A Long Time from Home Pt. 02 Ch. 03

Somehow the thoughts must have shown on my face because she stopped in the middle of a sentence, took a long look at me and blushed as she asked. "What're you thinking?"

"You really don't want to know." I stated calmly.

"Yes, I do!"

"Remember, that you were warned." I said as I held her gaze.

She blushed a bit more but nodded.

Leaning forward in the seat to get nearer to her, I started to speak in a low voice that couldn't be heard at the next table. "I was thinking that you turn me on, because besides being very sexy and good looking, you're obviously very passionate and I wondered if you were just as passionate in bed as you are when you talk about your job." I leaned back in the chair again and drank some cider, watching her blush even more. Then I added. "Too bad that you're most likely married, and I don't..."

"I'm not married." She interrupted me quickly and then giggled when I nodded towards the ring on her finger. "Oh that. I just wear it when I go dancing with my friends, so I don't have too many men trying to seduce me." The smile widened a bit as she added. "I don't even have a boyfriend."

"Well, that explains why the bartender called you Miss Delgado and not Mrs."

"Yes." There was a pause and then she asked. "What about you, Ivan? Any wife or girl friends back home?"

"No and I'm not looking for one either. I travel too much for that to work out."

"Oh... Work related travel?"

I nodded. "Yes. I work with quality control in a large corporation, so I get to travel a lot."

Her large brown eyes regarded me speculatively and I reminded myself that there was a very sharp mind behind those soft brown eyes.

"So which hotel have you chosen to stay at?" She finally asked.

"Hotel Presidente." I told her, making her lift her eyebrows a fraction. Hotel Presidente was a luxury hotel located nearby in the middle of San Jose. "It's a very nice hotel, I have to say."

"Yes, it's a very beautiful building." She chuckled. "At least from the outside. I don't think I've ever been there. I own a house here, so there's really no reason to visit the hotels... though Hotel Presidente has an excellent rooftop restaurant and café, as far as I hear."

"Yes, it's beautiful." I said with a small nod and thought for a moment. "If you're hungry, or in the mood for a snack, we could go there and grab a bite to eat when we're done with the drinks here."

"That sounds good." She said with a smile. "I would like that."

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So, we enjoyed a good snack in the rooftop restaurant while enjoying the view over the city. Even the conversation was interesting, as Gabriella talked about her work with the humanitarian organizations in general and especially orphanages, dropping titbits of information about her personal life in between the other stories.

"I must bore you with all that talk about my work." She suddenly said with a little laugh.

Shaking my head, I smiled at her. "No, it's quite interesting and you do tell a little about yourself."

"Like what?" She asked, almost challenging.

"Well, you live here in San Jose, but you're originally from Liberia, where the rest of your family, including your younger sister, lives. You're educated at the University of Costa Rica, which is why you moved here in the first place." I drank some of my chilled cider. "You work part time at a high paying job because that allows you to do humanitarian work as well. You like beer, but dislike being drunk." I smiled at her increasingly surprised facial expression. "You like the colour pink, but dislike brown, at least for clothes, and you like living on your own and are not looking for a husband."

"Wow." She said after a moment of silence. "You're good at extracting information."

"Thank you."

"What did you say your job was?"

I leaned back in the seat as I studied her. For some reason, the spike of lust I had felt from her had lessened while she had spoken about her work with the humanitarian organization. I guessed that she had seen things and heard stories our conversation had caused her to remember, which in turn had lessened her lust. It was also likely to linger in her mind, making any attempts of seduction an unwise move.

"Quality control, but the corporation I work for also has a charity and since I travel around a lot, I work for them as well, finding various projects that could need some help."

"Seriously? Normally people must apply to get help." She drank from the glass. "Trust me, I've sent more applications to charities than I care to remember. Mostly for nothing."

"They know." I said drily. "That's why they asked me to keep an eye out for worthy projects."

Learning forward and with hope in her voice, she asked. "Do they deal with orphanages by any chance?"

"Yes, but mostly in Africa and India." I told her. "I know that they have considered helping trafficked and exploited children from around the world, but apparently there are problems with that, as the police tend to send the children home before their treatment is finished... and from time to time, the children return home to the people who sold them in the first place."

