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

“I
know you’ve been investigating a long time,” Sean, relented, “and I’ve heard
good things about the work you’ve done.”

Mattheus
appreciated that.

“And
why did you come down here, exactly?” Sean continued.

“I
believe I answered that question at the police station, already,” Mattheus didn’t
like being grilled.

“Yeah,
I heard the broad outline,” Sean said, “but I’d like to know more about it.” 

“Why?”
asked Mattheus, suddenly cautious.

“It
never hurts,” Sean tossed it off.

“I
came down here to connect with my daughter,” Mattheus started, not wanting to appear
obstinate and create more suspicion. If there was a way to get on Sean’s side,
he was going to do it.

“You’d
never met her before, is that right?” asked Sean.

“I’d
met her for just for a short while in St. Martin,” Mattheus corrected him. “Cindy

wanted
me to meet her before Cindy and I got engaged. So, I tracked her down and we
met at a hotel there.”

“Was
Cindy present when the two of you met?” Sean seemed fascinated.

“Yes,
she was,” said Mattheus. “I can’t say my daughter took a liking to her, though.
 In fact, it was exactly the opposite. Andrea invited me to come down to
Anguilla to get to know her, but only if I left Cindy behind.”

“That’s
quite an invitation,” Sean murmured.

“I
could see where it would be hard for Andrea to deal with another woman at my
side before she even knew me,” Mattheus felt compelled to defend her. “‘I’d
left her mother before she was born, and I realized it could be hard for her to
see me with someone else now. And beyond that, obviously, Petra filled her head
with lots of negative stuff about me over the years.”

“Like
what?” Sean listened closely.

“Petra
told her that I didn’t care about either of them, just ran off,” Mattheus
grumbled. “I was a kid, my relationship with Petra was just a one night stand.
I actually spent a little time with Petra after I found out she was pregnant.
In fact, I recall giving Petra some money. Then, she’s right, I left and didn’t
look back.”

“You
never wondered about your daughter?” Sean continued.

“Look,
what is this?” Mattheus flared up. “What has this got to do with anything?”

“Just
trying to find out more about you,” said Sean quietly.

“Hell,
it’s a pretty common story,” Mattheus tried to toss if off. “It was Cindy who
pushed me to find Andrea. If I didn’t care about Cindy, I never would have.”

Sean
looked at Mattheus closely then. “But you agreed to leave Cindy behind and come
down to be with your daughter instead.”

“For
a little while, not a lifetime,” Mattheus got more irritated.

“Did
you talk it over with Cindy first?” Sean seemed fascinated.

“No,
I didn’t,” Mattheus suddenly felt like getting out of there, fast. “There was
nothing to talk over. I’d found my daughter and needed to spend some time with
her. I had no choice about it.  And, I had no idea, that Cindy would be so
upset about it, either.”

“Maybe
she was upset by the way you did it,” Sean suggested.

“Maybe?”
said Mattheus, “but I’m sick of it.”

“Sick
of Cindy?”

“No,
sick of the way our relationship goes up and down in a flash. Sick of the way
she’s  always looking for a reason to pull out on me. Okay, so she can go now.
I’m finished.”

“You’re
finished, but you called Cindy down here?” Sean dug right in.

“I
called her to help in an emergency,” said Mattheus, my daughter’s life’s in
danger. Cindy’s a fabulous detective. She’s down here on business, wants to
help me.”

Sean
nodded, taking it in.  “What about your reunion with Petra?” he asked.

“Reunion?”
Mattheus stood up. “This is getting ridiculous. It was a one night stand,
fifteen years ago.”

“You
must have thought about her over the years, though?” Sean wouldn’t be side
tracked. “You must have had fantasies about what it would be like to see her
again?”

“The
truth is, I never thought about Petra at all,” said Mattheus, as he started
towards the door. “I had more important things to think about.”

“Stay
here awhile,” Sean got up and followed him. “I need to know more. Are you still
in love with Cindy?”

