Death by Deceit (Book #5 in the Caribbean Murder Series) (14 page)

Cindy could relate. Mattheus
hadn’t really been able to hear how much she needed down time, even though
she’d told him again and again.

 “I think Mattheus wants to
help,” Alex went on, “and we’re letting him do whatever he can. As far as I
know, he plans to go to the Rancher’s Bar and talk to Anthony’s friend, Tommy.
Tommy has absolutely no credibility, but we’re letting him go. Maybe it will
make him feel better, learn something new.”

“He’s at Rancher’s Bar now,”
said Cindy.

Alex looked surprised.
“Rancher’s Bar is closed tonight,” he said.

“Mattheus didn’t realize
that,” said Cindy.

“So, he’ll find out soon
enough,” said Alex.

“And, what about me?” Cindy
went on.

Alex smiled, “What about you?”

“Are you interested in what I
find out at the Shelter?”

Alex looked up at her,
momentarily shy. “Of course,” he said, softly, “actually, if you want to know
the truth, I’m interested in everything about you.”

Cindy flushed and picked up
her fork. She wasn’t going to respond to his comment, just stay focused on what
she was here for.

She and Alex ate quietly then,
until he suddenly looked up, and stared at the entranceway.  Frightened, Cindy
turned around.

Mattheus was standing there,
unmoving in the entrance, glaring at the two of them.

Cindy and Alex stood up at the
same time as Mattheus slowly walked towards them, scowling for all he was worth.

“I was standing there like an
idiot in the lobby calling your room,” Mattheus said to Cindy, looking back and
forth between her and Alex. “You didn’t say a word about meeting anyone for
dinner.”

“It was a last minute thing,”
said Alex.

“Sure, very likely, Mattheus
sneered.

“Mattheus,” said Cindy,
shaken, “I needed to talk to the police, Alex was free and in the
neighborhood.”

“Talk to them about what?”
Mattheus’s jaw tightened.

Cindy couldn’t say she needed
to find out if Mattheus was a suspect, that he’d disturbed her with his
shifting moods. She couldn’t say she needed someone stable to talk with.

“What in hell do you have to
talk to the police with that doesn’t include me?” Mattheus held his ground.

Cindy had never seen him this
way before.

“This is my case, this is my
wife who was killed,” Mattheus was fed up.

“I wanted to fill the police
in about the women in the Shelter,” said Cindy, “get some questions answered.”

“I’m the one you fill in about
the Shelter,” said Mattheus. “Then we go to the police together. At least,
that’s how it always has been.”

Alex stepped forward and put
his hand on Mattheus’s arm. “Listen,” he said, “things are different right
now.”

Mattheus shook his hand off
abruptly.

“This is your wife’s murder
we’ve investigating,” Alex went on.

“So?” Mattheus glared at him.

“So, you’re not yourself right
now,” said Alex. “It could be hard for Cindy to talk to you about everything,
to feel that you’re able to listen to every detail.”

“Thanks a lot,” said Mattheus,
furious.

“Anyone would feel the way you
do,” said Alex. “It’s normal.”

Mattheus spun around and
confronted Alex directly. “Listen, buddy, don’t tell me how I’m feeling. It’s
obvious you two are keeping something from me.”

“That’s ridiculous,” said
Cindy. “I kept inviting you to the Shelter over and over. You didn’t want to
go. You said I shouldn’t press you.”

Mattheus opened his hand and
pointed to the table. “So, you’re getting back at me now?”

“What are you talking about?”
Cindy was horrified.

“Nice little romantic dinner
you two are having,” Mattheus said to Cindy. “Very convenient. The minute I
turn around and leave, you run to someone else.”

“I didn’t run anywhere,” Cindy
felt her face flushing. “I called the police for information and support.”

Alex swiftly stepped between her
and Mattheus.

“You’re going off the deep end
with that comment,” he said. “Cindy came down to Key West to help you.”

“By having dinner with you?” asked
Mattheus.

“This dinner is purely
business,” Alex repeated.

