by Matt Lincoln
“I’ve never spoken with Sandoval in my life,” I replied as I looked him dead in the eyes, unable to resist confirming that he’d just walked into my trap. After everything that he had done, I wanted Maduro to know that he had well and truly lost this battle.
“I’ll kill you!” Maduro screamed as he struggled against the two officers.
I stared back at him with a mixture of disgust and pity before turning and striding out the door. Lopez was watching the chaotic scene between the officers and Maduro through the glass when I walked back into the viewing room.
“Excellent work, Agent Marston,” he commended me. “That was expertly done. I can’t believe how easily he caved.”
“Honestly, it wasn’t all that hard,” I replied as I turned to glance back at Maduro. He had settled down again and was staring despondently down at the ground while the officers cuffed his hands behind his back again. “I didn’t have to convince him that Sandoval had betrayed him because he’d already convinced himself of that. All I did was prod him in the right direction.”
“Even so,” Lopez insisted, “thanks to you, we now have a real lead on the location of Sandoval. I assume you’ll be wanting to head to Venezuela as soon as possible?”
“Yeah,” I replied. “We just need to work out the details with our director.”
“In that case, let me say that it was a pleasure working with you,” Lopez said as he stood up. “Now that Maduro has been arrested, I’m afraid the Oranjestad Police has reached the limit of our jurisdiction. As much as I would love to continue aiding you, I’m afraid I won’t be able to.”
“We understand,” I assured him. “This isn’t the first time we’ve had to switch jurisdictions between countries in the course of a case. I appreciate the sentiment, though.”
“Well, if there is anything else I can help with with regard to the Aruban side of things, please don’t hesitate to contact me,” Lopez replied. “Linden, why don’t you walk the agents out? Unless there was something else you needed to do here?”
“No, I think we’re about done,” I replied before turning to Holm.
“I agree,” he replied. “Our next matter of business is to contact Diane and get on a flight to Venezuela to track down Sandoval.”
“Good luck then,” Lopez replied. After that, Linden walked us back to the lobby of the hotel, and Holm and I took a moment to say our goodbyes to him as well before turning to leave. I hadn’t made it through the door yet when someone called out to me.
“Ethan?” The woman’s voice was familiar, but it took me a moment to place who it belonged to. Then I spotted the honey-blonde hair and realized that it was Monica.
“Hey.” I smiled at her. She stood just beside the door, a clipboard clutched in her hands. “What are you doing here?”
“Oh, I came to make a report,” she replied shyly. “About what happened yesterday. I was so shaken by the whole thing that I just kind of ran off with my friends, but I thought maybe I should come in today and formally file a report on what happened.”
“That’s a good idea,” I replied encouragingly. “Even though we’ve already arrested him, a formal report will make it so that the charges against him stick.”
“That’s what I figured,” she replied, a small smile playing at her lips as she handed the clipboard back to the officer sitting at the reception window. “Anyway, I was just finishing up. It’s a really nice day out. Do you guys want to hang out or something? Only if you’re not busy, of course.”
I hesitated before replying. The invite sounded tempting, and since we’d finished Maduro’s interrogation, we didn’t really have all that much else to do today. Then again, the responsible thing to do would be to call Diane and see what she had to say about getting us to Venezuela.
“Oh, sorry.” Holm frowned remorsefully. “I don’t think I can, actually. I’ve got a mountain of paperwork to do since I just finished conducting an interrogation on this really dangerous gang leader.”
You just finished interrogating him? I thought to myself, a smile creeping onto my face.
“Really can’t wait since we’ll be leaving tomorrow,” Holm continued. “But Agent Marston is free, I think.”
I almost wanted to laugh at how perfectly this situation was mirroring the one before, when I’d made up a story to leave Holm alone with that girl, Amanda. Holm seemed to be laying it on a little thick, though, and I’d seen Holm put on a better act in more dire situations, so I could tell he was doing it to poke fun at me.
