Chapter Ten
Despite everything, I couldn’t resist. It was too beautiful, the pull of the Atlantic too great to keep me away. The sand glittered like a thousand gems in a setting, with the crystal ocean as its centre piece. The sun glowed and burned as it pushed that rich azure towards me.
The beach was dotted with sunbathers, dozing or reading, sipping rum cocktails. They weren’t concerned with a murder investigation, they didn’t care about anything but their tan lines on this morning. Children screamed and darted past me, water wings flapping in the wind, their excited faces painted white with sun lotion.
The hotel only offered all-inclusive, so we had to pretend this was a holiday, but I had never thought about the possibility of any of these trips being an actual holiday. The very thought made me disgusted at my insensitivity.
Something was a little different now though, some of the puzzle was slotting together. If Jarl really had killed Angelica, it meant a lot. There was no doubt he belonged where he did, and it would be a long time before he got out of there. After the scene he had created yesterday he was being regularly sedated and physically restrained. The events of yesterday seemed impossible now, as I looked out over that vast expanse of turquoise.
I strode confidently across the beach, my snorkel mask gripped in one hand. I slipped my feet into the gentle waves, tiny rocks and pale sand. I laughed as a child splashed and paddled past me. Despite the heat, the water was still cold, and it was refreshing, I sank further into it.
The ocean floor gave way as soon as I started swimming, it’s always an amazing feeling of freedom for me, swimming out of my depth, especially in the ocean. It’s a tiny slice of excitement that is easy to achieve, seeing miles of open space in front of you and feeling nothing below you. I stayed where I was just looking out at several wind surfers, treading water and letting the warming sensation fill me now that I was used to the temperature.
As I descended under the gentle waves I opened my eyes, a small grey fish wriggled past me. I took the snorkel mask from around my neck and practised breathing for a little while before submerging myself, with another little thrill of excitement. It was safe excitement this time, something I welcomed.
There were fish darting in and out of the rocks far beneath me, more tiny shimmering grey ones, and large yellow fish with open mouths, bobbing along peacefully, glancing at me briefly. The rocks formed caves and arches for shelter, another city what felt like miles below. The fish retreated from my path into the safe holes as I cast a dark shadow over their world.
There was something coloured a dull pink hiding under a larger rock, I wondered if it was a crab, the ones which I had seen so far were small, scuttling along the seabed with that look of urgency which I find fascinating. This one seemed much bigger, I swam on, I’m always eager for a story about bravery when facing giant creatures which could kill me, slightly exaggerated of course.
Something streamed out in the water, some kind of plant life, loose tendrils of seaweed, except that it was a dark brown.
Then the water started to flood my lungs. The dull pink I had seen was skin. The streams of seaweed were hair, hair streaming out from a face, the bloated and decaying face of Marietta Benavente. Two open eyes stared up at me from within the mass of flesh, they were glassy and blank, jagged flaps of skin swayed with the hair around the neck, a beetle crawled from her nostril.
I tried to yell out but my mouth filled with water at an increasing speed, I ripped the snorkel mask from my face and I tried to swim back to the surface. The cold panic started to fill me as my arms grew heavy, heavy and head like the mass of hair and bone staring up at me. Her empty eyes were pulling me back down, calling to me.
I awoke to disjointed pink spots floating across my eye line, my water logged ears heard my name.
‘Lawrence,’ it was calm, but serious, concerned but controlled. I coughed and water dribbled down my chest. My lungs were on fire and I couldn’t move my legs, the effort of trying hurt too much to try again. All I could feel was the numb cold and the burning, the hard ache that seemed to slow my heart as I tried to breathe.
‘Give him some room,’ the calm voice commanded. I heard other voices then too, speaking lowly. The pink spots dissolved as the voices quietened, I saw anxious faces in their place. My fingers flexed briefly, I was afraid I would be paralysed again, so I used all my effort to grab out. I made contact with Lisa’s wrist.
I tried to speak, I tried to tell her what I had seen, but there was a sharp stab in my throat as I squeezed out a coarse groan. I coughed again and the water that escaped me burned like alcohol.
‘Lisa,’ I scratched out eventually.
The sunlight was so painful I closed my eyes again, but I saw her face, her eyes darting to the watching crowd. When I closed my eyes I saw the other face, eyes staring at the sky, hair streaming out, the deep blue tainting her features. The jagged cuts.
The jagged cuts. I had read that police file a hundred times, a weapon of bone or ivory, in every murder but one. A realisation crept over me like a putrid fog I had been ignoring.
‘Don’t try to speak,’ Lisa said, and I felt her comforting hands touching me, holding me. The strangers were leaving now, they didn’t even throw me a second glance, their own blurred shapes fading into the scenery. I gripped Lisa’s wrist tighter and tried to pull myself up.
‘You’re hurting me,’ she complained, it was the same wrist that Jarl had grabbed yesterday. Jarl, I felt sick.
‘The cuts,’ a voice like my own but reduced to a harsh rasp, Lisa looked about her with nervous eyes. ‘A weapon of bone or ivory.’ Every word was harder to push out, but I needed to speak, it needed to be said.
‘He did it with his teeth, God, Lisa, he did it with his teeth!’ And I slumped back into the sand.
*
The memory of the cold water was still hurting me hour later. I lay on my hard bed shivering, sudden cold ripples flowing over me. I felt like my body temperature had been permanently altered, this was all there was now, I would remain this way for the rest of my life, cold and frightened.
I saw Jarl’s honest grin when I closed my eyes, I saw his eyes go dark as he grabbed Lisa and then I saw his eyes change into those blank staring ones. It was then that my eyes flew open and I had to look around the room, to make sure I was really awake. This routine went on for what felt like hours, until I couldn’t even close my eyes at all and I just stared into the dark hoping sleep would come eventually, if I lay here long enough.
I slipped out of bed and tiptoed across the room, I knew Lisa wasn’t sleeping either because I didn’t hear the deep breathing that always follows our brief good nights. I still had the memory of her comforting hands, of all the things that were burnt into my mind, I was glad of that one. I wanted hold her, to let her know without words that I believed her and I was there for her. More than anything I wanted to be next to someone warm.
She shifted in position when I crawled under the covers but she didn’t speak. I slid my arm around her and she turned to face me. I pulled her closer and my heart was still hurting me when it tried to beat faster. We were almost nose to nose, and I put my face into her hair, her pillow and her cheek were wet and she still smelt like the beach and the sea.
That sweet salty smell made me shiver again and I was nearly overcome until she kissed me, and for a brief moment none of our misery existed.
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