“He lied and cheated. You didn’t deserve it,” Cindy was relentless. “Especially after you gave him all that money.”
“No, I didn’t deserve it,” Dalia yelled, “he was mean to me, cruel to me, made a fool of me with everyone. He didn’t come home, he went with others. He laughed at me when I asked him where he was. He used me, like all the other guys used me. Then, when I told him I had no more money for him, he had the nerve to ask me for a divorce!”
Cindy was amazed. Dalia had lied to her all along.
“It was too much. I couldn’t let it happen. There’s only so much a person can take. ”
“It was one failure too many for you,” Cindy continued, “You felt you’d never find the love you needed in this world.”
At that Dalia dipped into her bag and pulled out a long, glistening knife, and held it up above her head.
Cindy gasped, and stepped back. But she couldn’t let this go: she was determined to get to the truth. “Did you stab Ames, too?”
“I wanted to,” Dalia said, “right in the heart, but I didn’t have to. I just took him out on our sailboat and put something in his drink. He got dizzy, and I sailed the boat to a stone tunnel at the edge of Sculpture Park. By then he was practically unconscious. I just tipped the boat over enough to get him out of it and held his head under the water for a few minutes. He floated a little and then I stuffed his body into the tunnel. It wasn’t hard. He fit there perfectly. ”
Cindy could barely catch her breath.
“It was a narrow tunnel, and there was no way, I thought, he could get out. Shallow water came in and out, and there were lots of fish there that could eat him. I thought his body would disappear in time. ”
“Dalia, stop! Enough!” Cindy shouted. She thought of Clint, and his body, and she couldn’t bear to hear any more details.
“I had no choice then—and I don’t have a choice now!” Dalia said raising her arm higher. “You have a right to know what happened before you die, too. I owe you this at least. ”
“You knew what you were doing each step of the way?” Cindy asked incredulous.
“I called you down to Grenada to make it look like I was doing everything I could to find Ames. I thought you would fail. I didn’t think there was a way his body could ever get loose and wash up on shore. ”
“But it did,” said Cindy.
“You did it!” Dalia turned on her. “You found it and pulled it out!
“Dalia, give me the knife,” said Cindy. “You don’t want to do this again.”
Dalia laughed oddly then, twirling her head back and forth. “I do, I do,” she shrieked piercingly, “I have a right to be free, to be happy. And you have no right to live anymore. You disappointed me, Cindy. Disappointed me deeply! And I thought you were a good friend!”
Cindy gasped as Dalia inched closer.
“And now you force me to do this on you,” said Dalia. “You’ve turned into a traitor right in front of my eyes.”
Dalia plunged forward and Cindy ducked, her heart beating wildly.
“He deserved to die and so do you now,” Dalia spoke wildly, her eyes huge with rage and delight. “What choice do I have? People disappoint me. Everyone disappoints me, sooner or later. Even you!”
Then she grabbed Cindy’s arm with incredible force and spun her around, getting her in the perfect position.
Caught in Dalia’s grasp Cindy thought about the suffering Clint must have gone through as his life was taken from him. She was now experiencing the same thing, but to Cindy’s amazement, death didn’t frighten her. Neither did this crazy woman or her fierce rage. Cindy was glad to be able to step into the darkness and overcome it with courage and strength.
“You won’t get away with this, Dalia,” Cindy uttered, in pain.
“That’s what you think, idiot!” Dalia spit back. “You’ll be dead and I’ll be free of you. I’m meant to be free and live a life of beauty. You could have had a wonderful life down here too, but you turned on me!
You’re just jealous because nobody ever wrote you love letters like mine. There’s no one in your life who loves you like that. ” And she pressed Cindy’s arm harder. “There never was and now, there never will be. But I’ll always have that special person to write love letters to me. ”
Dalia squeezed Cindy’s arm harder, and harder then, pressing her to the ground.
Cindy screamed, kicked at her feet, wrenched her arm, and then, just in time, saw Mattheus running out from the rocks, to grab the knife out of Dalia’s trembling hand.
Dalia stared at him unbelievingly.
“What the hell are you doing here?” she lashed out.
Mattheus pushed her down on the sand, and pulled her arms behind her back as she groaned.
Cindy watched Mattheus handcuff Dalia as she thrashed around. For a second Cindy flashed back to Dalia as a young girl, the two of them sitting on the stoop, filled with dreams, and hopes. How had it come to this? That was the true mystery.