Later on, when it was all over and she was back in her bed at La Casa Blanca, cool, clean sheets pulled up to her chin, a thick wad of bandage wrapped around her head, Mary Bliss could recall only pieces of the events that transpired.
“The woman who found me on the beach, it was the old woman who drives the hotel’s courtesy bus. She put me in that VW van,” she told Katharine, who was hovering about with cold Cokes and painkillers she’d bought who knows where. “God knows how she lifted me, that old lady probably only weighs eighty pounds herself. And she took me into town to that building where you caught up with me. Was it a jail or a hospital?”
“Both, actually. They called it la clinica. I guess that’s the jail infirmary.” Katharine smoothed back a strand of hair that had fallen over Mary Bliss’s eye. “How’s your head feelin’, hon?”
“All right,” Mary Bliss said, touching it gingerly. “Mostly pretty numb.”
“Good,” Katharine said. She popped one of the pain pills into her mouth and took a swallow of her own Coke. “Mine is just a throbbin’. You have no idea of how terrified I’ve been for the last day and a half. I’ve been half out of my head.”
“Day and a half!” Mary Bliss tried to sit up, but she still felt groggy. “What day is today?”
“Night. It’s Monday night, Mary Bliss.”
“It can’t be,” Mary Bliss said, sinking back down into the pillows. “We got on the boat Saturday. Saturday morning at ten o’clock.”
“And you washed ashore three miles down the beach around sunset Saturday,” Katharine said. “Although, of course, I didn’t know that then. Had no idea where you were for a full twenty-four hours, nearly out of my mind with worry.”
“I’m sorry,” Mary Bliss said wanly.
“I don’t blame you,” Katharine said. “It was that goddamned Dinky Davis.”
“Dinky,” Mary Bliss said, closing her eyes. She could hear his voice, the long echoing expletive ringing in her ears. “What happened to Dinky?”
“You tell me,” Katharine said. “He never did show up at Pablo and Paul’s on Saturday. I waited and waited. I even went to the bar where he works, kinda asked around. Nobody’s seen him.”
Katharine leaned in close to the bed. “You did real good with the police, M. B. I don’t know what you told ’em, but they believed every word. That woman they brought in to interpret was bawlin’ her eyes out after you told them what happened out there. And Estefan showed up here at the hotel last night, just like he promised, with the death certificate. He was acting kind of funny, though.”
Mary Bliss was getting sleepy again. “Death certificate?”
“Parker’s death certificate. We’re all set, Mary Bliss. The doctor wants to check your head again in the morning. He didn’t want you to fly until the concussion thing was cleared up. But after that, we’re flying back to Atlanta. Just like we planned. Only a little bit later.”
“Home.” Mary Bliss was so very tired.
“Erin!” Her eyes flew open. “My God. What about Erin? We were supposed to be home yesterday.”
“Calm down, now,” Katharine said soothingly. “Don’t go getting yourself all upset. Erin knows.”
“She knows?”
Katharine hesitated. “About her daddy. The interpreter lady called and told her.”
“No,” Mary Bliss wailed. “A stranger? A stranger called and gave her the news that her father was dead? How could you, Katharine?”
“I couldn’t help it,” Katharine protested. “I’m not supposed to be here, right? The police just think I’m an American woman you met here at the hotel. A new friend. I couldn’t very well be the one to call Erin and tell her what had happened. It would have spoiled everything. And you certainly couldn’t tell her. You weren’t even really fully conscious until just a little while ago.”
“How was she?” Mary Bliss asked, a tear spilling down her cheek.
Katharine bit her lip. “Upset. She wanted to fly down here, but Jessica’s mother persuaded her it would be better to stay put, wait for you to get home. Josh Bowden was over there when I called today.”
“My poor baby,” Mary Bliss said, sobbing. “Erin. I’ve got to call her.”
“No,” Katharine said. “I called her this morning myself. I talked to Erin for a long time. She’s shook up. But I told her I was flying to Cozumel, and I’d bring you home myself. On Tuesday.”
Mary Bliss turned her head and wept into her pillow. “My baby.” The words were muffled, but Katharine could make them out just fine. “My baby. I’ve ruined her life. She’ll never forgive me.”
Katharine lay down in the bed beside Mary Bliss and wrapped her arms around her best friend. “Shh. Shush now,” she crooned. “You didn’t ruin her life. You did what you had to do, and it’s over and done with. It’s going to be all right now. The worst part is over. Tomorrow we go home. And everything’s going to be just fine. I promise.”
Mary Bliss’s body shuddered. Katharine heard her hiccup, then catch her breath. She stroked Mary Bliss’s hair. “Shh, baby. Katharine’s here. Right here.”