“Really?” Monica looked up at me hopefully with large doe-eyes. “I mean, I understand if you’re busy with work, but I’d really like to buy you a drink as a thank you for what happened yesterday.”
“That sounds nice,” I replied.
“Great!” She beamed up at me.
“I’ll just call Diane about that paperwork,” Holm remarked, his voice a degree more serious now as he looked at me. “Meet you back at the hotel.”
“Bye,” I replied as he turned to walk away.
“Come on,” Monica exclaimed as he hooked her arm around mine, suddenly a lot bolder than she’d seemed a few moments earlier when she was shyly inviting me out for a drink. “I know a great bar near here. Uh, not the same one from yesterday, don’t worry.”
“Alright.” I smiled in response. Maybe it was a tiny bit irresponsible, but hanging out with her for a while on our last day here wasn’t that big of a deal. Diane likely wouldn’t be able to get us a flight until tomorrow anyway, so I decided to just go with the flow and allow myself to enjoy the bit of privacy Holm had been gracious enough to grant me.
31
Ethan
Hanging out with Monica actually turned out to be a lot more fun than I’d anticipated. As we walked through the city, she explained that she’d just finished graduate school and had been the one to suggest that she and her friends have the bachelorette party here in Aruba.
She seemed thrilled by everything we encountered as we toured Oranjestad and even insisted that we try riding one of the horse-drawn carriages that offered tours of the city. It seemed like a pretty cheesy idea to me, but Monica was so enamored by the idea that I quickly gave in. Still, I spent a lot more time watching the reactions on her face than I did to anything the tour guide was saying.
After the carriage ride, we walked through the central part of the city, where all the buildings that resembled gingerbread houses were. I couldn’t help but smile as she gasped at every single one that we passed, stopping to admire each like a work of art every few steps. It was taking us forever to get anywhere, but I didn’t mind. Just having some time to wander aimlessly around with her was relaxing enough for me.
“Ooh, what’s going on there?” she wondered out loud at one point as we passed by a small crowd that was gathered around the side of a building.
“Let’s go see,” I replied. Even my curiosity was piqued by the number of people gathered. The two of us maneuvered our way to the front of the crowd until we could get a look at what was calling everyone’s attention.
“Oh, wow,” I muttered as I looked down at the man sitting on the sidewalk. He had a large canvas in front of him and was using bottles of spray paint and knives to quickly make portraits of members of the crowd. He was working so fast, twisting the cans as he sprayed to achieve different effects and then using the knives to alter the pain into different shapes before it dried. I’d never seen anything like it.
“Wow, I want one,” Monica declared brightly, raising her hand as the man finished the painting he was working on and called for volunteers. He picked Monica immediately, which didn’t really surprise me. She was really quite pretty, and I could imagine that it must be nice to have such a beautiful model.
It was mesmerizing to watch him make the portrait, both of his hands flying across the paper rapidly and without pause. At first, the painting didn’t look like anything, just a bunch of splashes of color. Then, with just a few knife strokes, the painting suddenly began to resemble Monic
a.
“That’s amazing,” I noted as the man finished the painting and handed it to Monica, who accepted it with glee. It really did look like her, and it was difficult to believe that the man had done it in about a minute using only spray paint and some dull knives.
It didn’t seem like the man was accepting any set amount of payment for the paintings, so I dropped some money into the tip jar he’d placed in front of his canvases before walking away with Monica.
“That was so cool,” he sighed as she admired the painting. “I felt like I blinked, and suddenly, there was a picture of me. How wild is that?”
“It is pretty cool,” I admitted as we continued to walk.
“I think I’ll go put it in my hotel room,” she remarked. “I don’t want to accidentally ruin it by carrying it around.” She turned to look at me, suddenly seeming shy again as her face turned red. “Um, would you like to come? We can have drinks back there, too, if you want. That was the whole reason I invited you, and then we just spent all this time walking around the city.”
