Oceans 18

By Beata Bagi

Ela Klarich is having a hard time coming to terms with her husband's death. She quits her job of 20 years as a forensic psychologist in Naples, Florida and seeks an escape from the memories of her late husband by going to her native country, Croatia. Her island home is in the picturesque village of Mirna, where she, her husband, and her daughter used to spend their summers. Ela passes the time by painting the natural beauty of the Adriatic island as well as mingling with her friends and the locals of the small island town.

Her daughter, Gabriela, soon arrives to visit her from Boston before her classes start again in the fall. On a whim, Gabriela's childhood best friend, Megan, decides to visit as Ela practically raised her as her own. What was supposed to be a beautiful reunion of these women turns into a nightmare when Megan is found dead floating in the small town's marina after a night out in the local club. The girl's accidental drowning rocks the small village and only adds to the despair of Ela's life.

Upon returning to America for Megan's funeral, doubts about her death rise to the surface. Megan quit her job without telling anyone. A strange man came to her funeral. Megan swam competitively her entire life. Megan's desperate mother refuses to believe her daughter drowned and begs Ela to try to find out what really happened that fateful night. As Ela begins to ask questions, the real story begins to unravel and Ela's life becomes increasingly threatened. Persistent and determined to find the truth about the young girl's death, Ela discovers that the answer lies in Naples' most popular restaurant: Oceans 18.
Everything led Ela to believe that Megan was murdered by her ex-boyfriend /owner of "Oceans 18", Daniel Garcia, and the story untangles when someone tried to run Ela with a car.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: Jul 13, 2023
• ISBN: 9798350912722

Book preview

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For Luka and Isabela

for whom my love is never ending,

and for Mary

who believed in me even

when I didn’t.

Contents

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Coming soon:

Oceans 18

© Beata Bagi

All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

Print ISBN 979-8-35091-271-5

eBook ISBN 979-8-35091-272-2

She was standing on the deck of the yacht, smiling and thinking that she had never set foot on such a luxurious ship before. Music and laughter could be heard from a nearby catamaran.

The waterfront was empty and only now and then a group of cheerful, likely drunk, twentysomething-year-old tourists stumbled back, laughing while shoving each other into sailboats.

Yacht Week was in full swing.

The church across from her suddenly illuminated in the moonlight. She looked up at the sky, where the moon was emerging from the clouds. She wondered if she was imagining it or if everything really looked this magical tonight.

Pain suddenly flashed white before her eyes as she felt a blow to the back of her head. And then she felt hands pushing her over the rail of the yacht.

She fell into the dark water. She wanted to take a breath, but instead of air, she was swallowing water. She tried to swim, but her arms did not listen to her, as if they weren’t hers. And then darkness enveloped her.

Above her, the moon now fully emerged from the clouds. Music was still coming from the nearby sailing ships. A new group of young people were singing and returning to their sailboats.

But no one noticed her lifeless body floating on the surface of the sea, embraced by the moonlight.

1

G ood morning, my love.

Ela smiled happily and opened her eyes. The first thing she saw was white curtains swaying gently in front of the open window. As sleep slowly left her, she noticed small grains of dust dancing in the sun’s rays and appearing like grains of gold. With a happy smile on her face, Ela turned to Noah. However, the pillow next to her was empty, and half of the bed was untouched. Noah was not next to her!

Ela noticed that everything around her was shrouded in silence. The sounds of the church bell coming through the window made the house even quieter and emptier. And then her memories completely dispelled the dream and Ela faced reality. It was just a dream. Noah was dead. Ela closed her eyes, waiting for the spasm of sadness, the pain that spread from her chest throughout her body to subside. She was alone. Her world had collapsed and she had to build a new life on the ruins of the old one.

When she thought she had gathered the strength to face the new day, she got up and went to the kitchen to make coffee. After the small espresso machine had finished its noisy operation, she took her cup of coffee and sat on the balcony.

Around her, her favorite birds, swallows, were flying about the sky. Who knew if they were hunting for breakfast or just celebrating a new morning by fluttering and dancing through the sky?

