“So where do we find the Trentons?”
“The main office, of course.”
It was the middle of the week, so there were only a few other cars in the graveled lot. Chloe led him around the pool and over to the new building. The office was on the south side, where Ted and Maria and their toddlers also had an apartment.
Maria answered their knock, and Chloe saw that she was pregnant again. Maria was a petite woman with ink-dark eyes and hair, and a heart-shaped face. “Chloe!” she said, and gave her a hug. “What are you doing here? It’s Tuesday. The shoot isn’t for another two weeks. Almost two weeks. Anyway, not now.”
Chloe gave Maria a hug in return and stepped back. “I drove down with my friend Jack Smith. He’s a designer, and this will be his first time out on Coco-belle. I wanted to show him around before the craziness of the shoot. Congratulations! I see there’s about to be an addition to the family.”
Maria blushed, tousling the heads of the toddlers hiding behind her legs. “A girl, so they say. I’m happy. I love my little boys, and I am fine either way, but…a little girl will be nice. How do you do, Mr. Smith?”
“I’m fine. It’s a pleasure to meet you,” Luke said smoothly.
“Come in, come in,” Maria said. “Are you staying for the night?”
“Unfortunately not. I have to work tomorrow,” Chloe told her.
“So?” Maria said. “Two hours—you are back in down town Miami. You should stay. We have only three couples here tonight. The weekend is fully booked, though, thanks be to God. But tonight…Ted can barbecue out by the pool and we can spend some time catching up.”
“We didn’t plan to stay, Maria. We didn’t bring anything with us,” Chloe said.
“You may not know this,” Luke said with a grin, “but there’s all kinds of shopping in the Keys.”
Chloe stared at him, startled, and frowned. What on earth was he thinking? She should insist immediately that they go take a quick look at Coco-belle, then head back to the city, for the sake of her own sanity, if nothing else.
She didn’t want to go back, though. She wanted to spend time. Not so much here, or even with the Trentons. She wanted to spend time with Luke. Even if she got hurt in the end.
She groaned inwardly. He wasn’t the kind of guy she should want, not even for a night. He wasn’t any more capable of a real relationship than she was, and she didn’t want to be a casual “call of nature” in his life. She understood why he kept his distance from her. She just didn’t know if she could do the same.
“We could stay—Maria is right,” Luke told her. “If we leave here at six in the morning, we’ll beat all the traffic. I’ll have you home by eight, and you can change and be in your office by nine.”
He wanted to stay, she thought, and she already knew him well enough to know he never did anything without a reason. Did he think that Maria or Ted would be able to tell them something about the missing Colleen Rodriguez?
Luke hunkered down, facing the toddlers at eye level. “Hello. I’m Jack,” he said.
“Sam, Elijah, say hello to Mr. Smith,” Maria said. The little boys smiled, then ducked farther behind her legs. “You like children?” she asked him.
“Children are little people—they’re just not jaded by the world, that’s all. What’s not to like?” he said.
Maria nodded approvingly at Luke, then said, “Please, Chloe, stay.”
“But Jack really wanted to see Coco-belle,” Chloe protested.
“Bill is here—my husband’s oldest son,” Maria explained to Luke. “He can run you out, and when you get back, I have closets full of tooth brushes and shampoo—we are a resort, after all. I can lend you a bathing suit and a T-shirt to sleep in, and one of the boys will have trunks that Mr. Smith can use.”
Maria sounded so hopeful, but Chloe didn’t think she had much choice anyway.
“That’s wonderful!” Luke said enthusiastically.
“You have your favorite room, Chloe,” Maria coaxed. “And Mr. Smith can stay right next door.”
Chloe smiled and gave in. She knew when she was beaten.
They wouldn’t actually have to leave at six, either. She didn’t really need to be in the office until ten, and her first appointment wasn’t until eleven.
“I’ll call Bill and tell him to get a boat ready,” Maria said.