“It’s fine,” I replied. “It’s been fun walking around, And sure, we can have drinks there.”
“Cool.” She smiled at me as she blushed even harder. I wondered if she could even tell how red her face was right now. It was clear that she was trying to play coy, but the fact that she was getting so flustered about it made it pretty evident that she had something in mind other than drinks.
She talked more about her friends as we walked together back to her hotel. When we were almost there, I got a call from Holm.
“Hello?” I answered as the two of us stepped into the cool, air-conditioned lobby of the hotel.
“Hey,” Holm replied. “Sorry to interrupt your date. I just got off the phone with Diane. We’re flying out tomorrow morning, she booked us a flight for nine. Just in case you were worried about when you needed to be back.”
“Thanks, brother,” I replied, suddenly feeling a lot more at ease. I’d felt a little guilty about goofing off with Monica, but if we weren’t leaving until tomorrow, then there was nothing wrong with relaxing for a few more hours.
“Everything okay?” Monica asked as she looked up at me.
“Yeah,” I replied as I took a look around the hotel for the first time. It was a lot nicer than the one Holm and I were staying in, which made sense, as Monica and her friends were here for a girls’ vacation and not for work like we were. “That was just my partner giving me an update on how things were going.”
“That’s really cool,” she replied as he led me over to the elevators at the right side of the lobby. “I’ve never met someone with a job like ‘federal agent.’ Thanks again, by the way, for coming to save me yesterday. I know I keep saying it, but I really can’t express it enough. I don’t think I’ve ever been that scared.”
“I’m sorry that happened to you,” I replied as we stepped onto the elevator. “If it helps at all, the man we arrested actually gave us some pretty important information about our case. We were able to catch the ringleader because of him.”
“Seriously?” Monica gasped as the elevator came to a stop with a small jolt. “Wow… I guess it was kind of a good thing that he attacked me then, huh?”
“I wouldn’t go that far,” I replied as we stepped off the elevator and into the hallway of the fourth floor. Unlike the pseudo-motel that Holm and I were staying at, this hotel was completely enclosed. The hallway was dark and quiet, our footsteps the only noise as we padded across the thick carpeting. “Even if we did manage to benefit from it, you shouldn’t have had to go through that.”
“It’s fine.” She shrugged as she walked beside me. “Anyway, I probably wouldn’t have actually gotten a chance to talk with you if it hadn’t happened, so I’m not too upset.” She smiled up at me, and I was about to respond when one of the hallway doors burst open in front of us. A young woman stepped out, mumbling angrily to herself.
“After what happened, she still went and-- Oh!” She stopped short as she looked up and saw the two of us. “Monica, you’re here.”
“Uh, yeah, I am,” Monica replied sheepishly, fiddling awkwardly with a strand of her hair.
“I was just about to go look for you!” the woman scolded her gently. She had short, reddish-brown hair and bright green eyes, and after looking at her face for a moment, I recalled seeing her among the group of girls that had come to pick up Monica the day before from the bar. “Lily told me that you’d gone off on your own to the police station to file a report about what happened yesterday. I can’t believe you went without us after what happened yesterday! It’s not safe to walk around alone. Anyway, since you were taking so long to come back, I decided I was going to go and find you.”
“Sorry, Olive.” Monica smiled apologetically at her friend. “I actually finished filing the report a while ago. I ran into Ethan and got a little distracted. I should have called, you know how forgetful I am.”
“Yeah, I do,” Olive replied. “That’s why I was so worried.” Her eyes drifted over to me, and after a moment, they lit up. “Oh! Ethan. You mean the guy that rescued you from that creepy jerk?”
“Yeah, the very same,” Monica replied, clearing her throat with embarrassment.
“I see.” Olive smirked at her before looking at me. “Nice to meet you, I’m Olive. Thank you for helping her yesterday.”
“It was nothing,” I replied. “I’m just glad I was there at the right moment.”
