The Send Offs | 5

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her husband, if he wanted to come. And he said, no, I'm kind of tired, but I'll be waiting for.

you at home. Don't worry about it. The taxi pulls up outside her house. Maria's forgotten her keys again. But anyway, no problem.

I'm knocking the door and I'm calling him, and he doesn't answer. She's making so much noise.

Frank surely would have heard her. It's unlike him to go out without telling her.

And I began to feel kind of worried about it. Maria walks around to the back of the house.

A stroke of luck. Her daughter's bedroom windows open. So she climbs in and walks through to the dining room. And that's when she sees him. On the floor, hands bound at the wrist, mouth gagged,

and his shirt soaked with blood. Maria screams. I couldn't touch him. I was so afraid. At the same time, I thought the people who did this may be inside.

From Wondery, I'm Alice Levine, host of British Scandal, and this is the Price of Paradise.

there, it's a blur. At that moment, I felt I went into a deep black hole. I didn't know what my life was going to be like. after all this. I was afraid.

Over the next few hours, Maria's house begins to fill with people. Police, neighbours, friends, even some journalists. She's handed a glass of water. The police are striding around what is now a crime scene, photographing, measuring, collecting. Maria can't think straight.

I just had this feeling that somebody should take care of him, not to leave him alone.

One of Maria's friends puts their arms around her, and another offers to go with Frank's body. And then suddenly, the questions stop. The police have left, and Frank is gone.

That night, I called my mother-in-law and told her what had happened to Frank. It was one of the hardest things in my life to do.

Frank's family want him to come home to Managua to be buried there. Maria quietly agrees.

That he probably wants me to write something for him, or do some graphic design, or something like.

that. But that isn't why he's here. He tells me, Frank's not here. He's gone to Managua.

My mind couldn't process it. That level of shock is just horrible. You know, you feel like you're going to short circuit, like you're going to just faint or collapse.

Alvaro suddenly gripped with a kind of panic.

I kind of believed, in the split second, that maybe he only had the courage to tell me that.

Frank was dead. Maybe his uncle has more news that he just can't bring himself to share.

I want to see my mom. I want to see my mom. I just wanted my mother to be safe.

She is, for now, and she's already on her way to Managua to see him. The following evening, Maria goes to her mother-in-law's house, where people are holding a vigil.

I couldn't do anything. I was like floating in the air. I was just there, but I didn't do much.

The next morning, Frank's friends and family pour into a small church. A few of Maria's childhood friends are there too. Together, they sit through mass. The priest talks fondly of the man he knew. Kind, compassionate, funny.

I wasn't able to live there anymore. You know, I felt so threatened. I was afraid because these people got into my house.

And Maria has some theories about who these people are.

Like a deep sadness. It was a kind of weird feeling that I always had.

I think we've all had those feelings where you're faced with a person or a situation and your gut just says no. A real kind of sliding doors moment. On the one hand, there's nothing tangible to say, walk away. But on the other, an inner voice is shouting at you.

I was about to tell them that I was not going to rent the apartment to them, but then I felt like I'm crazy. So she agreed to let them stay.

What's your name? She asked the sad looking man. Ivan Aguillo Rivera. He told her. It meant nothing to her, but now it's a name she can't forget.

They never came back. You know, they didn't come back to sleep. The day after or in any other day, they just disappeared. I realized that they had been the ones who killed him.

But Maria is sure this wasn't just a burglary gone wrong. The killers didn't steal anything of value. Why leave a man dead and not even take what you came for? No, Maria's sure this is something bigger. Something to do with her work on the Pearl Keys.

I felt very sad for Jane because I know that she really loved him. Sometimes she didn't show it, but she did. And I felt really sorry for the kids as well, because they were very close to.

him as well and he had a very good relationship with them. This was a smaller, more unconventional send-off. Jane's chosen a place Phil liked, by a small bay at the edge of the rainforest. A spot Phil always found peaceful and serene. No black suits.

vanilla. Jane was heartbroken. She told me that Phil was the only man that she'd ever really.

loved. Jane delivers a short eulogy. She'll never meet anyone else. like Phil, she says.

hole back on the island without Phil, who'd been such a constant there. He was always joking and he was always making the best of things, even though he wasn't that happy. Billy enjoyed Phil's company.

and how hard he worked to protect his family. But now, he was beginning to see new sides of Jane's.

character. In the circumstances, she was pretty strong and pragmatic, getting on with what was in front of her. Like a lot of strong, driven women, she had a hard, protective skin that was never quite easy to get under. She threw this protective skin around to stop her falling apart.

Amid all the protests and legal battles, Jane and Phil had put the dive resort on pause and let most of their staff go. Now, with Phil gone too, Jane needs some help. So she invites their new friend Steve over to the island, or Snakeman Steve, as everyone knows him. And I'll let you guess why. that's his nickname.

Steve looked like, straight out of kind of central casting, he was rugged, weather-beaten.

No, Billy, be honest, say how you really feel.

An old hippie with a ponytail, chain-smoker, raspy voice.

Jane and Phil had met Snakeman Steve a few months earlier, and as expats abroad, they soon hit it off. After Phil passed away, Steve agreed to let Jane lay Phil's body to rest in a tomb on his farm, in a little bay by the rainforest. And in an eerie foreshadowing, over the days leading up to his death, Phil had made Steve promise to look after Jane and the kids if anything happened to him. He's certainly sticking to his word, but Billy can't quite.

figure Steve out. Steve was very, very laid back. It wasn't phased by anything. I couldn't place his American accent, and he never told us where exactly he came from. They used to joke that he was ex-CIA, ex-Black Ops.

of Phil, who definitely wasn't ex-CIA. Strangely enough, they weren't dissimilar. They were great.

raconteurs, told stories, whether they were true or not, but they made you laugh and liked to kind breeze. So that was an odd sensation, seeing Steve sitting in Phil's chair, shooting the breeze, smoking, just like Phil had.

