“Give me a break. Take me back to shore. I want a mojito.”
Julian turned and looked up at Grace, who was standing on the paddleboard behind him. The sun was high in the sky, the silhouette of her head intermittently blocking its rays and casting a shadow over Julian. The oar rested on her shoulder, her fist gripped tightly around the shaft.
“Bleeding like a stuck pig,” Julian said. “And my girlfriend can’t get me back to dry land.”
He gripped the edge of the board and leaned quickly to his right. Grace screamed as they both splashed into the ocean.
CHAPTER 26
Saturday, June 17, 2017
“CHARLERI’S INN. YEH, MAN?”THE CAB DRIVER ASKED.
“Change of plans. I’ve got to get to Victoria Hospital in Castries,” Sidney said. She checked her watch. “But we have to hurry.”
“Castries is a long way,” he said.
“How long?”
“One hour. Fifty minutes if I drive fast.”
“Get me there in thirty and I’ll give you an extra fifty dollars.”
“Yeh, man,” he said, shifting the car into gear and racing out of Bordelais Correctional Facility.
They made it to Castries in just over thirty minutes. Sidney still rewarded him the bonus.
“This is my last stop,” she said. “Then Charlery’s. Wait for me?”
“No problem.”
Sidney opened the back door and headed to the front entrance of Victoria Hospital. At the reception desk, she asked for directions to the mortuary.
“Are you here to make an identification?” the woman asked.
“No. I’m here to speak with Dr. Mundi. I phoned him about an hour ago, and he said he’d be at the hospital until this evening.”
The woman held up a finger, and spoke quickly on the phone. When she hung up, she looked at Sidney. “I’ll take you.”
They rode the elevator to the basement and Sidney followed the woman through the corridors. Besides that the hallways were darker, and the creep factor a bit higher, the St. Lucian mortuary wasn’t much different from Dr. Cutty’s.
“Down on your right,” the woman said, pointing to the only open doorway at the end of the hall.
“Thank you,” Sidney said.
She found Dr. Mundi behind his desk. A worn box, whose cardboard edges had been blunted by years of storage, was in front of him as he rummaged through it. He didn’t notice her enter, so she cleared her throat.
The doctor looked up.
“Hi, I’m Sidney Ryan.”
“Come in, come in,” Dr. Mundi said.
Sidney sat in a chair in front of the desk. “Sorry to call today, and then show up so quickly.”
“No problem. I think it is here,” Dr. Mundi said, digging into the box. “Yes, right here.” The doctor pulled out a file folder and slowly turned the pages until he found what he needed.
“Yes,” he said, raising his eyebrows. “I did note it. A one-point-nine–centimeter laceration on the victim’s chin determined at the time of autopsy to be a typical shaving injury. These wounds are not difficult to identify, and are common autopsy findings. Usually on the face of male patients, the legs of females.”