Mattheus
stopped a second and stared at him. “Why do you ask?” he spit back. “Are you?”

Mattheus
returned to his hotel in a flurry, went straight to Cindy’s room and knocked on
the door, loud. It was just before lunch time and he hoped she’d be there.
Where else could she have gone? They had work to do. They hadn’t sat down and
planned out the investigation yet, hadn’t decided who would do what.

“Open
up, Cindy,” Mattheus called.

To
his surprise and delight, the door opened immediately and Cindy stood there looking
rested and freshened up, in a light blue summer skirt, printed T shirt and
sandals.

“Thank
God, you’re here,” he barged into the room without a moment’s hesitation. “What
are you doing?”

Cindy
was startled to see him in such disarray. “I’m taking notes on what’s happened
so far,” she said, soothingly. “I’m thinking it all over.”

Mattheus
sat down on the thin, rickety sofa near the window and put his head in his
hands.

“I
just met with Andrea at jail,” he uttered. “She’s a mess, she hates my guts, and
she’s pointing the finger at me.”

Cindy
gasped and went over to him, “she has to be in complete shock. She doesn’t know
what she’s doing or saying.”

“Maybe?”
said Mattheus, throwing his head back and looking up at the ceiling.  

For
a second Cindy remembered then how much she’d cared about him, how vulnerable
and also powerful he could be.

“Do
you think Andrea did it?” she asked.

Mattheus
stared at her with a hollow look in his eyes. “I don’t know,” he finally admitted
“I doubt it, but I don’t know. Cain’s neck was slashed, he was a big guy, she
wasn’t strong enough to do it alone. They found the knife at the scene. Her
fingerprints were on the knife because she said she’d picked it up.  And Cain’s
blood was on her because she said she bent down over him to save him. She tried
seeing if he was still alive, if his heart was beating.”

Cindy
shook her head. She hadn’t yet heard these details, it was quite a story. She wondered
why Sean hadn’t mentioned this to her. Her conversation with Sean had turned
too personal, too quickly and Cindy regretted it now.

“They
police have the knife?” Cindy asked carefully.

“Yes,
they do,” said Mattheus and they have evidence of Cain’s blood on Andrea.

“What
does Andrea have in her defense?” asked Cindy.

“Andrea
mentioned to me that she spent most of the day with her friends,” Mattheus
continued, “she said lots of people saw her that day. So, what we’re waiting
for is the medical examiner to determine the time of death. It’s possible to
prove she was somewhere else then.”

Cindy
paused. This was also something important that Sean hadn’t mentioned. Again,
Cindy wondered why. “Has Andrea told the police about this?” asked Cindy.

“Yes,
but she said the police aren’t paying any attention to it. No one’s interviewed
any of her friends.”

“That’s
where we’ll start,” said Cindy, upset.  Andrea could look guilty as hell, but a
messy, biased investigation was something Cindy couldn’t tolerate.

“I
told Andrea I wanted to talk to her friends,” Mattheus seemed more agitated. “She
wouldn’t have any part of it or tell me who they were.  She said it was her
private life, none of my business.”

“Could
be she’s hiding something,” Cindy murmured.

“Or
maybe she just hates me?” Mattheus quipped.

“Probably
both,” said Cindy.

Mattheus
looked at Cindy sorrowfully then. “Why?” he uttered. “I’m here, aren’t I?”

“Too
little, too late,” said Cindy. “She’s had years to build up a terrible story
about you.”

“Is
that why she’s pointing the finger at me?” Mattheus asked in a hollow tone.

“Andrea’s
pointing the finger at you?” Cindy was outraged.

“Yeah,
she said I came down here, gave her false hope and encouraged her. She said I
told her we’d definitely do something to get her and her mother out of this,”
Mattheus repeated.

Cindy
felt her head swimming. “Did you, Mattheus? What did you say?”

