After the Storm (30 page)

‘I’ll never forget her,’ she said.

The motor vessel
Galaxy Wave
left from the dock near the airport at 7 a.m. It was a ninety minute crossing to La Ceiba on the Honduran mainland. They planned to get the first direct flight to Florida and they were the first in the queue on the dock. Behind them a line of local people with tired children and shabby luggage gradually grew in length. There were a few backpackers too. Owen kept looking over his shoulder, scanning the people behind them.

‘Is something up?’ Kim said.

‘I wanna get off the island as soon as we can.’

‘Me too. And you’ve got the money for the boat?’

‘Every last dollar,’ he said.

‘I’m sorry I couldn’t say goodbye to Rob and Anna and I’m glad you left that note.’

She took his right hand and kissed his palm and he smiled at the gesture and stroked her cheek, but he still looked on edge she thought. They were on their way home at last. He’d said they’d never come back to Roatán so there was no chance of them bumping into Gideon Carter, no chance of Gail letting out what had happened the night of the party. She had been spared. They had the money to buy her café and most important of all they were united again.

When Rob got up he found a piece of folded paper that had been pushed under the cabin door. He opened the paper. Inside was a wad of dollars and a note from Owen:

Kim and I had to go and I’m sorry we had to leave without saying goodbye. I’ve sold my boat and by the time you read this we’ll be gone. We cut your charter short so I’m leaving some dollars in case you want to leave early. We couldn’t stay on the island a moment longer after what had happened to Vivienne. I’m sorry. Owen

He was stunned. He read the note three times and counted the dollars. There were five hundred. He went into the bedroom and Anna was sitting up in her single bed with her book open but not reading. She looked strained, as she had for the last three days. He sat down on the edge of her bed and spread the dollars out and handed her Owen’s note. She looked at the money in puzzlement and read the note, turned it over and read it again.

‘They’ve gone,’ she said.

‘Yes, and left us five hundred dollars.’

She pushed the dollars away from her with a violent gesture.

‘Blood money!’

‘What do you mean?’

‘I think he stabbed Vivienne.’

‘That’s ridiculous.’

‘Is it? You weren’t here that night. He was hallucinating. And then he left the cabin with Kimberly’s knife. He came back covered in blood.’

They stared at each other. He shook his head emphatically.

‘I don’t believe it.’

‘Why have they gone so fast then?’

‘I don’t know.’

‘And left us money? He feels he owes us something.’

She looked so angry and disgusted.

‘They just cut and run,’ she said.

‘I saw Kim yesterday. I don’t think she had any idea they were leaving today,’ he said.

‘Well he wouldn’t tell her he killed Vivienne would he?’

‘No, you’ve got that all wrong.’

‘I don’t want to wait for our flight tomorrow. I don’t want to spend another minute in this horrible place.’

‘Nor do I.’

She jumped out of bed and he scooped up the dollars.

They showered and dressed quickly. Now they had decided to leave they both seemed anxious to waste no time. He put the dollars in the bag around his neck and pulled on a shirt. They packed their rucksacks and jumped every time they heard a cabin door bang in the wind.

‘I feel scared,’ Anna said as she pushed her notebook into the top of her rucksack.

‘We’ll walk down to town and get a taxi to the airport and get the first flight out of here,’ he said.

‘Yes.’

‘But he didn’t kill her Anna. I’m sure of that.’

They left the cabin where they had both been unhappy. Rob locked the door and slid the keys under the gap at the bottom. They walked down the hill to the town. Teyo was standing in Owen’s cabin and watched them leave. He had heard about the boat sale and had smashed his way into Owen’s cabin ten minutes earlier. He had seen that Owen and Kim were gone. He noticed that the two
Ingles
were carrying full rucksacks. They were on their way off the island.

At last a steward in a neon jerkin came down the steps of the ferry and moved towards the queue where Owen and Kim waited. He waved the passengers on board. They stood on deck and watched as the motor vessel moved away from Roatán. The weather was turning bad and a wind was whistling around the upper deck so they found seats in the large saloon below. Kim went to get them a coffee and Owen became aware of a man who was watching him. The man looked Garifuna and was dressed in working clothes, his blue jacket stained with oil. He had a large sad face and thick greying hair in tight curls and he was definitely looking at Owen. When Kim came back with the coffees he suggested they move to the other side of the saloon. They did this. A few minutes later he noticed that the man in the blue jacket had moved position too, was near them again and was looking at Kim now. Owen suspected he was one of Money Joe’s henchmen. He had a network of people on the island that he drew on to do his dirty work. He said quietly but insistently that Kim must give him her knife case.

