Cruise: A Thriller Page 19

  “Last night, Romina Castellano escaped from prison,” Benitez began. “She faked acute appendicitis, and the doctor called for an ambulance to transport her to the hospital.”

  He looked intently at Heleen and read the horror in her eyes. “Along the way, Castellano threatened the ambulance paramedic who was sitting next to her with a sharp object that she had smuggled out from her cell. As she held the sharp object to the man’s throat, she forced the driver to follow her demands. Rather than drive to the hospital in Girona, she had him turn the ambulance around in the direction of Blanes. Around the time they were expected to arrive at the hospital, she had the driver call to report a flat tire and problems with his tools. She also told him to say that all was well with the patient, so no one would worry. It was not necessary for them to send another ambulance because by the time it would arrive, they would have already solved the problem.

  “She gained an extra half an hour by doing this, in which she made the driver go to a secluded forest just outside of Blanes; there, she tore their clothes into thin but sturdy strips, which she used to tie the two men to a tree and then she drove off with the ambulance. The men were found after sunrise by a hiker walking his dog early in the morning.”

  Benitez looked at Heleen and raised both eyebrows.

  “I … I’m speechless,” she stammered. “To plan a prison escape, tie up the ambulance personnel, and take off with the ambulance … it all sounds like a movie.”

  “A horror movie,” Benitez responded in an effort to be witty. He pulled a paper from the stack; he briefly looked over the contents and looked at her without any emotion. His eyes seemed to say, This is my work; people simply do horrible things.

  “Romina Castellano drove to the coast. There, she parked the ambulance near a rocky area known by locals as Las Rocas Rojas, because of the red glow of the morning sun on the cliffs.”

  Why in the world she would want to hear about the beauty of nature right now was beyond her. There’s a dangerous woman on the loose! Get on with the story!

  “These facts are all corroborated by eyewitness reports,” Benitez said. “There is also no doubt about the ambulance, which was found in Las Rocas Rojas.”

  “What about Romina?” Heleen asked.

  “That’s another story,” Benitez said. He took a laminated sheet of paper from the pile of papers and pushed it toward her. “After we found this letter in the ambulance, a search team searched the entire area around the cliffs. Romina’s overalls were found under a cliff. Torn and bloodied. Her body is missing. She may have been carried away by the water … or maybe not.”

  Heleen put her hands over her eyes. “She jumped off a cliff,” she whispered. “After Frank … Oh, my God, how horrible!”

  Benitez nodded. “We have also heard about your husband’s suicide, my condolences.” His neutral undertone gave away how he viewed the situation.

  “My ex-husband,” Heleen replied absently. The second suicide in such a short time hit her like a ton of bricks. Of course she hated Romina, but not enough to wish her such a horrible death. She was still David’s mother. Within a few days. he had lost both of his parents. The questions she had asked herself a few days ago now came back to the surface again. Who was going to tell him this news, for God’s sake? Was it even possible to explain something like this to a four-year-old child? Would he understand it? And what kind of effect would that news have on him in the short and long terms?

  “Mrs. Van Rijnsburg?”

  Heleen was startled out of her thoughts.

  “Sorry, I got carried away. I was thinking about David …”

  Benitez smiled sympathetically. “The paper is from the prison, Romina must have hidden it underneath her clothes. The letter was probably written before her escape. The plastic is there to protect any clues or evidence.” Benitez tapped his finger against the transparent cover. “Go ahead and read it. Your Spanish is excellent.”

  Heleen pulled the letter closer to her. The sentences were written with a blue pen. The handwriting was neat, almost elegant, and typical of a woman.

  If you are reading this it means that I’m dead. Although I do not know what physical pain awaits me, right now death feels like it would be a relief. The fact that someone is reading this letter indicates that I have succeeded with my intended plan, and I have managed to set something right. To intervene before the final and most important step is taken by a bad person. For this I am willing to pay with my life.

  My body is on the rocks or rests in the arms of the sea. The decision to end my life is voluntary. Nobody forced me to jump, at least, not in a direct way. After the subtle game that was played, that would be inappropriate. The person who has slyly forced me into this situation does not make such mistakes. She is the master of manipulation and deception.

  I want to tell my story. It’s the last thing I will share with this world; after that, it’s over. The only man I have ever loved, my freedom, and my child have all been taken from me. There is nothing that can keep me from taking my own life now. It’s over.

  In order to maintain my last bit of dignity, I am leaving this world with a clear conscience. This is only possible if I tell the whole truth. There are two people who know what really happened during the past two years, and I am one of them. The other will forever maintain her innocence and paint herself as the eternal victim. And no one will ever suspect that she was the initiator of this fraudulent plan, which has caused so many people so much suffering. But she will not get away with it, because I have decided to take action and tell my story. She will have to pay a high price for my final words.

  Frank’s marriage was a bore. To escape from it, he started a relationship with me. The first few months, we mostly had very passionate sex. Every chance we got we made love. He told me he’s never experienced that kind of love before. The initial sexual attraction eventually turned into real love.

