“
Hel-lo” Taryn answered in almost a sing-song tone not yet looking up from scrolling her phone. She gave Cori an appraising glance as the redhead approached and her head tilted just a tiny bit as the other woman sat across from her. “
How are the Flores today?”
Crossing her ankles Cori gave a nonchalant wave of her hand.
“I would expect the term closing ranks could be said for any family dealing with this is a good enough term.” She was a bit taken aback by the straightforward way that question was tossed in.
This just got interesting.“
Hmmmm…” She pretended as if she were giving this answer some consideration. A sea breeze from the lagoon wafted the loose strands of hair under her hat. “
Does this ‘closing of the ranks’ include you?”
Cori pinned Taryn with a look that was a bit on the frosty side.
“I did not realize this was an interview Miss Rogers. I still hold the name for all that I was only married to José for a few months before he was taken from me.” She pushed aside that minor fit of temper and continued; it wasn't Taryn's fault she was being cosseted.
“What are you getting at and please be plain about it. You have my interest but do not push it.”Taryn’s first reaction was to smirk. She couldn’t believe it’d been so easy to get some snark back, but she had to withhold her satisfaction and be careful, she needed Cori or things would get
a lot more complicated. “
It’s not, I’m just nosey, but anyone can see that there’s something going on with y’all. You didn’t even sit with them at the funeral.” She sat up and her relaxed posture became more focused and less playful. Her heart beat a little harder. “
I know about what happened with your husband… and-” She bit her lip a bit, faltering some. She didn’t think she would get nervous. “
Look, I saw some stuff before Mayor Fl- Esteban, just suddenly ended up dead and I haven’t told anyone…” Her eyes widened slightly and she steadied her breath as internally she started to realize what could happen if Cori just decided not to go along with her and tell the other Flores. “
You’re the only one of that crew I think I can trust so I’m gonna tell you.”
Pausing Cori digested this information. Blowing out a breath she recalled the hurtful way her brother in law patted her hand prior to the funeral and all but stated she was too
fragile to attend. She had not been welcomed by the ladies, both the French tart and her sister in law cut glares at her when she attended. What did she owe them? Nothing. She dropped the frosty glare and responded.
“Ranks that don't include me don't need to know. You have my word. I'm listening.”When Taryn saw Cori’s countenance relax it felt like she robbed a bank and got away with it. In her mind she thought she would go in and talk her way around whatever she needed, just like always, but something about the look on Cori’s face when she mentioned her husband finally made it
real. The mayor was dead, her husband was dead and these were real people, not a movie or some high school manipulation. She felt stupid, but Pandora’s box was open now… Fortunately, she
thought she could trust Cori; that same forlorn glance told her that her assumptions about the other woman were at least correct. She took in a breath and relaxed back some. Her eyes cut over past the palms to
’Donna visible at anchor in her regular spot within the lagoon and she recounted the story of seeing the mayor’s boat leaving to the south in the middle of the night.
“
I know it was his boat, because no one else here has a yacht with that hybrid drive. It doesn’t make a sound and I probably wouldn’t have even noticed if I hadn’t been on deck… but it gets worse than that.”
Listening with a morbid fascination Cori held her breath as the same gut twisting sensation she had years ago when José died took her over. She'd been written off as a grief struck widow looking for someone to blame but it felt like it was all happening again. It was too… convenient. Not that Taryn was lying. Cori actually believed her but the timing was too convenient for Esteban’s death. The lack of follow through with an investigation was the next step. This had happened before and she was damned sure not going to relive it again.
Her resolve firmed. She looked Taryn in the eye as she spoke and focused on the words committing them to memory to turn over later. Led Zeppelin wasn't kidding when they said
sometimes words have two meanings; she'd dissect this all later. If there wasn't going to be justice for José there would for Esteban. She owed José that much.
“Please continue.” Her voice was pitched low so as not to be heard farther than Taryn's ears. The light in her eyes was reminiscent of what one would call a
Penance Stare she was so focused on the injustice replaying itself years later.
“
What was really shady, y’know other than having all the lights off, which is really unsafe, even for around here …was that someone on board turned off the AIS.” Taryn looked to see if Cori followed the acronym as she spoke, referring to the Automatic Identification System. Being in charge of the marina, she was reasonably sure Cori understood and continued: “
And it wasn’t on passive mode either, because I looked, they had it completely off which meant they were not just invisible, but blind to the other boats around them.” She looked up, contemplating again for a moment, but shook her head. “
I guess I could have turned my radar on, but it’s not really made for that.” She looked back at Cori unfazed by the woman’s intense concentration. It was easy, because it was actually the truth and she also wouldn’t deny that she liked hearing herself talk. “
They would have been out of my range pretty quick and would have definitely noticed me trying to follow them.‘Donna’s not that fast anyway and I can’t sail her by myself in the dark.”
