Death by Temptation (21 page)

A light rain began to fall as they all trekked
through the forest, down another incline and around a patch of bare land. Cindy
walked beside Santos, and Mattheus followed up from behind with Abe and Darrin.
It felt good to be with Santos, as if, strangely enough, that was where Cindy
belonged. Santos threw Cindy a quick glance as the rain fell harder.

“Your partner is here. You love the man?” Santos
asked out of nowhere.

Cindy was dumbstruck by the question. “I don’t
know,” she finally answered.

Santos grinned and shook his head hard. “When a
woman loves, she knows it,” he said.

Cindy was overcome with sadness. “We’re close to the
hut?” she asked then.

“When a woman loves she doesn’t change the topic,”
Santos continued.

“Are we close?” Cindy repeated.

“A few more feet,” Santos replied.

Altogether, as one person, they stopped at another
shack, similar to the one they were at before.

Felix slipped out from the group, like quicksilver,
ran to the door of the shack and pulled the door open.

“Here, here,” he called out. It was obvious that
he’d been here before. Had he been in charge of caring for Kara? Did he know
who had brought her here in the first place?

Once the door was open, they all rushed in, with
Rowley up front, leading.

*

Inside the hut was dark, moist, and chilly. There
was a low ceiling, a small window, and a few stray chairs scattered around. In
the back was a mattress spread out on the floor. It took a few minutes for Cindy
become accustomed to where she was. Then, suddenly she heard the sounds of
someone pattering around.

“Kara, Kara.” Rowley was the first to call out as
the pattering sounds grew louder.

From the back of the room there came a whimpering
sound.

“Kara, where are you? Is that you?” Rowley called,
about to take a step in her direction.

Santos put his hand on Rowley’s arm to detain him.
“Give her time to get used to everything,” he said. “It’s too much all at
once.”

“Is she well?” Rowley was blathering.

Mattheus put his hands on Rowley’s shoulders.

Rowley shook him off. “We’re here, Kara,” he kept
calling, “come out, see us.”

In a few more moments, the slim silhouette of a
young woman, with a rough blanket wrapped around her, appeared in front of them
all. She stood there shivering, looking from face to face, disoriented.

“My God, Kara, you look like a ghost.” Rowley was
totally beside himself.

“Where am I? Where am I?” Kara mumbled quietly.

Cindy wanted to go over and soothe her, but kept her
place.

“Jenna? Is that Jenna?” Kara recognized her first.

Jenna ran to Kara and hugged her. “It’s all right,
we’re here, you’re fine. All is well.” The words bubbled out quickly, one after
another.

“Where’s Shane?” asked Kara then, looking around
like a startled bird. “I want to see her. She said she’d be back to get me.”

Once again, a heavy silence descended.

 “Why didn’t Shane come?” Kara repeated. “Where is
she now?”

“Shane’s gone,” Jenna said quietly, looking away.

“Gone?” Kara didn’t understand.

 Jenna began crying. “Her body was found dead on the
beach,” Jenna finally managed.

“Oh my God, my God,” Kara wailed. “I warned her, I
told her.” Then Kara started crying hysterically.

Jenna reached out to Kara and the two young women
hugged in pain.

“Shane was too good to die.” Kara could not be
comforted. “It wasn’t her fault, she was stuck in a trap.”

“I know,” mumbled Jenna, sobbing.

“Kara, I’m here.” Rowley went over, wanting to be
close to Kara as well.

“How could Shane be dead?” Kara kept mumbling, as
she turned to Rowley. “Shane came here right after they took me and told me
that she was going to contact you. She said as soon as you said you’d work with
the ring, they’d let me out, just like that.”

Cindy couldn’t help but step in. She wanted everything
on record.

 “So, Shane definitely knew you were here? Shane was
involved in the kidnapping?” Cindy whispered.

“Shane promised me I’d be out soon,” Kara repeated,
her eyes flaring as she turned to Rowley head on. “Did Shane contact you after
I went missing?”

Rowley was entirely unnerved. “Yes, she did,” he
burst forth. “She contacted me again and again and again!”

“What did you say?” Kara’s distress was turning into
frenzy. “Did you agree to work with the ring?”

“Of course not,” Rowley replied.

“Not even to save me?” Kara’s eyes grew enormous.
“You could have saved me and said no later.”

“You don’t say no to the ring, ever,” said Rowley.
“If you do, you end up like you.”

Kara’s eyes grew larger and fiercer. “How did Shane
die, Rowley?” she demanded.

“How do I know?” Rowley was both shaken and enraged.

“I know that you know,” said Kara. “You hated my
friend, you despised her.”

“That’s right, I did.” Rowley’s face curled into
disgust. “Not only did I hate her, but so did your father! We had a reason to hate
her, didn’t we? Look what she did to the woman we loved?”

“You told my father about what was going on with
Shane?” Kara gasped.

“What else could I do? You went missing. Your father
was falling apart,” Rowley breathed. “You think I could keep something like
that from him?”

Cindy turned to Mattheus quickly and gave him an odd
glance.

“Rod never said a word to me about this,” Mattheus
whispered to her.

“What happened to Shane?” Kara stepped closer to
Rowley now, practically breathing in his face.

Rowley weaved back away from her.

“If you don’t tell me I’ll never speak to you
again,” Kara declared, “never. We’ll be done. Finished!”

Rowley put his head in his hands. “After you
disappeared, Shane threatened me. What could I do? I had to get rid of her for everyone’s
sake. Our entire lives were at risk, Kara.”

“Oh my God, my God,” Kara started moaning.

“You refused to get rid of her, so we had to!”
Rowley’s voice got harsher. “Your dad and I got the name of a guy at the ring
who needed money badly. Guys like that aren’t hard to find. We gave him a wad
of cash and told him to get the sick bitch off our necks.”

