Death by Divorce (2 page)

“It’s okay, Dalia, slow down,” said Cindy.

Dalia barely heard a word she said. “Our part of the island is incredible and secluded. Celebrities who want privacy come down here regularly. Ames loves to catch sight of the celebrities on beaches, lolling here and there. ”

For a moment, Cindy felt as though she were with a tour guide. But the urgency in Dalia’s tone told her otherwise. Perhaps Dalia was orienting her to the place, giving her a broad picture, so Cindy would have some idea how to begin her search. Clearly, in the midst of this incredible paradise, something had gone terribly wrong.

The villa Dalia lived in was breathtaking. Perched on the edge of the beach, it sprawled out invitingly over the sand, surrounded by palm trees and flowering bushes.

“This is magnificent,” Cindy breathed, as she and Dalia walked up the front path. The pungent smell of the flowers, mixed with the smell of sand and sea, was delicious and soothing, making Cindy feel deeply at ease. She had to snap herself out of the soothing state the place put her in, and remember what she was really here for.

They entered the front gates and walked along the terracotta marble floor through a large hallway that wound around gently. There were huge plants, mirrors, paintings and wooden benches placed along the walls.

“Your room is that way, off a huge, open patio,” Dalia pointed towards the beach, “Rosa will bring your suitcases. Let me show you where it is. ”

The room Dalia led Cindy to was beautiful, with floral rugs, large open windows, a white wicker ceiling fan, and vases filled with fresh flowers. A double door led to a huge patio, overlooking the ocean. The patio had lovely plants, a table, chairs and lounges on it. This was a place to unwind in, giving the sense that everything in the world was in perfect order.

“I feel like I’ve landed two steps from heaven,” Cindy smiled.

Dalia smiled back strangely. “That’s how I felt when I first got here. I never wanted to leave. ”She looked sadly out over the ocean, her eyes fastening on a lone sail boat gliding by, near the horizon.

“Sit down,” Dalia said, suddenly. “There’s so much to cover. Are you up to getting started right away? Ames is missing, and every second counts. Rosa can bring our food out here. ”

“Let’s get going,” said Cindy.

They sat at a large, wooden slatted table, shaded by a blue striped umbrella.

“This place originally belonged to Ames,” Dalia started. “He had it designed especially for him. Then, after he met me, he brought me here to live in his home. ”

Just then, the doors to the patio opened and a young, native woman came in carrying a tray with sandwiches and lemonade. She seemed to be in her late twenties, pretty and slim with smooth dark skin, long hands, but generally uneasy. She wore a strong vanilla perfume, and was dressed very simply, in a beige linen dress and sandals.

“Your luggage is in your room, ma’am,” she said in a muffled tone, looking down.

“Cindy, this is Rosa,” Dalia said.

“Hello, Rosa,” said Cindy.

Rosa nodded, still looking down, not meeting Cindy’s eyes.

“She’s very shy,” Dalia leaned towards Cindy, whispering. “Do you need anything else she can get for you?”

“No, it’s fine,” Cindy said, getting up to go to her luggage and get some notebooks she’d packed, with a list of questions on them. Dalia put her hand on Cindy’s arm, to stop her.

“Tell me what you need and I’ll have Rosa get it.”

“It’s not necessary,” Cindy said, “I can do it myself,” and she went into the room to open the luggage which Rosa had placed on the floor in her room.

Rosa slid to the side as Cindy passed, still not looking at her. If Cindy didn’t know she was there, Rosa would almost have blended into the woodwork.

When Cindy opened her luggage, she saw Rosa look at her out of the corner of her eye, then turn and leave the room.

Cindy took her notebook and pen out of the briefcase. She’d searched all the papers online and had read everything she could about the case before coming down here. There were mixed stories about what happened, and a lot to learn fast. From what Cindy had gathered in the articles, there was also a large cast of characters who’d been involved in Dalia and Ames’s life. One article said that nobody was beyond suspicion, and nobody could be called a suspect yet.

When Cindy got back out on the patio, Dalia was sitting with her head in her hands. Cindy felt terrible for her. She sat down next to her and opened her notebook slowly.

“Have some lemonade first,” Dalia said, her head still in her hands. “Have a sandwich. I’ll talk while you eat. ”

Cindy reached for a croissant filled with egg salad, and poured herself a glass of lemonade.

