James Locker: Detectives in A Trap

Chapter 11 An Unpleasant Phone Call

Miranda DiMaestro finished the phone call and tried shaking of the discomfort it had caused her. It was 10PM when a rude drunken person calling on the intercom, claiming to be a police detective requesting to talk with Antonio DiMaestro. Miranda had told him that Antonio DiMaestro had been away for five weeks conducting business with his import-export company. The person had spit out some curses over the intercom, and she had seen no option but to contact the home security company. The security guards arrived ten minutes later just to make sure that the drunken man who had offended Miranda wasn’t lingering in the neighbourhood.

Once the guards left, Miranda felt relieved and happy knowing that she would finally see Antonio DiMaestro tonight. She had offered to meet him at the airport, but he had declined the offer stating he had to take care of business first, and it would be a great pleasure for him to come home to enjoy her to the full extent of her beauty.

Miranda watched herself in the mirror and smiled as she indeed was beautiful. Unfortunately, her beauty had not given her the happiness she wanted from life yet. Working as a barmaid in Bogota she had not lived a very glamorous life, and she never felt safe in her home city. Miranda had been excited when Antonio DiMaestro first started courting her, and she was over the moon when he married her on her 20th birthday, two years earlier. She had felt thrilled at first in Sydney living in his mansion, but after a while, her unhappiness had returned. When they first met, Miranda had believed Antonio when he said he was a legitimate businessman doing exports/imports with Australia. After all, the market for canned kangaroo meat was booming in Colombia, and the reason he was hiring Colombians on working visas in Sydney was that many customers preferred conducting business with people from their own culture. Since there was a large group of South Americans in Sydney, it made sense to have a construction company by South Americans for South Americans. But after a while, the façade fell apart. Miranda was no dimwit, and she realised that a legitimate businessman did not store hundreds of thousands of dollars cash at his home. Furthermore, all the secrecy seemed utterly unnecessary for the kind of business he was supposedly doing.

There were also other factors about their relationship that made Miranda unhappy, but Antonio being 18 years older than her was not one of them. On the contrary, she found it very attractive that he had experienced so much more than her and had so many stories to tell and so much to teach her. No, what bothered her was his lack of presence both when he was physically missing due to long “business trips” but also the lack of presence she felt when he was with her. It seemed to her that he had lost most of his interest in her once they got married and that he nowadays merely saw her as a possession to use as he pleased. Although there were days when he proved her wrong, these days were too few to change her general impression.

The worst part about Antonio was his jealous and controlling nature. Miranda had felt very relieved when he told her that he wanted to bring her to Australia to be his housewife the Mosman Mansion. After all, being a beautiful woman working in a bar in Bogota was not easy with all the overconfident and arrogant cokeheads hanging around. But after a while in Australia, Miranda had started to feel frustrated just passing the time, not carrying her own weight and always being dependent on her husband's money. Keeping her off the work market was Antonio’s way of keeping track of her, but Miranda had not rebelled against his attitude. It was not fear that had made her not bringing it up but rather a feeling of a debt of gratitude towards him. After all, he had improved her life a lot compared to how it had been before and the last thing she wanted, was to let him down. She received a text from Antonio DiMaestro “I will be home in an hour, words can’t describe how much I have missed you these last five weeks, you are my Venus, my only love, my everything kisses Antonio” Miranda smiled to herself. Tonight would be a night to enjoy and she could worry about the future later.

Miranda prepared the romantic surprise that she had made for her husband. The time was reaching midnight.