  David was born, a gift from God that sealed our unconditional love. Besides the joy, his birth also brought us an additional problem. In spite of all their efforts to conceive an offspring, Frank and Heleen had remained childless. Over the years, this had turned Heleen into a bitter woman. Frank was sure that if she found out that he had fathered a son with someone else, all hell would break loose. With this in mind, it took him more than a year before he dared to take the next step.

  What Frank had predicted came true. When he told her about our relationship and David, she became furious. The following weeks she continued to rant, rave, and threaten. She swore that she would destroy us. To start, she would file for a divorce, in which Frank would be the big loser. After that, the mental torture began. She pulled out all the stops to ruin our family, both financially and emotionally.

  Despite all the insults she kept hurling at his head, Frank continued to talk calmly with her. Unlike his wife, he wanted a solution that all parties could live with. She continued to refuse to cooperate with anything and was only interested in destroying Frank and his new family.

  Just as Frank was ready to go public with the breakup, a proposal suddenly came from her side. In exchange for a large sum of money, she was willing to settle. If we were willing to put this on the table, the divorce would proceed quietly and we could all go our separate ways. However, her demand was insane: to buy her out we had to pay her one million euro.

  Even if we had wanted to, it was impossible for us to get that much money together. When our initial anger about the proposal passed, a realization came over us about the impossible position we were in. Yes, she could destroy us, and she undoubtedly would.

  Driven by fear and despair, we began to think of scenarios and ideas to help save our family. Legal solutions were scratched off the list first. It was impossible to earn that much money legally, in such a short time.

  The events that took place after that are known for the most part. But what no one knows is the role Heleen played in the whole preparation. From the start, the moment the insurance scam was introduced, she knew about it
. We discussed every detail with her. Much to our surprise, her enthusiasm about this plan continued to increase. What we saw as a plan to save our family she saw as an opportunity to make a lot of money and to create a future for herself.

  Last summer, our forced joint venture escalated. Heleen suddenly came to our door, demanding a bigger cut of the profits. Because Frank didn’t want to make a scene in front of David, he took her out to our boat to talk things through in peace and quiet and to try to come to a solution. Once at sea, Heleen became hysterical. Near the coast, she jumped overboard and swam back to shore. A few hours later we were arrested.

  During the preparation stage we all took a mutual oath. No one would give away the place where the money was hidden. No matter how crazy things would get, the location of the money was sacred. If someone remained free, he or she could take their share and would leave the rest there, or spend it on things to help the person who was not able to pick it up.

  As you read this, I have violated this agreement. At least, I hope so, because at this time it is still unclear how much money Heleen has dug up herself in the meantime. In the very near future, I will come to find out and will not hesitate to do what I have to do.

  Heleen’s dirty game is not the only reason for my revenge. Besides my brother, Jorge, Frank and I have also done bad things. Vincent Gautier was more of a victim than a culprit. Jorge manipulated him tremendously.

  After my conviction, for a while I even fooled myself into thinking that Heleen would keep to our agreement. Very naïve, I know. But sometimes it helps to keep hope alive, especially when you have to sit out a hopeless prison sentence.

  My first doubts arose after a telephone conversation I had with my sister, Ana. To my surprise, she told me that she had become good friends with Heleen. She also said that Heleen and David got along very well. The fact that Heleen didn’t offer me any help reinforced the unpleasant feeling I had. When Frank’s sister, Monique, informed me of his suicide and told me about the circumstances that had driven him to commit this horrible act, the bubble of denial that I had been in burst. The harsh reality dawned on me. Driven by resentment, our long prison terms were not sufficient for Heleen. She wanted to literally destroy us. Frank was first on her list. She drove him to despair by sending him those disgusting pictures, showing her and David supposedly enjoying life. David, the son he was given and had lost, was now lost again, to her.

  I’m next on her hit list. She will slowly win over Ana, so I’m the only one who stands between her and David. Her ultimate goal is to live as a millionaire and to make our son hers. I will therefore destroy the one thing she cares about the most. This way I will still have a chance to save my son from her greedy hands. I know where the insurance money is, and I am going to destroy it all. Without the money, her interest in being a mother will weaken quickly.

  I say good-bye to this life as a broken woman. My last thoughts will be with my son. If I fail in my plan, I can only hope that Heleen gets the punishment she deserves so that the law still prevails.

  Romina Castellano

  Heleen put the letter down. Her heart was pounding in her chest; her eyes were opened wide. She pushed her chair back and stood up.

  “This is an absolute lie,” she said in a voice that trembled with indignation. “That woman twists everything around to make me the villain.”

  The two detectives barely reacted. They looked at her with a totally neutral expressions. As if the fact that she was being accused of the most terrible things went completely over their heads.

  “Why are you guys looking at me like I am crazy? Don’t you realize that she is manipulating this whole story?”

  The pair was completely unimpressed by her outburst. Benitez made ​​a soothing gesture and made it clear to her that she should sit down again.