“Tell me another,” said
Mattheus. “That’s what Shelly said to me, too, about all the guys she had
dinner with. They were purely friends. They weren’t though, and I believed
every word she said.”
“I am not Shelly,” Cindy declared.

“You can say that again,” said
Mattheus.

“What’s that supposed to mean?”
asked Cindy.

“It means that at least when
Shelly went out to dinner with a guy, she told me in advance. I never got a
surprise like this one.”

Alex and Cindy shared a quick
glance.

“You thought I’d be at the
Rancher’s Bar all night,” said Mattheus, “and so you hooked up with him. Well,
the Rancher’s Bar is closed tonight. It’s open tomorrow.”

Cindy wasn’t even going to
bother answering Mattheus’s crazy accusations. He was not seeing things
clearly, was re-living his relationship with Shelly, and Cindy was the
convenient stand in now. Obviously, the surprise of seeing her and Alex
together had stirred many memories. Then, Cindy, suddenly remembered Barbara’s
comment to her. Don’t make excuses for guys. Face the truth. See things as they
are, that’s what keeps you smart and safe.

“Maybe it would be better if
Cindy got off the case and went home?” Alex said, trying to calm the turbulent
waters.

Mattheus stared at him.

“Seems like things are
becoming too volatile. In my opinion, it would be a good idea for Cindy to resign
from the case,” Alex maintained.

“Listen, I don’t need you
telling my partner what she should or shouldn’t do,” Mattheus grew more
agitated.

Alex turned to Cindy. “What do
you think?” he said.

Cindy was dumbfounded a
moment. Resigning wasn’t her style. True, things had grown volatile between her
and Mattheus, but something larger was at stake. There was a search for a
killer going on and Cindy was an integral part of it now.  Her involvement with
the case now went way beyond Mattheus. It was also about her relationship with
the women in the Shelter who were desperate to have Shelly’s killer found. She
wanted to be there for them as well.  They would be devastated if she dropped
the case and took off.  After all, they deserved a role model who took their
situation seriously and didn’t run away at the first sign of trouble.

 “I’m not running away,” said
Cindy. “I always finish what I start.”

Mattheus guffawed.  “That’s
not exactly how I’d describe our relationship,” he said. “You didn’t finish
anything, just ran away.”

Alex and Cindy exchanged
another sudden glance.

 “So, that’s what your anger
with Cindy is about,” said Alex. “It has nothing to do with this dinner.”

 “I didn’t run away, I left,”
Cindy burst in. “Your wife ran away, Mattheus, not me. You and I had an
agreement that you didn’t want to keep, so I chose to return home. That’s not
the same as quitting. I’m not a quitter and I never will be.”

Cindy felt an odd commitment
to Shelly too now, a burning urge to discover what had happened in her marriage,
and who had really choked her to death.

Mattheus turned towards the
door

“I’m disappointed in you
Cindy,” he said, “shocked and disappointed,” and started walking away.

Cindy began to go after
Mattheus, but Alex put his hand on her shoulder, holding her back.

“Let him go,” said Alex, “give
him time. He has no idea what he’s saying. It’s like post-traumatic stress
syndrome - little things trigger big memories and feelings, and reality blurs.”

Cindy breathed deeply. Alex
was right.  Mattheus was in the grip of feelings and memories that suddenly
rose up and overwhelmed him. But he’d have to learn how to ride the huge waves
of feelings that rose suddenly. Like surfing, sometimes, you caught the waves, sometimes
they knocked you over. Before they found Shelly, Mattheus had been steady and
calm. Cindy suddenly felt very sad for him, and very much alone.

“If you stay on the case you should
check in with me,” Alex offered.

Cindy didn’t want to. She
wanted to check in with Mattheus as she usually did, wanted everything to be
the same. But it wasn’t. She looked down at the floor. Would Mattheus be able
to come back to himself, or would these huge waves of emotion pull him away
from her forever?

