Page 17 of Abraxas

Several sets later, it was supper time. Food was brought in again, so no one had to hurry. The food was always excellent. This one was Italian. That was one of Gloria's favorites. Kiki had plans for the day and probably wouldn't be home until late. She had no worries there, and after they finished eating, they would take a walk on the beach and try to find as many cool shells as they could. According to Abe, they would need those shells for the entryway within a month. That wasn't very long, and they would probably be going on a romantic walk every evening to pick up shells. Some nights, all the shells were similar to ones they already had, and those wouldn't be useful, at least not for the entryway to the restaurant.

“Are you ready for our walk?” Abe asked.

“Let's go.”

He took her arm and escorted her out the door. This door led directly to the beach and nothing else. It was a full moon, and she loved walking under the full moon. The island had its share of wild animals, even though most of them were birds and small ones. There were a couple of wild dogs, but they were unfriendly and stayed away when anyone came around. When she'd been given her tour the day she'd arrived, she was told to watch out because there were a couple small predators and some scavengers. Today was the first time she'd seen them. There was a large pile of something on the beach and some animals surrounding it, fighting over whatever it might be.

"Gloria, I need you to return to your room and stay there until I tell you otherwise," Abe instructed.

Normally, she would ask what was happening, but she had a bad feeling they were fighting over a body, and it wasn't another animal or fish. She hurried back, located Kiki, and then she called Stef.

"Something's going on. We went on our walk, and Abe told me to go straight to my room and stay there till he told me to come out," Gloria admitted.

"I think it might be a body on the beach. The animals were preparing to eat it, but it's largely intact."

“How do you know all that so soon? I just got to the room.”

"Abe was wearing his radio. He called Lu after he got the animals off the body. They will be carrying it to the medical department, but they think they know who it is," Stef offered.

“Can you tell me? Is it someone I know?”

"No, you won't know them because they work for Origin. Other than the bite marks that were inflicted after they died, there are no other signs of injury. This is pure speculation, but they think they drowned. The concern now is whether anyone else who got on the island is alive. Security will probably be doing a room-by-room search."

"I can just tell them nobody is in here," Gloria observed.

"They'll have to check in case they're hidden or in case they have threatened you and are making you say no one is in there. It won't take long, and they will search everyone's room. You're not hiding something secret, are you?" Stef giggled.

She was taking everything so well that it reminded Gloria that her friend had been in the military and had probably seen some action. Gloria didn't think that she would ever get used to seeing or hearing about dead people. Even if they were bad guys, it still was hard to see their dead bodies. Not that she'd gotten a good look at it, and she was glad. That would be a horrible way to end her day. The way things had turned out was bad enough to begin with.

They said goodbye and hung up.

“Is it true? Did you and Abe really find a dead body?” Kiki asked.

"I didn't get a good look at it, but it seems that we did. The animals on the island were fighting over it, each trying to get their supper. That's the circle of life, but I don't want to see any of it. They warned me there were dangerous animals on the island, but I had never seen them until tonight. Now we know to be careful, or they'll fight over us."

Kiki didn't say anything. There really wasn't much to say. Only a few children were on the island, and now they would have something exciting to discuss. That made Gloria wonder how they would deal with something like that. What they had on the island was security. She didn't think they were considered police. She was sure that security could investigate, but could they arrest someone if someone else had a hand in this accident? If they worked for the company that had destroyed their lives, would the demons even care how they died?

The whole thing had ruined the fabulous evening that she had planned with her boyfriend. Now, she would shower and relax with her sister before her TV until bedtime. That was nothing like the evening she had planned. Maybe things will be better tomorrow? At least she didn't have the dead body on her mind where she would be imagining it all night. Famous last words. After they went to bed, all she could imagine in her mind was bodies popping up out of graves or on a morgue table. She never thought she had a good imagination, but she had imagined many ways for a zombie or a corpse to come after her. Abe had never called, and that had just made things worse.

Gloria wasn't even sure if he was going to meet her for breakfast or not. She assumed he was going to, so she dressed and headed out to meet him. It was no surprise, not really, that he wasn't there. What was unusual under the circumstances was having to make her own plate because she had gotten used to him having one ready for her. Sitting at their table wishing he would show up, all she really did was push food back andforth. Normally, she was hungry and at a good weight where she felt comfortable with herself. She'd never been one for skipping meals anyway, so she tried to pay attention to the food on the plate and at least eat a decent share of it. Abe showed up by the time she was through two cups of coffee. Better late than never.

He had a job to do, and she knew it. He was a big part of a famous band and was in charge of this whole island complex. They hadn't even named it yet. Lu wanted to call the area around the hotel Demon City and the island Demon Island. She thought calling it Demon Island was not bad, but Demon City? It didn't matter because she had no say in it. She greeted Abe as he arrived at the table after stopping to fill his plate. She felt bad that she hadn't made his plate like he usually did hers.

"I wasn't sure if you would make it at all today," Gloria explained.

He shot her a sexy smile. "I wasn't sure if I was going to make it either. Apparently, there are a lot of notifications when you find a dead body. The guy is from Canada. We had to notify the government there. They wanted information so they could pass it on to his family. They also asked about the investigation, which we said had just begun, but so far, it looked like he had drowned, and there was no foul play evidenced. Since his last employer was in the US, we also had to notify them. I don't think it's a real employer, but we had to notify them anyway. Once that was done, someone notified the press because we got nonstop interview requests. We're ready for it to end, but it's just begun."

"It'll run its course like everything else does. Stef said the rooms would be searched, but no one ever came to our door."

"That's because security checked all the videos, and there were no signs of anyone near the building. As far as we can tell, the guy drowned in the ocean and was swept up on the shore. That makes us think that they were doing surveillance, and he either got shoved off the boat or fell off it. I have a feeling we maynever know. Security is using this as an excuse to use their little drones and see what kind of ships are nearby. I swear they're like a bunch of little boys and girls playing with toys." Abe observed.

"I know it was a bad guy, but it is still awful. If he has a family, I'm sure they're upset."

"Next of kin is an uncle who he hasn't seen since he was a boy. There are no children, no wives, and no ex-wives. I'd say he was a loner, and the only ones who knew him well were those he worked closely with."

“That's a sad way to live. Is that a picture of him?” Gloria reached for the picture Abe had in his hand.

“I've seen this guy before. It was when I was coming here after one of my jobs. Kiki wasn't with me, and I thought it was odd that he asked me if I was traveling alone. It occurred to me that he might be hitting on me, but after I said yes, he didn't pay me any attention anymore.”

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