“She told you that?”

“Yes. She tell me that. And she tell me more.”

“What? What did she tell you?”

“She tell me this man in love with her, too.”

“I don’t think that’s true.”

“Then why that man spend so much time with her?”

“What time? How much time? How do you know he spent any time at all with her? We arrived the day before she was killed.”

“You and Mr. Henshaw arrived the day before she was killed. But Mr. and Mrs. Gordon. They arrive before you.”

“That’s true. But still… they got here in the middle of the day. And they went into town for dinner that first night.”

“They go into town for dinner because Mr. Jerry Gordon did not want to see Ms. Allison McAllister. At least, that what she say.”

“To who? Whom? Whom did she say that to?” Susan finally managed to ask a question in what she hoped was a grammatical manner.

“She say that to him.”

Lourdes was working on Susan’s left ankle, and for a moment, Susan couldn’t believe what she had heard. “To him? Allison said that to him? When?”

“When she saw him in office. I was there. I help out in office sometimes in evening when my massage appointments finished and Lila want to take a break or need to check on work in kitchen.”

“They came in together?” Susan asked.

“No, no. Your friend, Mr. Jerry Gordon, come in first. He ask me to get a cab for him and his wife. They want to see the town is what he says.”

“So you called him a cab.”

“I call the company that this place recommends, and they say that they can send a car in half an hour. Mr. Jerry Gordon say that just fine and he will go tell his wife. But then, before he can leave, Ms. Allison McAllister come in.”

“Was she looking for him or did she just happen to come in at the same time?” Susan asked.

For the first time, Lourdes hesitated before answering. “I think she come in looking for him. She not seemed to be surprised that he there, and she start talking to him right away.”

“What did she say?”

“She say he not be able to run away from her again.”

“Again? You’re sure she said again?”

“I sure. Then he say that he come to island to be with his wife and he going to be with wife no matter what. And she say ha.”

“Ha! Like a sarcastic ha? Like she didn’t believe him?”

“She say ha. I do not know what she mean, but she look angry and he look angry. And then he say that she should not be here. That she have things to do someplace else.”

“What? He said what?”

“He say that Ms. Allison McAllister should not be here. That Ms. Allison McAllister has things to do somewhere else.”

“And did she say anything to that?” Susan asked, hoping the answer was not another ha.

“She say that what he think and that he wrong. That she does have things to do and they have to be done here. And he say that she lied to him, that he was a fool, that he hoped she died. And he left. He angry,” Lourdes added in case Susan had missed the point.

Susan grabbed the towel to gain as much privacy as possible under the circumstances and rolled over onto her back. “Have you told the police any of this?”

“The police on this island are idiots. All idiots. I tell them nothing,” Lourdes answered proudly.

“Thank goodness for that,” Susan said.

“But James, he nearby in employees’ lounge. He hear, too. I do not know what he tell anyone.”

Susan rolled back over onto her stomach. She wasn’t relaxed. Her shoulders still ached. But she knew whom she had to see next.

TWENTY-FOUR

Unfortunately James wasn’t available. “Out teaching a guest to use a scuba tank,” the young man said. He had taken James’s place arranging towels on the chairs and lounges around the pool. “He be back soon, I hope. I’m running out of towels.”

Susan just smiled and continued on toward the resort’s office. If she couldn’t see James right away, she’d have to make do with Jerry.

Lila looked up from her paperwork and put a professional smile on her face when Susan walked in the open doorway of the resort’s small office. “Mrs. Henshaw. Can I help you?”

“I hope so. I want to see Jerry Gordon. Could you call me a taxi and then tell the driver where I’m going? I’m afraid I don’t know exactly where Jerry’s being held.”

“I would be happy to, but if he doesn’t know you’re coming, you may not be allowed to see him. It’s not open house down at the embassy, you know.”

Susan, who never knew exactly how to react to people who were polite by profession, realized that she didn’t like this woman very much. “I’ll take my chances,” she answered, smiling back.

“Then I’ll order you a taxi. Do you want the driver to wait for you, or would you rather call another cab when you want to return? Waiting costs next to nothing, I might add. There are few planes arriving at this time of the day, and the driver would most likely be idle if you weren’t using his services.”

“Then I’d like him to wait,” Susan decided. “I’ll just go get my purse and I’ll be back here in a moment.”

“That will be fine.”

Susan didn’t see either Jed or Kathleen on the way to her cottage. She took a few minutes to write Jed a message in his book telling him where she was going and what time she was leaving. Kathleen, she decided, would most likely figure it out on her own. The taxi was waiting for her when she arrived back at the office. She climbed in the back of the 1964 Chevrolet Biscayne and gasped as the driver zoomed off, causing a blizzard of coral pebbles to fly into the air behind them.

Since Susan and Jed had arrived at Compass Bay in the dark, this was the first time she was seeing any part of the island other than the resort itself or its neighboring beaches. She was stunned by its beauty and its poverty. The taxi driver sped down the narrow roads, inadequately paved and in danger of crumbling into the sandy soil or being reclaimed by indigenous tropical plants. Children, accompanied by scrawny dogs, hung out in bare yards around broken-down houses. Big black birds scavenged in open garbage cans. Just when Susan began to wonder where the town was located, they arrived in it.

The town was charming. Comprised of a few streets of brightly colored storefronts and open-air restaurants, it was only slightly more crowded than the country they had been passing through. At the end of the main street, a few buildings had been built from gray stone on an outcropping of rock over the ocean. The cab stopped in front of the largest of these buildings, and the driver turned around and smiled at Susan.

“I wait, yes?”

“Yes, you wait. I’ll be back soon.”

“Take your time,” he urged, helping her from the car. “Take your time.” He leaned against the hood of his car, crossed his arms, and closed his eyes.

Susan turned and walked up the stone steps to wooden French doors standing open to catch the breezes coming off the water. No one seemed to be around, and she continued on into the building, her sandals slapping on the tile floor. Susan walked down the long center hallway lined with offices. She peered in open doorways, seeing desks littered with papers, but the employees were evidently somewhere else.

Continuing on through the hallway, she came to another pair of French doors, which opened onto a large porch where a party was in progress. About thirty people were sitting around, talking, laughing, and consuming Danish pastry along with mugs of coffee and dainty glass cups filled with pink punch. Susan stopped, unwilling to break into the group. Jerry was being held somewhere in the building. She’d just go back outside and see if she could figure out where.

“May I help you?” A tall woman with long flowing gray hair and darkly tanned skin detached herself from the group and came up to Susan.

“I’m looking for Jerry Gordon. I understand he’s here somewhere.” Susan glanced at the happy gathering before continuing. “I’m Susan Henshaw. I’m a friend of Jerry-”