Bossa Novas, Bikinis, and Bad Ends Read online

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  Chapter Fifteen

  Not Again!

  We separated to change into our rehearsal clothes. I wanted to see my kittens again, so I went down to the lobby while Gini was still dressing.

  There was no one in Miguel’s office. I knelt down beside Teodora, who was taking a nap. Only one little kitten was in the basket with her. The others were running all around the office, exploring, playing, tumbling about, having fun. The kitten with the white collar whom I loved the most came up to me and crawled into my lap. He knew me! I picked him up and patted him and he licked my hand.

  “I wish I could take you home with me,” I said to him. “You’d love my Eliza.”

  “You’re quite the cat lover, aren’t you?” a harsh voice said. Yasmin was standing in front of me, pointing a gun at me. “I like dogs myself.”

  I put the kitten in the basket with his mother, and scrambled to my feet.

  “Yasmin! What are you doing with that gun?”

  “I heard what you’ve been saying about me,” she said, “that you think I might be the murderer. I don’t need anyone saying things like that. You’ve been telling people bad things about me since we went to the baile funk. I don’t know what you think you know about me, but I’m going to get rid of you before you blab to the police. It’s time you got lost in the favelas and don’t find your way out again.”

  “Are you crazy?” I said. “You can’t get away with this. My friends are waiting for me to rehearse with them. If I don’t show up, they’ll have the police out looking for me before you can get me up the hill.”

  “We’re not walking this time,” she said. “My friend will drive us up there. He’s waiting outside right now. We’ll be there in a few minutes before your friends even notice you’re gone. You’ll disappear as soon as we get there. One injection of my never-fail drug, and you’ll be comparing notes with Maria, Sumiko, and Gabriel before you know it.”

  “I don’t know anything, Yasmin,” I said, stalling for time. “I have no reason to think you killed anybody.”

  “That’s not what you said in the car coming back from Grumari today,” she said.

  Natalia. Natalia must have told her what I said. I couldn’t believe it. Funny, friendly, kind Natalia.

  “Is Natalia in this with you?” I asked.

  “Who said anything about Natalia?” she said. “Not me.”

  “But why did you kill them?”

  “Who said I killed anybody?” she said. “You’re the one who thinks I’m a murderer. Now shut up and go through the other door of this office to the alley in the back of the hotel. My friend is waiting for us there.”

  She pointed the gun at me and gestured toward the door.

  “One sound out of you and I kill your cat friend over there,” she said.

  The thought of my five little kittens without a mother kept me from screaming. Also the gun against my back. I walked to the door and saw Ramon waiting in one of the hotel’s cars, the same one we had taken on our sight-seeing trips with Natalia. Ramon. Sweet, helpful, gentle Ramon. He was Yasmin’s friend.

  He smiled as I got into the car. “Bom dia, senhora,” he said.

  I didn’t answer. I still couldn’t believe it. He must have been the one who told Yasmin what I said in the car this afternoon, not Natalia. That was a relief. I didn’t want to think Natalia was in on this.

  When we were in the car, I said to Yasmin, “You can at least tell me why you killed those three people. And don’t tell me you didn’t. You owe me that if you’re going to kill me.”

  “I don’t owe you anything, you silly American Hoofer,” she said, her voice hard with the hatred she felt for my country.

  “What harm would it do for you to tell me?” I said. “I’ll be dead. I can’t tell anyone.”

  She pushed the gun against my side harder. “I guess it doesn’t matter anymore what you know,” she said. She looked out the window. “Drive into the favelas, Ramon. You know the house I want.”

  He nodded.

  “My mother is very ill.” She stopped. When she continued, her words caught in her throat. I could tell her emotion was making it difficult for her to talk. “I needed a lot of money to take care of her. I wanted to be sure she had the best doctors. I didn’t make enough at the hotel, and they don’t provide medical insurance. They’re cheap. So I provided my own insurance. I took a certain percentage of the money the hotel got each week for myself. They owed that to me. I was in charge of the records, so it was easy to hide what I took.” She stopped. “What’s the matter, Ramon? Why did you stop?”

