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.”“Is that true Sergeant Ramos?”“What’s true is that Ms.Mancini is the key witness in another crime.A murder, your honor.”I wanted to yell out that I didn’t witness any murder and I’d already told the police everything I knew, but David spoke for me, and more eloquently than I could’ve myself.The judge allowed David and Sergeant Ramos to argue back and forth while he consulted his calendar.He ended their debate with, “The trial is set for the 27th.”“Bail your honor?” David asked.The judge turned to Sergeant Ramos.“We oppose bail your honor.Ms.Mancini is a flight risk.”“Then I’ll keep her passport until the trial,” the judge said.“But that won’t stop her from leaving the country illegally,” Sergeant Ramos replied.“What would you have me do Sergeant? Send her to a holding cell in Belize City for the next three weeks?”“R-O-R your honor?”I didn’t know what R-O-R was, but if David was asking for it, I knew it had to be good.The judge considered it for a moment, then said, “No, Sergeant Ramos has a point.Bail is set at one hundred thousand dollars.We’re done here.”There was no climactic gavel rapping like there always was on T.V.I stood up and the judge’s secretary ushered us out into the hallway and called the next name on her list.“What now?” I asked David.“Now you call everyone you know and ask them to lend you fifty thousand dollars.”“I thought bail was a hundred thousand?”“Belizian dollars,” David said.“The exchange rate is two-to-one.”Somehow I couldn’t imagine that making much of a difference.Chapter 30But I was wrong.Jane said if it was six-figures, she would’ve needed the trustee’s co-signature on the withdrawal.But since it was only five figures, she could authorize the wire transfer from her trust fund herself.Once the money arrived, David would take care of everything.“And I added an extra ten-thousand for your legal fees,” Jane said.“Why?” I’d already thanked her a million times for lending me the bail money, which she’d get back after my trial.I didn’t want to accept any more charity.“I told you I already paid him.”“Five thousand dollars? That’ll last you about a day and a half.”“But Jane, I can’t pay back all this money.” The credit card people could hate me, but Jane was my best friend.“Don’t worry.I won’t send anyone to break your legs if you’re late with a payment, and I guarantee my interest rate is lower than Visa’s.”“What’s your rate?”“Somewhere between zero and we’ll discuss it over drinks when I get there.”“You’re coming to Camus Caye?”“Well you’re going to be there for the next three weeks, aren’t you?”And possibly longer if David couldn’t get me off.But I was trying not to think about that.“Yes, but I’m going to have to get a job.I’ve got a lawyer to pay and now that I’m out of jail I’m going to need a place to sleep.”I could hear her tapping on her keyboard.“Which do you think would be nicer, a suite at the Hotel Del Sol or a private villa at the Tradewinds?”“Jane, please.You’ve already done enough.”“You can’t get a job in a foreign country without a work permit, and they’re not going to give one to a potential felon.Besides, what would you do?”“I don’t know.” I didn’t think there’d be many employment opportunities for a freelance writer on Camus Caye.“Maybe I’ll get a job as a cocktail waitress.”“Need I remind you that you were fired from your one and only waitressing job.”She was referring to my short-lived career at Cheeks, a bar near USC that specialized in selling pitchers of cheap beer and baskets of hot wings to underage students.It was a lot like Hooters, except we highlighted different assets.I only lasted a week.“That’s because I wouldn’t let the manager pinch my ass.”“And you think the men in Belize will be more respectful?”She had a point, but I needed money.I also needed something to occupy my time for the next three weeks.Otherwise I’d go nuts obsessing over the state of my life, and no good could come of that.“What part of my vacation has made this sound appealing to you?”“You said the diving was fabulous.”“But you don’t dive.You barely swim.”“That is so unfair.You know I take a water aerobics class every Wednesday morning.”“In a four foot deep indoor pool.” I’d accompanied Jane to her fancy health club once on a guest pass.“It was you who refused to take the ferry to Ellis Island because the Hudson River was too wide.”“I just didn’t want to wait in line with all the tourists.”“Jane, I applaud the adventurous spirit you seem to have developed in the last five days.But Belize is hot, humid, there’s no good shopping, and I’ve yet to see Dom Perignon on any restaurant’s wine list [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]