“Of course not. What happened to Rosa breaks my heart, but it was only an accident. Accidents can happen anywhere. This opportunity is still my dream. Just like I'm sure it was for her,” she tells me.
I'm still not convinced, but I let the conversation drop. Graciela finishes and gives me a friendly smile as she leaves. I think about what she said, trying to process the words and see if I can find any other meaning in them.
If she really was carrying on some sort of relationship with the same man that Rosa was, not knowing her well could have one of two reactions. In some instances, feeling betrayed by a friend can make a reaction to a situation like this more volatile and lead to violence, while having the other person be a stranger can make her more of an abstract idea, leading to more anger toward the cheating partner.
On the other hand, not knowing the other person can take the humanity away from her and create room in a person's thoughts to turn her into anything they want her to be. Without real-world knowledge about their personality or character to go on, it can be easy to transform them into a villain and turn all anger and wrath on them.
But I can't see Graciela being involved. It's not just that she's trained and funny, or even the hope and optimism that glimmer in her eyes even as she talks about the horror of one of her fellow staff members dying so suddenly. Taking what friendship we might have out of it, thinking of her only from the perspective of an investigator, I don't see her committing a crime like this. Her denials of talking to the man are suspicious, but there was little emotion in the denials. She didn't get worked up or defensive. She just brushed it aside. And as we talked about Rosa's death, she didn't get agitated or start story planting.
That's what I call it when someone potentially involved in a crime starts weaving their narrative early in the investigation, even before any attention or suspicion falls on them. Most of the time, they unknowingly end up offering more information than is asked of them. Producing pristine stacks of receipts that show their movements across every second of a given period of time. They're the ones who make 9-1-1 calls that include spiels about what they were doing and what their partners were doing for the day before they get to the fact that they have just found them murdered. Who slip details about a victim's perceived wrongdoings into conversations to lead toward a sense of blame, or who offer up their own theories about what happened that totally steer the conversations away from anything that might suggest them.
Story planting is common and often damning. It's like the person launching a kite into the air with a long tail trailing along behind it. Investigators who catch the end of the tail might be whisked away into the image the person is creating and be distracted from reality. But the investigator could just as easily yank the kite back down to the ground. Making excuses before they're asked for one. Giving information that isn't needed. Offering explanations that aren't wanted. They are all things that very often bubble up in a person responsible for something and tend to shine a light on them rather than being a distraction.
I didn't get any of that out of Graciela. She simply said she didn't know Rosa very well and that she heard it was an accident. She could be an exceptional actress, but I don't see any real motivation. The strongest reactions I've gotten from her are when she talks about working at the resort and how much it means to her. It doesn't fit.
The whole thing still isn't sitting well with me.
Alonso was upset by finding out about the death, but he also seemed very prepared to move forward from it. He immediately went into crisis intervention mode. Rather than wanting to cooperate with the police or thinking about Rosa, his mind went to how we could possibly gloss it all over and make it disappear, so the other guests of the resort weren't disrupted.
It's an indication of a good manager, somebody who really does care about the resort where he works, and about ensuring a guest’s positive experience. But it was also smooth. Almost methodical, like this wasn't the first time he had to depend on those protocols.
Grabbing my computer, I bring it outside onto the balcony and pull up a search. It doesn't take much digging to find the information I want. More accidents at the resort.
The Windsor Palms Resort has only been open for a few years, according to everybody who's told me about it. Yet it's racked up quite an impressive list of incidents and unfortunate events. I go back into the room and get my notebook and pen to take notes of the reports.
Fell on the rocks by the water. Minor head injury.
Fell on the rocks by the water. Broken arm.
Fell on the rocks by the water. Death.
Fell down the stairs.
Burned in the kitchen.
Fell outside the lobby, cuts and bruises on her face.
Accidental prescription medication overdose.
Alcohol poisoning.
Several near-drownings.
Drowned in the ocean.
I bring my computer back inside, change out of my bathing suit into shorts and a t-shirt, and head out of the room. A couple is getting a bit too familiar with each other right outside the elevators. I'm in no mood to stand by and watch, so I take a detour around the corner to the staircase. This is definitely the kind of place where the stairs are only used for emergencies, but there's no alarm linked to it, so I head through.
I hear the muffled voices below too late to catch the door and keep it from shutting hard. The sound of the door echoes through the stairwell, and one of the