  “There’s a cart turned over in the road and the street is too narrow to go around it. I have to move it.”

  “Well, hurry up. I want to get this over with.”

  “Right away, senhora,” Ramon said, and got out of the car.

  “But why did you kill Maria? Did she find out what you were doing?” I asked.

  “Yeah. That little rat nosed around and found out. She was blackmailing me. She didn’t get enough from Lucas or the hotel to pay for all her expensive clothes, so she held me up for some money every month. She kept raising the amount until finally I had to get rid of her. People were beginning to ask questions.”

  “Did Dr. Souza give you the anesthetic you used to kill her?” I asked.

  “No, no. I took it from his supply. He wasn’t very careful about locking it up. He had a lot of it stashed in his room because he used it when he operated in the local hospital. I could get a key to any of the rooms I wanted. I waited until he was busy somewhere else and helped myself to whatever I needed. He didn’t miss it at first because he had so much.”

  “Then why did you kill him?

  “Because eventually, after the medical examiner figured out that both Maria and Sumiko died of this drug, the police assumed he did it. He told them someone else had stolen the anesthetic. He knew I had a key to his room and he confronted me. I denied it and said anybody could have had a key made. Unfortunately, one time after a drink or two, I had told him about Maria blackmailing me. I don’t know why I did that. I should swear off drinking—like you. Anyway, he said he was going to tell the police about that, so I had to kill him.”

  “And Sumiko?” I asked. “Why did you kill her?”

  Ramon got back in the car and we continued our ascent up the hill.

  “She got nosy too. She spent money like water, and she knew we were taking in more money than showed up in the records. She was a smart little cookie and had studied accounting herself before she married her meal ticket, Miguel. She went through the books one time when I was in the hospital with my mother. She started asking too many questions and threatened to tell Miguel that she knew what I was doing. I had to get rid of her, too, because she knew too much.”

  “What makes you think I knew any of this?” I asked.

  “I didn’t know how much you knew, but when I heard what you said in the car, that you suspected me, I knew I had to get rid of you too. You don’t understand. I would do anything I have to do to take care of my mother.”

  “But they’ll know you did it,” I said. “They’ll find me here and know it was you who killed me.”

  “You don’t think I’m going to stick around here, do you?” she said. “I’ve stashed away enough for my mother’s medical and living expenses for both of us to last me for the rest of my life. I’ll take her to São Paulo, where she’ll be safe. I owe her everything.”

  “Where is your mother now?” I asked.

  “She’s waiting for us in the hole I grew up in. She doesn’t live there anymore, but I told her to meet us there. She doesn’t like Americans any more than I do, so she’s glad to help me get rid of you. I need Ramon to stay in the car in case we need to get away in a hurry. My mother will hold the gun on you while I inject you with this lovely little going-away drug.”
>
  Ramon drove more slowly through the crowded streets of the favelas, getting deeper into the filth and poverty on all sides. Children were splashing in the dirty water. Men passed out on drugs were slumped against the walls of the hovels. I couldn’t believe people could survive in this place. It looked like I wasn’t going to either.

  Ramon stopped at the end of an alley. Yasmin pushed me out of the car and shoved me through a doorway into a tiny room with no furniture. A small woman, her face ravaged by illness, greeted Yasmin as she came in.

  “You are sure you want to kill this American?” she asked in a low voice.

  “Yes, mãe,” she said. “She talks too much. We have to move quickly. Our bags are in the car. Ramon will drive us to São Paulo once we get rid of her.”

  “If you’re sure,” she said. “Give me the gun. Hurry up.”

  Yasmin knocked me to the ground and gave the gun to her mother.

  “Don’t move,” she said to me. “My mother knows how to use that gun very well. She had to learn that living in this place.”

  She opened her bag and took out a bottle of the anesthetic and a syringe.

  There had to be a way out of this. I couldn’t die like this. Please, God, I prayed. Help me find a way out of this.