“To get rid of Shane? Get rid of my friend?” Kara
was trembling.

“Shane wasn’t your friend. She had you kidnapped,
threatened your life! Now she was threatening mine too! When your father heard
about it he said I was right. He encouraged me to do it.”

“My father encouraged you to have Shane killed?”
Kara wove back and forth, unable to believe what she was hearing.

“We never told him to have her killed,” Rowley
started shouting. “We just told him to get her off our necks. It was his
business how he did it! He could have had her go missing like you, locked her
up in a shack. Anything!”

Mattheus walked over to Rowley then, looking ashen.
“It’s okay, calm down, Rowley. You just have to tell us the name of the guy you
and Rod contacted at the ring.”

“I can’t do that, I can’t,” Rowley started shouting.

“You have to, Rowley,” Mattheus insisted.

Darrin came and stood beside Mattheus then. “It’s
okay,” Darrin interrupted. “If I know how things work down here, the guy at the
ring they contacted has been taken care of by now.”

Mattheus looked aghast. “What do you mean, taken
care of?”

“Nobody in the ring does anything like this without
Santos’s approval,” Darrin went on. “And Santos didn’t say yes to this. If he
had we’d never be here at all. And we’d never find Kara alive. Count your
blessings, Mattheus.”

Santos walked over to them. “You got it perfect, my
friend,” he said. “And it’s not just because of me, it’s because of your
beautiful Cindy. She begged me to find Kara and I couldn’t say no.”

 “Thank you, Santos,” Cindy said as she turned to
Mattheus. “And what happens now to Rowley and Rod? Both were instrumental in
Shane’s death.”

Mattheus looked at Cindy strangely. “I can’t believe
that Rod would ever go along with this. I was with him the whole time. He never
said a word about anything like it to me.”

Was that all Mattheus had to say? Cindy felt deeply
disheartened. Was Mattheus involved in a cover-up?

“At least the police have got to take Rowley in,”
Cindy insisted. “He openly confessed to masterminding a crime.”

Darrin looked at Cindy kindly. “We’ll take care of
everything in good time,” he replied. “This crime has plenty of moving pieces.
Lots of people were responsible for what happened.”

“That’s a cover-up.” Cindy felt indignant.

“Leave Rowley alone with his wife now,” Darrin went
on.

But when Cindy looked over toward Rowley and Kara,
it didn’t seem as though she wanted to be near him at all. Kara was speaking only
to Alfred, while Rowley hung back in the shadows, a few feet away.

“Will they take Rowley in, Santos? Will they
prosecute him?” Cindy turned to Santos then.

“Never,” said Santos in a low tone. “Plenty of words
have been spoken, but there’s no proof of anything. Nothing at all. You have
Kara now, take her back out of here fast. Take the next plane home and tell her
to forget whatever happened.”

Cindy looked at Santos with searing sadness. “How
can Kara forget what happened to her good friend? How can she ever live with
it?”

“Ask yourself that same question,” Santos replied.
“How can you live with what happened during your honeymoon, and finally have a
life? And when you find the answer, come and tell me. I’ll be waiting to hear.”

*

After a few more moments Jenna and Alfred led Kara
gently out of the hut with Rowley following close behind. Santos, Mattheus, and
the police stood to the side as they walked out.

“Alfred has a car waiting for them,” Santos
mentioned.

There was so much more Cindy wanted to ask Kara, but
of course this was not the time. Kara needed to readjust to this world, to
realize that she was free, alive, out of their clutches. Cindy suddenly
realized that Felix was nowhere to be seen. He had left on his own without
anyone noticing.

“Why did Felix leave?” Cindy asked Santos,
surprised.

“He did his job,” Santos answered plainly. “He
wasn’t needed here anymore. When someone isn’t needed, it’s better for them to
go. Dead wood draws maggots in the forest.”

Mattheus threw a long glance at Santos. Cindy
wondered if Mattheus was thinking that he’d been dead wood all these days on
the case.

 Fortunately, Santos walked a few steps away to talk
to Abe then, and Cindy and Mattheus had a chance to be alone.

“Are we just letting Rowley and Rod walk?” Cindy
asked, as soon as Santos was far enough out of earshot.

 Darrin, who’d been standing behind them, scraped
his throat loudly. He was letting them know he’d heard Cindy’s comment.

“The ring takes care of its own down here.” Darrin
joined in the conversation. “At times like this, you don’t go pushing yourself
in unless you want to end up like Kara or Shane.”

 Cindy didn’t like Darrin’s insinuation, or the fact
that he was willing to leave justice to the ring. “I’m talking about Rowley and
Rod,” she said. “They’re not involved in the ring, are they?”

“Of course they are.” Darrin’s voice grew gruffer.
“They contacted someone in the ring to get Shane off their necks. They’re in
over their heads now and they know it. Santos obviously found out about it. The
rest we will never know.”

Cindy turned on her heel and stared at Darrin.
“Three men conspired in the death of Shane and you’re telling me that ring will
take care of justice?”

“Most likely the guy who shot Shane is long gone,”
Darrin mumbled, throwing a furtive look at Mattheus, wanting him to step in.
“Once we step into a tangle, the knots tie us up too. Get what I mean?”

Cindy didn’t want to. Darrin was telling her that he
and Santos were silent partners, that it was all right with the police for the
ring mete out justice of their own. If Darrin did anything to disrupt the
delicate system, he’d be caught in the trap himself.

“Be happy you got Kara out alive,” Darrin mumbled,
“it’s a miracle you should be grateful for.”

Say something, Mattheus, Cindy said in her mind to
him. Tell me you’re not going along with this underworld.

“You have to know where you are and how the law
operates there,” Mattheus said slowly. “There’s all kinds of justice, Cindy.”