Gerrie Nelson - Lab Notes

Gabriel winced, and she enjoyed it.

She pressed her advantage. “Why didn’t you have your thugs grab me on the mountain after your father saw me? It would have been easier to dispose of me there.”

At first Gabriel looked puzzled. Then understanding dawned. He smiled indulgently. “You have apparently encountered the ‘knights errant’ on your mountain trek. You have nothing to fear from them. They are just misguided romantics who live their lives in seventeenth century fiction. Years ago, I chose not to participate in the quarterly fantasias of The Knights of New Granada … Diana, why did you run from the island? Why are you angry at me?”

Diane stared at him with contempt. In his arrogance, he thought himself capable of the perfect crime. It was time to disabuse him of that notion. She experienced a sudden calm—perhaps like a suicide bomber just before he sets off the explosive, she thought. Her voice went flat. “I know you were involved in Vincent’s murder.”

At first, Gabriel’s eyes widened in utter surprise. Then they began to dance as if to celebrate the discovery of such a trivial problem. His lips quivered on the verge of laughter. “But that is absurd,” he managed to blurt out. “Vincent was my friend. We emailed and spoke on the phone often. He knew I had controlling ownership of BRI; he was disturbed about some irregularities—”

“I saw the video. I watched the MARIA V flee after intentionally crippling Woodwind . I’m sure your elderly father could not have been aboard the boat in that horrible weather. It had to be you. As for your missing former boat captain—Jaime? I have reason to believe you threw him overboard.”

Gabriel stood and walked slowly toward the front of the airplane. He stopped, leaned on a high seatback and cupped his forehead in his hand.

After a few minutes, Diane heard him take a deep breath and exhale in resignation. He returned to her, his brow wrinkled, his eyes pained. “We will settle this at a later time. Meanwhile, I will have my pilot take you wherever you want to go.”

With that Gabriel walked away. But then he turned and slowly, pensively retraced his steps to her side.

He reached toward her. She froze.

With a feathery touch, he brushed the bruise still visible on her jaw, then smoothed some stray hairs behind her ear. In a choked voice he said: “‘Thou art too dear for my possessing.’”

He turned away and stepped quickly to the door.

Maxine sounded glad to hear Diane’s voice on the phone. “Huck sure will be happy to see you. Where’re you calling from?”

“The plane—Gabriel’s plane. We should be landing soon.”

“Cool! It’s nice to know jet-setters. But Gabriel will be disappointed when he gets here; Raymond’s not back from Australia yet.”

“Gabriel Carerra’s not with me; he had his pilot bring me back.”

“You have the whole plane to yourself? Way cool.”

Diane glanced around at the upholstery adorned with gold brocade figures of Colombia’s ancient Chibchan tribesmen. The seats were empty, but she did not feel she had the cabin to herself.

For the entire flight, she had been struggling to blot out Gabriel’s indelible presence, to erase his touch from her cheek, to eradicate her appreciation of his kindness at letting her go.

But why did he release her? And why did he provide her with the means of escape? That’s assuming the plane’s actual touchdown will be in Houston, rather than some secret lair in the Bahamas.

The only answer that made sense was: Gabriel knew the video was no longer a threat. In which case, he knew it had been stolen. That’s it! He was the one who ordered the theft of the camcorder. Without that video, there was no proof of Gabriel’s involvement in Vincent’s death. That’s what the break-in was all about—to steal the video; the rest was just a ruse.

“Diane?”

“Yeah… um… When do you expect Bellfort to return?”

“I talked to him two days ago. He said the fishing’s good, so he won’t be back for at least another week.”

Diane felt a rush of relief. Not knowing whether Bellfort was involved with Gabriel in Vincent’s death, she was concerned for her safety while she was in Texas.

Whether or not she took the job in Maine, she was moving back up North. She had planned to ask Sara Solomon for protection while she packed up her house and office. But that wouldn’t be necessary now. She’d hire professional packers who would store her things until she established a new address. She’d be gone before Bellfort returned.

Maxine was still talking on the other end of the line: “I haven’t been able to find any of the stuff you asked about on Raymond’s computer. Maybe I’m looking in the wrong places.”

“Thanks for the effort anyway.”

“I wish you’d call David. He keeps bugging me about whether I’ve heard from you. I told him you couldn’t very well call from the jungle. He’ll be glad you’re back.”

“I’ll phone him later… I’ll stop by and pick up Huck on my way from the airport. Thank you so much for babysitting.”

“No problem. See you later… Wait! Are you still there?”

“I’m here.”

“I almost forgot to tell you. Harry Lee’s uncle Hu Lee phoned here looking for you three times in the past two weeks. He said he’s coming to a banking conference in Dallas. He wants to fly down to Houston and meet with you. He said he’ll call when he gets to the States.”

Diane sat staring at the monitor while her computer booted up. It was 10 p.m. and she hadn’t located Olimpia yet. But she’d send an email and keep trying to phone her until she knew she was safe. Was it just fourteen hours since the two of them stumbled out of the jungle into that small Colombian village?

Now, here she sat, freshly showered, with Huck happily piling his favorite toys at her feet. But she couldn’t share his homecoming joy. This was no longer home to her.

Suddenly, the background picture of Vincent aboard Woodwind filled her computer screen, jarring her out of her reverie.

She leaned forward and studied his image, then spoke to him: “It haunts me that my selfish career focus might have contributed to your death. I have to leave here for my safety and my sanity. It’s time I moved on. But I promise you I’ll avenge your murder, and I’ll find Peruvase .” She kissed her fingertips, touched the screen, then forced herself to click onto her emails.

While the computer searched for her mail, she reached down and scratched Huck’s ear. Then, glancing up at the screen, she blinked and jerked her head back in shock.

The most recent email was titled: “Important. Please Open Immediately.” It had been sent that day—by Gabriel Carrera.

Driven by an impulse to delete the message, Diane reached for the mouse.

Gabriel stood in front of his father’s massive desk feeling like a child about to be scolded. He ran his finger along the rosewood grip of an antique dueling pistol lying on the desktop while waiting for Carlos to finish his phone call. It occurred to him that Carlos Carrera was the only man he had ever known who could throw down the gauntlet, then casually answer the telephone.

As Gabriel traced the inlaid cruz latina on the pistol handle and the golden gazelles representing the Carrera name on the trigger guard, he remembered the exact moment in his youth when he realized the dueling pistols meant his family had the social position to take the life of another with impunity. Now he wondered if the weapons also gave the Carreras the right to take each others’ lives.

Gabriel sank into a chair. The burdens of the past twenty hours were taking their toll. Yesterday afternoon the woman he revered had called him a murderer. And in doing so, she had led him to painful insights regarding the real murderer’s identity and motives.