Sweetheart Deal (23 page)

“By the next day, we'd sobered up from all the alcohol they'd given us to make us sign and decided we'd made a bad decision. We scanned our contract looking for a phone number, but all we could find was the booking line so we wrote up a signed letter, attached it to an email, and sent it off to the address the salesperson had given us.”

“Did you also dispute the deposit with your credit card company?” I advised, forgetting about our circumstances long enough to put on my Mrs. Frugalicious cap.
34

“Absolutely. But when we got home, we got a call almost immediately, welcoming us to the Hacienda de la Fortuna. I informed the agent that we had canceled our contract. Later that day, I was called by none other than Alejandro Espinoza, who claimed we'd signed away our right to cancel because we got a special deal and that the document in Spanish was a waiver to the usual
forty-eight
-hour cancelation.”

“I heard a story like this in the timeshare office,” I said.

“There are a lot of them,” he said. “Alejandro insisted our only option was to downgrade our package, but we wouldn't get the deposit back. I said we wanted our contract canceled and our deposit refunded. He threatened that our contract was headed straight to the legal department and that I should be prepared to play hardball. Frustrated and worried, I started doing some research and found various complaints and articles from other people who had been in our exact situation. I started emailing every address I could find, filed complaints with the Federal Consumer Board, and sent a certified letter to the Hacienda de la Fortuna.

“That's when the dogfight really began.

“For months, Alejandro and the legal department kept calling and threatening us, everything from collections to sending thugs after me. Instead of giving in and keeping the timeshare like I probably should have, I became obsessed with fighting back.”

“I'd have done the same thing,” Frank said, sounding way more cavalier than I'd ever seen him act.

Ivan sighed and hung his head for a moment. “Well, by that time, my wife had decided I was far too compulsive for her. She left me for one of our law professors.”

“That's awful,” Eloise said.

“At that point, I had nothing to lose.”

Frank looked like he was ringside at the fights. “So you came down here to kill Alejandro?”

“My plan was to come down and fight him in court and/or the court of public opinion. I mean, why are these outfits allowed to lie and manipulate people? Why hasn't anyone stepped up to stop this kind of unethical behavior?”

“That is a good point,” Eloise said. “It really is.”

Ivan smiled at her. “So I came down here, got a job at the resort, and started collecting information that would expose the operation for what it is.”

“Didn't Alejandro recognize you?” Eloise asked.

“Not with the dreadlocks I'd grown to disguise myself. Plus, I quickly discovered I was one in a sea of
strong-armed
timeshare owners, so he probably wouldn't have known who I was anyway. I managed to collect enough information to get some traction, then—”

“
The Family Frugalicious
showed up,” I said. “And messed with your timetable.”

Ivan nodded. “Something like that.”

“How did we mess things up?” Eloise asked, looking more than a little hurt.

“For one thing, you made me feel things I didn't think I could feel after my wife left.” He smiled sweetly at her. “But when Alejandro started bragging about how he was bringing the TV show down here and was about to be both rich and famous no matter what it took, I knew I had to act right away. No way could I let him destroy your family or any other family that came down here as a result of watching your show.”

“So you roofied and drowned him?” Frank asked.

“I slipped a little something into his cocktail and called him on a house phone to meet me near the Estanque Reflectante, where I knew the security cameras were down. I'd planned to get him to admit to his timeshare tactics, and insist he make amends. That, or I was going to expose the web of Hacienda de la Fortuna corruption and cartel ties I'd also uncovered.

“What I didn't know was that he was drinking vodka instead of water half the time and that the combination with the Rohypnol would make him erratic. He met me at the pool. I let him know who I really was and what I expected from him. Then, instead of some slightly out of it conversation where he admitted what I needed to know, he called me a bunch of awful names in Spanish, picked up a hand weight, and chucked at it my face.”

Ivan lowered his head.

“I'm afraid that's when I lost it and pushed him into the pool.” He paused. “I couldn't exactly say how it happened, but the next thing I knew, he was … sinking.”

None of us said anything.

“At first, I panicked,” Ivan continued, his voice shaky. “Then I realized that no one would be surprised, nor would they want to really investigate the untimely drowning of a tyrant with known mob connections.”

“So that romantic beach walk we took during the reception was really just an alibi for you?” Eloise asked.

“No,” he said emphatically. “It was only after you guys decided to start investigating that I realized I'd need one. That, and I needed to get creative if I wanted to stay off your radar.”

“So you nearly drowned Geo?” I asked.

“I was trying to scare you into halting your investigation.”

