“Anyway, once we got to the island, Big Beefy Guy ordered two men to bring the luggage and then showed me up to my room. I thanked him and asked when I could see my grandmother and he said she wasn’t on the island. She was in the hospital on the mainland. But would be home soon.”
“I am surprised you didn’t demand to go to the mainland to see her,” Domitian commented.
“I did,” Sarita said grimly. “But Big Beefy Guy said he couldn’t authorize that—he said that I would have to wait for Dr. Dressler to return. He was the only one who could give permission for use of the helicopter or boat to take me to the mainland. In the meantime, I should just relax and enjoy my stay,” Sarita finished with disgust.
“That must have been frustrating,” Domitian murmured.
“Yeah, you could call it that,” Sarita said dryly. “Actually, I was super P.O.’d. Especially when I found out that Big Beefy Guy had misled me. He made it sound like Dr. Dressler wasn’t on the island and there was no way to contact him. Meantime, Dressler was there on the island all along, just down at his labs.”
“How did you find that out?” Domitian asked.
“Aleta.”
“The cook?” he asked, recognizing the name.
Sarita nodded and quickly told him about her early dinner in the kitchen and Aleta’s having made El Doctor’s nutrition drink. “That’s when I snuck down to the labs and saw the immortal cut in half.”
They were both silent for a minute, and then Sarita frowned and said, “You know, my grandmother started out as a cook and housekeeper for the Dresslers, but as she got older they brought in more help. She mentioned that someone was hired to cook, and then later someone to help with cleaning house, and I got the feeling that now she’s more a companion to Mrs. Dressler.”
“Si?” Domitian murmured, wondering where she was going with this.
“But none of the names matched up,” Sarita said now. “I mean, I can’t remember the name she mentioned—it was only the once—but I’m pretty sure the cook she named wasn’t Aleta.”
“Perhaps the first girl left and was replaced with this Aleta and your grandmother just didn’t mention it,” Domitian suggested.
“Yeah, that’s what I thought too, but she also only mentioned one girl being brought in to help with housekeeping and there were at least three at the house,” Sarita continued. “And before you say it, yes I know they might have hired more help over the years that Grandmother didn’t mention, but on top of that, I didn’t once encounter Mrs. Dressler or their son even once while I was there.”
“Son?” Domitian asked with surprise. His uncle hadn’t mentioned that Dressler had a son.
“Hmm . . .” Sarita nodded solemnly. “Grandmother mentioned him several times over the years. I got the feeling she thought he was the perfect son. His name is Thorondor.”
“Thorondor?” Domitian asked, wincing over the unusual name. Life would be hell for a boy with a name like that. Children could be cruel.
Sarita shrugged. “I guess Mrs. Dressler was a Tolkien fan. They call him Thorne for short.”
Domitian nodded, but suggested, “Perhaps this Thorne and his mother are staying in their apartment on the mainland so that Mrs. Dressler could visit your grandmother daily.” He knew his uncle had sent men to check the apartment on the mainland and found it empty. But Mrs. Dressler and this Thorne fellow could have been at the hospital at the time, he supposed.
“I didn’t know they had an apartment on the mainland,” Sarita said slowly. “I did think maybe she was on the mainland, though, to visit Grandmother, but . . .”
“But?” he prompted.
She hesitated, and then admitted, “During the three days I was on the island, I wandered pretty much everywhere in that house. Every door was open except for Dr. Dressler’s office door and I looked into every room I could.” Shaking her head solemnly, she added, “There was no sign of Mrs. Dressler or Thorne. I didn’t see either of them, and there were no pictures or personal items to suggest either they or my grandmother ever lived there. Every room, even what was obviously the master bedroom was . . .” Sarita frowned, searching for the words to explain what she’d found. “They all looked unlived in. They were like empty hotel rooms. Furnished and ready for occupancy, but unused at the moment.”
“And when I asked Aleta where Dr. Dressler’s wife and son were, she just gave me this blank look as if she’d never heard that he had a wife. Then Big Beefy Guy came into the kitchen and told me to stop bothering the staff with questions that were none of my business. He suggested I go out in the garden or otherwise amuse myself.”
Domitian shook his head, not sure what to say, or even what to make of this information. He’d never really given Senora Dressler much thought. Ensuring his life mate was safe and finding out the location of the island as well as what Dr. Dressler was up to had been his only concerns when he’d agreed to go.
“As we were walking here I started to wonder if Mrs. Dressler, Thorne, and my grandmother didn’t live in the small house,” she added thoughtfully.
“The small house?” Domitian asked at once. “What small house? You never mentioned a small house.”
“It never came up,” Sarita said with a shrug.
“It is up now. Explain,” he requested firmly.
She seemed amused by his stiff voice, but said, “When we flew in on the helicopter I got to see the whole island. The fenced-in area with the labs was on the tip of the island as we approached, there was a bit of jungle and then the big house came next with an open area around it. After that there was a large expanse of jungle, but at the very tip of the far end of the island there was a smaller house on the beach with a pool beside it.”
“A small house with a pool?” Domitian asked, straightening from where he’d relaxed back against the base of a palm tree. His voice sharp, he added, “Like the house we just left?”
“Yeah. I considered that myself as we were walking,” Sarita admitted, sounding unconcerned. “But then I thought about not encountering Mrs. Dressler or her son at the big house and decided they—and my grandmother—probably live in the little house instead. I mean, who would want to live with Dressler? The man’s a monster.
“Of course,” she added with a frown. “Now that I know about the apartment, I suppose that could be where they are. The big house could be like a cottage. Where they usually stay on the weekends and in the summer when Dressler isn’t teaching. That could explain the hotel air to the place.” Following that through, Sarita continued slowly, “But if they normally stay in the big house and just aren’t there now because they returned to the mainland to stay close to Grandmother, then the little house isn’t where they live . . . which means it could be the little house that we woke up in after being drugged.”
Domitian couldn’t have been more stunned if she’d pulled a hammer out from under the towel she was wearing and suddenly hit him with it. For a minute his thoughts were in such chaos, he couldn’t even hold on to one.
He’d rushed them out of the house to get her as far away as possible to somewhere she’d be safe from Dressler, and instead might be walking her straight into his arms.
Cursing under his breath, he leapt to his feet.
“Where are you going?” Sarita asked with alarm, getting up as well.
“It is okay. I just want to go a little farther along the beach and see if you are right and we are still on the island,” he said reassuringly.
“But what if you’re seen?” she asked with concern.
“I will be careful. But I have to see if you are right, mi Corazon. If we are on Dressler’s island then we have to find a way off it, and quickly. And walking up to the house and asking for a ride is not the way to go about it. Just sit and rest for a bit. I will be back before you know it,” he said and then turned and hurried away before she could argue further.
Sarita watched until Domitian followed the curving beach out of sight, and then turned to glance out toward the water. She’d been keeping an eye out for anyone approaching in a boat as they walked, and even if they were on the island with the house and labs as she suspected, she still had to because water was the only way to approach the house.