Murder in Cuba

by Dianne Harman

  Jack looked over at her and smiled fondly. “No matter where we go, she loves to find out about the people and the culture. I can make out a couple of words she’s saying to Pedro, and I think that's what she's doing now. I'm a very lucky man to have her as my wife, and never does a day go by that I don't know it.”

  “Doing what you do, I couldn’t agree more.” Mike said. “Her ability to speak several languages alone would be important for someone in your business, but she has something else, something you can't bottle. It's a love of people and life. She's very charismatic, and people are drawn to her. That's something that can't be learned. You either have it or you don't.” He glanced at his watch. “Kelly I've got to get back. I promised the constable I wouldn't be gone long. Sit here and enjoy this, because we probably won't be passing this way again. See you tonight.” He kissed her and stood up. “And by the way, I’ll let you pay my share," he said, winking at Kelly. “A taxi just pulled up, and since there are only two on the island, I better grab it while it’s here.”

  CHAPTER 19

  When they got back to the hotel after their lunch at Sirena Beach, Carola said, “Kelly, let's go up to my room, and I'll tell you what I learned from Jack's guide.”

  “I'd love to hear what he said, but let's go to my room instead. I know it sounds ridiculous, but I have a feeling Cayo is waiting for me to come back. Having never had a cat, I don't know if that's true, but it's just a feeling I have.”

  A few minutes later they climbed the stairs to Kelly's oceanfront room and there, lying down in front of the door waiting for Kelly’s return, was Cayo. Kelly unlocked the door, and Cayo and Carola walked into the room. “Wow, you've got a better view than we do,” Carola said. “We're on the second floor and while we're on the ocean side, we don't have a view like this.” She turned away from the view and sat down in the rattan chair with its blue upholstered seat and ottoman, both of which matched the main color theme of the room, ocean blue. Hand-painted stars, the moon, and the sun decorated the walls.

  “Well, I'm dying of curiosity. What did you find out?” Kelly asked.

  “Pedro has been working here for several years. They money is good, and he has been able to build houses for his aging parents and his growing family. I think we discussed how the guides work for twenty days, and then they go home to their families for ten days. He says it's a hard life, but it’s allowed him to do a lot for his family. I asked him what would happen to him if a new person became the head guide and brought in their own guides. He said it wouldn't make any difference to him. There are other fishing guide companies on some of the other islands, and he could always get a job with one of them. He said the arrangement with them is about the same as what he’s paid by Bartolo. He likes working for Guido and would really miss that, but Pedro said he has a reputation as being one of the best guides on the island, and he's certain he could easily find work.”

  “Did you ask him about the other guides?”

  “Yes. He said almost all of them could easily find employment as fishing guides. Bartolo is considered to be the best fishing guide company on the islands, so other companies would be more than happy to hire any of their guides. He did say there was one guide who was probably going to be leaving at the end of the season.”

  “Why?”

  “Well, this is interesting,” Carola said. “Evidently the guides and Guido keep track of how many fish are caught each day, and they post the results of each day’s fishing on a bulletin board in the clubhouse. It also indicates the name of each guide and how many fish his clients caught on that day. At the end of the season if it's apparent that the overall catch of a certain guide is much lower than the others, he’s fired, and a new one is hired. Pedro said Rico was probably going to be fired at the end of the season. He said it was common knowledge among the guides that even though Rico is married to Guido's cousin, Guido will have to let him go.”

  “So even if someone else took over as the exclusive representative for Bartolo, Rico would probably be fired?”

  “Yes, and he said a change in management would have nothing to do with Rico's abilities as a guide. He said Guido would have to get rid of him to save his own job, because Rico wasn't producing. Not much difference from back in the United States when someone has to sell a certain amount of something, say insurance, and if they don't produce, they're fired, and someone else is hired who promises they can deliver.”

  “So what you're saying, based on your conversation with Pedro, is that he wouldn't qualify as a suspect, and since we're pretty much ruling out Guido because he has nothing personally to gain or lose by someone else coming in and being Bartolo’s exclusive representative, we can stop looking at the guides as suspects. Listen to me talk, I say ‘we’ as if we have anything to do with this case. As Mike constantly points out to me, it’s his case, not mine,” she said laughing. “And although I know technically he's right, I still think we can find out a few other things that might help solve the case.”

  “So what do we do now?” Carola asked.

  “I'm going to get on the computer again and see what I can find out about Patricia, Dudley's wife. If she's in love with Stewart, and from everything we've heard she seems to be, I think we need to find out more about her. Do you have any other ideas?”

  “This is going to sound weird, but I'm going to go with you to the computer room and see what comes up when I search for Jack. I know he would never kill anyone, but maybe if there is something about him that's negative I would be able to know about it ahead of time and warn him before the constable interviews him. Even though Mike said the constable had pretty much given Jack a clean bill of health when he searched for him on the Internet, I’d feel better if I did it, too. It's probably just a matter of time until the constable wants to interview him again.”

  “Actually, I think that's a very good idea. So, let's look at who we have left. We've ruled out the Cuban guides, so that leaves Patricia, Stewart, Philip, and I hate to say it, Carola, but I suppose technically Jack is still a suspect.”

