by Jaden Skye
It hurt to hear that, but ultimately, Cindy’s relationship with Mattheus belonged to her. As did the life she was now choosing.
“This isn’t about my relationship with Mattheus,” Cindy defended herself, “it’s about a case we’re working on together.”
“They’re intertwined,” Ann warned.
“I heard enough,” said Cindy, angry.
“No, you didn’t,” Ann replied. “You didn’t hear a word I said.”
*
First thing in the morning, Cindy dressed in an ivory linen sundress, put on her favorite coral beaded necklace, had a quick breakfast, grabbed a cab and went to the address she had for Katrina. Mattheus would be coming on his own, to Hemingway’s House, in a little while.
As the cab wound through the streets, Cindy thought about what happened between them the night before. It wasn’t all bad, she realized - the rough encounter with her family hit Mattheus hard. He seemed to have woken up to the reality that he would definitely lose Cindy if he continued on as he’d been. It was clear that he didn’t want to lose her, either. Later on, it also became clear that he was beginning to face the truth about his part in his marriage. That turned things around for Cindy, gave her more confidence in him. They’d both needed that kiss desperately too, needed to feel their connection restored. Cindy wondered what Mattheus thought the kiss meant about their relationship now. She herself, wasn’t at all sure, but she was glad to have him back as a partner on the case at least.
The taxi pulled up at a large, pink, stucco house set back from the road. There was a long entranceway, lined with tall bushes and blooming flowers. Cindy felt as if she were arriving at a quirky bed and breakfast that guests seldom came to.
She walked up the entranceway quickly and was surprised to find the front door left ajar. Clearly, Katrina was expecting her and wanted her to walk right in. Cindy decided to knock loudly first.
She knocked, waited, knocked again, and in a few minutes a large woman with unkempt, curly, bleached blonde hair came to the door. She wore a tropical dress, sprawling with flowers and huge hoop earrings that hung far down her neck.
“Come in,” the woman breathed, through her bright red lipstick, “hurry up, and close the door behind you.”
Cindy slipped into the house and closed the door.
Inside place was large and sprawling, but only half furnished, with old rattan furniture scattered around. The wide, empty spaces in the hallway and main room had plants sitting in them, and small, scratched footstools here and there.
“Our cat, Mumu, just loves resting on these footstools,” the woman pointed to them.
“You’re Katrina?” Cindy asked, to be sure.
“Of course,” Katrina stopped walking a moment and flung her hair back, “who else would I be?”
“Just wanted to be sure,” Cindy responded.
“Who’s sure about anything these days?” Katrina commented as she pointed to a ratty sofa, with large print cushions that didn’t match. “Sit down, please.”
Cindy sat down and Katrina pulled up a wobbly chair for herself.
“It’s so early in the morning,” Katrina started quickly, “the whole world is still sleeping, except you and me,” and she leaned back in the chair and heaved a deep sigh. “Thanks again for coming.”
Katrina was clearly living under intense pressure and Cindy wondered why she’d returned from the Shelter, to live here alone with a violent husband. That would make anyone as nervous as she seemed.
“I heard that you knew Shelly very well,” Cindy started, wanting to start the conversation slowly.
“Yes, very, very well,” Katrina’s eyelids fluttered. “She was my counselor.”
“At the Shelter?” Cindy said.
“Yes, of course, at the Shelter! Where else?” The question unnerved Katrina and she looked around the room, as if she were checking to make sure no one could overhear her. “Irrelevant questions upset me,” she said then, “I begin to wonder what other surprises are coming down the road.”
“Sorry about that,” said Cindy. “Can you tell me more?”
Katrina’s eyes narrowed. “More about what? The Shelter or Shelly? The Shelter’s still here, Shelly’s not!” and she smiled nervously.
“Terrible,” said Cindy.
“Yes, it’s terrible thing when things go that far. Usually the guys stop before it gets to this.”
“Which guys are you talking about?” Cindy asked, alerted.
“Another ridiculous question,” Katrina spit out. “You think there’s a big difference between one and another? There isn’t. The bastards are all the same. But, there are ways of stopping them, too, if you’re smart.” Katrina’s shoulder rose and she looked at Cindy knowingly. “All of us women know how to do it. We know how to calm them down.”
Cindy hung on her every word. “How?”
Katrina looked at her scathingly for a moment. “Looks like you’ve never been up against one of them yourself? You’re just coming in here to tell others.”
“I’m coming in to solve a murder,” said Cindy plainly, “to gather all the information I can get.”
Katrina grinned oddly. “Say what you want. Shelly wasn’t smart either, she was like a bull in a china shop. Some of the other women thought so, too.”