“Which had the opposite effect,” Frank said. “After all, we are investigative journalists.”

I sighed.

“My only choice was to stay one step ahead of you.”

“By trying to convince me the murder was connected to Alejandro's land deal?” I asked.

“I wanted you to know who the people your show is doing business with really are. I mean, along with the timeshare hard selling, that whole
public-land
-
for-private
-use sweetheart deal was all about kickbacks, payoffs, and sketchy connections.”

“The mayor insisted the deal was completely on the up and up,” I said.

“Of course he did,” Ivan said.

“He admitted that the investor you saw was American, but said he was also a Mexican citizen.”

“Did he tell you who the man actually was?”

I shook my head.

“His name is Godofredo ‘Jeff' Kortajarena.”

“Sounds authentic to me,” Frank said.

“He made a fortune in the US selling clothing made in
south-of
-
the-border
sweatshops.” Ivan shook his head. “They
don't come much dirtier than him, making it an easy leap for everyone, including the mayor, to think Alejandro was killed by a rival bent on stopping the deal.”

“And you get away with murder,” I concluded.

“I stopped one man,” Ivan said sadly. “I just wish there weren't so many Alejandros out there, eager to bully people out of their money and happiness for the illusion of paradise.”

The word
paradise
echoed through the cave.

“At least Alejandro's death had nothing to do with Anastasia or the show,” Frank finally said.

Ivan snickered. “Considering he'd all but inked a deal for his own reality show about the resort and the world of timeshares, I'd say his
life
certainly had everything to do with your show coming here.”

“And Geo told me that when they were in the planning stages of this shoot, he walked in on a conversation between Stasia and one of the execs. He was concerned that the wedding alone wasn't going to be interesting or
cost-effective
enough to justify the expense for all of us to come down there.”

“What did she say?” Frank asked.

“That she'd make sure it would be.”

“I'd say the same thing if I were her,” Frank said. “It's all about making things happen in this business.”

I looked down at the rope tied around my hands. “And look what happened as a result.”

Frank was uncharacteristically silent.

“On that note,” Ivan said, reaching for one of the backpacks, “I believe my work here is finished.”

“You're not really going to leave us here to die,” Eloise wailed, “are you?”

“I'll let someone know how to find you as soon as I get where I need to go,” he said. “In the meantime, you have provisions and Eloise's survival expertise to rely on.”

“
Eloise's expertise?
” Both Frank and I asked simultaneously and incredulously.

“From everything she's told me, she's picked up quite a few handy outdoor survival techniques from watching reality TV.”

“I should never have told you that,” she said. “Or anything else.”

“What exactly were you telling him?” Frank asked.

“Ivan, is that how you kept one step ahead of Maddie?” Eloise asked. “By asking me all of those questions about my family?”

“I was truly interested,” he said, looking straight at her. “And not just because I needed the information.”

“I thought we had something—”

“Special,” Ivan said, lopping off a handful of his dreadlocked hair. “We did. I'm truly sorry it has to end like this.”

“You don't have to do this, Ivan,” she pleaded.

“But I do,” he said, big chunks of hair falling into the water. “Ugh. I hate these damn dreadlocks even more than that nauseating patchouli.”

“I think she meant you don't have to leave us here,” I said.

He swung his gaze over to me. “Sorry. This is how it has to be.”

“But it doesn't,” I said, hoping my prior history of talking my way out of danger with murderers (albeit not entirely successfully) might serve me. “No one knows you killed Alejandro except us.”

“I would have done the same thing,” Frank said.

“Alejandro deserved what he got,” Eloise added.

“I agree,” I said. “We'll never say a word to anyone. You'll still get away with your plan.”

“We swear,” Eloise said. “Never, ever.”

“We'll take you back to the US with us. We're supposed to leave tomorrow night.”

“Sorry, folks,” he said. “But you should know that I have to get a lot farther away than that to be free of the reach of the
Familia de la Fortuna
.”

“But we're the only ones who know what happened,” I protested.

“It's just a matter of time before people start talking and figures it all out too.”

“If they do, we'll vouch for you …” I reasoned.

“It's completely unfair what happened. Anyone could have snapped,” Eloise said.

“Really, you're a hero …” Frank added.

“Have any of you ever been to Mexican prison?” he asked.

Eloise began to cry. “But—”

“I'm sorry,” he said, wiping a tear from her cheek. “I really am.”

We watched in impotent silence as he reached into the bag again, pulled out a
battery-operated
shaver, and transformed before our eyes from a lovable,
bushy-haired
hippie into a
buzz-haired
,
cold-eyed
killer on the lam.

