I hobbled over to the dining room table, where Marilyn was sitting and drinking some coffee while reading the newspaper. That was unusual in itself; my wife rarely reads the newspaper. She looked up at me and grinned at me. "Morning!"
"You really don't have to worry about me getting in fights, hun. The way I'm going, the next time I decide to get into a fight, you're going to have to push me into it with a wheelchair."
She laughed and pushed the newspaper over to me. "The middle of the back section, over a wrinkle cream ad, huh?"
"What are you talking about?" I looked at the paper where she was tapping it with a finger. "Oh, shit!" There, just below the fold, on the front page of the Nassau Guardian, was a picture of me, flanked by Marilyn and Assistant Superintendant Javier, under a headline, 'Tourist Captures Killer Gang!' I looked up at Marilyn and said, "You have got to be kidding me!"
"Read it!", she laughed. "Why, if I wasn't already married, I'd want to marry a guy who was that heroic!"
I flipped my wife the bird, which just made her laugh harder. Then I read the story. Leaving aside the parts about the amazing tourist who caught the robbers, it was pretty obvious that Assistant Superintendant Javier hadn't spent Sunday lazing on his porch. In fact, reading between the lines, it sounded like he had gotten at least one of the gang to roll over on the others. In addition to a whole mess of robbery charges related to the pickpocketing and purse stealing, murder charges had been levied against them, related to the death of the German tourist Javier had told us about.
Mrs. Wilkes bustled in from the kitchen with some juice and fruit salad for me. She saw me reading the newspaper and asked, "Dat be you?"
I looked up at her and grinned. "It wasn't that big a deal, Mrs. Wilkes."
She just shook her head and cried out, "You be crazy, mon!"
I put my head back and laughed loudly at that. Marilyn smiled over at me, and then said, "I've been saying that for years, Mrs. Wilkes." I just laughed some more. I waved them off and the two women chatted a bit about the night in the bar. After a bit, Marilyn and Mrs. Wilkes scrounged up a bandage and covered up the stitches for me.
The real surprise came about an hour later. There was a knock on the front door, and while Marilyn and I looked at each other curiously, from where we were sitting in the living room, Mrs. Wilkes hustled out of the kitchen and opened it. There were some subdued words said, and then Mr. Finch came in. I promptly climbed to my feet in greeting.
"Mister Buckman, Mrs. Buckman, good morning. Might I have a word with you?"
"Sure, come on in." I glanced over at Marilyn with a bit of mystification. She looked back the same way. We hadn't had anything to do with Finch or his office since we got there, other than a restaurant recommendation or two. I stepped out of the way and he came into the living room.
The first thing he saw was the newspaper on the coffee table. "Ah, you have seen the paper already.", he said with a smile.
"Yes, Mrs. Wilkes brought it this morning."
"That was quite a remarkable thing you did, capturing those three men. They were very dangerous men!"
I waved a hand. "Really, Mister Finch, the paper made it sound much more dramatic than it really was."
"That is not what Assistant Superintendant Javier told me.", he replied.
"Don't listen to him, Mister Finch! Carl was just as heroic as they reported. Too heroic, if you ask me!", commented Marilyn.
I laughed at that and reached out and took her hand. "I promise, no more heroics." I turned back to our concierge. "So, you talked to the Assistant Superintendant."
"Oh, yes, he called me Friday night, or really Saturday morning, to ask about you. Both of you, actually."
"Both of us!? Whatever for!?", asked my wife.
I had to smile at that. She can be a bit naïve at times. "Standard police work, honey. You always check on everybody.", I told her.
"Precisely so.", agreed Finch, amiably. "The Assistant Superintendant is a very thorough man."
"I gathered as much from the newspaper. It seems that Assistant Superintendant Javier has made a nice little string of arrests and cleared up a number of crimes here."
"Yes, it would seem so. I have to tell you, as a citizen of the Bahamas, these men are very unusual. The Bahamas is a very quiet and safe place, and crime is very unusual! You should not think this sort of thing is common!", he said.
I glanced at Marilyn and smiled. She smiled back. "Neither of us thought anything of the sort. We have found it quite lovely here, and hope to come back some day."
My wife chimed in, "Really, everyone here has been terrific. Some day we will have to bring our children here for a visit."
"Oh, there are so many things for children to do! How many do you have?"
"Just one now, a baby boy, but we plan on a few more.", she said.
He nodded. "So this was in the way of a second honeymoon, then?"
"Yes it was."
"What a terrible way to see it end! Allow me to make it up to you. I know you leave tomorrow. I want to invite you to a small dinner party at my home tonight. I know a number of the local people and they would all love to meet you and thank you for your help."
"Well, really Mister Finch, that's just not necessary. It really wasn't that big a deal.", I protested.
"No, I insist. Mrs. Wilkes told me how you have been cut and how she bandaged you up this morning. I know Assistant Superintendant Javier would like to see you once more before you leave."
I looked over at my wife and shrugged. "I guess dinner is taken care of tonight."
"Fine by me.", she agreed.
"Okay, Mister Finch, but we really don't have anything fancy to wear. We're just a couple of tourists on vacation. My wardrobe is pretty much limited to clean khakis and a shirt."
"I promise, that will be fine. We will be very informal. Shall we say seven this evening? Mrs. Wilkes can give you directions. It is very close by."
"We look forward to it, sir. Thank you." We shook hands and then he left. After he left, I commented to Marilyn, "I think that is what they call a command performance."
"I think you're right. What do we do?"
"Well, today, let's just get in the car and drive up and down the island, one end to the other. I want to see more than what there is here."
She nodded. "Okay, let's get ready and go. Give me five minutes."
I smiled at that. Five minutes to Marilyn is closer to thirty minutes to normal humans. I used the bathroom myself, and then waited for Marilyn to get ready. Once she appeared, I tapped my watch and said, "Five minutes on the dot, honey!" She immediately started protesting, but I just waved it off and moved her out the door.
First stop was to gas up the Cavalier. I wasn't too sure how long the drive was, but I knew it would be a few hours. Gas is not cheap outside of the States. I remember the first time we drove in the islands, in my other life, I thought it was pretty reasonable, until I figured out that the prices listed were for liters, not gallons! Ooops!
Eleuthera is about a hundred miles long, and the Queens Highway is the main drag the entire length of the island. In most places it's the only drag; the island is very narrow and it's the only main road. We sent the day driving it, first north past Governors Harbor, all the way up to Spanish Wells, and then turned around and drove back and beyond. We kept going all the way down to Bannerman Town, where we had lunch. Then it was back north again, to La Valencia, where we took a nap before dinner.