The Finishing School

51

MELANIE WAS BUSY negotiating with a cabdriver named Raúl in the hotel driveway when Lamar Gates and Pavel LNU walked right by her and got into a waiting convertible. What the hell were they doing in San Juan? Did they have Trevor stashed around here somewhere? She didn’t have a clue what was going on, but one thing she did know: She couldn’t afford to waste time. She quit arguing over a few bucks and jumped in the back of the taxi.

“Follow that car!”

“Lady, are you crazy? That’s a Porsche,” Raúl said, looking at her in the rearview mirror. He was middle-aged, with a bristly mustache.

“Do it! Hurry up! We’re gonna lose them.”

“You pay twice the meter and cover any damage to my cab.”

“Deal.”

Once his foot touched the pedal, Raúl did not disappoint. He ran red lights all the way to the highway. They got on, heading for El Yunque, and Raúl wove in and out of traffic, doing a minimum of eighty, keeping the Porsche in his sights yet somehow remaining far enough back so as not to blow their cover.

Another benefit of doing eighty was that it made El Yunque that much closer. Twenty minutes later they turned off the highway onto a smaller road that ran beside a diminutive river, more like a stream. In the distance black mountains massed, shrouded in mist.

“That’s it,” Raúl said, pointing out the front window.

Melanie shivered. “Are there snakes?” she asked.

“Probably, but I’m no expert. I don’t like nature. Too dirty for me.”

They’d seen the Porsche cross through El Yunque’s gates some distance ahead of them and disappear into the blackness. Now Raúl drove up to the portal, marked by a National Park Service sign, and stopped the cab.

“Here you go,” he said.

“This isn’t my final destination. I’m going to El Baño Grande.”

“Lady, the park is closed.”

“I’ll pay extra.”

“I’m not going in there after hours.”

“Raúl, this is important. Like I said, I’ll pay.”

“Twice the meter y cincuenta pesos más.”

“Fifty bucks extra? You’re crazy.”

“Fine, chica, there’s the door.”

“I don’t even have that much. I’ll pay you twice the meter plus twenty-five.”

He shrugged. “Okay.” He put the car in gear, then stopped, looking at her over his shoulder. “Your friends in the Porsche, they got guns?”

She hesitated, not wanting him to change his mind. But she wasn’t the type to lie, not when another person’s safety was at stake.

“I’m not sure, but probably,” she said, expecting him to turn the cab around. Instead he turned off the headlights, and they entered the park in complete darkness.

“When we get farther in, I’m gonna have to put the lights back on or else we’ll crash before your friends ever get us. But for a little while, I can drive by the light from the town.”

Within minutes the air streaming through the windows became pungent with the smell of wet earth and alive with the sounds of peeper frogs and insects. Melanie smacked a mosquito on her arm, but not before it took a serious bite out of her.

They drove for a while longer. When the road became impossible to see, Raúl flipped on the headlights again. Melanie gasped at the wealth of insect life swarming their windows in the sudden illumination.

“If the bugs scare you from the car, what are you gonna do on that trail?” he said, glancing at her in the mirror.

“What trail? You said you’d drive me there!”

“I’ll take you as far as the road goes, but you can’t drive all the way to El Baño. Don’t worry. It’s not more than ten or fifteen minutes’ walk from where the road stops. The moon is strong tonight. You’ll be fine as long as you keep to the path.”

“What happens if I don’t?”

“Then…you’ll be in trouble. People get lost in here, and they find the bones picked clean.”

Melanie’s stomach lurched with fear, and her hands clenched together in her lap, but what was she going to do? Turn around and go back to the hotel? Dan was in there somewhere; she needed to warn him. And she needed to find her witness.

A while later Raúl shut off the headlights and braked.

“What-” Melanie began.

“Shhh!”

The route continued upward, but a short distance ahead she made out the shape of a structure by the roadside. In the moonlight she saw the Porsche in the small parking area.

“The information center,” Raúl whispered. “The trail leaves from here. Looks like your friends already started walking.”

“Looks that way,” she said, swallowing hard.

“You want, I just take you back to your hotel.”

“No. Thanks, but I have to do this.”

“Okay,” he said.

He sat there silently, and she realized he was waiting to be paid. Melanie gave him everything that was in her wallet, then wrote him a check for some more.

“I got a flashlight if you like,” he said as he counted the cash.

“How much do you want for it?”

“Twenty.”

“You’re kidding.”

“You see a hardware store around here?”

“I’ll have to write you a check.”

“Okay.”

“Where is it, though? I want to see it.”

He took the flashlight from the glove box and handed it across the seat. It was a grimy old plastic one. She turned it on, and the bulb glowed a dull yellow.

“No way. I’m not paying twenty bucks for this thing,” Melanie said.

“Ten then.”

“No. With what I just paid you, you can throw it in.”

Raúl frowned. “Okay. Normally I’m not such a pushover, but I’m worried about you, chica. Whatever you’re up to, it’s definitely not smart.”

“I’ll be fine. It’s nice of you to worry, though.”

“Hey, people saw me pick you up at the hotel. If you turn up dead, who do you think they’ll come looking for?”

Melanie tried laughing off his comment, but the sound emerged high-pitched, almost panicked. She got out of the car, closing the rear door as quietly as she could.

“So do me a favor, be careful,” Raúl said.

He backed up, waved jauntily, and headed down the road. As she watched the taxi disappear from view, the sounds of the night closed in around her, and Melanie felt as alone as she ever had in her life.