A Clandestine Affair

“I needed some downtime, and a secluded island seemed the perfect place to find it.”

“That’s about all you’ll find here. That, snakes and every kind of annoying insect you can imagine.”

She hoped to find a whole lot more, and Raoul might be just the person to help her get it. “Will you be around awhile?”

“A couple of nights, but I probably won’t be here much during the day. I’m hoping to take Carlos fishing. He likes to catch the big ones, and his boat is too small to handle the waves in the open gulf.”

“I didn’t hear your boat come in.”

“Purrs like a kitten. It’s a lot quieter than the generator, except when I first start up the engines.”

She dropped to the edge of one of the webbed lounge chairs, hoping Raoul would do the same. He didn’t.

“The island must have a fascinating history,” she said, looking up at him with what she hoped was a natural and slightly seductive smile. “Do you know much about the original builders of the villa?”

“I’m not big on history.” He slapped at a mosquito that was buzzing around his neck. “Not fond of mosquitoes, either, so I think I’ll head back down to the boathouse. If I don’t see you again, enjoy your vacation.”

So much for her feminine wiles. “Thanks.”

She gave a slight wave as he retreated. But she had no intention of letting him get off that easily. She’d find a way to talk to him again.

He knew about the history of the island, but didn’t want to get into it with her. Why else would he have turned and run the minute she mentioned it? It couldn’t have been the mosquito. If he’d been avoiding those, he’d never have ventured out in the first place.

And even if she got nothing from him except company, it wouldn’t be a total loss. The solitude might suit Carlos, but as far as Jaci was concerned, it was growing old fast.

Her mother might not be able to push her into the path of a sexy man, but isolation and an old murder case could do the trick.

RAOUL TOOK THE LONG WAY back to the boathouse, still trying to decide the best way to accomplish what he was here for, but now also thinking about Jaci Matlock. Needing downtime wasn’t much of an explanation for why a young, good-looking woman would come to a secluded island by herself.

Maybe she had some big decision she was wrestling with and wanted uninterrupted time to think, or she could be getting over a man. Losing someone you loved could make a loner of you. Who knew that better than him?

Raoul slowed as he caught sight of Alma a few yards ahead of him, crouched between two clusters of sea oats. She was down on her knees, and sand was flying around her as if she were in a whirlwind.

A few steps closer, and he could see the small plastic shovel moving so fast it seemed to be gas propelled. He doubted she was building sand castles, but then who knew with Alma Garcia?

The woman was nuts. He’d first realized that when he was about ten and she’d kept calling him by the name of the Santiago kid who’d drowned in the pool. And then there was the time he’d run into her on the beach and she’d said she was looking for Pilar and Reyna because they had run off from their lessons. That had been four years after the girls and their parents had disappeared.

As far as he could tell, Alma was getting worse all the time. The woman should be living in a home someplace where she could get medical attention, not roaming the beach alone all hours of the night. She was probably the reason Jaci had spooked so easily.

But he didn’t dare mention that to Carlos again, not after the way he’d exploded the last time Raoul had suggested the woman get psychiatric help.

Raoul didn’t even begin to understand the relationship between his uncle and Alma Garcia. Misguided loyalty, his grandfather had called it. Carlos thought Andres Santiago expected him to care for his children’s nanny, and Carlos had never failed his old boss, even if it meant staying on Cape Diablo and looking after Alma until one of them died.

Raoul planned to make sure that didn’t happen, which was why he was here.

JACI WENT TO BED AT NINE, mainly because there was nothing better to do. Yawning, she stretched between the crisp white sheets, only to have macabre images of blood splatters start creeping through her mind. Two people had been shot and killed in the boathouse, one at much closer range than the other. Two and only two, though four had disappeared. There might also have been two shooters, one taller than the other, or else the killer had changed positions or been struggling with one of the victims when the gun went off.

That was as much as she could be sure of from the photos of the splatters—or at least relatively certain. It was unfortunate that some of the blood hadn’t been collected and preserved.

Not that they had any DNA from Andres or Medina to compare it with, but if the samples from the boathouse had included the blood of Andres’s daughters, DNA tests would have indicated the relationship.

Jaci’s mind went back to the police reports, most of which she’d memorized.

The beds of the Santiago children were unmade. The sheets, blanket and pillowcase had been stripped from one bed. Even the pillow was missing. The second bed was mussed, with the covers pulled back as if it had been slept in. The bed in the master bedroom was neatly made. There was no sign of a struggle and no blood found anywhere inside the villa.

And after that night neither the girls nor their parents were ever seen again. So the questions remained: had Andres and Medina been murdered in the boathouse upon returning from a Mexican Independence celebration? If so, what had happened to the bodies? And where were the girls, Pilar, age eight, and Reyna, age ten? Kidnapped or murdered?

So many questions without answers, and no real clues, at least none that Jaci had found yet. It would have helped if she could have gotten in touch with Mac Lowell and heard his impressions from the night he’d taken the photos.

She was still hopeful he’d show up in Everglades City, or at least get the messages she’d stuck under his door there. But even if he did, she wasn’t sure how he’d get in touch with her. Her cell phone was basically useless.

A good project required more than remarks on blood splatters and a weak hypothesis. She needed pertinent information from Carlos and Alma, something that hadn’t come out before. And she needed to get inside that villa.

Giving up on sleep, she slid her legs over the side of the bed to pad to the refrigerator for a snack. She sliced into a juicy orange just as her cell phone blasted—the first call to get through since she’d arrived on the island. She sprinted across the room and grabbed it before the connection was lost.

Her hello was a little breathless.

“Is this Jaci Matlock?”

“Yes. Who is this?”

“Mac Lowell. I heard you were looking for me.”

“I am.”

“What do you want?”

“I understand you were part of the original investigating team the night the Santiago family disappeared.”

“That was years ago.”

“I know, but I really need to talk to you about the photos you took.”

“Sorry, lady. You’ll have to go to the Everglades City PD for anything to do with that case.”

“I have been to them, and they gave me copies of your reports and the photos.”

“I doubt that.”

“No, they did. I’m a criminologist investigating the case.” That was close to the truth. She was just a degree and a job offer away from being official.

“Then you know all I do. More, actually. I’ve had way too many margaritas since then to remember details.”

Static crackled in her ear. She’d likely lose the connection any second. “Look, I won’t take up much of your time, but I’d really like to talk to you.”

“You’re talking.”

“The connection’s already breaking up, and the chances of getting through to you again are not good. I’m staying in an apartment on Cape Diablo, but I think I can get someone to take me to Everglades City.”