Five
Clarity looked at the sullen look on Lanai´s face as they rode inside Juarez´s Policia Preventiva car across the Bay of Acapulco. She sent a brief text message to Cynthia and Taimi, letting them know they were on their way to the police station. Unfortunately, the Mexican cellular phone network was not working properly and it didn´t go through. The captain would probably tell them, she thought. They rode for about fifteen minutes until they reached an old brown brick building three or four streets behind the beachfront. Clarity felt a chill run down her spine as she looked as Juarez, who kept them without food for over three hours, to erode their strength of will.
“Your money please. Including credit cards,” said Juarez.
“You can´t take our money away, it´s ours, we need it to survive.”
“Please give us your money ladies, or you will not see any food or your passports again. And without passports, you can´t get back to the Estados Unidos.”
Clarity sighed and pulled out her wallet, taking out her credit card and two hundred dollars in cash. She saw Lanai do the same, although she only had fifty three dollars cash and no credit card.
“Now, tell us about this cocktail formula, where is it exactly?” Clarity glanced at Juarez´s assistants, who had stopped playing with Pepsi caps when they heard the chief officer´s question.
“I don’t know what formula you´re talking about, this is a total mistake, we´re completely innocent of any theft and shouldn´t be here at all.”
“As you wish Lady, bread and water for them for a week Alonso,” said Juarez, looking at one of the guards who carried a key ring full of keys.
Juarez led them to a small cell with two bunk beds, a sink smaller than Clarity´s purse, and a small square opening which acted as window. They watched the sun go down on the city and ate their bread hungrily. Around ten o´clock, Juarez left with one of the guards to play poker at a tavern nearby. Clarity had learned basic Spanish at school and she understood the general meaning of sentences Juarez spoke.
As they couldn’t fall asleep, Clarity started playing tick, tack, toe with Lanai on the wall, using a metal spoon rescued from the sink to mark the squares. Less than fifteen into their game, they a thumping noise in front of them. The guard known as Alonso had passed out, hit on the head by a mysterious man whose face was covered up to the eyes with a turtleneck rolled up. Without saying a word, the man stepped towards Clarity´s prison cell and tried several keys, until he found the one which opened the metal door.
The man made a quick gesture with his hands, prompting the girls to get out. Clarity held Lanai´s hand and the girls exited their cell. They followed the man through to the station´s back door and found themselves on a dark backstreet filled with trash from the previous week, judging by the smell. Clarity walked briskly with Lanai by her side, until they reached a Days Inn motel overlooking the strip. The man led them to a room on the second floor and closed the door behind him. Hearing him sigh at last, Clarity saw him pull down his rollneck. It was LT.
“What are you doing here?” asked Clarity, “how did you find us?”
“Juarez wanted to arrest me, I overheard Cactus say a special police squad would come tonight for me on the ship, so I left with my belongings and my money, and headed for the police station in a taxi. When I saw there was only one man guarding the station, I decided to step in, and told him I was a salesman with imported cigarettes.”
“Why was Juarez after you?”
“That lady, Ms. Avenworth told a tale on me, she told the captain that I knew about a secret cocktail formula that was stolen from her, and the captain decided to call police right away.”
“What exactly do you know about this formula?”
“Well, two days ago, Ms. Avenworth came to my cabin after dinner, after the late night dancing at the disco. She told me that she really liked me and that she wanted me to come and live with her in Acapulco. She told me she admired the way I prepared cocktails and had watched me carefully prepare them all week. Then, she told me she had money and that she was ready to share some with me if I gave her my leather-bound book with all the recipes, which she read carefully for about twenty minutes. Of course, I refused to give her the book and politely sent her away, she must have held a grudge against me to make the captain believe I stole her formula. I checked her schedule before leaving the ship, she´s staying at the Fiesta Americana.”
“I don´t like this LT,” said Clarity, “I thought I had been the only one set up, but now with you it´s two. Somebody wanted us to be the scapegoats for this theft, and they sure have succeeded for now. Let´s sleep now, I´m too tired even to eat. Tomorrow, we´ll see more clearly.”