“Much better,” he said, rubbing his shorn pate.

“I really liked the dreadlocks,” Eloise muttered.

“Maddie and Frank, I wish you all the best,” he said and then smiled at Eloise. “And Eloise, you're beautiful and fantastic. I'm sorry it couldn't have worked out differently between us.”

“Me too,” she said.

As a final act of misplaced benevolence, he placed the scissors on the ledge where she could reach them with her outstretched feet.

He slipped into the water.

And then he was gone.

thirty

In a year's time,
I'd been tied up and nearly killed, locked away and nearly died, and now, both tied up and locked away. The mere thought that I might actually die like this, once again, was way more than I could bear.

At least I wasn't alone this time.

“I was just trying to make him think I knew things about the outdoors when I told him I watched survival shows,” Eloise wailed. “I … like … hardly … ever … watch … those … shows.”

“Zelda said bad luck comes in threes,” Frank fairly wailed himself in a panicked voice that could make anyone cry. “I'm too young to die.”

On second thought, alone had its advantages.

“We're all too young to die,” I said. “And we all need to calm down, just like Ivan said.”

“He also said he liked me so much he was going to save up to come visit me at school because he couldn't wait until the next time we came down here to see me.”

“People often make promises they can't keep when they're caught up in the euphoria of a new relationship,” I said. “Even under the best circumstances, it's a particularly tough lesson.”

“Is this a nightmare or is this really happening?” Frank moaned.

Alone was sounding more and more preferable … except for the scissors and
battery-operated
clippers our captor had been merciful enough to place within stretching distance of Eloise's feet.

“Eloise, can you reach either of them?”

“I'm trying,” she said, tears streaming down her face as she attempted to hook a toe through the scissor handle. “I hope it doesn't take Ivan long to send someone to rescue us.”

“I wouldn't hold your breath waiting,” Frank said caustically.

“Really, Frank?”

“Sorry, bad choice of words. But Ivan did have a point about the whole timeshare business, and I admire his resolve in coming down here and trying to do something about it. Seeing how things turned out, I don't exactly have faith that he'll actually send someone for us, though.”

“If we got in here, we can get out,” I said. “It was left, right, right, left, straight, so we just turn it around.”

“Wasn't it right, left, left, right, straight?”

“I'm sure it wasn't.”

“I'm sure it was,” Frank insisted.

“I wasn't paying attention one way or the other,” Eloise said, pulling the scissor handle toward her with her big toe. “But if Ivan really wanted us to die, he wouldn't have bothered to leave these provisions, right?”

“El, honey, it's clear that he cared about you, but he had bigger problems on his hands,” Frank said.

“I can't believe I was falling for a lying—”

“Don't even say it,” I said, not saying what I was thinking:
Like father like daughter.

“All I know is that if we do survive, I'm picking out who you date from here on out,” Frank said.

“Does this mean you're finally admitting that Ivan is a less suitable match for Eloise than Liam is for—”

“Do you think the boys are in any danger?” he asked, clearly trying to change the subject.

“Ivan's probably halfway to Central America by now.”

“How long before they start worrying about where we are?”

“Who knows how long it will be before they even leave the room?” I said. “We warned them to stay put at all costs and not to speak to anyone.”

“Okay, now I'm worrying,” Frank said.

“You already were,” I said. “But you didn't answer my question.”

“About Liam?” Eloise asked, carefully lifting the scissors with her toes to where her right hand was tied to a spire. “First of all, he's way too young for me because he's like seventeen. Secondly, he's —”

“Don't.” Frank shook his head. “Just don't go there.”

“Why not?” I said.

“Shush!” Frank said.

“Don't shush me,” I said.

“Stop bickering,” Eloise said, somehow maneuvering the scissors onto her thumb and forefinger and setting to work on the piece of rope restraining her left hand.

“We're not bickering,” Frank said.

“We've just been wondering if—” I said.

“
You've
been wondering,” Frank said to me with a
shut up
glare. “Not me.”

“It's about FJ,” I said to Eloise. “And Liam.”

Eloise looked up with an expression of surprise that made her look like a female version of Frank. “Are you thinking Liam has a crush on FJ or something?”

“And maybe vice versa.”

“No way,” Frank said.

“They do seem to be spending a lot of time together,” I said. “And since he lives in Denver too …”

“Interesting,” Eloise said, returning to her cutting. “I hadn't really thought about it.”

Consternation filled Frank's face.

