“I hear you … well, I better get going. Thanks so much for your time.”
I didn’t wait for Marie to reply, following Susan instead and exiting back into the employee break room.
Mr. Alvarez was standing there talking with Finn. I froze. Was he going to be mad that Angel let us in? Tell Mr. Roberto on us?
I proceeded with caution.
“You are pretty resourceful,” Mr. Alvarez said to me.
I tried not to blush. “Sorry, I just really wanted to take a look and I spotted Angel, so…”
“That’s fine by me. As long as I didn’t let you in,” Mr. Alvarez said.
“Whatcha find?” Finn asked me.
I scrunched my nose and waved Finn’s question away—a definite telltale sign that I did find something, but I didn’t want Mr. Alvarez to know.
“Hey, what’s the story with Susan?” I asked Mr. Alvarez.
“Susan? She’s pretty new,” he replied. “I don’t know her all that well. Seems nice.”
“And what about Marie?”
“Ms. Roberto was back there? Did she give you a lecture?” Mr. Alvarez slapped his knee.
“Roberto? As in—” Finn asked.
“Mr. Roberto’s sister,” Mr. Alvarez supplied.
“That would explain her no-nonsense attitude.” Thank goodness I didn’t bad-mouth her brother to her. It probably also explained how she knew I was investigating the case. I’d bet any money Mr. Roberto would know I was in the break room questioning the staff before the hour was up. “We better get going and make ourselves scarce,” I said to Finn.
“Mr. Alvarez, it was a pleasure. Thanks for the stories,” Finn said.
“Anytime. You guys take care now.”
We turned to walk away.
“Boulet,” Mr. Alvarez said.
“What?” I asked, coming to a standstill.
“Boulet. That was Mariah’s last name.”
“Oh, okay. Thanks.” Why was that last name familiar to me? I wasn’t sure, but I knew it would come to me. Right now I needed to check out Carmen’s phone.
We avoided the hotel lobby and took the stairs back up to our room. I waited until we were safely behind closed doors to tell Finn about Carmen’s locker.
“Something bad definitely happened to her,” I showed Finn her cell phone. “She never left the hotel grounds, not willingly anyway.” I swiped the front of her phone screen to unlock it and revealed that she had several missed text messages and a couple of calls, all from a local number. A person named AJ.
The messages were spread out over the last two days and read:
Hey, call me back. I thought we were diving today?
Did you find it?
Why are you not answering your phone?
Are you okay?
“What do you think? Should we give him a call?” I asked Finn.
“I would. Reading between the lines, it looks like he was working with her to find the gold.”
I reread the text messages. “Good point.” I took my work cell phone out and dialed the number. We were already compromising evidence by taking Carmen’s cell phone. The last thing we needed were the calls to be traced back to us. The line rang a few times before a woman picked up.
“Clear Water Diving, how may I help you?”
“Um, hi. Is AJ available?”
“He’s out with a class right now. May I take a message?”
“Do you know what time he’ll be back in?”
“Let me check. That’s what I thought. He has back-to-back excursions today, so not until after 8 PM. Your best bet would be to call him back tomorrow morning.”
“Oh, okay. I guess I’ll do that, then.” I hung up with the woman and relayed the information to Finn.
“Did she say if there were any openings?” Finn asked.
“In what?” I wasn’t following.
“Tonight’s excursion.”
I looked at Finn like he was crazy. For the record, diving freaks me out. Something about swimming in open water where sharks can attack you and rip off an arm or a leg had me staying out of the water. Remember my panic about Finn surfing? Yeah, it was the same thing.
“I’m not diving.” I stated as a matter of fact.
“Not even for a case?” Finn asked.
I was silent, swearing silently in my head. Finn had me.
“Fine, call. They’re not going to have anything left open. People book their vacation excursions weeks if not months in advance.” I turned and walked in vain to the minibar. Who was I kidding? I had cleared it of its chocolate hours ago.
“Hi, I was just wondering if you had any excursions still available for this afternoon?” Finn asked into the phone. He listened for a moment. “Oh, that sounds great. Do you have two spots open?”