“I
didn’t mean it that way,” Mattheus suddenly wailed. “Yeah, I told her not to
give up hope and that there was definitely something we could do to help her.”

“Did
she take it as encouragement to kill the guy?” Cindy was aghast. “She could
have. You don’t know who she is, or how she thinks, really.”

“No,
I don’t, I don’t,” Mattheus was quickly becoming more and more devastated.

Cindy
went over to him and put her hand on his shoulder. “It’s okay, calm down,” she
said quietly. “We’ll find out more about her. I’ll get Sean to give me the
names of her friends.”

Mattheus’s
neck snapped up. “Sean give them to you? Why him?”

“Because
he’s our connection with the police,” said Cindy, matter of factly. “They have
to have that information.”

Mattheus
jumped up from the sofa then. “Sean is
your
connection with the police,
not

mine.
 He wouldn’t give me even one piece of information. I saw Petra walking into
see Andrea with a strange guy at her side.  I wanted to know who the guy was
and Sean wouldn’t tell me.”

“Because
you could be a suspect, Mattheus,” Cindy said slowly. “Maybe the police think
you pushed Andrea to get rid of her stepfather; that she was doing your
bidding.”

“Ridiculous,”
Mattheus yelped.

“It
could look that way from a certain angle,” said Cindy.

“Anything
could look anyway at all,” Mattheus retorted. “But what would be in it for me?
It doesn’t make sense.”

“What
do you imagine they think could be in it for you, Mattheus?” Cindy kept after
it.

Mattheus
took a long, slow breath, paused and considered. “Sean asked me if I’d had
fantasies about reuniting with Petra,” he said after a few moments.

Cindy
bristled.  “Did you?”

Mattheus
looked at her askance. “Absolutely not, never, not once.”

“Do
they believe that?”

“They’re
fishing for something to close the case fast,” Mattheus uttered.

“Could
be true,” Cindy quickly agreed, letting her apprehension about Petra subside.  “When
I spoke with Sean about it, he told me that Cain was intimately connected with
the underworld here. He did a lot of their bidding, even from jail.  Plenty of
people could have wanted him out of the picture. The underworld could want a
lid on this case.”

Mattheus
stood up swiftly. “When did Sean tell you that?”

“I
had a meeting with him this morning,” said Cindy, “while you were at the jail.”

“And
you never told me a thing about it? You set it up behind my back?” Mattheus’s
face flushed.

“Hold
on a minute,” Cindy held her hand up. “I’m not exactly the enemy here.”

“Why
didn’t you tell me about the meeting with Sean before you had it?” Mattheus
shot back.

“I’m
telling you now,” said Cindy, “and besides, so what? I’m down here doing a job
the best way I know how. I have a right to meet with anyone I care to.”

That
quieted Mattheus for a moment. “There’s something between the two of you,” he
muttered then.

“Jesus
Christ, Mattheus,” Cindy turned on her heel. “This isn’t a time for you to get
crazy and jealous. It won’t work. It’s gonna get in the way.  Number one, we’re
not together anymore, remember? Number two, I’m working with the police here,
you’re not. Number three you have bigger things to worry about than whether or
not Sean and I are getting along. Much bigger. Not only is Andrea in trouble,
you are too!”

Mattheus
fell back down on the couch then, as if the wind had been knocked out of him.

“You’re
right, I’m sorry,” he breathed.  “I just don’t trust Sean, not for a second.”

“You
don’t have to trust him, I have to,” Cindy remarked.

Mattheus
looked up then, and as they stared at each other, he calmed down.

“What
did Sean say about the underworld here?” Mattheus asked suddenly composed.

“He
said it’s one of the most twisted and dangerous underworlds around, drugs, sex,
trafficking. And that I shouldn’t go down to their haunts alone.”

“Okay,”
Mattheus suddenly stood back up on his feet. “I’ll tackle the underworld down
here. I’ll look into who they are, and Cain’s connection to them. You go talk
to Andrea’s friends, find out who they are and what she was doing that
afternoon.”

