The other detective spoke, his voice deep and commanding. “Ms. Nix, I’m Detective Richland Francois of the St. Mateo police department.”
“Francois?” Mena asked.
Detective Des Francois said, “This is my big bro. He’s real good at tracking down fugitives like your boyfriend.”
Richland frowned, then he continued, “My office received two separate calls about a possible break-in of this home yesterday. Each of them provided footage from their video surveillance systems that depicted a man and a woman emerging from the jungle shortly after midnight two days ago and making their way toward this house. The man, a white male, was clearly laboring, struggling to walk and potentially injured. The woman, a black female, was assisting him. Any of this ring a bell?”
Heart pounding in her chest, Mena forced her voice to remain calm. “No, I didn’t see anyone coming close to this house on Sunday, but I admit I was probably asleep at that time. No one knocked on the door asking for help or anything.”
The detectives exchanged glances.
“Do yourself a favor and just tell us where Julian is hiding,” Des said. “We know you found him. Probably played nursemaid to his injuries, hoping that he’d get strong enough to leave. Where is he?”
“Wait a minute,” Mena said, pointing a finger toward Des. “You think Julian survived? You believe he’s actually alive and somewhere near here?”
Detective Richland Francois shook his head, then walked away toward a group of officers huddling in the sunken living room.
“Your little act is cute. Trust me, you don’t want to face charges for harboring a fugitive. This is not helping your boyfriend. You tell us where he is and I won’t even mention you were here. How about that?” Des asked.
“I don’t know where he is. All I keep hearing is that Julian died in the fall or drowned shortly after. But if you’re here, that must mean there’s some hope that Julian survived.”
“If that’s true, then why are you still here? Why didn’t you go back to St. Basil days ago when we officially converted to a search and recovery?” Des narrowed his eyes.
Mena knew she was botching the attempt to convince the detective that she didn’t know Julian was alive, but she didn’t care. None of the officers had approached the hallway leading to the master bedroom yet. She hoped Julian had enough time to figure a way out without being detected by the police searching the house.
“Look what we found.” Richland’s voice boomed across the living room.
Mena turned and groaned inwardly.
Crossing the space, Richland held Julian’s torn shirt in front of Des. Ripped and torn, the muddy and algae covered fabric was stiff. “I’m guessing if we test this, we’ll find Julian’s DNA on it.”
“Yes, you will,” Mena admitted.
“So, stop wasting time and tell us where Julian is hiding,” Des interjected.
“I know his DNA will be on that shirt because his old Navy buddy, Sunny Tate, found it in a cave behind the waterfall. Julian worked with her security firm in Africa. When he went missing, they came to the Palmchat Islands to search for him, and this is what they found. Sunny came here two days ago to tell me they were stopping their search, and that shirt was the reason.”
“What exactly did she say about this shirt?” Richland asked.
“To Sunny, that shirt was proof that Julian had drowned in the cave. She said there was a cenote inside that was deeper and murkier than they expected. Diving to the bottom was near impossible, and visibility was minimal. She thought Julian had drowned and his shirt had come dislodged and floated to the surface. Julian asked her to give me a letter if he … if anything bad ever happened to him. So, that’s why she was here and that’s how I got that shirt.”
Handing the shirt to one of the officers who placed it in a plastic bag, Richland asked, “Where’s the letter?”
“What?”
“The letter you claim this woman gave to you. Where is it?” Richland demanded.
“I was upset, and I didn’t want some goodbye letter from the man I loved. I didn’t even know how to deal with my emotions so I just took off into the jungle and I left it there,” Mena said, memories of Sunny’s visit emerging in her mind. If Sunny hadn’t brought her that letter, Mena never would have found Julian in the jungle.
“And you said that was two days ago?”
“Yes.”
“About what time?”
“I don’t remember. It was late, nighttime.”
Richland cleared his throat. “So, you were in the jungle at night two days ago. That would put you there only a few hours before the cameras detected the white male and black female emerging from the jungle, wouldn’t you say?”
