What Happened In Paradise?

First Visit: WIC Investigate Our Own

Jess is still asleep hours after the sun has risen. Maxwell has no such luck. Guilt bubbles to the surface again. It’s as foul and persistent as the stench from the room across the hall. Not overpowering, not threatening to suffocate him as before, but it is strong, resolute, and won’t let him forget that it is there. If he had done more to repair the relationship with his mother before she disappeared, he wouldn’t be here. If he had repaired their relationship while she was still alive, he wouldn’t have dragged his friends on this nightmare vacation. His friends are paying for his desire to connect with the ghost of his mother.

What did he hope to find? Water Island may have forged Patricia, but it was Maxwell (Junior and Senior) who had made her who she was. She had always said as much. As with her riddles, Maxwell never put much stock in this revelation. He never felt close to his mother, never allowed himself to be close to his mother; he told himself that Water Island had some truth about her existence.

Maxwell is unsteady. He needs to move, scream, be anywhere but inside the room, inhaling the foul odour. He steals from the room, fearing his restlessness will awaken Jess. She needs to rest; he doesn’t know how to comfort her outside of giving her room to rest. He also wants to delay the conversation about leaving Brian and Stephanie. As hard as it was for him to see, there was a certain finality to Adam. As long as Brian and Stephanie are missing, there is hope that they are alive. He’s not prepared to leave Stephanie on this miserable island, but he can’t abandon Jess. He owes her because he has wronged her…He’s wronged all his friends. His guilt can’t simultaneously cover the missing and the present.

Deep in thought, Maxwell is at the bottom of the stone steps before he realizes what’s going on. Soldiers are walking to and from the back of the plantation house. There are also more jeeps in front. People clad from head to toe in white, slip-on booties, don gloves, then make their way to the back. So much care for a contaminated crime scene. He follows their lead. The section where Adam lay is taped off; Adam and the female soldier are no longer there.

“Where’s Adam?” Maxwell asks. All the soldiers slip by him, each hurrying at their task, none lending an ear to him. Why is he asking about Adam? Adam is no longer Adam; he’s a body that’s the centre of an investigation. They have taken it to be examined. Will Jess still want to leave without the body? Will she want to leave without Adam?

Maxwell takes out his phone. He keeps it charged out of habit. All it does is tell him the local time, but he tries again to make a call. He’s certain this investigation can’t be left up to Water Islanders…to WIC. He tries to make an international call: the same screech. His calls are never going to get through. Jess is right. They were doomed the moment they stepped foot on this island.

Maxwell tries another number.

“Get out! Get out! Get out now!” The line goes dead. That wasn’t a voicemail; that was definitely the driver. And his voice sounded urgent, demanding. Maxwell pockets the phone. It misses his pocket and falls to the ground. He picks it up. There's a diagonal c***k across the screen. Maxwell rushes to the room. Forget everyone and everything else. He and Jess will leave today, leave now.