“And,
what she’s hiding,” Cindy quickly added. “When we find what’s she hiding, we
may have the key to who killed her stepfather.”

“I
hope so,” said Mattheus.

“And,
there’s one more door we have to walk through,” Cindy continued.  “Petra’s got
a lot of information that will blow the case wide open.”

Mattheus
blanched. “You’re right.”

“She’s
hiding a lot from us, as well,” Cindy continued.

Mattheus
couldn’t help but agree. “And that guy she was with,” he went on. “Who is he?”

“Why
is he such a big deal?” Cindy asked. “He could be a friend or neighbor -.”

“No,
he’s more than that,” Mattheus insisted. “I could see right away that they’re an
item.”

Cindy
stopped and stared at Mattheus hard. “And does that bother you?” she asked definitively.

“Of
course it does,” Mattheus shot back. “Her husband’s been killed a short while
ago and here she is with someone else. For all we know that guy’s involved in the
killing. Maybe he’s the one who pushed Andrea to do it?”

“Possible,”
Cindy murmured. Then she looked at Mattheus again. “Is that why it bothers you
so much?”

Mattheus
looked over at the windows then, and through them to the sky. “I’m upset for
Andrea,” he said in a throaty tone.

“You’re
not upset that Petra’s lost her husband?” Cindy couldn’t stop questioning him.

“No,”
Mattheus came back and looked at her directly. “Not a husband like Cain.”

*

After
Mattheus left to go to his room, rest, and then dig into the underworld, Cindy
went to the phone and immediately called Sean. She needed the names of Andrea’s
friends and also wanted facts about the police’s evidence.

Sean
picked up immediately. “It was great getting to know you,” he said right away.

“Thanks,”
said Cindy. “I really appreciate your help. I need it.”

“Of
course,” said Sean warmly. “This is not a job for a woman, alone.”

Normally,
Cindy would have reminded him that she was here with Mattheus, but this time
was completely different.  Mattheus wasn’t really a trusted partner in the
case. The police were right, he was way too involved in lots of aspects of it.
Cindy wanted Sean to feel as though the two of them were working closely
together.  He might be more willing to give her the information she needed
then, and share details he ordinarily might not have.

“I
just spoke with Mattheus,” Cindy said to Sean then, filling him in.

“So
did I,” Sean quickly added. “He’s something else.”

Cindy
didn’t know what Sean meant by that and didn’t want to ask right now.  “He’s
determined, to solve the case,” she replied.

“Okay,”
said Sean, non-committally.

“It’s
too bad he can’t work along with you,” Cindy continued.

“That’s
not up to me,” Sean replied.

Even
if he’s not working with you guys, he has a right to investigate, and he needs
to,”

Cindy
continued.

“He
can do what he wants, as long as he doesn’t step on our toes, or get in the
way,” Sean replied, waiting to hear more.

Cindy
wanted to ask him exactly what the police were doing, who they were
investigating and how Mattheus could get in their way, but she held back. She
didn’t want to put Sean on edge with her, but to find out what he was really
thinking.

 “Did
you grill Mattheus because he’s a suspect?” Cindy continued softly.

Sean
was quiet for a second. “I talked to him because I wanted to know more about
him.  He seems a little paranoid.”

Cindy
was taken aback.  “Why? What did he say?”

“It’s
not what he said, it’s what he didn’t say,” Sean answered straightforwardly. “And
it’s how he said it, he’s suspicious of me.”

“He’s
alone down here in unfriendly territory,” Cindy replied.

“You
don’t have to defend him, Cindy,” Sean said quietly.

“I’m
not defending him, I’m just explaining,” said Cindy. “He plans to investigate
the underworld on his own.”

Sean
let out a long, low whistle. “I wouldn’t recommend that,” he replied.

“He’s
got to do something,” Cindy answered. “This is his daughter and he’s a top
notch detective.”