  “I understand that you’re upset,” he said in a listless tone. “We also find it a rather odd letter.”

  His colleague nodded in agreement. “The content is shaky at best. It is strange that she is coming out with this statement now, when she’s had so many opportunities to tell this story before. You must understand that now we have to hear your side of the story all over again. But we want to get to the truth. And as long Romina’s body is not found, we will not know the truth.”

  49

  She was half-awake. Between her lashes, she saw the bright-red numbers on the alarm clock display jump another minute ahead. It was nine minutes to two. In about four hours, the sun would come up again.

  This was the second night she’d spent like a zombie. Tomorrow, there would be one more vigil. Once that was over, she could bring David back to Ana. Then she had done her duty. She didn’t want to think about the new situation too much now, how things would proceed from here was up to Ana. Right now she had her hands full with her own problems. She was tired and wanted to sleep so badly. But there was no way she could.

  The house was noisy. The walls could not keep the cacophony of new and old sounds out of her bedroom. They had put her on the wrong track numerous times. A short thump from the garden sounded like a footstep, but it was just the sound of a ripe lemon hitting the ground. A gust of wind through the open window in the living room seemed to announce an intruder but disappeared just as quickly as it had come.

  Again, an unusual noise startled her. It sounded like the squeaky hinge of the window in the living room that she had left open and attached with a hook. Was it a gust of wind? Besides some familiar background noises, things remained quiet. Heleen’s muscles tightened. It could be someone. Pretend you’re asleep. She breathed deeply, but as quietly as possible, in through her nose and out slowly through her mouth. Keep your focus, relax your body. Play your role as naturally as possible!

  The bedroom door opened slowly. From the corner of her eye, she saw a shadow approaching. Step by step, the stranger came closer. Her heart was racing, her ears ringing. The shadow of an arm moved across her body. Suddenly the room was lit up. Heleen instinctively squeezed her eyes shut.

  “Get up, you bitch. If you scream, I’ll shoot you.”

  Heleen blinked repeatedly, startled. She was looking straight into the barrel of a gun.

  “Get up and get dressed,” Romina hissed. “Tempo!”

  Trembling on her legs, she walked to her wardrobe closet. She exchanged her pajama pants for a pair of jeans. She kept her vest on and threw on a shirt quickly. Then she stepped into a pair of slippers and looked at Romina for direction.

  “We’re going to get David.”

  With the gun aimed at her, Heleen made her way to the nursery. The door was ajar. Next to David’s bed, there was a small, soft light. Like most children, he was afraid to sleep in the dark.

  “Get him out of bed carefully,” Romina whispered. “And remember to make sure not to wake him,” she added threateningly.

  David was on his back. His hands embraced his teddy bear, Oso. Heleen leaned over and took the boy in her arms. Oso was now pressed against her chest.

  “Go to the garden.”

  She did what she was told. To her amazement and relief, David slept through it all. While they bridged the distance to the patio, she tried to avoid making contact between David and her upper body so he would hardly notice or feel the walk.

  Romina opened the door to the patio and ordered Heleen to come out with an impatient nod. Once outside, she ordered Heleen to move through the patio and on through the orchard. Because Romina walked behind her, she had no chance to escape, certainly not if she didn’t want to put David in any danger. The space between her and Romina was never more than two meters. She felt the piercing eyes of the Spanish woman on her back.

  A cloud that moved in front of the moon obstructed the view of the fence behind the orchard. That’s where Romina must have entered the garden.

  The lack of moonlight was not an obstacle to Heleen. She knew every nook and cranny of the orchard blindly. She walked directly to the gate in the dark. Along the way a twig broke under her slipper twice, making a
loud cracking sound. When they reached the gate, the moon reappeared. The light reflected on a parked car. Romina was anything but stupid, Heleen thought. Between her orchard and her neighbor, there was a dirt road that was sometimes used by tractors. By using the dirt road you could get back to the paved road again. Romina had done her homework. A frightening thought.

  “Put David in the backseat and get behind the wheel yourself.”

  Romina opened the rear door. She sat in the backseat and gave Heleen the car key.

  “Now drive. When we reach civilization, I’ll tell you where you need to go.”

  The car was an old Opel. Shifting gears was difficult and because it had no power steering Heleen had to work very hard to avoid potholes and other obstacles. She tried to reach the two-way street as gently as possible.

  As she drove onto the asphalt, Romina looked around warily. They were the only ones on the road. A triumphant grin came across the face of the Spanish woman.

  “Well, well, it looks like your police friends have abandoned you tonight, bitch.”

  50

  “They are two kilometers in front of us,” Juan Benitez said. Without even blinking, he stared at his laptop screen.

  “I can’t imagine that they would drive to Blanes,” Oscar Alderon replied, as he drove. “To head in the direction of Blanes, okay. But to the city center? No way.”

  Benitez nodded absently. He was wearing an earpiece that connected him to the van that drove right behind them. In it were two detectives who continually kept him informed about the conversation between Heleen and Romina. A tiny microphone recorded every sound made in the car that they were following.