The Silent Widow

Frederique shook her head. ‘No. Definitely not. If anything, I’d say they were closer than ever. She was supposed to meet him that night, and she was so excited. I remember her sitting right where you are now, telling me how she was going to spend her life with this guy.’

‘Is it possible she ran off with him?’ Williams asked. Up till now he’d been totally sure that Charlotte was dead. But th

e picture her friend painted of her romance did open the door to other, less gruesome possibilities. ‘Maybe the two of them are living on a beach somewhere right now.’

‘I wondered about that,’ said Frederique. ‘I mean, I’d love to believe it. But it doesn’t add up, does it? Rich, powerful businessmen with families don’t simply disappear. And Charlie may not have seen eye to eye with her parents, but I don’t believe she would run off into the sunset without saying a word to them. She was a nice girl. She wouldn’t do something that cruel.’

Williams left, thanking Frederique for her help and handing her his business card in case she remembered anything else. ‘I’ll be at the Hilton for the next ten days. But you can reach me on my cell after that if something comes back to you, any time.’

Things moved fast after that. The Encerritos were less than welcoming when Williams returned to try to talk to them a second time about male visitors to their home, specifically married business associates of Juan’s. Luckily, in exchange for a few pesos and some American whiskey, most of their household employees were considerably more forthcoming. More than one of them told Williams about a handsome American who had visited the compound a few times over the course of that summer, and who had often been seen chatting with the young au pair.

‘She liked him. They like each other,’ the Encerritos groundsman informed Williams with a toothless grin. ‘You could tell.’

The general consensus was that ‘the American’ was either a banker or a lawyer and that he’d been introduced to Juan Encerrito by a man named Luis Rodriguez, another wealthy local businessman and philanthropist.

‘Rodriguez is a wonderful man,’ the groundsman told Williams, a sentiment echoed by the housekeeper, the maid and just about everybody else Williams spoke to. ‘He came from nothing, and he still cares about the poor. Not like them.’ A nod towards the house was intended to indicate the groundsman’s employers, Juan and Angelina. ‘But the people around him, like the American banker? I don’ know about those guys.’

A few days after his meeting with Frederique, Williams called home in high excitement.

‘I’m gonna ask the Clancys to pay for another week out here,’ he told Lorraine breathlessly from the balcony of his pool-view suite at the Hilton. Below him, a cluster of lithe, bronze-skinned young women lay sprawled out on sun loungers in tiny bikinis, but Williams barely noticed them. ‘I know this American dude had something to do with Charlie’s disappearance. The family she worked for claim not to know who he is, but they’re obviously lying. You know who else is lying, weirdly? Or at least holding back the truth?’

‘Who?’ Lorraine asked dutifully.

‘Valentina Baden – Willie Baden’s wife. Her charity has been helping the Clancys, but it turns out they’d already been looking for Charlotte for months, asking questions. I mean, why wouldn’t you mention that to the parents?’

‘I don’t know, Derek,’ Lorraine said wearily.

‘Anyway, this American guy Charlotte was seeing worked for some local big shot named Rodriguez, kind of like a Robin Hood figure around here. So I have another lead into him, which is great. Assuming Mrs Baden doesn’t return my call, which so far she hasn’t. All I need is a name, babe. I’m this close, I can feel it.’

‘OK, Derek.’ For some reason, Williams’ young wife didn’t seem to share his enthusiasm. ‘One more week’s OK. But after that you gotta come home. We’re getting calls every day and I’m having to turn business away.’

‘But this is business. The Clancys are paying, honey,’ Williams reminded her.

‘Yeah, they’re paying, but you’re down in Mexico spending literally all your time on one case,’ Lorraine protested. ‘You can’t afford that, Derek. Not with a baby on the way. You got a family to think about now.’

Williams hung up. He was surprised and disappointed that Lorraine couldn’t see what a big deal this was. All he needed to do was speak to this Luis Rodriguez, and he should be able to unearth his precious name, maybe as soon as tomorrow! Finding Charlotte’s married boyfriend would be a huge leap forward in the case. If he could solve the mystery of what happened to her after she left Frederique Zidane that night, not only would he be putting an innocent family out of their misery, but he would have succeeded where the FBI, not to mention the Mexicans, had failed. Thanks to Missing, Tucker and Mary Clancy had been all over the talk-show circuit back home. Millions of Americans knew about the Charlotte Clancy case. Cracking it would make Williams’ name, and seal his reputation as a top-class private investigator. If that wasn’t good business, he didn’t know what was.

But most of all, solving this case would mean justice for Charlotte. Sometimes Williams wondered whether he was the only person on earth, other than her parents and Frederique, who genuinely cared about that.

Just as he had the thought, the phone rang.

Please be Valentina Baden. Please be Valentina Baden …

In fact, it was Frederique, sounding almost as excited as Williams felt.

‘I remembered something!’ she panted breathlessly.

‘Great.’ Williams smiled broadly, reaching for his pen and pad.

‘I remember his car. I saw Charlie once getting into a car and I’m sure it was his. I mean, I didn’t actually see the driver. But she was dressed for a date, and her expression was like—’

‘What sort of car was it?’ Williams couldn’t contain himself. Please let it be something unusual, something he could trace.

‘It was a Jaguar. One of the old ones,’ said Frederique. ‘And it was dark green. I think they call it racing green?’

Williams could have kissed her.

‘That has to be a rare car, right?’ said Frederique. ‘I mean, how many of those can there be driving around Mexico city?’