  “Yeah, hard to think of your husband as a murder suspect, but yes, I suppose he is.”

  “I had to go through that once with Mike when his aunt was murdered in Calico, California. It was one of those things of who has the most to gain when someone is murdered. In this case it was Mike because she willed everything to him, and her estate was quite sizable. I felt sick to my stomach until the murder was solved, and Mike was no longer a suspect.

  “To change the subject, I wonder why all of those men are carrying the chaise lounges up from the beach. Do you think we're going to get some weather? I read where it usually rains every day here in the tropics, and I've been thinking how lucky we've been that it hasn’t rained. Maybe our luck is about to change for the worse. Perhaps they know something we don't know. When we get back from our computer searches, I'll see if I can find an English language television station that has something on it about the weather.”

  “Okay, let's go. I want to get this over with. I enjoyed lunch today, but I definitely am not enjoying the prospect of having to do a computer search to see if the constable missed something about my husband, and I find out he could be a viable suspect in a murder case.”

  CHAPTER 20

  Kelly and Carola walked into the computer room and each of them purchased an Internet access card. For the next hour neither one of them spoke. When the flashing clock on the computer screen indicated Kelly had thirty seconds left on her card, she logged off and turned to Carola who had done the same.

  “Let's get a piña colada to take to the room and share what we found out. I'll buy,” Carola said, grinning.

  “Gee, thanks, what an offer considering all the drinks here at the hotel are free. The only money I've seen on the bar or anywhere else is for tips, and as hard-working and gracious as the hotel employees are, they deserve all the tips they can get.” As they walked out of the computer room, Cayo stood up and dutifully followed them.

  “Go ahead and
have a piña colada. Maybe being from Chile you're used to this humidity, but for me,” Kelly said, “I think an ice cold beer would taste more refreshing than a rum drink.”

  A few minutes later they were standing in front of the large windows in Kelly’s room that looked out at the ocean. On the horizon dark storm clouds hung above the bright clear aqua colored water of the Caribbean Sea. “Carola, when we go down to dinner, would you ask the receptionist if they're expecting some weather? Those dark clouds, coupled with the staff removing the chaise lounges from the beach area, makes me nervous. Okay, you go first.”

  “I googled Jack's name. It's kind of a funny thing because his father was a teacher, but he was also a fishing guide in the summer. When Jack decided to become a guide he left off his surname, Reynaldo, and used the name Jack Trout. Actually, Trout is his middle name. I'm sure some people wonder about it, but it legitimately is his name. Sorry, I digressed. There were a number of references to him and all the awards he's won as a fishing guide. When I pulled up fly fishing guides for the United States, his name came up first. He's told me several times before that his name is at the top of the list, but I was really impressed when I saw it for the first time with my own eyes. I'd never looked before.”

  “What about Facebook? Did you try that?”

  “No. I go on his Facebook page from time to time, so I'm pretty familiar with it. Kelly, I know Jack's my husband, and I'm biased, but there is absolutely nothing derogatory about him anywhere. He's squeaky clean. He's never been married other than to me, there aren't any children born out of wedlock, and there are no arrest records concerning him, absolutely nothing. The only two strikes he has against him is first, he could benefit from Dudley's death as that would mean one less competitor for the Bartolo contract, and secondly, he happened to go for a swim at the same time Dudley was swimming and then his body was discovered. That's it. I can't imagine that anyone in law enforcement would try and make a case against him based on those two things. Actually, from a layman's perspective, I don't think there is a case to be made.”

  “I couldn't agree more with you, and I'm sure Mike would agree as well. He's told me several times when I've mentioned possible suspects that if he was teaching Suspect 101, he'd give a student an F if he or she thought a suspect should or could be charged based on evidence as flimsy as what there is against Jack.”

  “Okay, that takes care of Jack. What did you find out about Dudley's wife, Patricia?”

  “She's from a family whose pedigree goes back centuries in England. Seems like everybody in her family was an earl or a duke or a dame. She's from the south of England, and her parents had a huge castle there. She's an only child, so for the first time in the family's history, there was no male heir to pass it on to when her parents died. She inherited the castle and the income from all the lands surrounding it. She and Dudley lived there, and he commuted to London when it was necessary. The area she's from is well-known for its superb fishing. People come from all over the world to fish the rivers there, and Dudley was the boy wonder of the area when it came to fishing expertise.”

  ”Sounds like you googled Dudley as well.”

  “I did. It didn't take long to find out everything about Patricia. Oh, one thing I didn't mention. Naturally she went to private schools, and she graduated with honors from Cambridge. There was one reference to the fact she wanted to be a doctor, but her parents felt that a marriage to a man who had a pedigree to match hers, and evidently Dudley did, was far more important. They wanted the best for their daughter. Women of her class were not usually women who worked for a living.”

  “Wow. Kind of explains why it doesn't sound like their marriage was one made in heaven. She wanted to be a doctor, and then her parents tell her she has to marry Dudley. Who knows? Maybe she and Stewart were lovers in college or something. I know this might be a stretch, but if either one of them or both of them was unhappy enough, and the cause of their unhappiness was Dudley, maybe they decided to get rid of him and take a stab at happiness.”

