Cindy decided to spend the rest of the afternoon looking over each room in the house, examining Dalia’s photo albums, and reading the articles Dalia had collected from many newspapers and magazines.
The articles all basically said the same thing: that Ames had been a good man and the search for him came up with nothing. There was lots of speculation about what happened though. Most agreed there had been an accident, Ames had probably drowned at sea. Cindy shivered when she read that -- it was so reminiscent of Clint. Apparently, Ames spent a great deal of time on his boat sailing, both with friends and alone. The day he disappeared, his boat was found unmoored in the waters, drifting alone. That was the main clue they focused on.
The afternoon he disappeared had suddenly grown windy and many thought Ames might have been drinking and fallen over board. Some suggested that he was out on deck, near the edge of the boat and had a dizzy spell. A couple of articles quoted Ames’s physicians saying that he’d complained of dizziness in the past month or so. One article speculated about suicide.
But there was no note, nor had Ames ever displayed any signs of depression. Everyone said he was vibrant and active, involved in life to the brim, and that his cargo fleet was thriving. No one could even think of any enemies he might have had, who would have made life hard for him.
It was all just a little too perfect for Cindy -- not only the articles, but the intense foliage, beaches and beauty of the island. Cindy couldn’t help but wonder what lay under the veneer of this ideal life that Ames had publicly constructed. It wasn’t hard for Cindy to imagine that someone here on the island might have wanted to do him harm.
Cindy read through the articles a couple of times. Everything seemed set in stone. She couldn’t allow these pieces to prejudice her, or close her mind to other possibilities. Dalia was right to bring in someone new, someone who didn’t know Ames or the island.
Dalia was mostly silent at dinner with Cindy on the patio. She seemed tired and uneasy, picking at her food and attempting small talk without much success. A small muscle under her eye twitched and stopped and then started again. Now that Cindy had settled in, and the excitement of her arrival had passed, it was as if a cloud had come over Dalia. All during dinner she seemed to be in a fog. Cindy well understood what she must be feeling.
“It’s okay,” Cindy had said to her at one point, “we can eat quietly. I know how hard it can be to keep up social chatter after something like this. ”
Dalia looked at her appreciatively. “You’re kind, Cindy,” she said softly, “and you’re smart.” Then she handed her plate to Rosa, who slid on and off the patio, bringing food and taking it away.
Cindy couldn’t quite get used to Rosa, the way she appeared from out of nowhere and then disappeared into the background again. She never smiled and still hadn’t met Cindy’s glance.
“Rosa’s odd,” Cindy said to Dalia, after Rosa had left the patio, her hands full of plates.
“No, she’s just very quiet and shy. Rosa was badly beaten as a child, when Ames found her and took her into his home and rescued her from hell. She’s worked for him as a housekeeper for years, but he’s like a father to her, and she adores him. She’s very upset and confused that he’s missing now. ”
“I guess so,” Cindy said and the two of them finished their dinners, in silence.
After dinner, before going to bed, Cindy took a long bath in the wonderful Jacuzzi in her room. She appreciated the time alone and being able to unwind. When she got out of the bath, she dried herself, slipped into a flowing robe and looked at herself in the long mirror on the wall. To her surprise, she looked quite different from even a few months ago. Her long blonde hair was still thick and wavy, but the young, slightly hesitant woman with the fluttering eyes that used to greet her in the mirror had disappeared. She looked taller, more shapely and forceful. Her eyes were clearer and her lips fuller as well. Cindy barely recognized herself for a moment. There had been an incredible transformation, and she felt it was far from over yet.
She turned away from the mirror and went out onto her patio. Incredible stars spread over the sky, like a sparkling canopy of light, greeting her. Gazing up at the sky, Cindy thought about how much Clint would have loved it here. They would have gone snorkeling, listened to Calypso, gone to a fine restaurant, danced, made love.
Cindy could almost feel his energy around her, and wondered if he had any idea of where she was now and what she was doing. Clint had always loved Cindy’s adventurous spirit, but neither of them ever imagined she’d be involved in solving crimes. Would he think she was crazy taking this case on? Or would he approve of her coming back down to the Caribbean, trying to help? It seemed natural to her, as if her own life had prepared her for this unexpected next step. It seemed impossible to return to life as she knew it. And she couldn’t imagine what else she could be doing.
It was destiny, Cindy then decided, that had brought her down here now.