Maybe Jane sees the similarities too, because, briefly, her and Snakeman Steve have a go at being more than just friends, if you know what I mean.

There was no doubt that Phil had been Jane's big love of her life, and had played a huge part of her existence. So Steve was never going to match that.

He was never going to match Phil's prowess in the bedroom, is what Jane tells the Channel 4 cameras, with characteristic candour. Quite the tribute, I think.

There was one different phone call.

The man doesn't identify himself. But he tells Maria. he's been reading about her case in the newspaper. He knows Ivan Arguello Rivera, one of the lodgers Maria believes killed Frank. And he has information.

And I ask him, why do you want to help me?

And the man on the other end of the line tells her why. Frank's killer has killed before.

And he said, well, this man killed a friend of mine, and I couldn't do anything. But I know you can do something about your husband killing, and I'm going to help you.

He says he's been keeping tabs on Rivera, and he might know how to find him.

Listening to this man was like a little light at the end of the tunnel.

Maria doesn't know if she can trust this stranger. But she's willing to take all the help she can get.

Frank dying had a big impact on the community. He was a nice person. He became like family. So we really felt the impact when he passed away. And the way he passed away, it was a shock.

All of the local people, like Jerry, who were involved in the island dispute, were beginning to fear for their lives.

I remember hearing about Frank's murder on the radio. It was breaking news. There was so much commotion. People wanted answers.

Alejandrina is another community leader, fighting alongside Maria for the rights of Indigenous people. And they all rallied together to put their arms around Maria.

Everybody rushed to help Miss Acosta and to comfort her. I remember a huge crowd gathered outside her home.

To safeguard Jerry and Alejandrina's identities, we've changed their names and asked actors to read their words. Because this is the moment when Nicaragua suddenly felt like a deadly place for campaigners.

It was very hard for us, because everyone felt that whoever killed Frank was sending a warning to the entire community. If you continue demanding your rights, more people will be murdered.

When Frank's death happened, a lot of people were scared. But at the same time, a lot of people joined the fight to support the cause.

Suddenly, this local battle over a set of tiny islands began to blow up.

It didn't only affect Pearl Lagoon, but the entire South Caribbean coast. Because that's how much influence Maria Acosta had. It made people think, how many people must we lose in this process? Is it a land struggle or is it a war?

If it's a war, it's one that Maria is committed to winning. Now it's not just the local community she's fighting for. She needs to get justice for Frank. So it's time to give her evidence to the court.

I told the judge what I thought. I thought and I still think, and I'm sure of it, that this killing wasn't meant for Frank.

She was the intended target, she tells him.

They were paid to kill me and since I wasn't home and they wanted their money and they got desperate, they killed my husband.

A hired hitman. But who would want Maria dead?

I told the judge that the only people that I suspected was Martinez and Socos because of the Perkins case.

The two Peters. Peter Socos, the businessman who sold the islands, and Peter Martinez, his lawyer. The names trigger an unexpected reaction.

The judge got so upset and he shouted at me. He said, what are you saying? And I said, I'm saying what I feel. I say what I think. I say what I have the right to say.

Maria is stunned by the judge's reply. But she carries on. Maria tells him she has information on Rivera from the man who left her a voicemail. The mystery caller who's been feeding her updates on Rivera's location.

He looked at me and said, why don't you catch him or something like that? And I said, because this is not my duty. This is the police and your duty to do so, not me. I give all the information I have to the police, but that's not my role.

It's blood boiling. It's crazy making. And it's also very, very strange. It feels to Maria like the judge is ignoring her evidence. But after everything that's happened recently, today Maria doesn't have the energy to argue back.

It was very violent for me to see Martinez again and to see him coming together with the judge.

The judge has come to see the crime scene. She can hardly tell him to leave. But why on earth has he come with Martinez, one of her prime suspects? She stands there, fixed to the spot, as the two men walk up the stairs towards the front door.

I felt so upset. I felt threatened. I felt vulnerable.

Maria stares at Martinez as he enters her house, Frank's house. I have a legal right to be here, he tells her as he crosses the threshold.

I look at Martinez' eyes and I told him, even if you get away with this, you won't get away with this crime through God's eyes. And he looked at the judge and he said, this woman is threatening me.

Judge Cambronero tells Maria to stop. If she's not careful, he could detain her for harassment.

I was like, I can't believe the both of you. And I just left them. Because at that moment, the judge could have put me in jail. for that, you know?

Amid all the shock and the grief, Maria suddenly feels powerless. Her whole career, she's been defending people, helping them fight for justice. But now she finds herself in a new position as the victim of a crime. And she's got no one to turn to, no one to help defend her.

I felt like I was left alone and there was not going to be justice.

On the next episode of The Price of Paradise, Maria receives a phone call from the last person she expected.

I said, hello. And I listened to a voice that said, I am the man who was in your house the day of the assassination. And I said, Rivera? And he said, yes. And he began to talk.

And back in London, the TV team takes another surprise call from Phil Gaskin.

There's pure cold-blooded terror running through me. This guy shouldn't exist. That guy's dead. He's in a tomb. I know he's in a tomb.

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