‘Why are you asking?’

‘I won’t use it unless I have to but a man has been watching us since we got on the boat.’

‘Which man?’

‘Don’t look now. Blue jacket. I don’t like the way he’s been watching us.’

‘Why would he do that?’

‘Give me the knife, Kimmie.’

She heard the authority in his voice and unzipped her money belt and handed over her case. Owen opened it and took out the small sharp knife and held it up so that the blade caught the saloon’s overhead light. He looked over at the man who had been watching them and he held up the knife so that he could not fail to see it. If that man came near them and attacked them he would protect Kimmie and he felt an adrenaline surge making him feel powerful and almost complete. Kim looked over in the same direction and said:

‘Elroy?’

The man in the blue jacket nodded his large mournful shaggy head.

‘I know him,’ Kim said.

She got up and walked over and sat down next to him. They talked for a few minutes. To Owen’s astonishment he saw the man start to weep. Tears rolled down his creased cheeks as Kim patted his hand. Owen put the knife away in its case, feeling foolish. He got up and joined them.

‘Owen this is Elroy. He worked for Vivienne, looked after her buildings and her garden.’

Owen sat down next to Elroy.

‘Sorry buddy. I mistook you for someone else.’

‘It’s OK.’

Elroy brushed his sleeve across his eyes.

‘She was a very good woman. She helped me and my family very much,’ he said.

‘Elroy saw Olivier last night.’

Elroy nodded.

‘Poor broken boy,’ he said and his voice was rough.

‘He loved his mom so much,’ Kim said.

‘He need justice,’ Elroy said and he looked at Owen and then around the boat uneasily and then back at Owen.

‘Let’s go on deck,’ Owen said.

The three of them stood in a close knot on the deck. The wind was still fresh and there were few other people around.

‘What is it Elroy?’ Owen said.

Elroy held onto the guard rail and looked out at the sea. It was an age before he spoke.

‘Miss Vivienne, she got too close to Mr Carter,’ he said.

‘No…’ Kim whispered.

She seemed to shrink into herself as if in horror.

‘Why do you say that?’ Owen asked.

‘I saw them, once, at night, down by the harbour.’

‘Tell us.’

‘I see a couple kissing in an alcove. The man was holding the woman so tightly like he didn’t want to let her go.’

‘You’re sure it was them?’

‘I’m sure. Couldn’t mistake Miss Vivienne.’

‘When was this?’

‘Earlier this year.’

Kim’s head drooped.

‘And you never told anyone?’ Owen said.

‘No-one. You tell a secret like that and it makes big trouble. But I think Mrs Carter knew.’

Barbara Carter. Owen remembered someone telling him don’t underestimate Barbara Carter; said she was the smart and ruthless one in that marriage. And the words he’d heard at Money Joe’s house when he’d stood in the water frightened and ridiculous under the duckboards made perfect sense now.

‘So she noticed his wandering eye?’

‘Yeah, finally…’

‘She’ll pay for that.’

What lengths would Barbara Carter go to, to hang onto her husband? Gideon must have fallen for Vivienne very hard indeed. He had looked shattered that last time he saw him. This was the work of a woman in the grip of insane jealousy. Did Barbara Carter think she could get away with it? Maybe she did. And maybe she could on the island. Elroy crossed himself.

‘God bless Vivienne. May she rest in peace,’ he said fervently.

Not much chance of that thought Owen. He tried not to think about what Vivienne’s last minutes had been like. If Teyo had been hired to kill her he could imagine how he was the kind of man to take pleasure in a woman’s fear and pain. He closed his eyes to stop the tears that were pricking at the corners. He had never been a man to cry before but he’d been getting all leaky, ever since the night of his fever when he told Anna about his family and had cried in her arms. You let the pain rise to the surface and the tears came. Maybe it was better after all to feel the pain than to keep pushing it down. He put his arm around Kim who looked deeply shocked. She was trembling violently but had said nothing.

