seeing a good-looking man trying on women’s floppy sunhats.

  When we all decided we were starving and couldn’t wait a moment longer to eat. He recommended an authentic restaurant somewhat off the beaten path.

  “When you live in Miami, it’s cheap and easy to fly down here. Much like you heading to Chicago,” he said when we asked him how he knew about this place. “So I’ve gotten to know the area pretty well and have had time to scout out the best spots.”

  “As long as you’re not taking us somewhere to abduct us,” Wendy said.

  “She’s convinced we’re going to be kidnapped and sold into the sex trade,” I said to him when he looked confused by her comment.

  “No kidnapping, I promise, just good food.”

  Wendy asked him another question about the area, but I stopped paying attention because out of the corner of my eye I saw the man. The same man who had followed Wendy and I the last time we were in town and that I had seen at the resort.

  “Wendy!” I interrupted her in mid-sentence.

  “What?” she looked over at me.

  “Over there,” I nodded my head in the direction I wanted her to look. Of course, Tom looked too but had no idea what we were looking at.

  “That’s the same guy as last time,” I said.

  “Some guy has been bothering you?” Tom said, hearing what I said. “That guy in the red shirt?” he said, since that was the only guy within our line of sight.

  “Not really bothering, more just keeps popping up wherever we go,” I said. “But he’s never actually said anything to us. Probably just a coincidence,” I said, not believing it for a minute but didn’t want to try explaining that to Tom.

  “You want me to say something to him?” Tom offered in a very chivalrous manner.

  “Oh goodness, no. Let’s just eat!” I said. “Like I said, I’m sure it’s just a coincidence.”

  A few minutes later we were settled in a quaint restaurant and if the smell was any indication of how good the food tasted, we weren’t going to be disappointed.

  And we weren’t.

  “Thank goodness we have to walk back to the shuttle stop. I need all the exercise I can get,” Wendy said. “I don’t know why I always feel compelled to stuff myself when there’s a bottomless bread basket at the table.”

  “Me too, but we’re on vacation, who cares!”

  “You ladies look fine and as far as walking, I don’t think that’s going to happen,” he said looking at his watch. “We’re going to have to catch a cab, and in the next few minutes, if we’re going to make the shuttle. Or we could just hang out and take a cab back to the resort later.”

  “Why don’t we stay in town for a while?” Wendy said. “A cab split three ways isn’t bad.”

  “I think that’s a great idea. We can see what the place looks like at night,” I said. Turning to Tom, “So what do you recommend we do or go?”

  “Do you ladies like to dance?”

  Both Wendy and I nodded.

  “Then let’s head to this place not too far from here. Has good local music and atmosphere.”

  “Sounds good to me. Let’s pay our bill and head over there,” I said.

  We did just that and Tom was right, there was a great atmosphere here. My initial concern that it would be clubbing and make me feel old and out of place was unfounded. There was a good mix of people and the music was at the right volume, loud, but not so loud you couldn’t have a conversation. I had to laugh at myself. They sure weren’t things I would have thought about at age twenty, going to check out a new club. A year ago I wouldn’t have imagined myself in a club at all. My how things changed.

  “What do you ladies want to drink?” Tom asked.

  “Something tropical,” I said.

  “Me, too,” said Wendy.

  “Ok, I’ll be right back.”

  Tom headed off toward the bar and Wendy and I found a spot in view of the dance floor, but not directly in anybody’s way.

  The music had a good beat and I found myself tapping my foot, wanting to go dance. I hadn’t been dancing since my cousin’s second wedding, which had been five years ago, and I don’t think the chicken dance with my kids quite qualified.

  “What’s taking him so long,” Wendy grumbled good-naturedly.

  I looked over in the direction of the bar where I assumed Tom was waiting for our drinks, but he wasn’t there. I scanned the room to try and find him and finally saw him at the far end of the bar, talking to someone. Upon second glance, I saw he was talking to the guy who had been following me, us, whichever. I nudged Wendy.

  “Look!”

  “What?”

  “Over there. Tom’s talking to that guy we saw earlier today.”

  “Oh!” Wendy said, eyebrows raised. “Well maybe he’s asking him why he’s following us.”

  I looked at their body language to see if it gave any indication if this was a friendly conversation, since I couldn’t hear what they were saying from here. But I couldn’t tell.

  “Wish I could read lips,” I said to Wendy.

  Then I saw Tom put his finger in the other guy’s face and even though I still couldn’t hear what they were saying, I could see by Tom’s expressions he was angry. That wasn’t good. I certainly didn’t want Tom to argue with a stranger on my behalf.

  “I’m going to go over there,” I said to Wendy. “Might as well find out why the guy keeps popping up once and for all.”

  “Want me to go with you?”

  “No, it’s OK. I’ll be right back, hopefully with our drinks.

  I started to cross the room towards Tom when the other guy noticed me walking over. I saw him l
ook back at Tom and say something and then head out the door. By the time I reached them he was gone and Tom had turned around to head back to the bar.

  “Sterling!” he said, a little too chipper in my opinion. His attitude seemed forced to me.

  “What were you doing talking to that guy?”

  Tom paused for a minute like he didn’t know what to say. I found his behavior odd which made me curious.

  “I saw him standing by the bar when I came to get our drinks and thought I would find out why he seemed to be following you. I know you said not to, but he was here and I felt I should say something. Men shouldn’t stalk ladies.”

  “What did he say?”

  “Not much. I told him to stay away from you and he just said OK.”

  “He just said OK? That’s it?”

  “Yeah, that’s it. Let’s get those drinks.”

  I followed Tom over to the bar feeling a little confused. I had seen him get angry at the guy and they had traded more than just a few words and here he was trying to downplay it. At least, it seemed that way to me but I decided to put it out of my mind and just have fun. I couldn’t very well call him a liar. And maybe he was telling the truth and this would be the last we saw of this guy.

  We stayed a couple hours, getting on the dance floor finally and having a blast. As it got later, the place started to fill up with a younger crowd, so we decided to head out.

  “I’m sweating,” I said, pulling the top of my dress away from my body. It had gotten hot in there dancing. I was definitely in need of a shower. My body hadn’t moved like this in forever.

  “Me too, but this was a great place you brought us to, Tom,” Wendy said.

  “Glad you enjoyed it ladies. Now, let me get us a cab.”

  He went a few steps away to where the sign was for taxis while Wendy and I waited.

  “Ladies, come on,” he said a few moments later when the car pulled up. We walked over and I went to get in and just happened to look across the street and immediately wished I hadn’t. I saw Steve and then I saw he was with a woman. My heart dropped. I saw him put his hand on her back to guide her into a restaurant and I wanted to cry. Then I was mad at myself for being upset; he’s the one who at lunch said we were here on vacation and things were casual but I thought it was because we would soon be going home, not because he had multiple women here on the island. It bothered me more than it should. Especially since I was out dancing with Tom.