“Has FJ ever brought up the subject of dating with you?” I asked.

“I do know he's definitely shy and very picky,” she continued. “Although I'm pretty sure he likes girls.”

Frank looked equal parts relieved and
I told you so
.

“At least, I think so,” she qualified.

“But you're not positive?” I asked.

“Either way, you know he'll make better choices than I have.” She sniffled. “Or Trent …”

I didn't bother to even raise an eyebrow in Frank's direction. “What about Trent?”

“If I were worried about anyone, I'd worry about him.”

“Because?”

“His taste in girls can be summed up in one word: trampy.”

I cringed.

Frank chuckled.

“That's okay with you, Frank?”

“It's a perfectly normal phase in a young man's life.”

“Not in my opinion.”

“He'll grow out of it.”

“And what if he doesn't?”

“I thought I said to stop bickering,” Eloise said.

“All families have issues they need to work through,” I said.

“Especially ours,” Eloise sighed.

“Starting with honesty,” I said. “Which leads me to another issue I believe needs clearing up.”

“Which is?” Frank finally chimed in, but with more than a touch of hesitation.

“We now know who killed Alejandro and why, but I still don't think I quite understand what Anastasia meant by
having her cake and eating it too
where the show and the Hacienda de la Fortuna are concerned.”

“It seems obvious,” Frank said. “She was negotiating a deal with Alejandro on top of doing our show down here.”

“Did you know that Alejandro was told by the producers that the best chance of getting his show
green-lighted
was to somehow convince me?”

“You? But you don't have any ability to …” His voice trailed off as he seemed to realize the implications.

“Then why was he led to believe such a thing?”

“Maddie, I already told you I had nothing to do with any of that.”

“And I told you I knew you were part of the plan to make Alejandro's death
investigation-worthy
. Why on earth should I believe you weren't part of the plot to stir up some potentially serious marital drama? I mean, we all know it's great for ratings, and ratings are the bottom line, aren't they?”

“I would never—”

“Only because it would make you look bad,” I said. “But it's weird. You don't know anything, Geo doesn't know anything, but somehow, I was being pursued by a man who happened to be in the midst of negotiating a TV deal.”

“Yes, but—”

“I know you told Anastasia I was too smart for the typical reality TV nonsense, but what else did you tell her? Something must have led her to believe it was okay to try and pull off a stunt like that.”

“Umm,” Eloise suddenly looked as sheepish as I'd ever seen her.

“Umm, what?”

“Since we're being honest and all …”

We both turned to her, best as we could while still restrained.

“I'm afraid I maybe might have said something that, like … I don't know …”

“You don't know what?” Frank asked.

“Maybe I might have tipped her off that things weren't so perfect between you guys.”

“What are you talking about?” Frank said. “We—”

“It's not like you've been the best role models, relationshipwise.”

“We've worked out our differences.”

“Seriously, Dad?”

“We have. Haven't we, Maddie?”

“What did you tell Anastasia?” I asked, not answering Frank.

“It just kind of slipped out,” Eloise said.

“
What
slipped out?”

“It was before we came down here, when we were prepping for this episode, Stasia was showing us the website for the resort and made some comment about you two renewing your vows down here.” She paused. “I accidentally said ‘yeah, right.'”

“And that's all?”

“I might have also said you barely speak when you're not on camera.”

“Oh my God!” Frank attempted (unsuccessfully, due to the rope restraints) to put his face in his hands. “You really need to learn when not to speak.”

“Eloise, I have to agree with Frank on this. Why would you tell her that?”

“I'm sorry,” she said. “But it's not like everyone didn't already know you aren't really together anymore.”

“If everyone knows, it's because you told them.”

“Not on the set,” she said. “I meant me and Trent and FJ know.”

“How do you know?” Frank asked.

“Because we know both of you. We know you were determined to get this show for us. We also know Maddie agreed to
The Family Frugalicious
because she thought it was in the best interests of the family, not because it was best for herself.”

Tears I thought I wasn't going to allow myself to shed began to roll down my cheeks.

“And no offense, Dad, but after everything that's happened this last year, I wouldn't have blamed her if she'd refused.” Her voice cracked. “And that's from someone who was falling hard for a mur—”

“Ivan had us all fooled,” I said, hoping to be of some comfort despite it all. “And, as your dad said, he did come down to Mexico with the best of intentions. Just like I did when I agreed to do the show.”

“Me too,” Frank added.

“All I know is something's gotta give,” Eloise said, going back to sawing the rope attached to her left wrist. “Assuming we all live, that is.”