Being the owner of the Marina Cori was able to afford to not ask for money from her parents or accept any from the Flores family.
“Of course you can't drive in the dark. And you're correct unless you dropped a cool half a million then Donna had no hope to catch Esteban’s. No offense. I'd rather not have to worry about your hide as well. That's rather odd he'd be flying blind. Anything else? Even the most innocuous thing could help.”Taryn smirked. The information on the tip of her tongue was so deliciously obvious, but if no one knew what happened, no one would have known to look
or ask questions. “
After that no one saw him for days so all I had to do was look online and watch his schedule get canceled every day until someone finally just deleted it altogether.” She leaned in over the table and her glance narrowed and her countenance was of a knowing fire. “
Someone knew he was dead way before the announcement and I don’t mean by a couple days. I mean by at least a week.”
This was very serious and proved that it wasn't an accident like the family thought; or said. Somehow this went deeper than Cori knew. But she was ready to play detective.
“Ceremony was a closed casket. Give you three guesses as to why.” Taryn was sharing with her why not share with Taryn?
“
Oh I can do better than a guess.” Taryn’s eyebrows had a flare whenever she had some particularly juicy piece of gossip, but this was even better. “
You get me on board that yacht and we can check the GPS log. Even if they tried to wipe it they would have had to fly somebody from Italy to delete it all the way.” She leaned back in her seat and glanced at her nails, her tone changing as if she were commenting on something no more obvious than gravity, “
Somehow I doubt your extended family is that thorough though, ‘no offense’.” She thought about it some more and touched a finger to her lips. “
I’ve never seen ’em guard that boat either, be pretty interesting if they suddenly started. Might wanna see if your dock codes still work.”
“If they don't then we have a problem. Otherwise I'll get you on that ship. I know Esteban would have left some mementos of José on it. No one questions a still grieving widow who owns the marina.” Cori was starting to appreciate Taryn being a little nosy.
Too bad she wasn't around when José died.Cori leaned back.
“When?” She was all in.
She crossed her arms and thought about it, looking around one more time just to be positive no one heard, but there was only empty plastic furniture, palms, and boats in the lagoon. Her lips twitched a bit, back and forth. She had a feeling this was going to be trespassing whether Cori had access or not and If they got caught she might as well pack her bags back for Florida,
permanently. “
I don’t think we could pull it off this weekend, there’ll just be too many people looking around, but if we wait until Vida de Exito, then everybody will be on the other side of the island. That’ll give some time to snoop around a little bit more too. What do you think?”
Nodding Cori considered Taryn's plan. It had merit and besides that the Flores family would be busy. Meaning there would be less experienced men left to guard the boat and likely a skeleton crew at that. She said as much to Taryn.
“The family will be busy and will have a less experienced skeleton crew to deal with. You could be my ‘moral support’ while I gather a few things. You confident that you can get what you need within ten minutes or so?”It would be a disaster if Cori couldn't keep suspicion off Taryn. And it wasn’t the cops she was worried about but Alejandro. He'd become cagey since Esteban’s disappearance. And the report that she'd been to the boat was far different than if they caught her and Taryn in the act of investigating the logs.
“
Some of Alejandro's more experienced men are definitely not gonna let me near that boat,” Taryn answered, a little proud of her infamy. “
But if they're all at the ceremony, then there may not be anyone on board… We'll have to play it by ear. If even one of the younger kids tells them I was there and you let me in then they're gonna flip shit- like nuclear meltdown flip, and then they’re gonna come back on you.” She considered it some more. It was probably for the best to wait. It would give them both some time to think more about it and see what the rest of Cori’s in-laws were up to during Azul Days. “
Let’s just see if you still have access and we’ll go from there, I’ve never been on a boat like that so…” She gave a very nervous shrug to the ten minute deadline. “
I dunno…” She said with an uneasy grimace.
Tapping her nails on the table Cori considered. Taryn was waffling on her own plan. Cori wanted to reach out and shake the girl but her control held the irritation at bay, for now. So close to a solution and now this.
“Wear a wig? But yeah I can see if I still have access. Otherwise the whole thing falls apart. And Alejandro can't do more than yell. It's not his boat. If anything it falls to Connie. Who actually likes me. And if you're unrecognizable…”