Week 23 - Tourist Season - Part 4

Tourist Season Part 4

Matthew Ryan Fischer

Continued...

The room was silent, the moment was tense. The question, as of yet unasked, hung there in-between them, souring what was otherwise a warm and lovely late afternoon on the island. Vicente was sticky with sweat. He could feel his heart rate was elevated, but he tried not to show it. Most people on the island found him to be an intimidating force, but most of those people knew they couldn’t stand up to Vicente. He was used to a certain luxury, the luxury of power, which came with his position. But not here. Not in this room. Here, he was just a man, come to ask the wrong questions to the wrong man, a man Vicente knew he should be scared of. Hence, the slight case of nerves.

By appearances, Mr. Ávila was a stern and cold looking business man. His serious nature set the tone of the room and of their meeting. Mr. Ávila was a rich and powerful man used to getting his way. Vicente knew it. He could feel it. No one needed to say a word about it. He was naturally scary, but the current circumstances only served to make things worse.

Vicente needed to ask. He had to. He knew he had to. But all he could think about was how the man sitting across from him might kill him for asking. Andre Ávila was a very rich and very powerful man. He had investments everywhere – plantations, mines, shipping and exports, hotels and resorts. The list went on and on and the man was everywhere. His estate was a castle – walls and gates and armed guards. They were armed like an army, waiting on a threat that would never come. Just to be in the same room was intimidating enough, but Vicente was in a room alone. Even though it was just the two of them, Vicente knew who had the power and that he would never leave if that was what Mr. Ávila so chose.

Mr. Ávila sat there and stared and Vicente felt weak and inadequate in comparison.

Vicente knew he had ‘The Wealth’ on his side, but he had no idea if compared, which side was the stronger. He didn’t know and he wasn’t going to ask. He didn’t want to be in a situation where he would have to find out. And most importantly of all, he just wanted to keep his life intact and not piss off either side.

But he had to ask. It was his job. It was his island. Or so he wanted to believe. He knew the only way to keep his position and his lifestyle was to do what ‘The Wealth’ wanted, but perhaps the only way to keep his life was to keep his mouth shut.

Both sides were dangerous and both had a far reach, extending further than just this island. He didn’t know who had the longer or more dominant sphere of influence. Best case, the two sides might cancel each other out. Maybe if they went to war, it would be mutual destruction. He doubted it. He doubted he would come out on the other side of things unscathed. Who to back? That was the question. Who to obey and who to challenge? It was a tough position with no clear solution.

The far reach of powerful man could be deadly dangerous. Even if he survived this room. Even if he could flee this island. If he chose the wrong side of things he would lose it all.

He knew it was, at best, a calculated risk.

There was only one thing to do – ask the question and hope for the best.

“Where’s your nephew? Marques.”

Mr. Ávila sat motionless for a moment. If he knew something, his face didn’t betray him. The cold face grew colder. He used his silence to reflect Vicente’s silence, to acknowledge that he realized the difficult position Vicente must be in. Still, Mr. Ávila didn’t care for the question and certainly didn’t care at all for Vicente’s delicate dilemma.

“Be careful with what you choose to insinuate.”

“I am. But it’s my job to ask.”

“I’m well aware of what happened last night and whom you work for and what you must ask and answer. And you must know you have no reason to be here asking me questions.”

“I’m asking you because Marques is suddenly missing this morning.”

“Marques isn’t your concern.”

“You have to understand how this looks. Marques was with those girls last night. And now today—”

“Marques didn’t kill that girl.”

“I’m not accusing him. But I need to know what he did and didn’t do last night. He might know about this girl... or some of the other things that went on.”

“He doesn’t know anything about any of it.”

“I know for a fact Marques and The Twins were together last night. They all came into contact with those girls. And they all left together... What I don’t know is what happened after that and who was with whom by the end of the night.”

“Those two – filth of the street. Marques should know better.” 

Vicente couldn’t argue with that assessment.

“I’m sorry I even have to say this— I mean you no disrespect. I hesitate to keep pushing this, but I have to find him. I have to ask.”

“I’m a busy man, Vicente. Don’t waste my time.”

“I won’t. I wouldn’t.” Vicente could feel his authority slipping away with every word he added. He had no power here. If this conversation lasted much longer, he’d have no power left anywhere on the island.

“Marques is my family. If there is a problem, I will handle things.” There was vitriol in his voice. Vicente assumed Mr. Ávila was still angry at his nephew’s choice in friends, but maybe he was just angry at the entire situation and being put into this position at all.

