Maria found the girl’s stare uncomfortable. Her ice-blue eyes were exceptionally piercing.
“I already told you, I am not a whore,” she said, making Maria instantly regret her choice of words.
“I am not suggesting you are. I am merely offering you a possible introduction, which may be to your advantage. Once the body is interred, then if you wish, then you will of course be free to leave,” Maria said.
The waitress came for Maria’s order.
“Just coffee, please,” she said and the woman went away.
“I can leave, just like that?”
“Of course. We are not in the white slave trade,” Maria said, laughing.
This evoked a small smile from the German girl, but when she smiled she was even more attractive. Maria had the greatest difficulty remembering that this person was still legally male.
“Tell me, how long have you been living as a girl?”
“Since I was fifteen. I ran away from home and went to the Netherlands, and lived with some T-girls in Amsterdam. Then, I went to Berlin and met Nadia. We went to the same doctor for our hormones.”
“So, eventually you want to be a complete girl?”
“Of course,” she said, as if there was no other answer.
“Nadia was quite happy with what she had.”
The girl smiled again.
“I am not Nadia. We always had different life goals.”
“Oh?” Maria found herself curious. She never got to know much about Nadia and found this intriguing.
“Nadia was after what she could get. She once said that if she could find herself a shooting star, she would attach herself to it while it was bright. But once it lost its sparkle, then she would find another.”
Maria laughed, as she could see the perfect sense in this and identified her cousin as a bright shooting star, for the moment.
“And you are different?”
“Yes. I feel that I am a woman, so I want to be that woman. Just a plain and ordinary woman, with a man who loves me and whom I can love in return. Ideally, I should like children, but some things are just not possible.”
Maria found the girl’s simple ambition actually very poignant and somehow it cut her to the quick. For a woman used to the worst of the business in which she found herself, this girl was actually too nice for her cousin. But, she was under strict orders.
“Renate. Firstly, you would never be plain or ordinary. And secondly, my boss is perhaps not one of the nicest men, but he can be kind, gentle and very generous. Come with me and make your mind up after you meet him,” Maria said, actually feeling sorry for the girl, as she appeared so lost.
Michelle looked out of the window, staring at the telephone company truck in which she knew this conversation was being monitored.
“Oh, all right. But, are you sure I can leave if I want to?” she asked.
“Of course. There is a boat every day and even a plane or helicopter if you get desperate. We will be flying in one soon.”
“I have to pick up the papers from the Sheriff’s office. I was going to arrange a hearse to the airport. Can you arrange one?”
“Of course,” Maria replied with a smile.
The girl stood up.
“Danke, um, er, thank you. This is all a bit much for me. Perhaps this is for the best.”
“I’m sure it is,” Maria said, smiling as the girl left the dining room.
The waitress brought her coffee and Maria started to make some calls to arrange transportation back to the island.
Meanwhile, Michelle walked across the road towards the sheriff’s office. She smiled, as she was actually loving every minute of this whole charade. The actress within her was revelling in the challenge, and she knew she was good.
In the nearby truck Ryan was also impressed. Sean turned to him.
“She even convinced me.”
“She’s shit hot. Even the voice, she’s amazing,” Ryan said.
Michelle walked into the office and the female deputy simply handed her the large buff envelope with all the necessary papers.
“If you get the funeral directors to call at the morgue, then you need to hand this piece of paper to the attendant f or the release of your relative’s body,” she said.
Michelle nodded, thanked the woman and left. She found Maria waiting outside for her.
“Everything in order?”
“Ja. Alles ist in ordnung. I have this piece of paper and I am to give it to the morgue attendant when the funeral directors get here.”
“They’ll be about an hour. I have arranged everything and I told my boss. He is delighted and asks you to be his guest for as long or as short a time as you feel you want to stay.”
Michelle smiled and thanked her. A police car pulled up and Maria watched as the girl became very wary and almost afraid. The officers simply smiled at the two women and walked straight past them.
“It will be nice to not be afraid any more,” Maria said.
Michelle smiled and looked at the ground.
“I have been afraid for so long, I don’t think I will ever be free of the fear.”
The diner was just across the street.
“Come on, let me buy you a coffee while we wait,” Maria said, taking the tall German’s arm.
They sat in a booth in the corner, so they could see the street outside. A heavy young woman came over to them.
“Hi there, what can I get for you today?” she asked.
“Just two coffees, please,” Maria said.
“Sure, do you want that with or without cream?”
“Black,” said Renate and Maria smiled.
“One with, one without,” she said. “You Europeans, always say things the way you see them.”
Michelle frowned, pretending she did not understand.
“I’m sorry, what did I say?”
“It doesn’t matter. But sometimes there is a problem with the colour black.”
“Black? Why?”
“As I said, it doesn’t matter.”
“Oh, the race thing,” Michelle said.
“Si, some Americans can get neurotic. It’s not so bad in Florida, but in some states, like Alabama. We Spanish and you from Northern Europe don’t have the same hang-ups.”
“Oh, yes we have, probably worse than anyone else. Are you from Spain?”
Maria laughed. “No. I come from Columbia. Some of my ancestors came from Spain and I have some Indian blood as well.”
Michelle noticed the woman wore a wedding ring.
“You are married?”
Maria stared at her ring and idly rolled it with her other hand.
“I was married. Juan was killed.” Her voice displayed her despair.
“I’m sorry.”
“De nada. You weren’t to know. My family was involved with the cocaine business and there was a feud. Juan was killed in the crossfire.”
“So, your boss, he is in this trade too?”
“I find it better if you don’t ask questions like that. Then there is nothing you can say to anyone else. He is a businessman and some of his dealings are not strictly legal,” Maria answered, quite surprised with the ease with which she imparted information to this woman.
“I tried drugs once - in Amsterdam. Only cannabis, but I was sick and decided never to try them again.”
“Very wise. I have never tried any of them and I never will. Nadia was the same. But she enjoyed the lifestyle that came with the profits.”
“That doesn’t surprise me somehow,” Michelle answered.
The waitress brought a huge jug of coffee to the table and two mugs. She left a big jug of cream and waddled off to serve the next table. Michelle watched the fattest family she had ever seen order the most revoltingly enormous breakfast.
“I think that America must be the land of the fat as well as the land of the free,” she said, and Maria laughed.