Chapter 3
Meri
This was turning into a total nightmare and in my nightmare it didn’t seem to have anyone that actually spoke English in it, which made it even harder to figure out what was going on. I knew that Carol was gone, but I didn’t know why they were holding me in some cell instead of looking for her.
What’s worse was that I couldn’t make a call. This was not all like it was supposed to be. In all of the movies that I have ever watched, the person that goes to jail gets to make a phone call. This hadn’t happened. I didn’t have a lawyer, I don’t think anyways. I had several people ask me questions in the native language. I now wished more than ever that I had learned a little bit more before I had come here. I didn’t think I would be in this situation, but I should have known that something was going to happen. It really is just my kind of luck that things like this happen.
So I waited in a cell for what felt like years, but was only a few days before things started to change. I still wasn’t sure if the change was going to be a good one or a bad one, but I did know that at least I was relieved to have someone that spoke English that I could understand. There were a few people that knew a few words, but that was mainly from TV and wasn’t consistent with any kind of real communications.
“Miss. Ellin, I have been sent here to help you. Can you come to the bars please?”
I was turned away from the bars, sick of the stares from everyone that passed by. When I turned around, I didn’t expect the tall American with the boyish good looks staring back at me. For a moment I had to wonder if I was seeing things. Had I fallen asleep and this was some kind of wishful thinking dream? If a lawyer did come to my rescue, he wouldn’t look like this.
But if I was awake, I wanted to talk to someone that could understand me. I needed someone that could explain to these people that I didn’t do anything wrong or even just tell me what it was that was going on. I just wanted to know at least why I was being held and when I was going to get to leave this god forsaken place that I found myself in.
“That’s me.”
“I could tell since you are the only white woman in this place, although I was expecting someone different.”
I didn’t know what he meant by that, but it felt like he was giving me a compliment in some off way. I didn’t want that. I wanted to know that he was here to get me out or at least give me some answers. I had never been so scared and frustrated in all of my life.
“Yeah, that’s me. The stupid American stuck in Thailand prison and I don’t even know why. Are you here to help me get out?”
“You don’t know why you are here?”
I shrugged. “Not really. I went to a restaurant and then a club a few nights ago with my friend Carol. She was trying to stay here with Rico, but I convinced her to come back with me. We have to get out of our apartment and I am supposed to be in New York for a job. Now Carol is gone when I woke up and I haven’t seen her since. About five minutes after I woke up, the cops were surrounding the house and I was taken into custody. Nobody seems to know English and no one will tell me anything. I don’t know what I did or what I am supposed to do.”
I let it all out and even though I didn’t think that any of it was going to help me all that much, all I could think was how much of a relief it was to get it off of my chest. I was confused, but at least I had someone that would understand me when I said something. The fact that someone else might be listening was more than I could imagine. It was that important.
“Wow, okay, well that was a mouthful. How long have you been here?”
“I don’t know. A week, a month? It feels like I have been here forever. I am starving and more than a little terrified of the water they want me to drink.”
He handed me a bottle of water through the bars. “My plane just touched down, so I haven’t stopped anywhere. I will bring you some things when I have a minute. In these types of jails, the family usually brings what their loved ones need to get them through.”
“Well I would appreciate it, but that doesn’t tell me what is going on? Please tell me that you know.”
“You are being charged with her murder, Carol Dungee.”
“She’s dead?” I felt like I had been hit hard, my body moving back a few steps. I had just seen her a couple of days ago. This didn’t make any sense.
“Well they think she is, though there isn’t proof of a crime actually being committed because there is no body. Things are different here though. I tried to tell Ashlyn that before I came. I spent the flight going over some of their laws and I can tell you now that we have a long road ahead of us.”
“Give me some good news please… What did you say your name was?”
“Sam.”
“Give me some good news Sam.”
“I am here and I told our mutual friend that I would do everything I can to help you. I always keep a promise.”
I didn’t know if he was talking pure crap or not. The man was handsome, almost too handsome to be taken seriously and I hoped more than anything that he wasn’t one of the many men that fell for Ashlyn. If that were the case, his competence may be in question, but he was as good as it was going to get. I didn’t know anything about him besides the fact that I could understand him and he could understand me. This business with Carol was going to take longer to process than anything else.
“You need to find Rico. He was the last one with us and he was the one that Carol was seeing. I don’t know who he is, not really. We met him when we first got here and the two were inseparable the whole trip. Rico knows something.”
He looked through some notes and told me that Rico had already given his statement to the police. “He says that the two of you were fighting about her staying. He says that you were the last one to see her alive.”
It was just another blow and I was reeling with a dump of information. It was all too much and I grabbed the side of the bars.
“Are you okay?”
“Yeah, I just haven’t eaten much in the last week or so. I need to sit down. Do you mind?”
“Not at all. Let me check into my hotel and see where I can get with the local law enforcement. That will give us a better idea of why they are making this conclusion. I will also set up a deposition so that you can give your side of it. Maybe we can even get you some kind of bond or release pending the investigation. I am going to try my best to get you out of here Meri, I promise.”
“You said that you don’t take back promises.”
“I don’t, so when I say that, you will know that I am telling the truth. I am going to figure this out and I will be back here in a couple of hours.”
I didn’t want him to leave. He was the only light I had seen in this particular tunnel in some time and I wanted him to stay and talk to me. I felt like I was missing that human connection. Not just that, but there was something about the man that appealed to me. Even in the midst of all of this, surrounding by such complicated circumstances, I had wanted him to stay just because I wanted to be around him. Sad, strange and even more confusing than all of the rest of the emotions running through me.
But he left and I was left to ponder all of what he had said. I didn’t know what the charges were that kept me here, but even in my worst nightmare it wouldn’t have anything to do with killing my best friend. I didn’t even want to think about something happening to Carol. I knew that it was obvious something had happened, but I have no idea what. I knew that she was not there when I woke up, but my heart told me that Rico knew where she was and what happened to her.
I tried to remember all that I could, but each thought left me quickly. I swear that it was because I hadn’t eaten in so long. I was just going to have to wait for my lawyer to come back. I was more worried at the minute about if I was going to get some dinner, far more than I was worried about what my legal strategy was going to be. I could only think of the short term at the moment because the long term was just too impossible to fathom.
It felt like hours before Sam came back, but he came back. He didn’t have much good news to bring me, no easy fix as it were, but he did bring me food and at the moment I was far more interested in that, then anything else.
The sweet talking man with the sexy smile was just going to have to wait.