I couldn’t pretend I wasn’t listening any longer. They had an opening? What was Finn signing us up for? Please don’t tell me it was deep-sea diving. Or worse yet, shipwreck exploration. Did Puerto Rico have shipwrecks? My mind was racing way far ahead.
“You don’t look so good, babe.” Finn had hung up the phone and was staring at me
“That’s because I’m picturing been attacked by man-eating sharks.”
This got a smile out of Finn.
“You can relax. It’s just an afternoon snorkel and sunset cruise. Very touristy. No diving.”
I relaxed a fraction. Until… “Wait, did you say snorkeling?”
“You don’t have to. But who knows, maybe get a little rum in you, and you might change your mind.”
“I doubt that.” I took a couple of calming breaths and thought it through. No diving. Just a sunset cruise. Better yet, I could get some face time with AJ, and possibly a couple of hours to question and observe him.
“Okay, I’m in. But I’m not getting in the water.”
14
I hadn’t thought anything of it when Finn said the tour company would be sending a van to pick us up in an hour. Until that hour was up, and we were waiting in the lobby with Mr. Roberto giving us the evil eye.
“Let’s just wait outside,” I said to Finn. Our ride would be there any minute and I doubted we needed to be inside the hotel for any reason.
“Heading out this afternoon?” Mr. Roberto asked us from across the lobby before we could move.
“Yes, still trying to warm up from this morning,” I hollered back. Finn and I headed for the door.
Mr. Roberto was back to glaring. “I do hope you’re packed. I understand that your flight leaves tomorrow?”
“Trust me, not soon enough,” I said over my shoulder. Mr. Alvarez held the door open for us and I never looked back.
It turned out that our cruise was the last catamaran excursion before the storm. Our driver explained that they would be taking the boats to the west end of the island, where the impact of the storm was predicted to be far less severe.
I spotted AJ almost immediately after we boarded the boat. Something about the way he walked around passing out towels with his mind somewhere else told me he was our guy. His name tag confirmed it.
Finn, of course, had already struck up conversation with the father-son duo from our van ride over. Turned out they were also avid fishermen. I was sure Finn could spend the whole four-hour boat trip talking tackle.
“Hey, do you need help with anything?” I asked AJ. At about this time, the rum drinks from the sail out had started to work its way through the passengers, and the atmosphere on the boat had turned up a notch or two. Bob Marley pumped out from the speakers. I would’ve loved to kick back with a piña colada, but this wasn’t a pleasure cruise.
“Hey, you look really familiar. Are you friends with Carmen Davis?” I asked the deckhand.
AJ looked up in surprise “Yeah, I am. Have you seen her?”
“No, I haven’t. I was hoping you had.”
“Not since Tuesday. We were supposed to dive Thursday, but she never showed.”
“Dive, where?” AJ looked uncertain about answering me. “In fron
t of The Casa? I know she was looking for the gold,” I added.
“What, she told you? I thought I was the only person who knew.”
I shrugged my shoulders. “You haven’t heard from her, huh?”
“No, but I don’t really know her that well. She might have found the gold on her own and doesn’t want me to know.”
I nodded my head in agreement. That could’ve been a real possibility. That is, if all of her personal belongings weren’t still at The Casa.
“Honestly, I don’t really know her that well either,” I said. Never met her, in fact. “I guess it just seems kind of weird that she up and disappeared, but maybe not.”
“If you see her, tell her to give me a call,” he added.
“For sure,” I replied.
The captain called for AJ. It looked like we had reached our snorkeling spot. I looked over the edge of the boat, staring into the deep unknown. Yeah, that wasn’t happening.
“I promise you, there is nothing in this water that can hurt you,” said a mother to her probably seven-year-old, trying to convince her to jump in. Liar, liar pants on fire.
I eyed the child and gave her a look that suggested otherwise. The kid caught my drift and said, “Yeah, no. I’m not swimming in that.” I smiled inwardly.