“No. Not this time. This time I need to.”

“Fine. If, and I stress if he is guilty, I’m sure you will find him and any evidence you need.”

“But without your help.”

“Don’t sound so sad. If I had any knowledge to offer, I’d tell you.”

“I’m sure.”

Vicente was happy to get back to his side of the island. His relief was momentary, but welcome. While he had been on the south side of island, Renaldo had found The Twins and begun questioning them. They were mostly useless and total liars. They didn’t remember any tourist girls. They didn’t remember ever being at The Green Street. They certainly didn’t remember giving or selling or taking any drugs or spending any time with the aforementioned girls after leaving the nightclub they were never at.

Vicente hadn’t really expected Renaldo to get any information, but he had kept a sliver of hope that they might turn if presented with the opportunity to push any and all blame towards Marques Ávila.

They were smarter than they looked. There was no reason to take the bait and no reason to endanger themselves by crossing the Ávila family. They protested and presented righteous indignations. Even after Vicente spoke to them and could use eye witness accounts to place them at The Green Street, their stories didn’t change much. “We never went to the beach. We went home early…” “We danced with some girls, but never even found out their names...” “Marques? Was he even there? Man, I don’t know.”

The Twins proved to have terrible terrible memories and apparently they lived fairly chaste and innocent lives with early bedtimes.

“What do you want me to do with them?” asked Renaldo.

“Keep them locked up. If Marques is still nearby, we can’t have them helping him flee.” And if Vicente needed to arrest someone, these two would satisfy that need as well. Renaldo knew it. There was no reason to say it out loud.

Renaldo had several friends that had helped out with other tricky situations in the past. They were quick to be deputized when needed, solid in a fight, and they knew how to take orders and not ask questions. Vicente told Renaldo that they were going to need some of his friends to watch the Ávila estate and help search for Marques.

Vicente went to talk to Lisa at her hotel to try and find out what she remembered about the men she was with the night before. He was hoping that she could identify Marques and The Twins if necessary. Unfortunately Lisa was more interested in American justice and the American media. Her trip was ending soon and she had no intention of staying on this island. She wanted to be back safe and sound, back on the mainland. If there was going to be any island justice, she wasn’t going to be taking part in it.

Vicente considered confiscating passports and keeping her entire tour group on the island. He didn’t want to deal with their headache, but he wanted to keep the illusion alive that he was in charge and he was the one making the decisions.

Vicente decide he would send Renaldo and some of his new “deputies” over. They could question the entire group. Throw their weight around. Show some muscle. Scared witnesses were better than loud witnesses, and he didn’t want them asking any more questions or thinking he wasn’t pursuing every option. Besides, these were mostly underage kids who were drinking too much and fornicating. They should be a little afraid of him. He had sweat enough already today, it was time for someone else to do some sweating.

After his meeting with Lisa, Vicente went to update ‘The Wealth.’

“What did you find out?”

“Not a lot.”

“But you think you have something.”

“Yeah. Yeah, I do. But you’re not going to like it.”

“Let me decide that.”

“Andre Ávila is protecting his nephew. There’s no evidence Marques had anything to do with it, but if he was totally innocent, there’d be no reason to hide him.”

“Andre is an important man. You can’t simply accuse him.”

“I know. That’s the problem.”

“Yes it is.”

“You’re watching him?”

“Of course.”

“Good. Anything else?”

“That American girl is loud, but all she wants is to go home. I say we let her... I already have The Twins, in case we can’t find Marques. If we need to identify a killer, I’m sure we can find our own eye witnesses. We don’t need her remembering that someone wasn’t there at the beach.”

‘The Wealth’ nodded. They were content. Vicente had passed this test, but he had no idea how many more he still faced. He was facing too many closed doors with not enough lights. He could sit and watch and wait, but he hated sitting and watching and waiting. He preferred a quiet day at the beach, but if he had to act, he wanted to act fast and with force. Sweating and hoping wasn’t going to get him anywhere. If he had to kick in a few doors, he could kick in a few doors. But he was pretty sure he didn’t have sufficient force to kick in any estate gates. And ‘The Wealth’ hadn’t seemed too eager to do any kicking of their own. That was okay for now, but that wasn’t a way to make a living. That was going to have to change sometime. Best if it changed sooner. Vicente wasn’t sure how he was going to make that happen, but it was something that needed to move up the list of things to figure out. No way was he going to make it on this island with too many bosses and no plan of his own. Something for another day, he supposed. Right now, he needed to get Renaldo and his boys on the move and make some noise of his own...

To be continued...