She walked with him. A horrible thought began to take shape in her mind: Was he the one who …
“At first, I just wanted to talk to her. I wasn’t sure what to do when you and Lil were getting massages at the Spa Cove. But I needed to speak to her alone. It was too important.”
“So when Marc went after us, you spoke to her?”
“Yes.”
He stopped at a speedboat, which was pulled halfway onto the beach and chained to a pole. He took a key from his pocket and unlocked the lock on the chain.
“What are you doing?” Dominique asked, surprised.
“You can rent these things here. This one is mine for the whole vacation.”
When he motioned for her to come over, she helped him without being asked and pushed the boat back into the water. He helped her get on and then, somewhat surprisingly, he jumped on with great ease himself. Moments later, they were both seated in the back of the speedboat, and he started the outboard motor. The prow of the boat towered high above the water as they sped off.
“I had no idea you knew how to drive something like this,” Dominique said, feeling slightly uneasy.
“No? I love speedboats. As long as they go fast. Sailboats are too slow for me.”
They moved away from the island as the last bit of the sun disappeared on the horizon.
He took a deep breath and continued. “When I saw that American guy run off, I thought: It’s now or never! I walked right up to her and said: ‘Hi, Lil.’ She looked up at me. I will never forget it, the way she was lying there in the sand and looked at me. It was as if she wasn’t even surprised to see me there. ‘Hello,’ she said. As if she had just bumped into me during a night out in Amsterdam.”
The speedboat was gliding across the waves, which had a colorful glow from the sunset and the red evening sky. Enlightenment Island and the Aruban coast were falling far behind them.
“Are we going to Curaçao?” asked Dominique, who had started to become increasingly worried.
“No, that’s on the other side of Aruba. On this side, there is only ocean water, or Jamaica and Haiti if you keep going long enough.”
She turned around. Aruba slowly disappeared from her view.
“So I put out my hand, and she allowed me to pull her up,” Thomas went on, as if he hadn’t been interrupted. “I said we needed to talk. And she came with me. Just like you.”
Something about the way he said it alarmed her. She studied his face from the side, but couldn’t get a sense of what was going through his mind. His eyes remained fixed on the horizon.
“So where are we going?” she wanted to know.
“To a small coral island. In the middle of the reef. You will like it.”
Her vague sense of worry was quickly growing into deep concern. She had known Thomas for so long. But suddenly, she felt as if she no longer recognized him.
“So you went to that island with her in this boat that evening?”
He nodded quickly. “But it was a lot darker then, of course.”
She took her phone from her pocket. Instantly, he snatched the device out of her hands and tossed it in the water.
Stunned, she looked at the phone sinking in the water, her mouth dropping open.
“You’re a little late with that,” he said, grinning without making eye contact. “I also took that thing from Lil on the beach and tossed it away.”
69
The speedboat stomped through the high waves around the reef. Thomas slowed down.
“I wanted to talk her out of having that abortion,” he said, his eyes still on the water. “I wanted to make sure our child would be born. No matter what happened. I was willing to do anything, and I told her that.”
“But she’d already had the abortion.”
Dominique’s voice sounded soft and hoarse.
“Yes, that’s right. She was surprised that I had not understood that from her email. But all that she’d written was that she had decided to have an abortion. How was I supposed to know … ?”
He was quiet. A muscle was twitching in his cheek.
“Then what happened?”
“We walked on the beach. The same beach you and I just walked on, with the boats. Really, I only intended to take her for a short ride. I didn’t really like the idea of her making out with that American nitwit in the sand. But, fine, we never agreed to be exclusive with each other.”
The speedboat was now going very slow. Carefully, Thomas navigated the boat between a few rocks protruding above the water.
“But then she told me. That she had killed our child. Our child! Without asking me …”
Again, he fell silent. He bit his lip and fought off tears.
For a quick moment, Dominique had the urge to comfort him, but she stayed frozen in her seat without moving a muscle.
He took a deep breath. “Right. So I got angry. Very angry. I think I yelled at her. At one point, we were both crying. And then I kissed her.”
The boat approached a small, rocky island without any vegetation. The waves lit up in the in the shimmer of the twilight.
“I told her she had no right to do this to our child. I suggested that we try again and make another baby.”
“What?”
“Yes, I couldn’t believe I said it myself. But, you know, I had really become attached to the idea of having a child with her. It felt like a really positive change in my life. Call it fate if you will.”
“How did she respond?”
“She said she had to think about it. That she wanted to continue studying. And she wasn’t planning on ‘playing house’ with me.”
He navigated the boat to the lowest part of the island, maneuvered the side of the boat toward it, and jumped into the shallow water. With the chain, he attached the boat to a rock and helped her down off the boat.
“Watch out,” he warned. “There are sharks here.”
Frightened, she hurried to the island.
She walked onto the island with wet feet. It had the shape of a stretched-out number eight. In the water around it were smaller islands, all equally rocky and without vegetation.
