Chapter Six
I won’t bother going into the details of how we got back from the middle of nowhere. You don’t really need to know about my bitter frustration and the dark looks I threw Lisa behind her back. The thing is, we needed to work together to get out of this mess and to our hotel, so I couldn’t really be angry with her, except in my mind, it was vital she didn’t realise my anger until we were safe. I don’t remember much of the journey because it was spent rehearsing the speech I had devised for the hotel room.
For a while it seemed she was in a trance, she said very little and was constantly staring out reflectively. My t-shirt was digging into my burnt neck, without exaggeration, I felt as if I were on fire. Even my cap around my scalp was burning me, contributing to the headache of the century.
The surly taxi driver had grabbed the money out of my hand before I even had time to contemplate how much money it’s possible to lose in one day. He drove like he was running from the law, a cloud of dust thick behind him.
It was already dark by the time we got to the hotel, the hard sun had been replaced with a steamy night, the sky blanketed with mosquitoes. A lizard with a curly tail rushed through the hotel lobby, shallow pools vibrating with the sound of what seemed like thousands of toads. In the pools stood stone statues, huge leafy plants climbing out onto the marble floors.
My eyes were drawn to a picture placed on a low wooden table. There was a candle burning next to it. The picture was of Marietta Benavente, the dates of her life and death were printed under the picture. She had her dark hair piled high on her head and a healthy smile. The photograph looked professional. I nudged Lisa but she barely noticed, I was left with a worried knot in my stomach.
The hotel complex was so huge it took us another half an hour to find our room. I was still confused about where we were even after we had found it. The only people coming back to their rooms now were the late night stragglers, laughing loudly and baring their burnt shoulders to the night.
The maid had folded our blankets into swans and I wondered again about Marietta. Did her son have somewhere he could live now? Lisa sat on the very edge of the bed and looked out distractedly into space. All I wanted was a shower.
‘We’ll start digging tomorrow,’ I said enthusiastically, I was trying to inject some excitement back into her, into myself, sometimes the investigating got a little too personal and it helped to think of it as an adventure.
‘Why do we need to?’ She said blankly, the air-conditioning making a few stray hairs blow around her tired, empty face. ‘We already know enough.’ She shrugged.
This was about as much as I could take. I grabbed Lisa’s bag from the bed. ‘What are you doing?’ She spat at me.
‘I must’ve missed something,’ I glared at her, pulling the file from the bag and letting the rest fall to the floor with a metal thud. I looked at her, she was wearing appropriate walking clothes, her skin wasn’t burnt at all, on her feet were trainers designed to cool you down. There had to be an explanation, there had to be a reason why she believed.
I stared at the file, I sat on Lisa’s bed while she watched me and read everything, there was nothing. It was the same file. I felt a warm hand on my own and pleading eyes on my face.
‘Stop,’ she whispered.
‘I’m just trying to understand,’ I sighed.
‘Can’t you just look in my eyes,’ she squeezed my hand, ‘trust me.’
I shook my head, ‘I can’t.’
She pointed to the picture, ‘he killed Angelica.’
*
The next day at breakfast Lisa seemed awake and alive, just about. She was on her third black coffee, playing with her fruit platter while eyeing my eggs and bacon with distaste.
It was the height of the season and the holiday makers buzzed around the buffet cart like flies, clutching plates and picking at the food with wide eyes. They were already in their flip flops, t-shirts pulled over swimming shorts and bikinis, looking anxiously at the cloudy sky.
‘We need to start with the other staff,’ Lisa said brightly, ‘find out if they know anything or saw anything suspicious, any hotel guests they were weary of.’
I nodded, I didn’t have the heart to tell her we wouldn’t find anything, besides what we already knew.
It wasn’t easy to get information out of the hotel staff. Mostly because we were playing the nosy, over enthusiastic foreigners wanting the morbid details, the staff were mostly tight lipped, sticking to the hotel’s official line on the incident.
By midday the sun was hurting me again, it seemed relentless in its pursuit of my vulnerable British skin. After getting nothing back from the housekeeping staff we were in the brightly decorated beach bar forming a plan. Lisa was dressed like every other girl here, a simple white dress and wet hair from the pool. I was wearing swimming trunks and a logo t-shirt. We looked like we were enjoying the sun, a little too much in my case.
We ordered beer, and more beer. We sat close to the bar, but not too close to anyone would notice we were disposing of the bright liquid into plant pots and an empty bottle of water, and anything else we could get hold of.
After a while we had a nice collection of empty glasses in front of us. If we got the barman talking now, there wasn’t much he would be afraid to tell a couple of drunken tourists who wouldn’t remember anything tomorrow.
When he bought us the third pitcher of beer I thought I would go for it. ‘On this beautiful day I would like to raise my glass to the poor woman whose picture I saw in the lobby.’
His eyes narrowed for a second and he nodded sadly as I raised my drink, I could see in that instant how he felt about his job.
‘You knew her?’ Lisa asked, she was pretending to look embarrassed by her drunk and inappropriate boyfriend.
It was late into the afternoon now and the sun was shimmering over the turquoise sea, it glittered like a precious gem. I felt an unexpected chill thinking about what had happened here.
‘Everyone knew Marietta,’ he smiled, speaking in perfect, clipped English, ‘it’s a big hotel, but she made an impression.’
‘She was killed in the hotel?’ I asked loudly and confidently.
‘I’d rather not…’
‘Of course, of course,’ I waved my hand airily.
Lisa subtly touched his arm, she read his name badge. ‘Carlos, I apologise for my boyfriend,’ she said gently, ‘he’s had too much to drink.’ She smiled sweetly at him, ‘I work in a bar myself, back home,’ she said, ‘I know how difficult customers can be. I bet you have some stories to tell.’
It didn’t work on Carlos, he just stared blankly at her, whether he was onto her or he just didn’t understand her, I wasn’t sure. ‘Please don’t ask me any more questions,’ he said, shaking his head heavily. ‘Marietta was a good woman.’
‘She was acting strangely?’ Lisa blurted out, ‘before she died?’ I threw her a furious look.
‘Gossip travels fast around here,’ Carlos grunted. ‘Well I don’t believe a word of it, she was a deeply religious woman.’
As he rushed back to the bar, moustache quivering, me and Lisa exchanged triumphant looks.
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