  Suddenly, Yasmin’s mother’s face contorted in intense pain. She bent over, her eyes closed. I leaped at her, grabbed the gun, and pointed it at Yasmin.

  “Give me that syringe,” I said. She dropped the filled hypodermic needle on the floor. I smashed it with my foot.

  “Get your mother in the car,” I said. She hesitated.

  “Now,” I said, putting the gun against her head. “I mean it.”

  Yasmin’s mother was doubled up in pain on the floor. Yasmin had to pick her up and carry her in her arms to the car.

  Ramon started to get out of the car to come at me.

  “Don’t move, Ramon, or I’ll shoot,” I said. “I’m used to guns.” I’d never held one in my life before, but he didn’t know that. “You’re going to take us back to police headquarters.”

  Yasmin sat down in the backseat holding her mother. Ramon started the engine. I opened the side door and had one foot in the car when Ramon hit the accelerator hard. I fell backward into the street and shot at the car, trying to hit one of the tires. But just then a couple of little children ran into the road to see what was happening, and I couldn’t fire the gun again.

  I went back in the house, picked up the bottle with the anesthetic in it, and put it and the gun in my bag. I had to get out of there. By now several people who had heard the gunshots came out of their shacks to see what was going on. I ducked down and managed to get around the corner and onto the street that led out of the favelas before anyone stopped me. Then I ran. I ran for my life. Through the broken streets. Past the hopeless lives and shattered huts that somehow managed to exist in this rich city.

  I could hear shouts in back of me, but I kept going until I got out of the favelas and made it to the Copacabana. I collapsed on the floor of the lobby. The man behind the desk ran to me. “Senhora, senhora,” he said. He hurried to the Piano Bar and my friends and Natalia surrounded me.

  “Pat! Are you all right? What happened to you?” Tina asked.

  I couldn’t talk. I was out of breath from running down that hill, away from death, away from the horror.

  They lifted me up and carried me into Miguel’s office.

  “Watch out . . .” I stammered. “The kittens.”

  There were little cats everywhere, under the desk, on top of the desk, in the basket, under the chairs. Teodora was clearly alarmed. Her meow was a cry of warning to her babies.

  My friends put me on the couch in Miguel’s office and knelt beside me.

  When I could talk, I told them what had happened. I showed them the syringe and gun in my purse.

  “My God, Pat,” Gini said. “Thank heavens you got away. You could have been . . .”

  “Yes, I could have been,” I said. “If Yasmin’s mother hadn’t collapsed like that, I would be lying on the floor up there dead.” I started to shake.

  “Where is Yasmin now?” Natalia asked.

  “On her way to São Paulo, I assume,” I said.

  Miguel was already on the phone to the police.

  “Pereira is coming,” he said. “He’s sending men after the car. I told him it was one of the hotel’s cars and gave him the license plate number.”

  I felt as if I could never get up from that couch. I was shaking all over. I didn’t want to move—ever.

  “Tina,” I said, “I don’t think I can dance tonight.”

  “You don’t have to, hon. Just take it easy.”

  Mary Louise picked up a kitten near the couch and gave it to me to hold. It was my little white-collared kitten. He mewed and licked my hand. The feel of that furry little angel helped to calm me down.

  Tina brought me a cup of coffee. I put my kitten down to take the cup, but my hand was shaking so much, I had to put the cup on the table.

  The door of the office opened and Chief Pereira came in.

  “Senhora,” he said, “are you all right?”

  “Not really,” I said.

  He sat down beside me. “Tell me what happened, if you can.”

  I told him the whole story about Yasmin abducting me with a gun, about the favela where she took me, about the syringe and the anesthetic, about her mother, about Ramon. It all came out in a rush, and then I couldn’t talk anymore.

  “We’ll get them,” he said. “We have the license plate number of the car. They’ll be picked up within the hour.”

  His cell phone rang. He listened and then looked grim.

