Rising Tide Read online

  ‘Wearing?’ Joanne said, as if offended. ‘Well, he was dressed like all the rest of them. Pants and a shirt, light colors, but I couldn’t really tell what they were – as I said, my—’

  ‘Why do you ask, Peggy?’ Annie asked before Joanne could mention her eyes again.

  ‘Oh, I’m sure it’s nothing.’ Peggy looked thoughtful for a moment. ‘Just, I saw this young guy on the path. He looked sort of familiar so I figured he was staff, but there was something—’

  ‘Well, I didn’t see them near the bay beach,’ Joanne said, not wanting to lose the spotlight. ‘I asked this policeman why, what did the bay beach have to do with this and he said something about a missing gold bracelet. Don’t ask me what that’s all about, but they seemed mighty interested in it.’

  Annie looked at Martin and then at Emily.

  ‘Joanne, my father had that eye surgery,’ Emily said, wanting to change the subject.

  ‘Really, my dear, and how …’ Joanne immediately engaged Emily in a discussion about her father’s operation, tuning out the rest of the conversation at the table, but in the background Emily could hear Sarah and Alice’s questioning about the bracelet and Annie’s response: ‘I think it’s best if we leave that until later.’

  The rest of the dinner was eaten in relative quiet. There was great disappointment on both Annie and Martin’s faces with Joanne’s answer. You could see how much they had hoped that this might be a break in the case. There was also a noticeable frustration with Joanne and her self-centered chatter. Alice could barely acknowledge her, but Joanne was oblivious.

  ‘Alice,’ she said towards the end of dinner, ‘I thought I’d go into Oranjestad tomorrow. I can’t bear how dreary it is here. Why don’t you join me? We can go to your shop, Sarah.’

  ‘I don’t think I’ll be opening tomorrow, Aunt Joanne. Most of my regulars expect me to be away and I think I’ll take the time.’

  ‘And I promised Joe we would spend the day at the beach,’ Alice said.

  ‘Really, well, it looks like I’ll be on my own. Martin, would you have Nelson drive me?’

  ‘I don’t think I can spare Nelson tomorrow, Joanne. We’re opening up the dining room and with all that’s happened there’s a great deal—’

  ‘That’s fine,’ Joanne said in a huff. ‘I’ll call a taxi.’

  ‘You don’t have to do that, Joanne. I’ll ask Penny to arrange one for you. I’m sorry …’

  But Joanne had stopped listening.

  Beyond that, everyone seemed emotionally unable to talk about the events of the day and it didn’t seem as if any other topic was quite worthy of being discussed. People ate in a desultory manner, hardly tasting the food and keeping their eyes mostly on the table. Sarah asked about a few of the wedding guests and Annie talked to Martin a bit about plans for the next day, but the only real relief was provided by Maggie who gurgled and smiled, playing clap hands with her mother and peek-a-boo with Sarah. Emily was greatly relieved when the phone rang. Martin spoke quietly for a few minutes and then said, ‘It’s for you, Emily. It’s Thomas.’

  EIGHTEEN

  Emily quickly said her goodnights to the group as she headed out to meet Thomas. Peggy and Maggie left with her − it was easy to see that they were both exhausted. ‘Eight o’clock is beyond her bedtime,’ Peggy said. ‘And with no nap. Maybe she’ll sleep late in the morning.’

  It was dark as they walked down the path to the main house. The light in Reception was the only one on. The interviews must be over, Emily thought. She could see Penny sitting working at her desk. It was strange to see the darkened dining room and the lights on the terraces turned off – usually their glow would illuminate the path. Dinner was available at the beach bar, but it was a quiet affair with no steel band or flaming torchlights in the sand. A few people lingered over coffee, but for the most part the resort seemed almost empty.

  ‘Did Thomas say how the afternoon had gone?’ Peggy asked.

  Emily shook her head. ‘We didn’t really talk. I think he had just left Kat and Christiaan’s. He went with them to ID the body.’ Even the thought of that made Emily shudder. ‘He sounds exhausted. He had one more call to make, to the chief, I think, and then he was heading over here. I’m going to meet him at the gate.’