‘I’ll make sure someone knows; someone in authority. But don’t you repeat this to anyone else, ever. OK? You need to think of your family,’ Owen said.

Elroy nodded.

‘Get justice for her boy,’ he said.

Anna tried to keep up with Rob’s rapid pace down the hill. Why had Owen decided to leave the island so suddenly? It magnified all her suspicions. She wanted to believe Rob that Owen wasn’t capable of hurting Vivienne, but he had been hallucinating that night and reliving his mother and sister’s terrible murder. If Anna hadn’t been so preoccupied she might have been more aware of her surroundings. If she had looked over her shoulder she would have seen Teyo following them at a distance but close enough to keep them in his sights. They reached the outskirts of the town and they both slowed down as they walked past the fish processing plant. It was open again and men were working in the yard. One workman was sweeping debris into a pile. Teyo moved into the shadow of a doorway as they stopped. Rob and Anna peered through the gates and both were thinking about Vivienne’s last hours.

‘Come on,’ Rob said. ‘Let’s get the hell out of here.’

He charged on through the streets towards the taxi place he knew. He was angry that Owen and Kim had gone like that. But most of all he felt a growing sense of unease about being in Oak Ridge.

‘I know a taxi firm near here,’ he called out.

They passed islanders going about their business. Rob headed for the alley next to the little church.

‘Down here Anna,’ he called.

She had a stitch in her side from trying to keep up with him. She slowed down to a walk and rubbed her side. Teyo drew closer. In his pocket he was holding his switchblade ready. She could hear a hymn being sung and the voices were coming from the little white wooden church that bordered the alley. Vivienne would be buried here on Roatán she thought and neither Kimberly or Owen or either of them would be here to pay their respects. It seemed wrong somehow; a betrayal of that lovely woman. Rob had already turned into the alley and as Anna turned to enter the dark passage Teyo sprinted up, silent on his toes, and grabbed her from behind. She felt a sharp tug on her ponytail and gasped in terror as he pushed her into the alley and wrapped his arm around her neck. He clapped his hand over her mouth as she made a strangled cry. In his other hand he held a knife with an open blade. Rob heard her gasping cry. He spun round and saw Teyo holding a knife to Anna’s throat and her terrified eyes above it.

‘Tell me where Owen went. Now or she gets it!’

There was a moment of intense stillness, like a freeze frame where the moving picture holds on an instant of action. Everything was in the sharpest focus: Anna standing near the mouth of the alley with this black-haired man grasping her tightly and a knife blade right up against her throat. And then Rob came to life. He felt no fear. He didn’t think of anything as adrenaline pumped through his veins. It was a pure and instinctual act of love as he leaped at Teyo with a roar. Rob swung a fist at him and Teyo let go of Anna. She slid down the wall onto the ground of the alley coughing and gasping for breath as she saw Rob and Teyo’s bodies come together with a thud. The two men wrestled violently in the confined space of the alley. There were grunts and scuffles and then Teyo pulled away and she saw blood on the blade of his knife, right up to the shaft. She let out a heart-stopping scream. Teyo turned and looked at her as she continued to scream wildly. He hesitated one moment then ran down the alley away from them.

Teyo’s knife had gone in beneath Rob’s ribs. The blade had cut through skin, fat and muscle and gone deep into Rob’s gut. Rob fell back and slid down the wall and put his hands over his stomach. Blood was seeping through his fingers. Unknown to him the contents of his gut were spilling out into his abdominal cavity. He felt little pain. Anna staggered forward and fell to her knees by his side. A man was running out of the church and two other men were following him. They ran into the alley. Anna was bending over Rob trying to staunch the flow of blood with her hands on top of his bloodied fingers. One of the men pushed his way to the front. It was the pastor from the church. He kneeled down next to Anna.

‘Let me. I’m trained,’ he said.

She rocked back on her heels as the man bent over Rob. She recognised him as the man from the baptism on the beach. He opened Rob’s shirt and undid the top of his trousers and looked at the wound. Anna saw that the bag around Rob’s neck, the bag in which he carried his money, was already soaked with his blood.