Ela looked toward the sea. The blue hues of the sea and the white sails always had the magical power to warm her heart. The noise of the boat’s engine in the distance let her know that old Duje had gone fishing in his boat, which was probably not much younger than him. She directed her gaze and saw Duje’s blue boat, slowly but surely sailing out of the harbor. Her thoughts wandered to the past, to memories of Noah and their first meeting.

It all began almost a quarter of a century ago when she was visiting her cousin Marija in America, in the city of New Haven, Connecticut. The prior year Ela lost her parents in a car accident. Overwhelmed by the pain of that loss, she barely managed to finish her third year of college. When Marija invited her to be her guest, going to America for a few months seemed to Ela like a welcome escape from Zagreb and the sadness that had been weighing on her for the last year.

Since childhood, her cousin Marija Matić preferred to spend her time reading books. She graduated from high school with an excellent grade point average, and then went on to the Faculty of Philosophy in Zagreb, where she studied anthropology at the department of cultural anthropology. Of course, she was declared the best student. After completing her master’s degree, she received a Fulbright Scholarship and ventured to Yale University in New Haven, to prepare her doctorate. Marija never particularly cared about her appearance. Tall, thin and slim, she felt ridiculous in dresses, so she spent most of her time in jeans and shirts. After her arrival at Yale, the first thing she bought was five T-shirts with the Yale University emblem. She concluded that, as long as she donned one of these T-shirts, no one would be able to object to her choice of wardrobe. Her short brown hair and glasses with thick black frames that hid her beautiful hazel eyes seemed to loudly send a message to everyone: I am a bookworm. And that’s exactly what she wanted. She decided a long time ago that she had no time for a private life and that all she wanted to do was immerse herself into anthropology, travel the world and study different cultures, and explore and compare different lifestyles in distant places and societies.

Marija had always loved her younger cousin Ela. When she heard about the death of Ela’s parents, she decided to invite her to spend the summer with her in New Haven. Although she lived in a modest apartment near the university, she was convinced that she and Ela would get along well and could share a flat without any problems. She hoped that staying in America, far from Zagreb and a life that surely was full of painful memories of her parents, would help Ela recover from the loss, at least for a while.

Ela spent her days in New Haven reading books at the local bookstore, Atticus, where they served coffee and food along with the books. In the late afternoons, when Marija would come home from the university library, the two of them would visit galleries, go to the movies, or ride bikes in nearby parks. On the weekends, they would go to New York to visit museums or drive to the beaches in the neighboring state of Rhode Island. One such late afternoon, they rode their bikes to the ocean. Summer in Connecticut with all that ocean humidity isn’t the most pleasant, so Ela found nothing more relaxing than racing on a bicycle while the wind tousled her hair and cooled her body. Suddenly, a dog appeared in front of her. Trying to avoid colliding with the dog, she grabbed both hand brakes on the bike and flew to the sidewalk as if thrown by a catapult. The dog was gone, but Ela could barely pull herself into an upright position. Her shoulder and elbow ached with pain and forced Ela to remain on the ground. Marija panicked and called an ambulance, which took Ela to Yale Hospital. They placed her in a small room, where she waited for someone to come and examine her. The gray walls of that small room and the gray curtain that was hung there instead of a door caused her to fill with anxiety. The feeling of loneliness, which she fought against every day in that foreign country, suddenly became unbearable. And then the anxiety was replaced by anger.

Why? What wrong did I do in my life so troubles always follow me? What irresponsible person lets their dog run loose in the street?

As a storm of feelings swirled inside her, the curtain moved and a young doctor entered the room. He started to say something but Ela, lost in her thoughts, did not understand him. She looked up and focused on his name on the tag attached to his white coat: Noah Klarich.

Klarić. Are you from Croatia? she asked him.

The young doctor answered in English: Yes, my name is Noah Klarich. My grandfather is from Croatia, but unfortunately I don’t speak Croatian.

The anger she still felt found a target at hand.