This wasn’t like a 5-foot swimming pool. The captain told us the water here varied between 25 and 50 feet deep. By law, they could only get so close to the coral reef, which from my calculations was a good football field length away. That meant you had to swim in the open ocean to the reef and then after that the current would pull you across the reef, and you would have to turn around and swim back to the catamaran.
I was set to dig my heels in just as the little kid had when Finn greeted me with my flippers and snorkel.
“No,” I said.
“What? It’s a once-in-a-lifetime experience,” Finn replied.
“That’s because I’ll get eaten by a shark!”
“Babe, look at everyone jumping in. It’s a little coral reef. It could be fun, I swear. The fish are beautiful.”
“How about we set up a nice coral tank at home? I know the perfect spot,” I countered. Truthfully, a saltwater tank on our house boat would look phenomenal, even if it was completely unpractical.
“Not even five minutes?” Finn asked.
“You realize I’m having a panic attack just thinking about it, right?”
“Okay, no snorkeling. I find it absolutely adorable that you’re capable of taking down killers, but you won’t go for a little ocean swim.”
“Babe, I’d rather face a killer any day than go swimming in the ocean. Hands down!”
“How about I get you a drink instead?”
I eyed the fruity cocktails being passed around, and then AJ. He seemed harmless. “Sure, a drink would be lovely.”
We were too keyed up to hang out in our hotel room, but after being outside in the sun drinking for the last few hours, we didn’t feel up to hitting the town either.
“You know what we haven’t done yet?” Finn asked me, all coy like.
I had no idea what he could possibly be alluding to. I felt like we had done plenty this past week, both in and out of the bedroom.
“Get your mind out of the gutter,” Finn laughed, seeming to read my thoughts. “I was going to say hit up the arcade. Have you seen that thing?”
Of course I had seen the game room, with its flashing lights and sounds of computer-generated explosions and race car noises emitting into the hall.
“You game?” Finn asked.
“You ready to lose?” I countered. Finn raced toward our room’s door and I jumped off the bed after him.
“Ah, shoot. Pac-Man’s out of order.” I knew for a fact that Finn loved that game. It was his go-to.
“It’s a shame, because I was totally going to whip you,” I replied. Truth be told, I was horrible at arcade games.
Overhearing our conversation as he passed by, Miguel ducked his head into the arcade. “It’s probably just unplugged,” he whispered.
“Miguel, what are you doing here?” I asked. At least I was pretty sure it was him. He had ditched the baggy digs in favor of slimmer fitting shorts and a button-up shirt.
Miguel blushed. “I thought about what you said. You’re right. If I want people to take me seriously, I need to act like I am.”
“Oh, yeah…you do. And it looks like you are.” I motioned to his clothes.
Miguel nodded. “I just talked to Mr. R and gave him my two weeks instead of just walking off.”
“What did you say about the game?” Finn asked.
“Oh, just plug it back in. Mr. R. unplugs the cheaper games. Forces you to play the ones that cost more,” Miguel said.
“Of course he does,” Finn said, echoing my thoughts.
Seeing the plug on my side, I walked around to the side of the machine and pushed it over ever so slightly to gain access to the cord. As I did, the side panel gave away and out fell a woman’s body. It was wrapped in plastic. White powder clung to the bag. I jumped back.
“What the—?” Finn said. He couldn’t even finish his sentence.
I looked back at both men.
“Shorty,” Miguel said. He rushed forward, but Finn held him back.
“She’s gone, man. Don’t touch anything,” Finn said.
Now I know we had been looking for her, and I had already made up my mind that she was most likely dead, but it was another thing entirely to actually find her body. You’d think I’d be prepared for these sort of things, but finding two bodies on the same day? Well, nothing can prepare you for that.
I looked closer. I could clearly see cuts on her hands and stab wounds, but no blood trail. I had no idea how long she had been stuffed in that machine, but it couldn’t have been for long.
Looking around the room I spotted an emergency exit.
“Where does that go?” I asked Miguel.
“Outside to the grounds,” he replied. Miguel never took his eyes off Carmen’s body.