“Pretty right?”
“Not really, no. Did you come here with Lilian?”
He ignored her question and took a seat on a ledge.
“I was really angry. Yet, at the same time, I felt incredibly sad. She had taken my child from me and didn’t want another one with me. She just didn’t want me anymore.”
Dominique sat down next to him on the ledge. The rock felt cold against the back of her legs.
“And then?” she asked softly.
“Then. Yeah, then …” He sighed. “Then, all I wanted to do was leave, really. I walked to my boat and wanted to go. Alone. But she followed me.” He brought his hand to his eyes. “Why didn’t she just go back to that stupid American if she didn’t want me anymore?”
“Then what?”
“She came after me. I already had the boat almost all the way in the water when she grabbed my arm. She kissed me. She said she felt really bad about everything.”
“And then?”
He turned his head away from her.
“Then I went totally crazy. First, she took my child from me, then tells me she doesn’t want me and kisses me. So I slapped her in the face.”
“Jesus, Thomas!”
“Well, what else was I going to do? I was furious!” He looked at her angrily. “Women can just say and do whatever they want, but when you slap them once, you’re instantly the bad guy!”
“Then what?”
He sighed and tilted his head back to look at the perfect clear sky.
“Then she got incredibly angry and started yelling at me and grabbed her phone. I took it from her and threw it far away somewhere. When she tried to go after it, I grabbed her by the arm and threw her into the boat.”
Dominique said nothing, but looked at him with an ice-cold stare.
Thomas closed his eyes.
“I was still furious whe
n I pushed the boat off shore and jumped in. But then I saw her there, motionless. She must have hit her head against the seat or something. Either way, she was just lying there with her eyes closed and there was blood.”
“Oh my God—why didn’t you go straight to the emergency room with her then?”
He made a desperate gesture.
“Really, Do—I thought she was dead. That she’d broken her neck or something. And I was afraid. Who would believe an old guy like me showing up with a young dead girl. How would I explain it? I would be done for.”
70
Horrified, Dominique thought about what had happened to her friend.
“So was she dead?” she asked fearfully.
“No, but I didn’t know that yet. I really didn’t know what to do. So I just took off in the boat. Just like that. I couldn’t believe I had let things get so out of control.”
“But Lilian wasn’t dead at all?” Dominique urged.
“No, but I only noticed it once I came here, near the reef, a little farther down from here. I suddenly heard her moaning. Man, I was so relieved.”
Dominique exhaled slowly.
“What did you do with her? Where is Lil?”
“She was in pain. She said she was nauseous and dizzy. I quickly docked the boat. Here on this little island. Once she felt the solid ground under her feet, she felt a little better. Then she was just angry at me.”
“Well, are you surprised?” Dominique asked sarcastically and got up. “You could have seriously injured her and caused God knows what by throwing her in the boat like that!”
“Yes, that’s what she said too. She slapped me in the face and told me I wasn’t going to get away with this.”
Dominique stood directly in front of him now.
“Then what?”
He looked away from her again.
“We got into a horrible fight. I said I didn’t do it on purpose and that what she had done was far worse—she had murdered our child. But she didn’t agree. ‘Married men shouldn’t have illegitimate children with young students,’ she said.”
“And then?”
“I told her that some things were more important than studying. Then she said I was a selfish bastard, who obviously wasn’t interested in what she wanted to do with the rest of her life.”
He got up.
“What else, Thomas?” Dominique asked, still trying to make eye contact with him.
“Then she said she was going to tell everyone. Regina, Charles, everyone. And that she was going to the police. That she would make sure I would end up in jail. And that she hoped I would have a cellmate who would …”
He turned away from her and walked to the edge of the water.
She walked up right behind him and asked, “So then what happened?”
“Then I hit her again. Very hard. She fell to the ground. She was bleeding again. She was furious and screamed at me again. And then I …”
She pulled his shoulder, which made him turn toward her. She stepped right up to him.
“What, Thomas? What did you do?”
Before she knew it, he had grabbed her. He pushed her upper body downward and twisted her arm behind her back.
Dominique screamed and tried to hit him with her free hand, but he forced her down on her knees, right at the water’s edge.
“Then I did this,” he said right next to her ear and pushed her arm up even higher.
Dominique roared with pain as she bent down even farther, closer to the water, splashing across the rocks.
“Exactly,” Thomas said. “That’s what Lilian did, too. She also didn’t know when to shut up. She just kept on screaming and calling me every name in the book.”
“Stop it! Let me go!” Dominique snapped back at him.
“You’re just like Lil! Unbelievable.”
He kneeled down at the edge of the rock and forced her body down farther.
Her face was now almost in the waves. Dominique fought with everything in her, but she was no match for Thomas, who held her arm in a tight grip.
“What the hell are you doing?” she screamed, scared out of her mind. “Stop it!”
With one hand on the back of her head, he pushed her face into the ocean water.