“You were right,” Olive hummed as she turned back to Monica. “He is cute.”
“Olive!” Monica hissed, her face turning red at her friend’s remark.
“Anyway, sorry for interrupting,” Olive sighed as she took a step back into her room. “Now that I know you’re in the hotel and not lost in Aruba somewhere, I’ll just leave you two to it. Oh, but don’t forget we need to get things ready for Lily’s party later, Monica.”
“I remember,” Monica replied stiltedly, her face still red.
“Bye!” Olive shot us one last sly smirk before closing the door, plunging the two of us into silence.
“I’m such a crappy friend,” Monica giggled awkwardly as she continued two doors down before digging through her bag for her key. “I completely forgot to call them. Olive must have been really worried. She’s like the mother hen of our group. I was just having so much fun that it totally slipped my mind.”
“Well, I’m glad spending time with me was that distracting,” I remarked as I stepped into the room behind her. The room, too, was a lot fancier than the ones Holm and I had. It was probably twice as big and included a small sitting area complete with a glass coffee table encircled by plush leather couches. The room even had a balcony overlooking the ocean, and I could see the waves crashing against the shore through the open curtains.
“I’ll get us that drink,” Monica said as she knelt down to look through the small refrigerator that was tucked below the desk in the corner of the room. “Looks like we’ve got beer, wine, and a few spirits. Do you have a preference?”
“I’ll take a beer,” I answered. I still had to get up early the next morning, so it probably wouldn’t be a good idea to get too drunk tonight.
“Alright,” she replied as she took some bottles out of the fridge before carrying them over to the small coffee table. “I think there were some glasses over in this cabinet.”
“So you talked to your friends about me?” I teased her as she pulled open a cabinet beneath the television.
“Huh?” she practically yelped as she turned around to look at me, the blush on her face growing a shade deeper. “What do you mean?”
“Your friend, Olive,” I explained. “From the way she spoke, it sounded like you’d talked about me to her.”
“Oh, right,” she replied as she stood back up, two small glasses in her hands. “Well, how could I not talk about the hot guy that showed up out of nowhere to beat up the guy who attacked me? It was like something out of an action movie.”
“Is that right?” I
replied as I sat down on one of the seats around the coffee table. To be honest, it was a nice stroke to the ego to hear her say that. It wasn’t anything all that out of the ordinary for me, but it was still nice to hear a pretty woman gush about me like that.
“It was pretty amazing,” she replied as she set the glasses down on the table next to the bottles. “They were all really surprised when I mentioned that it was the same guy from the bar that I’d taken the chair from. Actually, I thought you weren’t interested at first since you didn’t come talk to me after that.”
“We were really busy with the case,” I replied honestly. “Actually, my partner and I went to that bar because we were frustrated about our lack of leads.”
“But you’re not busy anymore?” She asked, her eyebrows furrowing in concern as she poured our drinks. “I’m not distracting you from something important right now, am I?”
“No,” I assured her. “Like I said, that guy we arrested actually gave us a pretty big lead. Because of that, we ended up making a break in the case, and now we’ve pretty much wrapped up everything we needed to do here.”
“So you’ve got a lot of free time right now, is what you’re saying,” she hummed as she sank down onto the couch right beside me, her drink swishing in its glass as she sat. She had a sly smile on her face as she brought the glass up slowly to her lips.
“Yeah.” I smiled back down at her. “I guess I do.”
32
Ethan
To my surprise, the flight that Diane had booked for Holm and I was on a small, regional plane that could only hold a few dozen passengers. The majority of the other people on board appeared to be sleepy tourists, likely headed back home to Caracas after vacationing in Aruba. Since Venezuela was so close to Aruba, it only took about an hour for us to get there by flight.
“So, how was your date yesterday?” Holm asked as we got off the plane at Simon Bolivar International Airport in Caracas. “You were back a lot earlier than I thought you would be.”