She pulled her cell phone out of her pocket, placed the call and explained what he needed to do, then snapped her phone closed. “Go on down to the docks. Bill will run you over. You’ve got an hour or so of daylight left, if you’re scouting for locations, Mr. Smith.”
“It’s Jack, please,” Luke said. “And thank you for your hospitality.”
Chloe glanced over at him, amazed at the way he took on his assumed identity as easily as he might slip into a jacket.
“We’ll barbecue at about eight,” Maria said. Then she hustled the children away, muttering to herself about the evening’s menu.
Chloe led the way down to the dock, shaking her head. “I can’t believe you want to stay here. You might have mentioned it to me before you started pushing the idea.”
“What? It’s no big deal. We’re two hours away from Miami. We didn’t take off in a spaceship or land in a foreign country.”
“That’s not the point,” she said.
He glanced at her, clearly amused. “This is hardly an act of piracy or seduction,” he told her.
No, sadly, she thought. And yet, if he did want her, could she handle it? She was afraid she would care too deeply, because it was so hard for her to become involved at all that once she fell, she knew she would fall hard.
She prayed that she wasn’t blushing.
“That’s not the point, either,” she said.
They were nearing the docks when she saw Bill Trenton. He was twenty-nine, just a few years her senior, hard working, and married, with a three-year-old, so his son and his half brothers were a perfect age to play together. All Ted’s older children liked their young stepmother, but then again, their mother had passed away when they were young from a rare form of cancer, and it had taken their father a long time to fall in love again, so they were happy for him.
He gave her a hug, just as Maria had done. “What a surprise!”
“Bill, meet Jack Smith. He designs swimsuits, and he’s going to do a catalogue shoot when Bryson does its calendar.”
“Cool,” Bill said, shaking Jack’s hand. “Nice to meet you. So I hear you want to see Coco-belle. It’s only a short hop over there. We’ll take my little old Donzi down there,” he said, pointing to his speedboat. It was old, but it was still a beautiful boat. A classic.
“Thanks,” Luke told him as they walked down to the boat. Luke hopped aboard easily, but being Luke—even though he undoubtedly knew she was quite capable of stepping aboard on her own—he turned and offered her a hand.
Chloe accepted, chastising herself for being truly pathetic, but the bottom line was that she liked the feel of his hand. The strength of it. The warmth of his living flesh.
“Hey, would it be too much trouble to circle the island before going ashore?” Luke asked, releasing one of the lines.
“Not at all,” Bill assured him. They pushed off from the dock, and Bill thrummed the motor slowly as they maneuvered through the mangroves and out to the open water. Then he opened the throttle, and they shot across the waves.
It was too loud for conversation, so while Luke sat near Bill at the helm, Chloe perched by the railing and drank in the smell of the sea. She loved boats, loved the salt air and the sea spray.
When she turned a few minutes later to look at the two men, she was stunned by the expression on Luke’s face. He was frowning intently, clearly disturbed by something Bill had said. That made her frown, but when Luke caught her looking at him, he just shook his head to indicate that he would explain later.
They circled the island twice, and she saw that he was paying close attention to the layout—the man-made beach, the docks, the buil
dings, the mangrove copses and spit of highland where the groundskeepers had actually managed to make flowers grow.
After the second circuit Bill let them off at the docks and promised, “I’ll be waiting.”
“We won’t be long,” Luke assured him.
“No problem. I’ve got a good book, so take your time,” he said.
Chloe hopped out before Luke could help her. They started down the dock together.
“So,” Chloe said, staring at Luke. “What was up setting you back there?”
“Bill is very protective of his step mother,” Luke said.
“I know that.”
“But do you know why?”
“Because she’s a sweet woman who really loves his father and the rest of the family?” Chloe suggested.
“Ted Trenton saved Maria.”
“What are you talking about? Saved her from what?”
“She was brought into the United States by a man who bought her from her father in Brazil.”
