Death by Devotion (Book #9 in the Caribbean Murder Series) (11 page)

As
she stepped out of the bar Cindy suddenly realized how tired she was. It had
been a long day and the encounter with Natalie unnerved her. Rather than walk
back to the hotel, she took a cab that was waiting in front of the pub. Once
inside the car, she put her head back on the seat and closed her eyes.

“Long
day, eh?” the taxi driver said, looking at her through the back mirror.

“Very
long,” Cindy replied.

He
drove slowly, probably to make the trip longer, she thought. Cindy relaxed and closed
her eyes when suddenly she felt a huge thud, heard a bang and crash of glass.

“Don’t
move, don’t move,” the driver shouted and screeched to a halt.

Cindy’s
eyes flashed open as she ducked down.

“What
happened?” she screamed, and then saw a giant rock laying on the floor of the
cab, with a crumpled piece of paper tied to it.

“Some
damn idiot through a rock through my cab window,” the driver yelled, getting
out of the front and opening the back door for her.

“It’s
because of me,” Cindy breathed, picking up the rock with the paper tied to it.

“Why
you?” the driver’s eyes got big.

“I’m
a detective down here, working on a case,” Cindy answered, dumping the rock and
paper into her large tote bag. “Someone’s delivering me a message.”

 “Hell
of a way to do that,” the driver grumbled. “Now I’m gonna have to pay for the
broken window.”

“Give
me your contact information,” said Cindy, “I’ll get it taken care of for you.”

The
driver looked at her strangely, reluctant.  Then he turned and got back into
the front of the cab.

 “Thanks
but no thanks,” he said. “Look, your hotel’s only another couple of blocks. The
sooner I get you there the better. Take your message, call the cops, and forget
I was even driving the cab.”

Cindy
was alerted. This guy had secrets to hide, probably nothing to do with her
though.

“Did
you see the person who threw the rock?” Cindy was quick on the draw, mentally
making note of the cab number and driver’s ID, just in case.

“I
didn’t see nothing,” the driver sounded nervous, “just heard the crash of glass
like you did.” Then he got quiet, sped to the hotel, and as soon as Cindy got
out of the cab, took off in a flash.

Cindy
didn’t think too much of it.  There was all kinds of petty crime on the island
and she could certainly understand the driver not wanting to get involved. She went
up to her room quickly, her body shaking lightly. Once she got there, she’d read
the note, then call the cops.

Once
inside the small, stuffy room, Cindy dumped the contents of her bag onto the
sofa, picked up the note, flattened it out and read it. There were only two
sentences written on it in big, sprawling letters.

Get
out of town as fast as you can. You’re not wanted in Anguilla.

After
reading the message a few times, Cindy put it down on the table and took a
breath. She needed to know who sent the note, and how come it had arrived just
as she was leaving Johnson’s Pub. No one knew she’d been there except Natalie. Had
Natalie set her up, did she mention to someone that Cindy was meeting her
there? Or, maybe someone had seen them on their own? Of course it was also
possible that someone had been on Cindy’s trail all the time.

Naturally,
the incident had to be reported. Cindy reached for her phone, and without a
minute’s hesitation, put a call into Sean.

“Someone
threw a rock through my cab window,” Cindy reported the second he picked up. “It
had a note attached to it.”

“What
did it say?” Sean answered, alarmed.

“Get
out of town as fast as you can. You’re not wanted in Anguilla,” Cindy reported.

“Stay
where you are,” Sean’s voice grew more intense. “Don’t move. Where are you?”

“Back
in my hotel room,” Cindy answered.

“Give
me ten minutes,” he replied, “I’ll be right there.”

Cindy
hung up the phone surprised and pleased by his response. He was right on it,
wouldn’t let a second go by. Maybe Sean knew more than she did and had a sense
of some danger she was in? As Cindy waited for Sean to arrive, she knew that
she also had to let Mattheus know what had happened.

Mattheus
picked up the phone the minute Cindy called, almost as if he’d been waiting to
hear from her.

“I’ve
been wondering what you’re up to,” he said softly.

“I
ran into a little trouble,” Cindy cut straight to the point.

“What?”
Mattheus’s voice grew tighter.

“I
was in a cab, coming back from talking to one of Andrea’s friends, and someone
threw a rock in the cab window. It had a note tied to it,” Cindy spoke fast.

“What?
Someone threw a rock at you? Where are you now?” Mattheus sounded alarmed.

“It’s
okay, I wasn’t hurt. I’m back in the hotel,” Cindy quieted down.

“Why
didn’t you call me immediately?” Mattheus was shocked.

“I’m
filling you in now,” Cindy replied.

“Filling
me in? You could have been killed. The rock could have hit your head,” Mattheus’s
voice grew harsher.

“It
didn’t, it fell on the floor of the cab.  I’m okay,” said Cindy.

“I’m
coming right over,” Mattheus insisted.

“No,
wait a minute,” Cindy breathed.

“There’s
no waiting for anything,” Mattheus slammed down the phone.

Cindy
looked down at her phone and hung up. Of course she knew Mattheus would be
upset, but she had no choice but to tell him.  She was too tired to deal with
Mattheus’s feelings at the moment. She’d informed him and that was enough.

Cindy
put her head back on the sofa and closed her eyes to rest for a moment.  In
what seemed like a minute heard a loud knock on her door. Mattheus got here so
fast, Cindy thought, as she went to the door to open it. To her surprise, Sean
was standing there.

Without
a second’s hesitation, he walked right in. “Okay, where the rock, where’s the
note?” he said distressed. Then he took a second to look around at the cramped
room. “And what are you doing in a dump like this?”

“Mattheus
booked the room for me,” Cindy replied. “The hotel’s close to Andrea’s family.
It’s convenient.”

