Spy in a Little Black Dress - By Maxine Kenneth Page 0,101

around Gabriela’s neck—a silver locket; no, a half of a silver locket. She couldn’t believe it. That jagged shape was unmistakable. With an excitement she could barely contain, Jackie reached into her pocket and withdrew the other half of the silver locket from the envelope. She presented it to Gabriela and said, “This is the only piece of jewelry we found in Walker’s sea chest. Does it look familiar to you?”

She held it up to Gabriela, whose mouth and eyes opened wide in amazement. “My locket,” she said. She removed the half locket from around her neck and tried to mate it with the other half Jackie had given her. They made a perfect fit. The locket was now whole again.

Gabriela looked up at Jackie. “But what does this mean?” she asked with the wondering voice of a child.

Jackie worked it out in her head. “It means that you are the great-great-great-granddaughter of William Walker and Maria Consuela. This locket was a gift from William Walker to his mistress, Maria Consuela Garcia, a former convent novitiate. She and a solder named Metzger escaped to Cuba in 1857. She was pregnant at the time and gave birth here, in Oriente Province, to your great-great-grandmother. This locket was obviously handed down from generation to generation until your mother gave it to you. But she died before she could explain the significance of it. Here’s the birth certificate we found along with the half locket.”

Jackie handed the document over to Gabriela, who looked it over with tears in her eyes.

“Yes,” agreed Emiliano, equally dumbfounded by Jackie’s discovery. “The blood of liberators flows in your veins. Being a part of this revolution is a role you were destined to play.”

Jackie said, “I have a diary left behind by Metzger. It will explain everything. When I return home, I will figure out a way to get it to you.”

All this information was too much for Gabriela. She collapsed in the sand, as though the weight of her heritage was suddenly too much for her to bear. She looked up at Jackie and Emiliano and said, “But all I ever wanted to be was a dancer.”

Emiliano looked down at her and said, “It looks like history has other plans for you.”

He helped Gabriela to her feet. She still looked shaken by this unexpected revelation. She held the two halves of the locket in her hands, anxious not to let go of them. The three of them stood there in silence, none of them knowing what to say. Their tableau was suddenly illuminated by a beam of light aimed at them from the water. Instinctively, the trio hit the sand, trying to make themselves invisible on the beach.

There was the sound of twin motors as a boat entered the pirate inlet. Jackie and the others could not see if it was a Cuban patrol boat or perhaps a fishing boat that had gone astray. Finally, a familiar-sounding voice called out to them. “Emiliano, are you there?”

“It’s him,” Emiliano said, jumping up. To the boat, he called out, “Yes, we’re here.”

The boat dropped anchor in the inlet. There was a splashing sound as someone from the vessel jumped into the shallow water and waded through the surf to the shore. In the moonlight, Jackie could make out the outline of a beefy, bearded man in a long-billed fishing cap.

“Your water taxi awaits, señorita,” Ernest Hemingway said.

XXIII

The most famous living writer in America waited nearby, visibly impatient, as Jackie said her good-byes to Emiliano and Gabriela by the shoreline. The young Cuban woman hugged Jackie, holding her so tight that Jackie felt like she might break in two—or was that just the emotion she was feeling? Tears in her eyes, Gabriela said, “I was an orphan for so long. I barely remember my parents. And now you have restored my family to me. I will be forever in your debt.”

Jackie found herself too moved to speak.

After a kiss on both cheeks, Gabriela moved to one side, and Emiliano took her place. “Do you remember what you told me in the truck after we left Havana?” he asked Jackie.

She looked at him, mystified.

“You said one person is more important than a single cause. Do you recall?”

She nodded.

“I think you might have been right.”

Jackie looked at him closely. “And what made you change your mind?”

“Let’s just say one brave woman’s act of self-sacrifice,” he answered with a little smile.

Well, Jackie thought, once again Emiliano had managed to surprise her. Maybe there