Mystery by the Sea (18 page)

“Ahhh! This is the life, isn’t it? At
least for a little bit. And to think that Leyda didn’t like it when my old man
invited us here. Another positive point. I always try to look for the bright
side in bad situations. There’s always something good. If you look for it, I
promise that you’ll find it,” Alexis said to Lorenzo while leaning back in a chair
with his eyes closed.

“I don’t think that applies to my
case, if that’s what you’re implying,” responded Lorenzo, taking his eyes off
the water and sitting along the edge of the boat.

“There’s always a positive side.
But sometimes we don’t dare to look for it because we’re afraid of finding it.”

“Why would you be afraid of finding
something positive in a negative situation?” asked Lorenzo with just a touch of
skepticism.

“Because some people feel guilty
about it. For example, say someone sacrifices years of his life caring for a
sick family member. This, in and of itself, is something good: an act of love.
When the family member dies, the caregiver suddenly finds himself free to move
on with his life, something positive within the tragedy of losing his loved
one. But he rejects feeling good because he feels like he shouldn’t after what
happened. He feels guilty.”

“In other words, I should look for
a reason to be happy because Doris won’t be at home for God-knows how many
years?” asked Lorenzo, raising his eyebrows.

“Of course not. I’m just saying
that every situation has a positive side and I always try to find something
good in everything.”

Lorenzo, who, up until now, had
barely even had a sip of his drink, put the glass to his lips, tipped his head
back, and did not bring it upright until he had finished his drink completely.
Then he let out a deep sigh.

“I don’t know what’s going on with
me. I feel relaxed, yet I can’t stop thinking about the case. I want to ask you
so many questions, clear up so many doubts…”

“No,” interrupted Alexis.

“Yeah, I know, I know,” Lorenzo cut
in. “I’m sorry. It comes with the territory. But I don’t think we’ve looked at
all the possible angles,” apologized Lorenzo, shaking his head.

“Here we go again. Go on, let it
out. See if it helps you any,” said Alexis, coming to terms with talking about
the case yet again.

“Which of Pedroza’s three guests
that night do you think could jump from the terrace to the study’s balcony?”
asked Lorenzo, leaning toward Alexis.

“To commit the crime and then
return? Man, I don’t think…”

“Follow my train of thought,
please,” asked Lorenzo as he stood up to get even closer.

“Okay,” proceeded Alexis with his
answer, “Irma…definitely not. Javier is an athlete. Besides, he’s tall and
strong. Jessica, I don’t know. She’s too ‘goody two-shoes’ to even picture her
doing something like that.”

“But she’s in excellent physical
condition. She can perform acrobatic leaps and she’s very flexible,” said
Lorenzo, referring to the abilities that Jessica had developed thanks to her
dance career.

“Okay, yes, that’s all well and
good, but explain to me how one of them could have done it without being seen
by the others. They were together that entire time,” said Alexis, challenging
Lorenzo’s theory. He was curious to know how far Lorenzo would stretch it
before it blew up in his face.

“What if it weren’t necessary to do
it without the others seeing?” questioned Lorenzo, getting to the point that
was most pressing. “Maybe
everyone
was in on it. They all knew and
silently cooperated.”

“Motive?” asked Alexis, challenging
the theory.

“Irma planned everything because of
the hatred that she herself accepts having toward Doris. Javier, to become the
company’s president,” answered Lorenzo a bit uncertainly.

“What about Jessica? Remember, they
all had to be involved.”

“I don’t know, maybe for Javier’s
position. Vice-president and a seat on the Board of Directors, stock shares.
There has to be money involved. Money and power, like always. Or maybe she just
turned a blind eye while it happened and swore silence out of loyalty to her
colleagues, or fear,” suggested Lorenzo while Alexis shook his head. He was not
convinced.

“You know what you need? Evidence.
We can come up with countless formulas of how it could have happened, but without
evidence, they’re nothing more than pure speculation. I’m sorry,” resolved
Alexis in the hope of putting an end to the mental exercise. He was sure that
it was a complete waste of time, but even so, he wanted to give Lorenzo space
to vent his doubts and suspicions. Hearing them out loud would surely help him
realize how ridiculous they were, he thought.

