A chill ran through Cindy’s spine.
Suddenly, it hit her. The light shone. Was it possible that she was covering up the truth of a marriage that had gone terribly bad? Did Dalia call Cindy down to Grenada to make herself look eager to find Ames, to cover everything up?
“What are you doing?” came a voice.
Cindy screamed and spun around.
Dalia was standing at the door. Her face was white and her hair was piled up high on her head.
Cindy furtively crammed the album back behind the wall, reached out and grabbed her charger and displayed it.
“Just getting my charger,” she said, in a chipper tone, hoping she hadn’t seen the album.
Apparently, she hadn’t. She turned and looked away.
“Sit down with me,” Dalia said, bitterly, and walked over to the bed, sitting on its edge.
Cindy’s heart pounded inside her, as she slowly walked over and sat beside her.
How could she have written these letters to herself? She wondered. There was only one explanation: she was a split personality, psychotic. She wrote letters to herself and believed they were coming from someone else.
And if she was psychotic, what else had she done? Killed her husband?
Cindy wanted to flee, but sat there, quietly.
“This is a whole new situation,” Dalia started.
“Yes, it is,” said Cindy.
“They’re positive it’s his body,” Dalia spoke blandly, “I’ve been on the phone with them. It must have been an accident. A terrible accident. ”
“You don’t think someone else on the island may have done it?” Cindy asked quietly.
“NO,” Dalia said emphatically, stamping her foot. “I thought they may have had something to do with his being missing, not being dead. I never expected to find a body. Never. ”
Nobody expects that, Cindy thought, remembering when she’d heard that Clint’s body had washed up to shore. It was an indescribable moment, when the whole world as you knew it completely disappears.
The more Dalia spoke, the more Cindy heard the craziness in her voice. What she was really capable of?
Her body shaking, Cindy stood up and went back to the wall. She extracted the album. She had to know the truth. Cindy was fearless now, and couldn’t hide from it. She had to confront Dalia.
Cindy looked up and over at Dalia. “Was this Ames’s handwriting?” she said.
Dalia flushed at the sight of the book.
“Where did you find that?” she asked.
“Is it?” Cindy asked again.
Dalia scowled. “What a cruel thing to say!” she burst out.
“These love notes,” Cindy went on. “You wrote them to yourself, didn’t you?”
At that Dalia raised her hands as if to lunge at Cindy. “You’re a monster, a witch.”
Dalia yelled, hurried over, and snatched the book from Cindy’s hands.
Cindy felt her skin crawl.
“GET THE HELL OUT OF MY HOUSE!” Dalia suddenly roared, spit flying from her mouth.
Heart pounding, Cindy grabbed her suitcase and fled from the room. She hurried down hallway after hallway, hearing footsteps behind her, and prayed that she would get out of there with her life.
CHAPTER 19
Cindy got into a taxi filled with alarm. Why hadn’t she realized the truth sooner? If only she’d picked up the little signs.
“The Grand Hotel,” she told the driver.
She was relieved to get away from Dalia for now, but had no intention of leaving the island. This case was far from finished. Cindy knew the Captain hadn’t done it, but needed more specific facts about Dalia and her life.
She texted Mattheus to let him know where she was going and watched the landscape blur by as if in a dream. Would those love letters be considered proof? Were they enough to get the Captain off the hook?
The taxi pulled up to the rolling entrance of the hotel, Cindy got out, got her bags and checked in. Then the porter took her to a beautiful room on the second floor. Her room overlooked palm trees, sand and water and reminded her very much of the room she and Clint had shared on their honeymoon. The shock of seeing the truth about Dalia, shook her to her core. Her heart felt like it weighed a thousand pounds. She sat down on the edge of the bed, and couldn’t move. She couldn’t even unpack.
Cindy sat there for what seemed like eternity, until she heard a knock on her door. She got up, opened it up and Mattheus stood there. .
He walked in quickly, unnerved. “What are you doing here?”
“The case—” she began.
“Take a deep breath,” he interrupted, holding up a hand. “Case closed.”
“What?” Cindy said, shocked.
“The Captain is being arrested as we speak. Police got the crew talking. They led us to drugs all over the boat. Ames fired the Captain when he found out about the stash. Drugs were one thing Ames wanted no part of. The Captain went nuts when he was fired. We have the first hand evidence we need. ”
“That doesn’t link the Captain to the murder, necessarily,” Cindy said.
“Pretty close,” said Mattheus. “What’s wrong?”