the cases back at headquarters.
“Look, when he retired a year ago, he was happy enough watching films on Netflix, listening to the news, reading… He even bought a Kindle. You had to light a fire under him just to get him out of his recliner. A few months ago, he started eating lunch every Thursday with some friends…”
“That’s true, because Alicia’s husband, Oscar, goes too and they get together for lunch in a backroom at Casa Juancho…”
“Yeah, but now they’re also meeting at night one or two times a week, and he never tells me anything… It’s all a mystery… And he whispers on the phone.”
“Have you noticed any unfamiliar number or a text on his cell?” Maria asked, certain that her friend would have already checked it.
“Well, truthfully, no. The texts only come from the grandkids…occasionally from his sister, and no unknown telephone numbers.”
“And his emails?”
“No, but he could erase them.”
“A woman’s perfume, lipstick on his clothes, anything unusual about his underwear, socks inside out?”
“No.”
“Because you checked all these things, right?”
“Well, it’s just that I…”
“Yeah, that’s what any of us would do. Anything else?”
“I don’t know, he just doesn’t seem to be himself, like he’s not here, he’s got his mind on something else. I’m sure he’s hiding something from me.”
“Is it possible that some type of investment went wrong, and he doesn’t want to tell you?”
“I don’t think so.”
“Any health problems?”
“I always go to the doctor with him…a bit of arthritis in his knee, medicine for his blood pressure…normal stuff for his age.”
Worrying about her husband’s possible infidelity had not made Lourdes lose her appetite. The waiter came and took away the empty plates. Maria had heroically managed to avoid Yolanda’s tempting offer to share her sweet plantains. Years ago, she had gone to Weight Watchers to lose some weight, and she remembered the instructor’s dramatic assertions about how Cuban food makes you gain weight. However, she couldn’t turn down the croquettes that came with her tuna salad.
They were already having their coffee when Maria asked:
“And so what do you want me to do?”
“I thought that maybe you could follow him.”
“Are you crazy?”
“I could pay you.”
“You’re stark raving mad! In the first place, he knows me… And besides…”
“He hasn’t seen you that much lately, and you’re an artist when it comes to disguises with all those wigs and other things you have…and you can take photos.”
She couldn’t help but grin. It was true. She had had to resort to altering her appearance many times when she worked undercover. There was even that time she had to pass for a prostitute!
“And you’ve already followed him once…”
“That was more than twenty years ago when you had a similar fit of jealousy and your poor husband was trying to overthrow Fidel…”
“Well, that was when the Soviet Union had just collapsed, and we all thought that Cuba was going to fall along with it. It just needed a little nudge. This time it’s different.”
“Look, Lourdes, back then I wasn’t on the police force and I was working as a private detective, but now as an officer of Miami-Dade County I can’t do those things. It’s against the law. I could lose my job.”
“No, mija, not that…”
“Lourdes, I’m absolutely convinced that these ideas of yours are baseless, but if you are still worried a month from now, I’ll put you in touch with a detective friend of mine…”
“Geez, I don’t know. It’s one thing for you to do it, but to employ a complete stranger. I’ll think about it. Thanks, Mariita. And please, don’t say a word about this to your father.”
She was happy to have gotten out of Lourdes’s absurd request, and it was true that the police regulations were very clear on the matter. Barring that, she wouldn’t have had any recourse but to accept her request. She really did love those two crazy, old women. When they diagnosed her mother with cancer six years ago, they had taken care of everything. They accompanied her to her chemotherapy sessions and brought food to her father. They had acted as nurses, housewives, cooks, psychiatrists, and, when her mother lost her battle and passed away, they adopted her as a daughter and Patrick as a grandson. They even went to his basketball games and yelled more loudly than anyone! When he graduated from high school a year ago and was admitted to the University of Florida in Gainesville, his adopted grandmothers took it upon themselves to buy him everything he needed, from a laptop to a first aid kit.
They said their goodbyes with a kiss, some comforting words, messages for the adopted grandson, and a promise to meet up again soon.
“You’re going to see that there’s nothing to worry about,” Maria told Lourdes to reassure her.
Day 1—Monday, November 2, 2015
She followed the directions that the GPS gave her and arrived at the humble house in Hialeah without any trouble. She remembered back before the technological advances that help people get around these days, how she would always get lost when she went to “The City of Progress”—a concrete city known for its ubiquitous statues of Saint Lazarus and Saint Barbara in people’s yards and its diversity of Cubans from all backgrounds who shared one thing in common: they all clung to the culture of the Island. Even those born in the US like herself—those with college degrees, without a trace of an accent in English, and with a Spanish that left much to be desired—felt Cuban even if they had never set foot on the land of their parents and grandparents. She didn’t remember which writer had coined the phrase that being Cuban was an incurable disease, hereditary, and sometimes even contagious, but the author had a point. Her boss, Keppler, was one of the ones who had been contaminated. And she was one of those who had been born with “Cubanness” in her genes.
Maria’s heart skipped a beat. The young girl who opened the door was almost identical to the one she had seen in the drawings that showed what the missing baby would look like today. Before she could say anything, the girl said:
“I’m Elena Lozano, Gladys Elena’s daughter… Gladys Mercedes’s half-sister… You’re the detective that called, right? Please come in. My mom will be right here. She was very nervous waiting for you and went to make coffee.”
Sure enough, Maria smelled right away the unmistakable aroma of coffee… A much younger woman than she expected entered the room, drying her hands