  Emily noticed how dark the path down to their rooms by the bay beach was. She had never noticed that before. Were some of the lights out, she wondered, or perhaps it was just the lack of light in the dining room? ‘I have time,’ she said. ‘I could walk down with you.’

  ‘No, you don’t need to bother,’ Peggy answered. ‘Martin gave me this penlight to make my way.’ She flashed its small beam ahead of her. It made a bright but narrow circle. ‘And once I get down there, the suites’ outside lights should be on. Maybe the darkness will put Maggie to sleep. She’s already in her pyjamas. Then I could just lift her into her crib.’ She paused. ‘I asked Thomas about Maggie and me leaving. He said he hoped we wouldn’t, not just yet. I told him how Ted felt, that he wanted us home. He said he didn’t know if he could force us to stay, but could we at least give him one more day.’

  ‘What will you do?’

  ‘I don’t know … I’ll decide tomorrow. I like Thomas, Emily. I know this isn’t the time to be thinking about this, but I hope things work out for the two of you.’

  ‘Thanks, Peggy,’ Emily said. ‘I should go; he’s probably out there by now.’

  Neither of them noticed the figure who stood listening in the shadows of a nearby shed. Wearing black pants and a black long-sleeved shirt, he was almost invisible. His eyes were alert and intense as he watched them standing at the fork.

  That makes my choice a lot easier, he thought as he watched them part. He would follow the one with the baby. He made his way slowly, his feet barely touching the ground. He stayed close to the bushes, skirting the bar where people sat. He was careful not to rustle the leaves of the plants or step on fallen twigs. The night was eerily quiet. He stayed a short distance behind, keeping her in his sight. He needed to know which room was hers – just in case.

  The path leading to the front gate was also dark and Emily turned back to check how Peggy and Maggie were doing. She couldn’t see them at all – even the beam of light had been swallowed up by the night. Heavy clouds shrouded the moon and somewhere a dog howled. Emily shivered in spite of the warmth of the night.

  Thomas was waiting by the gate, his car parked nearby. ‘Emily,’ he said, pulling her towards him. ‘Oh, Emily.’ He hugged her, and for a few minutes said nothing.

  ‘I’m sure it was awful for you, Thomas.’

  ‘It was, but you can’t imagine what it was like for Christiaan and Katrien. Can we walk for a bit?’

  As they headed down the path, Thomas talked, almost compulsively. ‘Their child, so young and beautiful,’ he said, his head shaking and bent. ‘I will never get used to this. I don’t know how these parents can do it.’

  ‘They have no choice. They have to—’

  ‘Yes, someone has to ID the body, but you can’t understand what it’s like.’ Thomas’ voice was strained, raspy. ‘The initial shock is always devastating, but then it becomes this intimate moment − they want to touch her, to stroke her face and talk to her, to tell her how much they loved her … to say goodbye.’ Thomas shuddered.

  Emily could feel the tears slipping down her face. She gripped his hand and held on tightly. They had reached the sea wall. ‘Why don’t we sit?’

  Darkness surrounded them, but somehow that made talking easier. ‘Do you know anything more, Thomas?’

  ‘Not much. The interviews at Manchebo Beach have yielded nothing. No one heard anything; no one saw anything. We found the maintenance guy from the resort next door and the beach tennis players. Nothing. The CCTV cameras were pretty useless. Most of them are trained on the hotel and shop entrances, some on the parking lots. No one really monitors the beach and, even if they did, I don’t think we’d find anything.’

  ‘How did the interviews here
go?’

  ‘Pretty much the same. People saw Ariana − walking the baby, playing with her on the beach, but not much else. We’re going to do some follow-up tomorrow. One person, Martin’s sister-in-law, might have seen something, but—’

  ‘I heard. She was at dinner. She said she saw a young man with Ariana, but then went on and on about her eyes not being good. I think Annie was ready to kill her—’

  ‘She was the same with Detective Keary. Couldn’t get her to focus on the question or give a simple answer. We’ll interview her again tomorrow.’

  ‘At dinner, she did mention something about the bracelet.’ Emily said this carefully, knowing what Thomas’ reaction might be.

  ‘What … goddammit. I specifically said no mention of the bracelet. What in the hell … Who did the interview?’

  ‘I’m not sure. Didn’t think to ask. But she didn’t seem to have any idea what it was about so I doubt she’ll say anything to anyone.’