“Go ahead, talk,” Cindy said. “I’m all ears.”

“I don’t know where to begin,” said Dalia.

“Start at the beginning,” Cindy said.

“No one ever believes this could happen to them. I still don’t believe it. ”

“I know,” said Cindy.

Dalia took her head out of her hands then and looked up at Cindy keenly.

“Yes, you do know. You see right through things, don’t you? You always did as a kid in school, too. You’d never take no for an answer. I remember you were always looking behind all the corners for all kinds of facts. ”

“I need information now,” Cindy said, “I want to hear everything you can tell me, even things you may not think matter.”

“Ames owns and operates a huge cargo fleet, and I own an art gallery in town. It’s his second marriage, it’s my third. He has a son from his first wife, Elizabeth, who lives nearby. Ames loves his son, he sees him a lot. ”Dalia spoke as if she were reciting these facts by heart. She must have repeated it many times during the investigation, Cindy thought. “We have a full, rich, beautiful life,” she went on. “This is an incredible place and there are plenty of wonderful people around us. There are also others who are not so great. It’s natural. ”

“Inevitable,” said Cindy, shocked to realize that Dalia had been married three times and was only in her thirties. “I had no idea you were divorced twice,” she said softly.

“How could you know that?” Dalia quipped, “we’d completely lost touch. So, I made some mistakes. Made some bad choices. It didn’t matter. This marriage made up for it. It was great. ”

Cindy took a deep, sharp breath. “What happened? I read all the articles, but I want to hear it from you. ”

“The papers lie,” said Dalia. “Don’t pay attention to what you read in the papers.”

“I pay attention to everything,” said Cindy.

Dalia smiled. “That’s the Cindy I remember,” she said. “Okay, it’s almost three weeks now since Ames went missing. The day he disappeared everything was fine, there was absolutely nothing out of order. Ames told me he was going out sailing with Dale, one of his business partners, that afternoon. They both belong to the International Yacht Club and love to sail. I told him to have a great day and expected him back for dinner.

He never came home. He still hasn’t. ”

Cindy hadn’t heard those details. “Have they questioned Dale?”

“Yes,” said Dalia fitfully. “It turns out he wasn’t on the island that day.”

Cindy was startled. “Ames lied to you?”

Dalia shook her head forcefully. “It wasn’t a lie. Sometimes he made plans that didn’t pan out and then he’d just do something different. He’d tell me later. It wasn’t a big deal. He told me everything. We didn’t keep any secrets. ”

“Had he actually made plans with Dale for that day?”

“Of course he did,” Dalia insisted. “Dale was questioned and said something came up at the last minute and he cancelled. He doesn’t live on the island. He and Ames own a fleet of cargo ships. They ship nutmeg, rum, island spices. This is known as Spice Island. ”

“I know,” said Cindy.

“Dale lives off the island and Ames is based down here, overseeing everything. He loves it here. ” Dalia bit her lip, her eyes teary. It appeared as if it were hard for her to keep going over the story again and again.

Cindy laid a hand on her wrist.

“When Ames didn’t come home and didn’t answer his cell phone for hours, I called the police and reported him missing. It was about ten o’clock at night. ”

“It must have been awful,” Cindy said softly.

Dalia’s eyes filled with tears.

“Horrible, terrible. The police came right away. They’ve been scouring the island, every last inch of it. People have been helping from near and far. Search teams have roamed over all the beaches, the waterfalls, the harbors. ” She could hardly catch her breath. “Ames is well known. He’s a public person and a good man. He helps lots of locals. He lives a big life. What happened to him, Cindy? ”

The starkness of Dalia’s question hit Cindy like a punch in the gut.

“I wish I knew,” said Cindy.

“So do I,” said Dalia, “but one thing I do know – he’s still alive. I’m sure of it. ”

The edgy power in Dalia’s voice startled Cindy.

Dalia sighed. “Even though Ames was happy most of the time, at moment she would sit on the beach and stare out at the ocean, with a very bleak look in his eye,” said Dalia. “What am I doing with my life? he’d say. Does it make any sense? Ames left his whole family behind and never bothered calling or checking in on any of them. The island does that to you. It makes you forget everything. He missed his baby brother Laramey, though. Once in a while he said that to me. I told him to call him, but he couldn’t. ”

Cindy interjected quickly, “If, by any chance, Ames did call his brother, “she said, “is there any possibility he might have returned home to see him?”