“If you feel you have to stay on
the case, stay on it,” Alex said, “but you can’t do it alone. I’m glad you’re
going to the Shelter. That will be a help to us. You can let us know what you
find there. We’ll also run what we have by you.”

Cindy felt grateful. Alex was
offering himself in place of Mattheus. She looked up and to her surprise, saw his
clear opaque eyes looking at her, filled with admiration.

“Thanks for including me,” she
said quietly. “I want to stay.”

“I know you do,” said Alex,
“and it’s great to have you with us. “There’s nothing good about quitting,
you’re right. But, remember, it also takes guts to know when it’s time to let
go.”

Cindy went back up to her room
in a little while, and though she wanted to speak to him, didn’t pick up the
phone to call Mattheus. It was up to him to calm down and reach out to her now.
This was certainly no way to work on a case, she thought, each of them
hunkering down in their private corners. She wasn’t sure how she’d suddenly
turned into Mattheus’s enemy either, but she didn’t like it.Clearly, there was
little hope left for their relationship, even as partners working a case.

Cindy turned on the television
in the room, to calm down and distract herself when the phone rang. Relieved, she
expected it to be Mattheus, when to Cindy’s surprise, it was her sister Ann again.
Ann had an uncanny radar about when Cindy needed her, or was truly upset.

“So, how’s it going?” Ann
asked in a pleasant tone.  She’d obviously come to grips with the fact that
Cindy was working down there on a case with Mattheus.

“It’s going,” Cindy answered
blandly.

“What’s wrong?” asked Ann.
“You sound funny.”

“Just tired,” said Cindy.
“These are long days and it’s hot down here.”

“And you never got that rest
period you promised yourself, either,” said her sister.

“It’s beautiful down here though,”
said Cindy, changing the subject and looking at a huge conch shell that was on
the wicker end table near her bed. “The foliage is blooming, the wild life
incredible.”

“Cindy,” Ann interrupted,
“what’s wrong?”

“It’s a rough case,” said Cindy,
finally.

“Is Mattheus helping you with
it?”

 “He’s doing what he can. This
is a nightmare for him that he’s got to wake up out of. These things take
time.”

“That’s putting it mildly,”
said Ann. “Cindy, I don’t like this, you don’t sound like yourself.”

“I’ve been better,” Cindy
conceded.

“Are the two of you sharing a
room?” Ann asked, the anxiety growing.

Cindy was offended. “Come on,
Ann, I’m not in high school anymore.”

“Are you?” Ann insisted.

“No,” said Cindy.

“Well, thank God, that shows
some sense.”

Cindy was flustered. “Ann, you
never met Mattheus, you might even like him.”

“Whether or not I’d like him
is irrelevant,” said Ann. “It’s the state of his life that scares me. You don’t
belong there. I feel it. Are you getting paid for your work?”

Cindy hadn’t even thought of
it. All her expenses were cared for, of course, but usually they were paid for
cases by the people who hired them. She and Mattheus always split what they
made. Now it was different, it was Mattheus’s wife.

“You’re doing this as an act
of love?” Ann said then, bluntly. “My God, Cindy, I’d love to come down and
visit you there. Would it be possible?”

“Definitely not,” said Cindy,
“I’m on a case.” 

“Well, Frank and I might just
choose to take a week-end down there anyhow,” Ann was growing indignant.

“Don’t,” Cindy exclaimed, as
her sister just hung up the phone.

Cindy felt sad after the call.
Ann meant well and Cindy knew it. She just didn’t realize that the focus and
intensity involved in the work didn’t permit time for diversions.

Cindy watched a little more
TV, waited to hear from Mattheus, and by ten o’clock, when he hadn’t called,
decided to get to sleep early. It would be a long day at the Shelter tomorrow
and she wanted to be ready for it.

*

  Cindy arrived at the Shelter
early the next morning. She wore comfortable linen green slacks, a lemon shirt,
and tied her hair back gently. It was important for the women to feel
comfortable in her presence. She didn’t want to look too professional, or
different from anyone here. Instead of carrying her usual briefcase, she slung
a large bag over her shoulder in which she’d packed notebooks and pens. It was
hard being here alone, without Mattheus to come back to, go over the day with.
She knew she could call Alex, but that was entirely different.

