“A cancellation. It’s serendipity, Mrs. Henshaw. We just had a cancellation. Lourdes will be able to take you immediately.”
“That’s wonderful. I’ll go on back to my cottage and get ready.”
“Excellent. Lourdes just left to get some supplies. I’ll send her over as soon as she returns.”
“I’ll be waiting,” Susan assured her as she left the little gift shop.
She didn’t have long to wait. Lourdes was at her door, folding massage table at her side, in minutes. Susan greeted her and let her in.
“Where you want me to set this up?”
“Same place as last time,” Susan said, pointing. There was very little extra floor space in the cottage. “Can you think of any other place?”
“On deck outside is possible. I keep you covered with towel while I work. The big cottages-their decks are more private. I set up my table out there and guests can have massages in fresh air.”
“Oh, that’s nice, isn’t it? But I think in here would be just fine.”
Lourdes flipped open the table and laid a couple of soft, thick towels on it, setting her lotions and oils up on the nearby dresser while Susan climbed on and settled into place. “Your vacation not going well,” Lourdes said, running her hands over Susan’s naked shoulders. “Your muscles tighter than before.”
“Yes, well, it’s been difficult.”
“Murder always difficult. Makes problems for many people. Not just for murdered people.”
Susan sure wasn’t going to disagree with that. “I’m worried about my friends,” she admitted.
“You should worry. Police on this island-pah, they no good. They lock up your friend. You worry. You worry plenty.”
Susan’s stomach turned over. But she had to concentrate. “The last time I had a massage, Allison-the woman who died-had failed to keep her appointment with you. But you did give her massages, didn’t you?” she asked.
“Yes, every day since she arrive except for that day. She take care of her body, that woman. How she look, how she feel-it matter plenty to her.”
“She was in great shape, wasn’t she?” Susan said.
“Yes. She work at it. She say she work at her whole life. That may be true. Nothing come easy to some people.”
“That is true,” Susan agreed. “Did she tell you much about her life?”
“Yes. Some people like silence while I work. But not that woman. She was a talker.”
“What did she say?”
“You think I tell you something to help free your friend.” It was a statement, not a question.
“I hope you will,” Susan admitted. “I don’t know the other guests, or the staff, or the island police.”
“But you know Ms. Allison McAllister, yes?”
“I knew her long ago,” Susan admitted. “But it had been years since I saw her, so many years that I didn’t even recognize her.”
“She worked on herself, that one. She tell me she spent much of her life doing what other people tell her to do. Then she change and spend life taking care of herself.”
“I wonder what happened that caused her to change.”
“A death. A great love.”
“What?” Susan jerked her head up.
Lourdes applied firm pressure to Susan’s shoulders. “You not relaxing. We should not talk about this if it upset you. Massage do you no good if you not relaxed.”
“The more I know about Allison, the more relaxed I will be,” Susan assured her.
“Maybe that not true. Maybe you know more, you learn more, your friend look more and more guilty.”
“I won’t believe that. I’ve known Jerry for decades. I know he would not kill anyone.”
“We women are sometimes very foolish when it comes to the men in our lives.”
“Jerry is a friend. Not the man in my life,” Susan said.
“I not talking about Jerry. I not talking about you. I talk about Ms. Allison McAllister. She foolish. She fall in love with this man Jerry who is now under arrest.”
“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.”