They also had wood carvings and sculptures. An intricately hand-carved wall hanging caught my eye, so I bought it. I also found small hand-carved animals: dolphins, monkeys, dogs, and kittens. I knew some little ones who would like these, so I bought a variety.
For lunch, we stopped at a small place that was packed with locals. One of the natives suggested that we get goat water stew. It was made from goat, breadfruit, green pawpaw, and dumplings in a tomato base. He also had us get droppers. The closest thing I might compare them to was tamales. They were made from cornmeal, grated sweet potato, coconut, and some mystery ingredients, and then wrapped in banana leaves and boiled. I was proud of Cassidy because she was more willing to try new dishes than she had been.
The dads bailed on us because they heard of a golf course they wanted to try. The rest of us went on a nature tour that took us across the island. It was fascinating to see how flora and fauna changed from the beachfront to the valleys where the sugarcane was and up into the mountains where there was a rainforest.
When we got back, we pulled up anchor and sailed to our next stop, Montserrat, a forty-square-mile island that was home to five thousand people. The appeal was it had decent surfing. I convinced everyone to join me, and we were able to get a few runs in as the sun set.
◊◊◊ Friday April 1
For the past few days, we’d island-hopped and now found ourselves in Trinidad, off the coast of Venezuela. At breakfast, Mom and Dad took me aft, and we ate apart from the rest of the group.
“We received your mom’s test results. The biopsy showed cancer,” Dad said.
I got up and hugged Mom.
“Are you going to be okay?” I asked.
“We found it early, and the doctors think I’m okay. I just need to keep an eye on it and get checked to make sure there isn’t any more,” she assured me.
“There are a few other things we need to tell you,” Dad said.
My punishment for teasing Ava had been Dad taking away my tablet and smartphone. What surprised me was I hadn’t missed them.
“I talked to Tami yesterday. What are you going to do about Alan?” Mom asked.
“I plan to tell Lisa and encourage her to tell the school.”
Mom and Dad looked at each other, and that seemed to be along the lines of what they were thinking. Then Mom pulled out my tablet and handed it to me.
“Yesterday’s paper had an article about Brandon,” she said.
I found the link to the article and began to read.
Campus Serial Rapist Kept Notebooks
Prosecutors said this week that investigators executing a search warrant found several notebooks kept by Brandon Rigby in which he listed what he’d done and planned to do.
In fact, the police found more than 20 notebooks believed to be written by Rigby. In them, he identified potential victims and, shockingly, wrote in detail about how he planned to groom or stalk them. Rigby even added a column in which he wrote precisely what he intended, or at least desired, to do to each woman listed in the notebook.
“These journals mapped out in graphic detail the heinous acts Mr. Rigby committed and had planned,” Detective Phil Cerrito said. “The entries include a number of disturbing comments. Among those are the word ‘kill’ and detailed descriptions of sexual acts.”
The charges so far against Rigby are said to include 11 counts of felony sexual assault and at least 15 misdemeanor sexual assault counts. There are also two counts of false imprisonment, and one of strangulation. Additional charges are expected to be filed.
Rigby’s many alleged assaults appear to have started four years ago. He became more and more aggressive as he continued his crimes, prosecutors said. He started off with misdemeanor assaults, which included groping women in a dance class he was taking at the time, the prosecutors explained.
In a strange turn of events, it appears Rigby worked for actor David A. Dawson and allegedly drugged two of Dawson’s friends and raped one of them. Mr. Dawson was unavailable for comment.
Mr. Rigby’s attorneys have offered as examples the rape accusations made in 2006 against the Duke University lacrosse team and made in 2014 against a University of Virginia fraternity. They noted that in both those cases, the rape charges, when investigated, were not substantiated. Rigby’s lawyers likened the allegations against their client to those charges. They further stated that these, too, will be proven in court to be unsupported. Detective Cerrito observed that there is one significant difference in this case when compared to the Duke and UVA charges. Unlike those cases, police possess DNA evidence tying Rigby and his two codefendants to the crimes.
“Frick,” I hissed.
“Tami’s okay with it, and she said Detective Kitchens was nice enough to give her a heads-up that the article would be going out. He was sorry your name was thrown in, but it was bound to happen. Frank put out a statement that you can’t comment on an ongoing investigation and referred them to the police for comment,” Mom said.
“While I’m glad they’ve added to his charges, I’d hoped my name wouldn’t get mentioned. I really didn’t want Tami to have to deal with this.”
“She’s fine,” Mom repeated.
Then she handed me my phone. I scrolled through my phone and saw the usual suspects had called or sent me a text. The one that caught my eye was Yuri. I decided to call him first.
“I see you called.”
“Good, I needed to tell you before you hear it from someone else. Justin and I fought after the game on Saturday. He smarted off about Jan again, and I couldn’t let it go.”
“Did you get suspended?” I asked.
“No. We didn’t do it on school grounds. Moose found out, though, and kicked us off the team.”
“He warned you,” I said.
“Yeah, we knew what would happen if he found out. I’ll just play seven-on-seven football. Justin screwed the pooch because of all the baseball scouts that’ll be coming to our games. He wants to play either minor league or college ball,” Yuri said.
“Did you at least kick Justin’s ass?” I asked the obvious.
“Yeah, I knocked him down a couple of times before he apologized.”
I’d wanted to kick Justin’s ass since middle school and was a little jealous that Yuri got to do it.
“No one got hurt, did they?”
“No. He has a black eye, but nothing permanent.”
“Good.”
“How’s your vacation going?” Yuri asked.
“It’s exactly what I needed. It’s been a lot of fun, and I love all the islands. Speaking of which, I need to get back to it. See you at school.”
I saw that both Tracy and Pam had called and figured I’d better call my baby mama first.
“Why didn’t you call me sooner?” Pam pouted.
“My mom took my phone away. What’s up?” I asked.
“I need you to come home. My back hurts, and my feet ache,” she complained.
“Hang on,” I said, and three-wayed in my brother.
“Hey, Pam’s on the line with us,” I told Greg.
“Okay,” was my brother’s brilliant response.
“She needs a massage, and I was hoping you’d be able to work her in today.”
“Yeah, no problem. You’re paying in babysitting services, I hope.”
“Of course. Did you talk to Mom?” I asked.
“No, why?” Greg asked.
“She had some skin cancer removed last Friday. They say she’s fine, but you should call her,” I said.