Gabriella nodded with a sigh. "Yes, that happens more often than I like to think about."

"So, they don't want to get involved before they have a place where the children can be safeguarded until they can either return home or, if the danger to the child is at home, to a new home." I said, throwing the bait.

"Which is a problem, because it's against the law not to report a kidnapping."

I hadn't known that, but it made sense. "Exactly."

She was silent, drinking from the glass again to buy time, and then said. "It can be done, you know."

I raised my eyebrows. "Oh. How?"

"Well, it's not entirely legal, but trick is to make it a boarding school and not an orphanage." She said, a little smile playing on her lips.

I tilted my head a bit. "Why do I feel like you have done this in the past to help a child?"

Gabriella shook her head. "I haven't, but I've heard about it. Doing it that way will take some creative work with the official papers, but as far as I know, it's the only way to do it without outright breaking the law." She paused and added. "Provided that the laws about the care of children aren't broken."

I shrugged. "As far as I know, they just want to make sure the kids are given good healthcare and a chance to be guided back to normal, before they move on."

"A noble cause." She said, clearly thinking. "Are they prepared for a long-term investment?"

"Yes."

That made her smile. "Good, because that is what it's going to take. Running an orphanage costs a lot of money. Around five thousand American dollars per month for each orphanage with room for twenty-five children to be precise." The smile disappeared again. "It's expensive and getting money for more orphanages is very time consuming."

The talk about more orphanages surprised me somewhat. I haven't had time to research it, but on the surface, Costa Rica seemed to be a modern place, making the orphanages Gabriella helped run enough for the whole country. "Really? I wouldn't have thought that it was a big problem here."

Gabriella snorted. "Trust me, it is. There are more than twenty thousand orphans here and that is not a lot compared to the other countries in this part of the world."

I was silent for a moment as I did a quick calculation in my head. Sixty thousand dollars might be a lot for a humanitarian organization but compared to the amount of money Parker had stashed away, it was next to nothing.

"I'll make you a deal." I said slowly. "If you help the foundation with the legal side of their 'boarding school', I will make sure they finance not one, but two other orphanages for at least ten years."

That got her to raise her eyebrows. "Can you do that?"

"Yes... or at least I can make sure that there will be a bank account, from which five thousand dollars are paid each month to two orphanages of your choice."

"I'll have to require that all the money are there from the start." She said after having thought for a moment. "Just to make sure the funding doesn't suddenly disappear, and the interest earned on the money should cancel out the inflation."

"That is fair," I said. "Do we have an agreement?"

"We do." Said Gabriella with a wide smile and a slight nod. "Ivan, if this goes through, I'll be so happy that I can't even explain it."

I glanced at my watch. "Well, it's too late to make calls now, but I can do it tomorrow morning and hear what they say."

"That would be wonderful." She exhaled, but then frowned. "Damn. I'm going home for a family reunion tomorrow and won't return until Monday. Can you call me or send me an email?"

"Sure. Then we can meet again at a later date." I said with a slight smile.

Gabriella lifted her eyebrows in surprise. "You're leaving now?"

"No, no, but to be honest, if I seduce you now, it'll feel like I had made a promise to get you in a better mood and I don't know what the people at the foundation will say to this, so despite you being an extremely sexy and passionate woman, I'll take my chances some other time." I said calmly.

Her mouth dropped open in disbelief for a moment, but then she started to laugh. I waited patiently, while drinking my cider, until the laughter died out a little.

"That's the most honest declaration of intent I've ever heard." She told me, tears of laughter in her eyes. "And it's refreshing as well as true." Reaching over the table, she lay a hand on mine. "Thank you for saying it."

Taking a hand, I gave it a quick kiss, smiling a little as the touch of my lips sent a shiver through her. "Well, I didn't want you to think that I'm not attracted to you. Now is just not the time to act on it."

"As I said, it's a refreshing experience." She smiled at me. "I have no idea what to say to this, so let's return to talk about the boarding school. As far as I know, there are no vacant boarding schools here in Costa Rica your foundation can acquire, so may I suggest an empty hotel?"