  “Could be,” Kelly said. “Here's what I found out about Dudley. His family goes back in history about as far as hers, but after he and Patricia were married it was discovered his father had a gambling addiction, and he lost the family castle and all the land surrounding it on one bet in a poker game. His mother died soon afterwards. The article I read said she died from shame. His father followed her in death in less than six months. The article indicated that while it was never proven, the evidence pointed to the fact he had taken his own life.”

  “So Patricia was more or less forced to marry Dudley because of his impeccable lineage, and then her father-in-law loses everything on the turn of a card,” Carola said. “Her mother-in-law dies, and her father-in-law commits suicide. It’s no wonder Dudley and Patricia never got divorced. He may have wanted to get rid of her, but she was his ticket to still being a member in good standing of the elite class of English society. If his father lost everything, there's a good chance he was living off of her money as his was gone. There was no way he would ever let her go.”

  “That's true,” Kelly said. “And it certainly seems to me that Patricia would have a very good reason to want him dead. Not only would she be free to pursue her relationship with Stewart, she'd be rid of a leech that was living off her money. I don't have any idea what fishing guides make, but I don't think it's on par with someone who owns a huge castle in England and receives income from all the surrounding lands.”

  “You've got that right. It's almost time for Jack to come back. Think I'll go down and see if the front desk has any information on a possible storm, or heaven forbid, a hurricane. The sky has gotten even darker during the time we've been talking. If I find out anything, I'll give you a call.”

  Kelly stood up and hugged Carola. Even though she had one of the most positive attitudes of anyone Kelly had ever met, the threat of her husband possibly being arrested as a suspect in Dudley's murder might be the reason she had dark circles under her eyes. She hadn't said anything, but Kelly wondered if she'd gotten any sleep the night before. “Carola, I don't know who killed Dudley, but rest assured I will do everything I can to clear Jack's name. Okay?”

  Tears started to well up in Carola’s eyes, and as she wiped them away, she said, “Thank you, Kelly. I've never been through anything like this, and I feel utterly helpless. I really don't know what to do.”

  “You're doing everything you can, but the most important thing you can do is be there for Jack. He might seem like a guy without a care in the world, but something like this is bound to eat away at him. We've got to clear his name, and we will.”

  “Thank you again for everything you are doing for both me and Jack,” she said as she walked out the door and down the steps.

  Kelly looked out at the ocean and the gathering clouds. I don't like this, she thought, every antenna I have is giving me a resounding high alert. I hope it's nothing. She turned on the television set and found an English language weather channel which was talking about the coming storm, now predicted to be a category one hurricane with winds from seventy-five miles an hour and up. While some damage was predicted, it was not expected to be major. It was bound for the southerly coast of Cuba. Oh swell, it’s headed exactly towards where we are. Cayo Largo is sixty miles off the south coast of Cuba, so it will hit us first before it makes landfall on Cuba.

  While she was thinking about what she should do, the room phone rang. “Hi, it's me,” Carola said. “I just talked to the front desk, and they told me they're expecting a category one hurricane to hit tomorrow. They think we'll be fine because stronger ones have hit this area in the past with only minor damage, but we'll probably have some power outages tomorrow morning. They suggested that Jack not go fishing in the morning, but knowing him, that advice will probably fall on deaf ears. A taxi just pulled up, and I can see Jack. Let's meet in the bar at 7:00. Any chance Mike will be able to join us tonight?”

  “I have no idea. I haven't heard from him this afte
rnoon. If I do I'll let you know, otherwise I'll see you at 7:00.”

  CHAPTER 21

  Kelly picked up the ringing phone. “Hello,” she said.

  “Hi, sweetheart, it's me. How was your day?”

  “It was interesting. I have to tell you that lobster lunch is right up there as one of the top meals of my life. Did you enjoy it as much as I did?”

  “Not only enjoyed it, I suffered from overeating almost all afternoon. We've been on the phone and the computer trying to find out more about everyone. Fortunately, Jack checked out very clean. Francisco, the constable, was very impressed with what he found out about him. I think I told you I was going to let him do the research on Jack. I didn't want there to be any sense of impropriety on my part because I came to Cuba with him. As far as Dudley and his wife, they're a rather interesting couple.”

  “Yes, I did a little research too, because I was curious.”

  There was a pregnant pause on the other end of the phone and then Mike said, “Kelly...” She interrupted him.

  “Mike, it's not what you think. The only thing I've done is look on the computer for some of the people that might be involved, because I've been curious about them.”

  “Uh-huh, and would I be out of line to ask what conclusions you've drawn?”

  “Of course not,” Kelly said. “Here's how I read it. I think the three most viable suspects are Philip, Stewart, and Dudley's wife, Patricia. Certainly from what I saw and what you told me Patricia and Stewart would love to have Dudley out of the way, so he’s no longer an obstacle to their romantic affair. From what I've read, they've been in love for a long time. Then of course, there's Philip. There is something so off about him.”