“I know, I know. I’m sorry, too,”
apologized Lorenzo, once again taking a seat along the port’s edge and grabbing
his head with his hands. “Uh, I think my head’s going to explode! It won’t stop
running circles around the problem,” exclaimed Lorenzo mournfully.

Alexis studied him carefully for a
few seconds. He could see that Lorenzo was defeated and the only thing left to
do was try to soften the blow so there would be as little negative impact as
possible. It occurred to him that he should offer Lorenzo what, in his case,
had always helped him achieve exactly that. Something that contributed to
clearing his mind, even if just for a little bit, of all traces of worry and
stress.

“You know what? I have the solution
for that. C’mere,” said Alexis, getting up out of his chair and standing next
to the cabin’s glass door. Lorenzo followed him with his eyes, without moving.

Alexis opened one of the covered
storage cabinets. He searched through the inside until he found the first of
the pieces he was looking for. He tossed it in the air toward Lorenzo, who did
not need to wait for it to land in his hands to know it was a diving mask with
an attached air tube.

“Down there, trust me. You won’t
even have the opportunity to think about anything else. Goodbye to the case,”
Alexis assured him, gesturing with his hands to emphasize his point. Lorenzo
could not help but get excited. If there was anything that he enjoyed more than
silently contemplating the peace and calm of the sea, it was submerging himself
in it and exploring its beauty and wonders first-hand. It meant direct contact,
being one with the body of water and sharing the space with the creatures that
inhabited it.

“It’s been a while since I’ve
jumped in,” confessed Lorenzo with the hope of counterbalancing any excuse that
might float into his mind to refuse the tempting invitation. Although he was
strongly pulled to this activity, he knew that he did not take enough time to
practice it. It had been many long months, perhaps years, since the last time
he went diving.

“This should work,” said Alexis as
he tossed him a wet suit. Lorenzo caught it but was still undecided. He felt
guilty enjoying something that would certainly produce pleasure and relaxation
while Doris was suffering from chronic depression, confined to a hospital.

“I don’t know. I’m not up to it,”
answered Lorenzo, standing up.

“Exactly,” said Alexis with a
malicious smile as he entered the cabin, leaving Lorenzo alone with his
indecision for the moment. Lorenzo examined the suit to see if it was his size
when something made him stop cold. His face went blank and his blood ran faster
through his body, raising his temperature and producing instantaneous beads of
sweat on his forehead.

Alexis came out of the cabin with
another wet suit and mask in his hands.

“I knew I had to have another set
around here,” said Alexis before noticing the change in Lorenzo’s demeanor. “What
happened? You don’t think it’ll fit? Put it on and see,” insisted Alexis when
he saw that Lorenzo was frozen stiff. He did not utter a word but looked Alexis
in the eyes with a penetrating stare. Alexis smiled uncomfortably, confused.

“What’s wrong? Is it too small?”
asked Alexis, positive that Lorenzo’s look could not be from something so
trivial.

“It was you,” Lorenzo let loose.

“What do you mean? What was?” asked
Alexis with barely a remnant of the smile that he had displayed only seconds
earlier.

“Pedroza. You did it,” said Lorenzo
sharply. His mind was processing a host of information at break-neck speed,
linking together ideas that were becoming clearer by the minute.

“What are you talking about? Pedroza?
I did what?” asked Alexis, getting up and waving his hands.

“Now I understand. It’s all
becoming clear. How could I have been so stupid?”

“Lorenzo, enough. This isn’t stupid.
It’s ridiculous. Ridiculous! How could you even think of making that type of
accusation?” exclaimed Alexis, clearly angry.

Lorenzo ignored the impulse to
believe him and continued painting, with words, the picture that his mind was
so clearly presenting to him.

“You were Pedroza’s partner in his
construction project,
Vistamar Courts
, maybe through your dad. You’re
the one involved in the scam that has the project on hold. I was wrong about
you. I thought that you didn’t care that everyone in your family was rich
except for you. Now I see that it was exactly the opposite. You wanted to get
there, too, and fast,” explained Lorenzo to Alexis, who looked dumbfounded.