Dalia laughed at that. “None at all. He was done with his family. Completely done. In fact, I never met one of them, he had absolutely no interest in inviting them to the wedding, or introducing me. He had a twin sister too, Clea, that he told me about. He’d been estranged from her also, for years. ”

Dalia sighed.

“The police are getting ready to stop the search,” Dalia continued in a feverish tone. “They can’t. We can’t let them. He’s here somewhere and we have to find him. Time is of the essence. This is the beginning of the rainy season. There’s no way I’m letting this go. ”

Cindy wondered for a moment if this was just desperation speaking.

“You’ve had the best possible help with this, Dalia?” Cindy asked.

“I have,” Dalia said. “I have no complaints about the police or the search teams on the island. But there’s always one little detail that’s easy to miss. It can make the whole difference. We need a fresh eye-- someone out of the box, who sees this from a different perspective. ”

“Me?” said Cindy.

“Yes,” Dalia said.

Cindy took a long drink of her chilled lemonade. It was sweet, sour and cooling.

“Did you love him?” Cindy asked suddenly, surprising both of them.

Dalia was taken aback. “Yes, very much. Not
did
I love him --
do
I love him? I adore him. He’s wonderful. Our marriage is fantastic. We’ve learned our lessons and finally know what it takes now to make a marriage work. ” Dalia’s large green eyes were flashing. “I want him home!”

For a second Dalia looked like a little girl, petulant, banging her fist on the table, demanding that life go her way.

“Time is of the essence,” Dalia repeated, heatedly. “Listen,” and she leaned closer to Cindy, “this island isn’t as peaceful as it looks. There’s been other trouble here recently. There was another case of a disappearance three months ago. A guy was kidnapped. The police couldn’t find him fast enough and when they did, he was dead. ”

Cindy was startled. She hadn’t heard about that.

“This guy was also in the shipping industry. Doesn’t that tell you something? ”

“Tell me what?” asked Cindy. “Was there a connection between him and Ames? Was he someone you knew? ”

“We didn’t know him, but we knew of him, saw him around. It’s a small place, and people recognize each other. After they found the body, the police investigated the case and said he was involved with the drug cartel. The guy owed money he couldn’t pay. They said it was pure coincidence that he and Ames disappeared a few months apart.

But I don’t believe in coincidence. I’m not a person who believes what they tell me, either. Like you, I think for myself. People lie. Do you realize that? ”

“Yes, I do,” said Cindy.

Dalia smiled. “Good. Then you know that we have to keep searching, and find Ames fast. ”

“Ames was never involved in anything shady?” Cindy looked at her carefully.

“Never,” Dalia said.

“Are you sure?” Cindy continued. “You know there are secrets we keep, even from ourselves.”

“I’m telling you, never,” Dalia said. “He didn’t have to. He was incredibly successful, had everything he needed -- and more. There are people around you can talk to about him. They may be of help, know something. I’ll give you their names. The police spoke to them already, but you are different. You can interview them in your own special way. Maybe they’ll tell you something different, maybe you’ll discover a detail the police missed. ”

“I need the police records,” Cindy said. “All of them. Including of the guy who turned up dead. ”

“I’ll get them for you, it’s no big deal. I told the police you were coming, said I was bringing a private detective down. They didn’t like it, but they have to cooperate. The Chief of Police insisted, he’s a good friend of Ames. I’ll introduce you to the cops in charge of the case. ”

Cindy took another deep breath, and tried to speak in a matter of fact manner.

“Dalia, why are you so sure he’s alive?”

“It’s not even a question in my mind,” Dalia said breathlessly. “I feel it at night when the sun goes down, I feel it in the morning. The first week, I couldn’t sleep at all, I was so devastated. Then, when I suddenly realized he was still alive, I was able to sleep, to eat, to think clearly. You have to believe me, Cindy. A wife just knows these things. ”

“I know she does,” Cindy said. She remembered how she knew right away that Clint had died. Not only that he’d died, but that it wasn’t an accident, that he’d been murdered.