Chloe was appalled, but she wasn’t shocked. Living in Miami, with its large South American community, she knew all about the easy sale of children in the streets of Brazil.
“I didn’t know that. You learned all this in ten minutes with the guy?” she asked. She considered herself friends with Maria—and the entire family, but—
Luke had gotten information she’d never even suspected.
“I ask the right questions in the right way,” he said.
“So then what happened?”
“The man who bought her, intending to make her his bride, was a religious fanatic.”
“Oh?”
Luke looked at her grimly. “Maria escaped from the man. Ted Trenton found her running down the street, terrified, and he believed her when she said she was trying to get away before she could be forced into marriage. She said the man who had purchased her in Brazil belonged to a cult in Miami. A group known as the Church of the Real People.”
SEVEN
There was a security shed, a little larger than an old phone booth, at the end of the docks. Chloe was still looking shell-shocked as they neared it.
Luke took her hand.
“Smile,” he said. “You don’t want to look suspicious, do you?”
She smiled as the guard stepped from the air-conditioned shack. His shirt read Dockmaster, Frank Little.
Frank Little was anything but little, however. He was a good six-three and built like a bulldozer.
“Hi, Frank,” Chloe said.
“Chloe Marin, great to see you. Rumor has it you’re one of the models for the upcoming shoot,” Frank said.
Luke noted that Frank was armed. He wondered if that had always been the case, or whether it was something new since Colleen’s disappearance.
Frank looked like a good guy, but looks could be deceiving.
“That’s what they tell me, Frank. And this is—”
“Jack Smith.” Luke offered Frank a hand.
“Nice to meet you. You’re kind of late to see much of anything, but we have some golf carts that will let you take a quick look around the island. You’ll want to check out the hotel and bungalows. And you’re scouting locations—they’ve done a lot of work over by the mangroves. The girls stand on the roots, half in the water. Jeanne—have you met her? She got bit by a crab once, and she wasn’t happy, I can tell you that, but she was laughing as hard as anyone else that night. Then there’s the beach, of course, with lots of palms aplenty and some nice dunes. Anyway, the golf carts are over there. They’ve all got push-button start, so help yourselves.”
“Thanks, Frank,” Chloe said.
“Yes, thanks, and nice to meet you,” Luke told him.
“Same here,” Frank said pleasantly.
Frank went back to sit in his air-conditioning, and Luke and Chloe headed over to the row of golf carts. She barely seemed aware of him. Well, he had just blind-sided her with his news.
But once they were far enough away that Frank couldn’t possibly overhear them, she spun on him. “Why didn’t I know that?” she asked.
“When you’re married to a woman who was sold as a teenage ‘bride,’ aka prostitute, you don’t usually bring it up at the dinner table.”
“No, I guess not, but…I’ve known the whole family for years. They never said a word to me, but Bill just came out and told you. A stranger. A guy he’d never met before today.” She shook her head, obviously both confused and hurt. “How did Ted get the paperwork to make her legal? I don’t get it. This is huge, and Bill told you!”
“Chloe, I pretty much asked him point-blank how his father and Maria met, and I commented on how well everyone seems to get along.”
Chloe shook her head again. “I’m still stunned that none of them ever said anything to me. I mean, most people know that Victoria and Brad and Jared and I were nearly killed by the Church of the Real People.”
“Maybe that’s why they kept her past a secret, especially from you. Maybe they didn’t want to bring up the past and upset either one of you.”
Chloe said, “It’s just so bizarre.” She stared at him, those incredible lime-green eyes wide with confusion. “After those men were found dead in the Everglades, it seemed like the cult pretty much died, too. The members all quit. They didn’t want to be associated with any religious sect that would slaughter children. So how could—”
“Don’t kid yourself. The Church of the Real People is alive and well and doing business in Miami,” Luke told her. “They are, as a matter of fact, having a potluck dinner on Thursday night.”
“You’ve got to be kidding!” Chloe said in disgust.