“Look at you. First a detective and
now a psychologist,” exclaimed Alexis, annoyed. But Lorenzo could tell that he
had struck a chord and something about his words bothered and annoyed Alexis. His
voice was breaking and his lips were trembling uncontrollably. He was sweating
copiously and his face was turning red.

“You didn’t cover your footprints
well enough after whatever fraudulent scheme you employed and they figured you
out. And, as we all now know, Pedroza doesn’t forgive. If he was merciless with
Doris because of a simple error in a report, I can’t even imagine how crushing
he would be with someone who so brazenly stole from him. When I spoke with
Javier Estrada, he confided in me that Pedroza had an intense discussion with
an attorney, swearing to ‘ruin him.’ But he didn’t say his
attorney, Mr.
Centeno, he said with
an
attorney: you. Once he made everything public
and formally accused you, you’d be done for. It wouldn’t matter if, by some
miracle or legal slight-of-hand, you came out of the trial intact. You’d still
be done for. You’d be stripped of your license as an attorney and not only
would
your
name be tarnished but your entire family’s name, who would
surely distance themselves from you, leaving you utterly alone. And you
couldn’t allow that. You simply couldn’t. That’s why you decided to cut the
problem off at the root,” analyzed Lorenzo, trying to control his breathing so
he could express himself fluidly.

“Yeah, sure, Lorenzo, that’s it…”
said Alexis, unsuccessfully feigning calm. “Let’s see, tell me how I did it.
Because it’s physically impossible.”

Lorenzo fit the avalanche of
thoughts and ideas that had accumulated over the last few days together like
the pieces of a puzzle, trying to articulate a convincing response.

“You knew Pedroza well. I’m sure
you went to his house many times, thanks to the tight relationship he had with
your father. You knew, like many others did, that every night, without fail,
Pedroza spent hours in his study and that he left the door open to better enjoy
his view of the sea. You simply used your boat, swam to the beach, jumped the
fence, climbed up using the ladder that the painters were using and patiently
waited for Pedroza to arrive. Evidently, you also knew that the security
cameras in that area weren’t working. What you
didn’t
know was that
Doris would have a discussion with Pedroza, right in front of you. That was
your golden opportunity and you didn't hesitate to grab it. As soon as Doris
left and Pedroza was ready to leave the room…that’s when you did it, using the
trophy that Doris had left behind. You disappeared, closing the door behind you
and all the commotion helped you escape without anyone noticing anything,”
explained Lorenzo without taking his eyes off Alexis. He did not fail to notice
the small involuntary reactions that each one of his words triggered in Alexis.

“Lorenzo, enough already. While you
can think up the most plausible story in the world and you can invent whatever
motive necessary, you have nothing. You can’t prove anything that you’ve just
said. It’s just another ludicrous theory from a desperate husband.”

“Thanks to you, I
can
prove
it,” said Lorenzo, putting the wet suit that Alexis had just given him in the
air, taking it and reaching out with his fingertips to show him the front. It
had a large, ugly, green stain on it. “It appears that in your rush to escape,
you didn’t realize that you’d stained the suit jumping the fence. When I
visited Pedroza’s house I noticed that they were painting the fence with this
oil-based paint that takes a while to dry. Since you got back on the boat in a
hurry, you changed and threw it in the compartment and you didn’t look at it
again until now.”

Alexis’ breathing picked up until
it reached an unhealthy level and a cold sweat broke out over his entire body. Then
he pulled off his mask.

“Lorenzo, give me that. Let’s
talk,” demanded Alexis as Lorenzo rolled up the suit.

“You know I can’t do that,” said
Lorenzo as he took out his cellphone and looked for Detective Zayas’ number.
When he was just about to push the call button, he raised his eyes toward
Alexis, but it was too late. Alexis jumped on top of him with all his strength,
giving him a violent push on his chest with both hands and snatching the suit
in the same fleeting movement. Lorenzo fell on his back on the platform floor
on the other side of the railing, forcefully hitting his head. To Alexis’
horrified gaze, his body remained motionless. That was not part of his plan. A
puddle of blood began to spill out from beneath Lorenzo’s head. Fear seized
Alexis. He opened the small door that separated him from the platform and kicked
Lorenzo’s body, which slid into the water without resistance.