“Convenient
for what?” asked Sean.

The
door to the room was still open and without knocking, Mattheus suddenly walked
in unannounced.

“Cindy,”
Mattheus called out, but stopped the moment he saw Sean standing there, holding
the rock in his hand.

“Come
in, Mattheus,” Cindy walked to the door.

“What’s
he doing here?” Mattheus nodded at Sean, who looked over at him, equally
displeased.

“I
reported the incident to the police, and Sean came right over to see about it,”
Cindy replied, matter of factly.

“You
reported it to him before you told me?” Mattheus couldn’t seem to believe it.

“Sean
got here a moment ago,” Cindy tried to defend herself and normalize the
situation.

“That
still means you called him before you called me,” Mattheus grew more agitated.

“Of
course I did, I called the police,” Cindy said emphatically.

“I
was the one you always called first,” Mattheus said more loudly. “We’re the partners,
not you and him.”

At
that Sean put the rock down and walked over to him. “Cindy did the right thing,”
he said, stepping directly between them. “It’s her responsibility to report
this to the police.”

“Don’t
you tell me about her responsibility,” Mattheus shot back.

“Listen,
Mister, you got a short fuse,” Sean wasn’t backing down. “And it’s not doing
you any good.”

“Not
Mister, Mattheus,” Mattheus staunchly corrected him, as the two of them stood
nose to nose.The encounter was distressing and unprofessional and made Cindy
feel less safe than before. They obviously couldn’t stand one another. Cindy
had to defuse the tension that was building and she had to do it right away.

“How
about paying attention to the matter at hand,” Cindy broke in between them. “Who
wrote this note? Were they following me? Was it one of Natalie’s friends, who
saw me talking to her about Andrea?”

Mattheus
grabbed the note out of Sean’s hand, scanned it quickly and threw it down on
the ground. “I’m getting out here and finding whoever sent it,” he growled.

“And
do what with them? Take them out?” Sean closed in on Mattheus.

Mattheus
leered at Sean. “I’m finding them and bringing them in as an accessory to the
crime,” he said.

Sean
quickly put his hand on Mattheus’s shoulder. “No, you’re not. Calm down.”

Mattheus
pushed him away.  “You just try and stop me,” he said, lunging towards the
door.

“Listen,
it’s complicated,” Sean called at him. “You don’t know who’s behind this or
what they’ll do next.”

Mattheus
turned and stared at him. “You and the rest of the force can sit around all day
figuring it out, but Cindy’s life is in danger now. And I’m making sure nothing
happens to her!” With that he charged through the door and left.

Cindy
could barely breathe. Mattheus would let nothing stop him from protecting her.
But Sean was also right, it was complicated and there was a web of unsavory
characters who could get triggered into action if they didn’t tread carefully.

“That
guy’s out of control,” Sean said to Cindy as soon as Mattheus had left. “He’s a
ticking time bomb and we can’t let him loose on the island.”

“He
won’t let anything hurt me,” Cindy replied.

“But
he’s still out of control,” Sean insisted. “What the hell does he know about
the underworld here, or what he’s getting into?”

“He’s
been investigating it himself,” Cindy said. “He’s good at that. I’m sure by now
he’s got a few contacts of his own down here.”

Sean
became silent, and then spoke. “This idiot could easily mess up our efforts, barge
into places that will create blowback, big time. We have our informants in
place. They’re not going to like him snooping around.”

Cindy
wanted to know more. “Like who?” she asked, though Sean remained silent.

“If
you don’t tell me where the danger is, Sean, I can’t keep Mattheus away from
it.”

“Doesn’t
seem like you can do much to reign him in, anyway, can you?” Sean replied.

Cindy
took offense at that. It made her feel as though her presence here didn’t
matter much.

“You
don’t know Mattheus’s true involvement in the murder, either,” Sean continued,
turning to Cindy directly. “Remember, he had public run ins with Cain before he
was killed.”

“That’s
not proof of anything,” Cindy replied.

But
Sean continued, methodically. “Mattheus doesn’t have an alibi for that
afternoon, either,” he said.

Cindy
grew cold. “You asked him for an alibi?”

“Of
course we did,” Sean answered matter of factly. “We asked him where he was that
afternoon and if anyone saw him?”

“What
did he say?” Cindy felt the blood draining from her face.

“He
said he was at the beach, thinking things over, then wandering around in town.”

“That
makes sense,” said Cindy. “Nothing so bad about that. There wasn’t a case to
solve yet. He was just down here trying to bond with his daughter at that
point.”

“There
are lots of ways you can look at his actions,” Sean replied.

“Yes
there are,” Cindy agreed, “but you need hard evidence, before you can call him
a suspect.”

“Hard
evidence comes in all kind of ways,” Sean reminded her. “Piece by piece a case
gets built, the trail becomes clear, a person’s nature becomes revealed.”

Cindy
tossed her head back and swallowed hard as Sean suddenly changed the topic.

“Okay,
listen, I don’t want you staying at this hotel. Whoever threw the note through
the taxi window knows where you are. It’s a shabby place, too. You deserve
something better – and definitely safer.”

Cindy
couldn’t help but agree about that.

“I’d
like you to transfer to the Hotel Washington. It’s a nice place and near where
I live. I can keep an eye on you then, easily.”

Cindy
was caught for a second between crying and laughing. She could only imagine how
Mattheus would take that.

“Let
me think about it for a little while,” she answered. “And let me ask Mattheus
to transfer there, too.”

Sean
raised his eyebrows.

“In
his own room, of course,” Cindy replied.

“Of
course,” Sean emphasized, scrutinizing Cindy carefully. “Why in the world would
I think anything different? After all, you guys are broken up, aren’t you?”