"If your grandfather was a Croat, then your surname is Klarić, and not Klarich. And what do you need those letters h for? Noah, Klarich. If you are a Croat by origin, then you are Noa Klarić."

The doctor smiled charmingly and replied: It seems that I will have to scold my parents, who wrote my name wrong on the birth certificate. But let’s see about your injuries.

Ela felt ashamed. Instead of apologizing, she closed her eyes and wordlessly cooperated in the examination.

Fortunately, she hadn’t broken anything, but for the next three weeks she had to wear a sling to immobilize her arm until the swelling and pain subsided. That meant no more bike rides. To Ela this wasn’t too big of a loss because her desire to bike ride was gone after meeting that dog, which disappeared, probably hunting other cyclists.

As before, she spent her time reading books in Atticus or in the university parks. One such morning while she was raptly leafing through a book illustrated with reproductions of her favorite impressionist painters, she heard a man’s voice.

I’m glad you’re listening to your doctor and wearing a sling.

She looked up and saw beautiful brown eyes on a handsome male face. Dark, short-cropped hair, a straight nose, full lips around which an early beard could be seen, giving that part of his face a bluish tint. After a few seconds, she recognized the young doctor from the emergency department. How come she didn’t notice how handsome he was that day in the hospital? Noah was standing next to her table and, seeing that she was watching him, decided to break the silence: Let me remind you, a doctor who can neither pronounce nor write his name correctly.

Yes, I remember you. I must apologize, I was quite rude that day.

No problem. It could have been worse. I have patients who call me all sorts of derogatory names.

After a few minutes of conversation, Dr. Noah Klarich left her to her impressionists, who suddenly weren’t so interesting anymore. Ela asked herself again: Where was I looking that evening that I didn’t notice how handsome Dr. Klarić was? Forget George Clooney!

It seemed that Noah was also charmed by Ela because after their chance meeting in Atticus Noah appeared there almost every day. Not long after, he and Ela became inseparable and remained inseparable until the day of Ela’s return to Zagreb. While they were saying goodbye at the airport, Noah promised that he would come to Zagreb for Christmas.

But he lied.

He came to Zagreb only a month after they said their goodbyes and when she opened the door to her parents’ apartment, which was now her lonely home, Noah hugged her tightly and said,

Ela, every day without you is empty. I want you with me forever.

They got married the following year, a week after Ela graduated with her degree in psychology from the University of Zagreb.

She left Zagreb with a heavy heart, but her love for Noah was stronger. They started their life together in Connecticut. After a year, their happiness was enriched by the birth of Gabriela. Not long after that, Noah received a job offer as head of an orthopedic clinic in Naples, Florida, and the three of them headed to warm, sunny Florida.

She was awakened from her many memories by the loud sound of the engine of the old fishing boat. Duje was coming back from fishing. Now, according to his tradition, he would tie the boat to the quay and go for coffee at the nearby coffee shop. Sometimes he would come back with a fish in the boat, but most of the time there was no sign of fish. Ela was convinced that Duje was not even trying to catch fish, but instead heading out to sea to say good morning to the sea and the sun, and to remember the days when he was young and the sea was full of fish.

Ela rose, took her empty cup and walked toward the kitchen. Our love was meant to last forever, she thought. Twenty-four years was too short of a forever.

2

She spent the rest of the morning painting with oil on canvas in her small studio in the attic of the house.

Ela had always wanted to be a painter. Despite this, she did not enroll in the art academy. Her father, although he supported her love for painting, explained to her in a logical way that the chances of her making a good living painting were minimal. Painting, although it would certainly fill her soul, would most likely not fill the refrigerator with food. Therefore, she decided to find a career that would ensure her livelihood, and if she was lucky, her salary would be enough to set aside part of it to buy painting accessories and canvases.

She thought how ironic it was: Now that I don’t have to worry about my subsistence and I can buy all the painting equipment I want, I would give up everything to have Noah with me.

This morning, as always, Ela was painting and listening to the internet radio. The sweet voice of Carla Bruni was coming out of her