I hid a smile as she reached the same conclusion as Esther and I had arrived at. "Sounds like a good suggestion. Do you have a good real estate broker you can recommend?"

"Yes." She said without hesitation. "Rosie Astaphan. She's a specialist in selling hotels and as an old friend of mine, I trust her."

"Considering that you look like you're twenty-five, you cannot be a day older than thirty, so she can't be that old a friend." I said drily, causing her to blush a little. "But I'll take your word for it."

The rest of the evening was delightful, as we ate, drank a little and talked for a few hours more, before Gabriella had to get home, so she could get up in the morning.

I wished her a good trip and got a kiss in return, before she jumped into a cap and went home.

Smiling to myself, I walked to my room to get some sleep. I would call her to tell that the deal had gone through in a few days and with that the first step in setting up a place for the children was done, enabling us to start on the rest.

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Searching for a hotel

Start of August 2000, Costa Rica

To save time, Esther contacted Gabriella Delgado to take care of the legal side while the rest of the women did the research on the places where the abducted children were being held, and I went looking for a place where they could live with the help of Rosie Astaphan.

Based in the capitol of San Jose, Rosie Astaphan was a specialist in selling hotels just as Gabriella Delgado had said, and she was the reason I was sitting outside a small café in Limon on the Caribbean side of Costa Rica, drinking a cold drink, while waiting for her to show up. During the last week, she had already shown me four hotels, none of which was what I had in mind for the orphanage or 'Boarding school'.

A familiar figure coming closer made me look to my right and discovered Rosie Astaphan walking towards the café. Like many other people here, Rosie Astaphan was a mix of Latin and African descent resulting in a lovely dark brown skin colour, long wavy black hair that was pulled back in a ponytail, and a bright white smile, which she used to full effect as soon as she saw me.

Smiling back, I waved her over and enjoyed the sight of her as she came closer. Her lightly coloured sleeveless summer dress waved delightfully around brown legs, while being tight enough to show full hips and an ample bosom. In short, she was a pretty sight to behold.

As I gestured toward the chair opposite me, she sat down. "Hello again, Mr. Emilian. I hope you have had a good day."

"It's becoming better by the moment, now that I have you to look at." I said with a smile. "I guess that you have some hotels for me to consider?"

She nodded with a smile and took off her sunglasses. "Only one today... and please stop flirting... As I have said often enough, I have daughters that are old enough to marry you."

Since she was lovely, fun, intelligent and a widow, I had flirted with her from the moment we met and over the last few days, it had become sort of a game. I would flirt; she would protest and flirt right back, clearly enjoying it.

Winking at her, I said. "That may be true, but I'm not interested in your daughters."

"Take care or I might think that you mean it." She smiled and placed a folder on the table. "I have a property for you to look at. It's brand new on the market, so I think it would be a good idea to see it as soon as possible. Preferably today."

"Good. Would you like something to drink, while we talk it over?"

"Some cold juice would be nice."

I waved a waiter over and ordered two glasses of fresh orange juice.

The main problem with finding a hotel was privacy. Many of the hotels Rosie had presented me with were placed in tourist areas with easy access to the beach, but very little privacy and I didn't want that. Protecting the kids would be much more difficult in such a terrain, whereas the hotels further inland were less accessible.

The orange juice arrived, and I toasted Rosie. "Nice... Now tell me about the hotel."

"It's perfect. Just what you want." She said as she placed the glass on the table. "Located on a hill, it was part of an old plantation, before it was turned into an eco-tourism and spa hotel called Vista Verde nine years ago."

She glanced at the folder but didn't open it. "It has twenty suites for guests and a separate building for the staff and everything else needed. Aside from the BBQ grills, there's a huge and beautiful dining area, a conference centre that can be used for education, and a nice spa area with a Roman bath and a sauna. There're also buildings for yoga, fitness, and other physical activities. Since it's located near the mountains and not by the beach, it still has the old stables with room enough to hold twenty horses."

She stopped and from my experiences with her, that meant that she was about to give some information that she didn't think I would like. "And the downside?"