  “They found the car abandoned in a parking lot near the beach. They must be hiding out someplace near here until they can get another car and get to São Paulo.”

  Near here. That’s all I needed to hear to start shaking again.

  Pereira took my hand in his. “They won’t be anywhere near you, senhora,” he said. “Do not worry.”

  Right. I was beyond worry. I was a basket case.

  “I need to go to my room and sleep for a while,” I said. “Can you guys help me get there, please?”

  Gini and Tina raised me up and got me on my feet.

  “We’ll talk more when you’re feeling better, senhora,” the police chief said.

  “Thank you,” I said, and leaned on my two friends to get to the elevator and my room. They helped me onto the bed, slid off my shoes, and tiptoed out. I was already asleep by the time they closed the door.

  Pat’s Tip for Traveling with Friends: Don’t

  travel with a smoker.

  Chapter Sixteen

  Surprise!

  I don’t know how long I slept, but I was awakened by the door of the suite closing. Someone had come into the room. I opened my eyes. Natalia was standing there next to the bed.

  “Natalia,” I said, surprised to see her. “What are you doing here? What do you want?”

  “Shhhh,” she said. “Don’t make a sound.”

  Then I saw that she was holding a gun. No, I thought. No. This can’t be happening. Not twice in the same day.

  “What are you doing with that gun?” I said. I was too sleepy and confused to make sense out of what was happening.

  “What do you think?” she said. The flibbertigibbet, fluttery, laugh-a-minute Natalia was gone. In her place was a tough-looking woman who meant business. She was dressed in black and wore a black cap covering her flame-colored hair.

  “We’re getting out of here.” she said. “Yasmin and her mother are waiting for us, and we’re taking my car to São Paulo. No one will be looking for me. And if they are, we have you as a hostage.”

  “You’re mixed up in these murders?” I said, still too out of it to understand what was happening. This was Natalia. Adorable little Natalia. Harmless Natalia.

  “Shut up and get up. I want to get you out of here before anyone comes looking for you.”

  “Listen,
Natalia. I don’t have the strength to follow you anywhere. I was almost killed a couple of hours ago. Go ahead and shoot me. I can’t move.”

  “You may not care if I kill you, but how would you like it if I killed that cat and her kittens in Miguel’s office?”

  “You’d do that?” I asked.

  “Watch me,” she said. “I hate cats.”

  The thought of my little kitten dying was too much to bear. I dragged myself out of that bed, put on my shoes, and followed her out of the suite and down some back stairs to her car in the parking lot. It must have been about six o’clock. Nobody saw us. Natalia pushed me into the backseat of the car. Yasmin and her mother were hiding on the floor. Ramon was nowhere in sight. Natalia gave Yasmin her gun.

  “Ah, there you are, my American friend,” Yasmin said, getting up from the floor and sitting next to me on the seat. “We meet again. This time you won’t be so lucky.”

  She helped her mother, her eyes closed, her face pale, into the seat next to her. I couldn’t believe this was happening. I made up my mind that if I got through this alive I would never leave my house again. I’d never go on another dancing tour as long as I lived. I’d just curl up in a little ball and let Denise take care of me until I died of old age.

  “Why don’t we just shoot her now and get it over with?” Yasmin asked Natalia.

  “Because we might need her if we’re stopped,” Natalia said.

  “But it’ll take us at least six hours to get to São Paulo,” Yasmin said. “We don’t want to keep her around all that time.”

  “When we’re about halfway there, we’ll throw her out of the car and keep going. Nobody will be looking for us anyway.”

  That Natalia was all heart.

  “Won’t those Hoofers wonder where you are at the performance tonight?” Yasmin asked.

  “They’re not dancing tonight,” Natalia said. “This Hoofer begged off. Seems she had some sort of terrible experience in the favelas this afternoon.”

  They both laughed.

  “It’s only six now,” Natalia continued. “They think she’s sleeping and they won’t check on her for a while. We’ve got at least a couple of hours before they find out she’s not in her room. You’ve got our money with you, right?”