  ‘I’ll find out more about it later. The team is meeting back at headquarters to review all the interviews.’

  ‘What will you do next?’

  ‘Well, the Van Meeterens talked a little about changes they’d seen in Ariana recently. Small stuff mostly. Breaking up with her boyfriend − nice kid, local. They went to school together. They said she used to be crazy about him, but then about a month ago she didn’t want to see him anymore. Poor kid was heartbroken.’

  Emily wondered if it was the young man she had seen on TV attaching the photo to the wreath. ‘Nothing more painful than a teenage crush,’ she said, but the poor boy was dealing with a lot more than that.

  ‘I had to ask them if he was the jealous type. They looked shocked. Christiaan especially. They insisted no, but we’ll have to interview him first thing in the morning. And then there’s school itself. Ariana had always been a great student. Good grades, really involved. She was going to look at top-notch American colleges. But recently she seemed less interested in activities; her grades were slipping. They chalked it up to senior year. Their older girls had gone through it, but now they’re not so sure.’

  ‘It is something high-school seniors go through,’ Emily said. ‘I remember it with my sisters and brother. It would start in late October, when the thrill of being seniors wore off, and from then till March keeping them interested was like pulling teeth. I think a lot of it was the whole college application stuff – such pressure.’

  ‘Well, tomorrow we’ll start in-depth interviews with all her school friends. I’m not looking forward to it. It’s hard with these kids. Some of them will be so upset, they can’t even think let alone answer, and some won’t want to say anything. Even if they feel it’s something we should know, they feel they’re betraying their friend.’

  ‘Did she have friends outside school?’

  ‘A couple but mostly school friends; a crowd she hung out with. Christiaan also said she had missed a couple of curfews recently. Not by much, but that wasn’t like her. They went pretty light on it; it had happened with their older girls.’

  ‘Was there any mention of the bracelet?’

  ‘I didn’t ask about it again; more important to keep them talking. But as I was leaving, Christiaan said, “About that bracelet – we’ve never seen it before.”

  ‘We’ll have to ask her friends about it, so you have to be ready, Emily. Once we do that, we know it will get out and we’d like to be the ones to put it out there. For now, we’ll try to keep the inscription and your name out of it, but I’m not sure how long we can get away with that.’

  ‘It doesn’t matter, Thomas. The only thing that matters now is finding who did this.’

  Thomas rubbed his eyes. ‘I better get back. I’m sure the others will be there and we have a lot of interviews to go over. I’ll walk you back to your room.’

  ‘You don’t have to do that. I’m fine. You should go.’

  ‘No, I’d like to – it’s so dark. Martin should put more lights along this path. And anyway, this will give me a couple more minutes before I have to face …’ His voice trailed off.

  ‘Oh, Thomas, I almost forgot. Peggy mentioned something at dinner about seeing a young man on the path on Friday when she was heading to rehearsal. He wasn’t with Ariana, but she said there was something about him—’

  ‘OK,’ he answered but his voice sounded dispirited. ‘I’ll have someone talk to her in the morning.’

  They walked quietly along the path. It did seem darker than usual, Emily thought, and the outside lights to her and Peggy’s suites were out. She considered saying something to Thomas but knew it would only delay him. ‘Goodnight, Thomas. Try to get some sleep. Tomorrow—’

  ‘I know,’ he said, kissing her lightly on the lips. ‘Goodnight, Emily.’ And he turned and walked back up the path.

  It was only as Emily turned on the inside light that she noticed the shattered glass on the doorstep.

  NINETEEN

  Monday morning dawned, brutally hot. Thomas arrived at headquarters at six-thirty, and didn’t know why he had even bothered to go home. The desk sergeant was waiting, his face glum.

  ‘That bad?’ Thomas enquired as he picked up the stack of morning papers. ‘Is everyone inside?’

  ‘All there. Should I hold any calls?’

  ‘Please,’ Thomas answered, opening the conference room door.

  They sat around the table poring over the papers. The headlines were as gruesome as they imagined they would be − ‘Beauty on the Beach’, ‘Washed Up.’ One of the papers made reference to the island’s previous cases with a glaring ‘Not Again,’ and even the more staid headline, ‘Body Washes Ashore on Manchebo Beach’ appeared in one-inch type. Most of them featured a picture of Ariana; in one she was in a bathing suit.