“I’m not, I’m sorry to say.” He paused for a moment before going on. “Cults like the Real People feed on the pain and weaknesses of others. All they need is a leader who can control people with his smooth words and charisma. You’re a psychologist. You know how that works. The Real People might have hidden in the woodwork for a few years, but I don’t think they ever went away.”
“You know, their elders—priests, whatever!—spoke to the police after the murders. They claimed that the men who were found in the Everglades weren’t acting in the name of the church. They tried to white wash everything. But now you’re telling me that someone I know, someone I thought of as a friend, rescued his wife from a member of that same cult that was basically practicing slavery.”
Chloe was outraged, but he wondered if her anger wasn’t really a cover for her fear. She hadn’t believed everything she’d been told over the years, but that didn’t mean she wasn’t worried to hear that the Church of the Real People was still active—both on and under the radar.
“Poor Maria,” Chloe said.
“Maria seems to be a very happy woman right now,” Luke pointed out. “But…”
“But what?”
“But it bothers me to know that there’s an association between the Church of the Real People and this island.”
“Don’t be ridiculous,” Chloe protested. “The agency has been around for almost fifty years, and they’ve owned this island for at least thirty. I think the Coco-lime Resort has been around for about thirty years, too, but Ted’s only had it about fifteen, and he’s only been married to Maria for five. There can’t be a connection. It has to be coincidence.”
“I’m not a big believer in coincidence,” he said as they got in the golf cart and started along the path.
“But if there was some connection, wouldn’t someone have tried to hurt Maria by now, or bring her back into the fold or whatever? When Ted found her, didn’t they try to go after the man?”
“I don’t think so.”
“Why not?”
“Because she might have wound up being deported to Brazil, and maybe sold all over again.”
Chloe fell silent, and when Luke set his free hand over hers and squeezed, she didn’t try to pull away.
“Are you all right?” he asked her.
“Of course,” she said. “I’m just upset about Maria. And…confused,
I guess. Or surprised. Taken aback. Whatever. But I’m fine. And we’re here because of Colleen Rodriguez. We should be concentrating on what happened to her.”
“We are still concentrating on Colleen,” he assured her, then threw out an arm as if to encompass the entire island. “This just isn’t a very encouraging scenario for discovering the truth.”
It was true. The opportunities for foul play seemed endless. The island wasn’t large, just a little over five square miles, but scrub pines and dense foliage were abundant between the hotel and the haphazardly scattered bungalows. If Colleen Rodriguez had been murdered, there were plenty of places where it could have happened without anyone noticing before her body was dumped far out at sea. Depending on how clever her killer had been, her body could still surface, though. The Gulf Stream might cast her back to shore. On the other hand, if she had been weighted down and dumped in deep water, her fate might never be known.
“So they shoot all over the island?” Luke asked Chloe.
“What?”
“Photos. They shoot photos all over the island?”
Chloe nodded. “Waterfalls seem to be a big thing. There’s a natural one, and the pool at the hotel has one, too. It’s really pretty. There’s a bar in the center of the pool, with another bar on top of that, and the water flows down over them. They shoot all over in and around the hotel, actually.”
“Let’s go see the hotel, then,” Luke said.
The path took them all the way around the island on their way to the hotel. He counted eight freestanding bungalows and two bigger buildings that appeared to be apartments, all built on pilings. They were a fair distance from the hotel, hidden by the trees. Most likely staff quarters, he thought as he pulled up in the circular driveway in front of the hotel. A manager in a crisp white uniform came down the steps to greet them.
“Hey, Bert,” Chloe said.
“Miss Marin, how nice to see you.” He looked more pleased than was strictly necessary, and Luke put him down as something of a sycophant. “Mr. Smith, I presume?” the man said, turning to Luke. “Frank let me know you’d be stopping by. I’m Bert Ackerman,” he said, stepping forward to pump Luke’s hand. “I understand you’ve been surveying our humble facility.”