Dominique swallowed a mouthful of salt water and thought she was going to choke. With her eyes wide open she tried to wrestle herself free, but the merciless hand held her down.
Just when she thought she was done for and that he was going to drown her like an unwanted kitten, Thomas pulled her back.
Gagging, she gasped for air. Two, three, deep breaths, and then she had to cough uncontrollably. He waited for her to calm down a little before he tightened the grip on her arm and pushed her face to just above the water again.
“It’s like I’m having a déjà vu,” he said. “You’re doing everything exactly the same as Lilian did.”
“Thomas,” she called out desperately. “Why are you doing this?”
“Well, you wanted to know so badly what happened to Lilian, right?” he asked, his voice ice cold. “Well, now you can see it and feel it for yourself.”
The hand on the back of her head began to push her down again.
“No, Thomas, no!” she screamed. “Please, now I know! I know!”
“You don’t know anything yet,” he said.
At the same time, he pushed her head underwater again. This time she managed to take a deep breath of air first. But he forced her deeper into the water than the time before. Now she was in the water up to her shoulders.
Dominique could feel the blood in her temples and ears pounding. She tried to see underwater, but it was too dark. Her lungs felt like they were going to explode. She wrestled to try and free herself from Thomas’s grip, but he held her down effortlessly and only pushed her down deeper into the water. With her one free hand, she tried but failed to pull herself back up on the edge of the rocks.
To her, it all seemed to take forever. This wasn’t the same as when she sat at the bottom of the pool, there was nothing peaceful about this. Suddenly, the water had become her enemy, a horrible weapon. Just when she thought she began to feel her life slipping away from her, he suddenly pulled her back.
With deep grunting sounds, she tried to inhale all the lifesaving oxygen she could. All her energy was gone. She didn’t even feel the urge to fight anymore.
“You’re at the end of your rope, right?” he asked quietly in her ear. “Lil was the same. She didn’t survive the third time.”
“Oh my God,” Dominique moaned. “You killed her.”
“Yes, I killed her,” he answered, seemingly unaffected. “I thought you would have figured that out by now.”
“But why? Why?”
“I already told you. I couldn’t allow her to go to the police. The same goes for you, by the way. Everything went differently than I had anticipated, but most of it went to my advantage. But you should have never involved that Fernandes, Do. You brought this upon yourself.”
She sobbed uncontrollably. All her hope had vanished. Lilian was dead. And now Thomas, her own Uncle Thomas was going to murder her too. And there was nothing she could do about it.
Thomas pushed her arm back up and placed his hand on the back of her head again.
“Wait!” she called out. “What did you do with her?”
He laughed joylessly. “The ocean is patient and sharks love pretty young Dutch girls, didn’t you know that?”
“You stupid bastard!” she screamed.
71
The same moment that her face disappeared below the surface again, the whole island was suddenly lit up by a bright light.
Startled, Thomas turned around while he pushed Dominique underwater even deeper.
“Van Dorp. Let her go and get up!” a voice speaking in Dutch rang out through a speaker. “You will only get one warning before we shoot!”
While he got up, Thomas shoved Dominique so hard that she tumbled forward off the edge of the rock. She hit her head, but
quickly wrestled her way back up and reached the waves on the surface. She gasped for air while hacking and coughing. She tried to keep her face above the water, but the waves kept splashing down on her. Her brain was screaming for her to hold on to the side of the rocks and climb out of the water, but her body lacked the physical strength to do so. She was about to give up and let herself slip away, when a strong hand grabbed her by the hair and pulled her body up. Someone grabbed her under her armpits and pulled her on to the island. She just lay there, unable to breathe.
The strong hands pulled her arms above her head and flipped her on her side. As soon as the water began to come out of her mouth, she burst out into another uncontrollable coughing fit, wheezing heavily when she exhaled.
“See? I knew you were a fighter,” the man with the strong arms said.
She looked up at a blurry figure. It was Pepe.
“What are you doing here?” she managed to say before she began to cough heavily again.
“Business, miss. Business,” Pepe said, looking over his shoulder.
Then she could see Fernandes, a wide grin on his face, smoking a cigar. He held Thomas at gunpoint.
While Pepe carried her onto their boat, which was significantly bigger than Thomas’s speedboat, she could hear the two men speaking.
Fernandes spoke in a dark and threatening tone. Thomas protested loudly and tried to talk his way out of the situation.
Pepe placed her on a couch in the yacht’s cabin and covered her with a warm blanket. She closed her eyes and simply couldn’t believe she was still alive.
“Thank you,” she whispered.
“Don’t mention it,” he answered, grinning.
A shot rang out outside. Pepe seemed unfazed.
“What was that?” Dominique asked, shocked.
“Probably disciplinary measure number one,” Pepe said.
Fernandes entered the cabin and said to Pepe, “Can you help this asshole get inside? I think he may have some trouble walking.”
Pepe grinned and asked, “What do we do with his boat?”
Bon Bini Beach: A Thriller Page 23