  Thomas groaned, looking at them and imaging the Van Meeterens’ anguish this morning. Hopefully they wouldn’t see the papers, but they’d be hard to miss. ‘OK, everyone take one and comb through those stories. See if there’s anything in there that we’ve missed. Any name mentioned that we don’t have. Any detail we’ve overlooked. See if there’s any creep who’s come out from under a rock for a little publicity.’

  He grabbed the top one and opened to page two. ‘What the hell!’ he screamed, holding the paper up to his men. There, in color, was a picture of Ariana’s body lying on the beach. ‘How the hell did this happen?’ He slammed his hand down on the table. ‘I said no pictures.’

  His men just stared blankly back. ‘It’s not one of ours,’ Hendricks said after a minute. ‘It must have been someone with a cell phone or a long lens camera from the Bucuti resort.’

  Thomas glared at him.

  ‘Look, Chief, you know it’s almost impossible to stop that these days.’

  ‘You call them. Find out where the hell they got this picture. Put some pressure on. I want answers – now.’

  Hendricks shook his head as the rest of them turned back to the newspapers.

  ‘Anything?’ Thomas asked.

  ‘There’s a quote here from some guy who says he saw a guy and girl arguing over by Palm Beach, and another who saw the same thing on Eagle,’ Millard said. ‘Want me to check ’em out?’

  ‘Yep. I want everything checked.’

  ‘Uh oh,’ Keary said. ‘There’s someone here who says he saw Ariana at Charlie’s late on Saturday night. He gives a description of her doing shots. Another one, a girl, says she saw her outside.’

  ‘Oh, come on.’ Thomas threw down the paper he was reading. ‘Why don’t we have that? How is it that the newspapers are printing that stuff and we don’t have it? Check with the desk and see if any of those calls that came in were about Charlie’s. Have all those calls been followed up?’

  Keary could almost see the veins popping in Thomas’ neck. ‘Not all of them. I’ll check what hasn’t been done.’

  He left the room and returned a minute later. ‘Sorry, Chief,’ he said, coming back into the room. ‘One was about a sighting at Charlie’s but it came in late last n
ight.’

  ‘I don’t give a damn how late it came in. I said I wanted everything, everything followed up, and not a day later. We can’t afford this. Get on it.’

  Thomas tried to calm down; he knew barking at everyone wasn’t going to help. ‘OK, let’s draw up a plan for the day. Keary, you check on those leads at Charlie’s, track those people down and find out what they saw. And Hendricks, don’t bother trying to go after the newspaper for that picture. They won’t tell you anyway. No sense wasting our time.’ Thomas could sense the decrease in tension in the room. ‘Keary, you head over to San Nicolas. Check out the other places on the street. If she really was in the area, we want to know about it.’

  ‘Right, Chief,’ Keary responded.

  ‘Hendricks, we’ll start on the list of kids. I’ll take the boyfriend first. Andrew Marsden.’ He looked down at the list. ‘You take the two girls who were her best friends, Ashruf and de Veer. Is Turner at the Van Meeterens’?’

  ‘She is, been there since six,’ Hendricks answered, heading out the door.

  Thomas called Grace Turner as he drove. ‘Everything quiet there?’

  ‘So far, just one truck and a couple of cars, but that won’t last long.’ Grace was a top detective. On the force for a little over five years, she was smart and proactive but also intuitive and caring. On top of that, she was a knock-out and that made her perfect for undercover work. With her face and figure nobody would suspect her of being a cop. Thomas had relied on her in a lot of difficult spots and she had always come through.

  ‘OK, just make sure they don’t get too close.’

  He pulled up in front of the Marsdens − a pleasant house with a small front garden, a wide porch and bright blue shutters, modest compared to the Van Meeterens’. A middle-aged woman sat on the porch looking at the morning paper. ‘Mrs Marsden?’ Thomas asked, extending his hand. ‘Chief Inspector Thomas Moller.’

  ‘I’ve been expecting you, Inspector.’ She put down the newspaper. ‘I didn’t want to read it inside. Andrew is so upset,’ she said, wringing her hands. ‘I imagine you’re here to talk to him?’