Cindy milled around in the front
entranceway, waiting for Barbara. The place was totally active and buzzing, women
were on their way to different rooms for counseling and groups. Flyers on the
walls announced training sessions to develop new skills in the workplace.  The
seeming normalcy of the routine here was jarring. There was a sense of
purposefulness , aliveness, and above all, safety.

Cindy watched the women walking
up and down the hallways and wondered what it would take in anyone’s life to
cross that thin line and end up here, hiding from danger. What did they not
notice? What was it they weren’t able to stop doing, or hoping for? When did
they hit that crucial point where they knew they had to call for help?

As Cindy stood there watching,
Barbara appeared from behind and tapped her on the shoulder. Cindy jumped.

“Oh my goodness,” Cindy said,
“I didn’t see you coming.

Barbara laughed. “You got here
early, that’s so great. You’re excited, you’re eager.

They smiled at one another.  

“There’s a lot of ground to
cover today,” Barbara said, as she started to walk down the hall with Cindy, “let’s
go.”

Cindy let Barbara lead her
around the bend to a medium size, well lit room with a table in the center and
wooden chairs around it. The windows looked out over the back of the Shelter,
where birds perched in the large bushes, unaware of what was going on inside.

“This is our interview room,”
said Barbara, “Today, I’d like you to start by talking to Angie. She was
Shelly’s co-counselor, they worked closely together, talked everything over and
liked each other very much. She’ll be here in a few minutes.”

“Great,” said Cindy, and sat
down at the table, once again impressed by Barbara’s professionalism. “How did
you get the job to oversee the investigation?” Cindy was curious.

Barbara pushed her hair off
her forehead. It was warm for so early in the morning, and she was perspiring.
“I assigned myself,” she said lightly, as if it were the most natural thing in
the world.  “If you don’t take something on, it doesn’t get done. Someone has
to step up. This is important to me.”

“It’s inspiring,” said Cindy.

Barbara sat down next to Cindy
then. “My mother was battered by my father,” Barbara continued. “I couldn’t do
anything to help her, but I can help others in the same situation. And I will.”

“I’m sorry to hear that,” said
Cindy, moved by the unexpected revelation.

“My mother ultimately died of
her wounds,” Barbara continued.

“Murdered?” Cindy was horrified.

“Basically, yes, murdered,
though no one thought of it that way in those days.”

Cindy realized that everyone
who worked here had to have some kind of story about what drove them to this
work. She wondered again about Shelly, and the journey she’d been on.

At that moment, a tall, wiry,
very attractive, youngish woman with dark brown hair and large eyes walked into
the room.

Barbara got up to greet her.
“Angie, this is Cindy,” she said.

Angie came over and held out
her hand to Cindy. “I’m hearing wonderful things about you,” she said.

Cindy was surprised. “About
me?”

“The women you’ve spoken to
really like you.”

 “Thank you so much,” Cindy
felt touched.

Angie sat down opposite her.

“What can I do to help?” Angie
began. “Shelly’s death has been a nightmare. She didn’t deserve something like
this.”

“No one deserves it,” said
Barbara, sitting back down as well.

“Of course, no one deserves
it,” Angie agreed. “But especially not Shelly.”

“You liked her a lot?” Cindy
echoed.

“It’s not just that I liked
her,” Angie exclaimed, “Shelly was a worthwhile person. She did a wonderful job
and we were good friends.”  A look of pain crossed her face.

Cindy was relieved to be
talking to Angie, someone who knew Shelly so well.

“Tell me more about her,” Cindy
said, taking a notebook out of her bag. She didn’t want to miss a thing, wanted
to write everything down.

“Shelly never missed a day at
work,” Angie started,”everyone here could count on her.”

That surprised Cindy. Her
basic image of Shelly hadn’t been that she was so dependable.