“I’m betting that’s the way her killer brought her body in here,” I said. I couldn’t see any other way that wouldn’t raise suspicions.
“You’re probably right,” Finn replied.
Now came the tricky part. I did not want to spend the rest of the night talking to Mr. Roberto, or worse, that detective again. No way were we walking away from this one if he found out.
I explained the situation to Miguel. “I know she was a friend of yours. Could you possibly be the one to alert the authorities?” I asked him.
“Uh…” Miguel couldn’t stop staring at Carmen. I think he might have been going into shock.
“At least let Mr. Roberto know,” Finn offered.
I gave Finn a look. That was not what I meant and he very well knew that. I felt there was a good chance that Mr. Roberto would just as soon dump Carmen’s body in the ocean than deal with a double homicide on his hands.
“Never mind, I’ll take care of it.” I motioned for Finn to stay with Miguel and I walked out of the arcade and the hotel itself, choosing to place an anonymous call to the police instead.
“Are you sure this is a new homicide?” The operator asked at one point.
“Yes, positive. I just found the woman’s body.”
“And what is your name, ma’am?” The operator insisted again. They did not like the fact that I was calling in an anonymous homicide at The Casa.
“Please, just send someone quick,” I said and hung up.
I took the briefest moment to regain my composure and figure out what our next step should be when my phone rang. I jumped thinking the emergency operator had somehow traced my call. But it wasn’t emergency services. It was Claire.
“Good news and bad news,” Claire said when our lines connected.
“Oh no. What’s that?” I asked.
“Well, Nick did get a chance to chat with Mariah, but it was short lived.”
“How come?”
“You have another gho
st on your hands. A newly minted one, and she’s hot.”
“She?” Uh-oh “It wouldn’t happen to be Carmen, would it?” I asked.
“It would and she wants revenge. Nick said she’s a hot mess of energy, bouncing all over the ether. Just be careful.”
A vengeful ghost? Wonderful. “How in the heck are we supposed to be careful? Any advice?”
“Solve the case. Nick seems certain that it’s all connected.”
“Any chance Carmen just told Nick who killed her?”
“Afraid not. She’s too disjointed and emotional to be of much help. Did I mention she’s angry? Like really angry. She tried to choke Nick, only to be mad that he was already dead.”
I swallowed hard and looked behind my back. I was suddenly hyperaware of the fact that I was standing outside on the hotel grounds, alone, at nightfall, with a vengeful ghost on the loose. I wanted to reconnect with Finn, stat. Of course, the arcade door had locked after me and no one answered when I knocked. Lovely.
I walked rather quickly around the stone building. The moonless sky with its explosion of stars should have been calming, but instead it left me feeling panicked.
Back inside, the lobby was quiet, so I assumed Miguel and Finn hadn’t alerted anyone. Ms. Roberto was behind the front desk. She had replaced her apron with a black blazer. I wondered how many hats she wore at the hotel. She was busy on the computer and didn’t acknowledge me. I was perfectly fine with that. I walked briskly back to the arcade, where the guys were standing guard at the entrance.
“The police are on their way,” I told them and then turned to Miguel. “If you could just stand here and make sure nobody comes and removes her body, that would be great.”
He hesitated.
“You don’t want any kids to come in here, do you? That would be horrible!” I made a face. Hello, nightmares.
“Naw, you’re right,” Miguel conceded.
“If the police ask,” and I was positive they would, “just tell them that a guest alerted you to the discovery and said they already called the police. You didn’t catch their name.”
“Okay. Where are you guys going?”
“To solve this case. Don’t worry, we won’t be going far.”
15
“Hey babe, do you know where those notecards are?” I asked when we were back upstairs in our room. I had every light on, hoping it would keep the spooks away. I had tried to call Izzy to see if she knew any special way for us to protect ourselves, but she hadn’t called me back yet. Her advice would probably be in vain because I had no idea where I’d find the crystals or herbs she was sure to recommend.
Beauty & Bloodshed: A romantic, cozy mystery: Beauty Secrets Mystery Book 5 Page 10