"The area is huge." Rosie said matter-of-factly. "All in all, it's 154-acre of land, with 3 1/4 acres of garden and there's even four cottages there, with their own kitchens and baths."

I was silent while I processed the information, causing Rosie to add. "The last downside is that the main house might have to be totally renovated before it can be used."

The hesitation in her voice made me lift an eyebrow at her. "And why is that?"

Rosie grimaced, but then shrugged. "Last year, Vista Verde was closed during the rainy season for renovations of the stables and outbuildings. During that time, the previous owner died from a stroke, and nobody noticed, so he lay dead in the main house for months before he was found. To be honest it stinks and while a few of the contractors I've talked with, think that it can be cleaned, most think that you'll have to renovate most of the house before the smell disappears... which could be quite expensive."

"So why would I want to buy a house that smells of death?"

"Because even if it needs a renovation, it's a steal. Seriously, at this price you'll only be paying for the land and get the rest for free... Especially since the family wants money more than they want the property, where their father died."

Put that way, it sounded like a good deal. "Fair enough... Let's go look at it."

We left the restaurant, got into her car, and drove to the property, which to my surprise was in the hills near Villa Bonita. It was a good start and it got even better. As Rosie had told me, the house looked perfect from the outside at least, but her statement about it being an old plantation house couldn't be true, as it looked a lot newer than that.

"Are you sure about the building date on this?" I asked when we stood beside the pool in the immaculate garden and looked at the house.

"As far as the lower levels go, the answer is yes." She said with another of her charming smiles and briefly consulted her folder, before looking at me. "The upper level is a new construction made to look like the lower level, but instead of stone it's made from concrete and steel. The roof is made from cedar shingles with a rubber coating beneath it and the whole house is hurricane proof in the unlikely event it's ever hit by one. There's even an emergency generator that kicks in automatically if the power to the hotel fails."

"Can we go inside and take a look?"

"Yes, but you'll have to go alone." She sighed. "I'm sorry, but I can't take that smell."

Rosie switched off the security system and opened the door for me, but didn't come along, as I walked inside. The smell of death hit me like a slap in the face. It wasn't as bad as some of my experiences in ancient times, but it was the kind of smell that would stick to everything it came into contact with and I could understand why most people thought that you might as well tear it down and build something new.

I took a quick tour of the house, breathing through my mouth the whole way. If you ignored the smell of death that seemed to penetrate the whole house, it was beautiful.

The floors downstairs were the same kind of tiles, that had been in the house in Spain, while the upstairs room had floors made of dark brown wood. Throughout the whole house, the brightly coloured walls reflected the colours chosen for the furniture in the room and it was all done with excellent taste and finesse. That there was an outstanding view of the surrounding landscape from most of the upper floor windows didn't hurt either. Besides the smell, I loved the place, and it was exactly what I had been looking for.

I walked out to tell Rosie the good news, but as I came out, she immediately covered her nose and mouth with her hand and backed away. "Sorry, Mr. Emilian, but you really stink."

Taking a sniff at myself, I agreed. The smell of death clung to me like a very bad perfume. It wasn't only my clothes that stank, but also my skin and hair.

"That can be fixed." I said with a grin and emptied my pockets, placing the things on the ground, before jumping feet first into the pool, clothes, and all.

The water was pleasantly warm and when I got my head above the surface again, I could see the stunned look at Rosie's face, which made me laugh.

Before she could say anything, I said, "Call the owners, Ms. Astaphan. Start with a bid of two thirds of the price they're asking, because that's going to take some work. If you think I smell bad, it's a lot worse inside."

Rosie blinked a few times, but then smiled and nodded. "They know. They have been here."

"Good. So, call them, while I try to get the smell to go away."

She nodded again, took a cell phone and made the call, turning around so I couldn't hear what she said. That she turned away also meant that she couldn't see what I was doing, so I used an Ars Mentalis trick to clean myself and the clothes, making the smell go away. Since I needed an excuse for not smelling any more, I took off the wet clothes and threw them on the tiles next to the pool and started washing all over.