“In fact, the Shelter became
like a home to her,” Angie continued, “she told me that more than one time.”

Cindy could understand that.  Shelly
had come from a rough childhood and this obviously became a haven for her.

“Do you know why she left the
life she’d been living and came to Key West to start again?” Cindy asked
carefully.

To Cindy’s surprise the
question sent a ripple of unease into the room.

Angie closed her eyes a
moment. “We all leave something in our lives and start over,” said Angie, “that’s
the nature of life. One chapter ends, another begins.”

“That’s a poetic way of
putting it,” said Cindy, aware that Angie was side stepping the question. “And,
I also need specifics.  Why did Shelly feel so at home here? What happened in
her life that drew her to this work?”

Angie spread both hands out on
the table, and tapped them several times. Obviously, she hadn’t been expecting
questions like these so quickly. But time was of the essence, and Cindy had to
cut through pleasantries.

“Was Shelly running away from
something?” Cindy pursued it.

“Shelly’d had a terrible
marriage a long time ago,” Angie said then softly, looking away.

Barbara flinched and reached
out for Angie’s hand, as if to quiet her.

“It’s okay, I can talk,” Angie
responded. “I’m not betraying Shelly’s confidence. I’m helping find her
killer.”

Barbara shivered a moment. Cindy
could see that it was painful for her to hear anything that could be negative
about Shelly.

“Shelly ran away from a
painful marriage,” Angie continued.

Cindy felt momentarily alarmed.
“You’re talking about the man Shelly was married to in New Orleans?” Cindy had
to be certain.

“Of course,” Angie was jolted,
“Shelly was only married one time. She never married Anthony, was only living
with him.  But to me, her relationship with Anthony was more like a marriage than
what she had with Mattheus.”

So they knew about Shelly’s
having gone missing! Cindy felt stunned.

“Did Mattheus abuse Shelly?” Cindy
asked immediately.

Barbara and Angie looked at
each other.

“Not physically,” said Angie,
“but emotionally, yes. Definitely!”

“How so?” Cindy’s attention
was revving up. She needed details to back this accusation.

“Mattheus could never really
be there for Shelly,” said Angie. “Shelly would tell him something and it would
go in one ear and out the next. Sometimes she felt like she was going crazy. On
the one hand, he’d act sweet and loving, on the other he’d turn cold as stone.
That’s what she said to me over and over, he was cold as stone.”

This didn’t compute with the
man Cindy knew. She had no idea how to put the information together.

“Explain this further,” Cindy requested.

Angie looked at her, puzzled.
“What’s to explain? Every woman knows what cold as stone means.”

“Of course,” said Cindy, “but
as a detective I need specific examples.”

Angie threw a quick look at
Barbara.

“Mattheus wouldn’t make love
to Shelly for weeks,” Angie said haltingly, “he’d leave her in bed alone.”

That was hard to believe.
Mattheus had been a sensitive and giving lover to Cindy. She’d especially
appreciated his warmth. What did Shelly do to push him away, Cindy couldn’t
help wondering.

“Shelly would roll over
towards Mattheus and try to hold him, and he’d brush her off and roll away,”
Angie went on. “That is emotional abuse, par excellence.”

Cindy wondered if this really
happened or if it were only in Shelly’s mind?

“In his own rotten way, he
forced her to take up with other men!” Angie exclaimed, exasperated.

“Take up with other men? Forced
her?” Cindy was horrified. She hadn’t heard a thing about this.

“His coldness drove her nuts,”
Angie said, “she couldn’t stand it. Passive aggressive behavior drives women up
the wall, makes them look like lunatics. That is emotional abuse.”

“Why didn’t Shelly leave him?”
Cindy was baffled.

“She did,” Angie looked at her
harshly.

“I mean, why didn’t she just get
a divorce?”

“Life isn’t always so simple,”
Barbara quickly interrupted, “there are often extenuating circumstances.”

“Like what?”

“Like maybe she needed him, or
still cared for him, or didn’t want to hurt him.” said Angie.