Katrina looked around again, as if guarding herself from being overheard. Cindy wondered if her husband were still in the house.
“Is something the matter?” asked Cindy, growing edgy. “Is your husband at home?”
That really sparked Katrina. “Do you think I’d be talking to you, if Flan were here? My God, how stupid can you be? He owns a fleet of shark fishing boats and he’s out early every morning with tourists. Thank God. When he’s gone I can talk to you, when he’s here, it’s another thing.”
“Why?”
“Why? He’d slap me around good if he heard me saying anything he didn’t like. That’s what these guys do.” She looked down at the ground.
“He did that a lot?” asked Cindy.
“Of course,” said Katrina, “he can’t stop. And he’s done worse than that too! Plenty worse.”
“Why did you come back here with him?” Cindy had to ask that directly. It was hard to imagine what would bring Katrina back into the heart of fear she lived in.
Katrina started rocking in her chair. “Plenty of the women go back to the guys they love. They give it time, let things cool down, and then they go back to where they started.”
Cindy shivered.
“After a while, you forget what happened, you only remember how good it can be. And boy, it’s fabulous between me and Flan! Better than fabulous! We go to the moon!”
“You missed him?” Cindy filled in the pieces.
Katrina crossed her big legs. “Missing’s not the word for it. I craved the bastard every day. And, when he came back and said he was sorry, I saw he was craving me, too. Do you know what that kind of craving feels like, honey? You think it’s so easy to say no?”
Cindy said nothing. That infuriated Katrina.
“I can see you don’t have the vaguest idea about what it means to crave a guy,” Katrina spit out, contemptuous.
Cindy let that statement pass. Her personal life was none of Katrina’s business. Cindy felt uneasy as if she were sitting beside a volcano that was about to explode. It was probably caused by the terror Katrina lived in every day.
“How about Shelly, did she know what it was like to crave a guy?” Cindy decided to change the focus, was definitely not going to getting pulled into the undertow Katrina was swimming in.
“I already told you, Shelly was stupid,” Katrina now seemed to be playing with Cindy, dangling her, leading her on. “No one wanted Shelly to drop dead, but some of us thought she got what she deserved.”
Cindy was shocked. “Shelly deserved to die?”
Katrina got up then, towering over Cindy. “Listen up, sweetheart, Shelly looked like sweetness and light, but she was really bad news. Ever hear of pe
ople preying on people under the guise of helping? I saw how she’d look at the guys who came around. She liked hearing all the details from the women about their lives, but basically she only wanted their husbands for herself.”
“The women’s husbands aren’t allowed in the Shelter, they don’t know where the women are,” Cindy interjected, rankled.
“It doesn’t matter. Shelly asked the women too many questions about their husbands, seemed too interested. It made a lot of them feel creepy. And other guys came to the Shelter, staff, delivery men, all kinds of guys. Man, Shelly was one hungry dame! I should have never told her that Flan was secretly coming to meet me. When he came, the bitch found us and flirted with him in front of my eyes! I told her to cut it out, and she said I was imagining things. She was just trying to get him to leave me alone. What horseshit! The bitch was trying to take him away!”
Cindy remembered how Barbara warned her that the women at the Shelter could become paranoid – not to believe everything they said.
“Are you certain?” Cindy was trying to hold to reality.
“Positive,” Katrina’s teeth gritted. “In my opinion Shelly was a pathological liar who got off on crazy drama and lies. She even once told me that her life with her first husband was too boring, he left her cold, flat. Who the hell knows what went on between them? At first she only came down to the Keys for a vacation - but once she came down and got a taste of life without him, she loved it and couldn’t leave. There are people like that. They come down to Key West for a week-end and stay their whole lives.”
“Shelly talked to you about her first husband?”
Katrina burst out laughing in a raucous tone. “Honey, people say everything to each other in the Shelter. Shelly hated her husband’s guts. He trapped her. That’s why she liked it down here. But she made a big mistake going after Flan.”
It definitely seemed that Katrina was paranoid. It was hard to imagine that the staff would allow Shelly to work at the Shelter if she’d behaved that way. It didn’t add up.
“Flan’s gorgeous and sexy and who the hell can resist him?” Katrina breathed hard. “He acts good for a while, but then, just like the sharks he goes after, he turns violent himself. He’s got a weakness for the women too, so he was good prey for Shelly at first. But what she didn’t realize was that once Flan gets them under his spell, he knocks them around, twists their arms, chokes, pummels. I’ve seen it happen time and again.”
“You’ve seen it first hand?”
“Yeah,” Katrina became defensive, “I got used to his being with other women, too. That was part of it. He insisted.”
“He loved torturing you?” Cindy felt a wave of nausea coming over her, wondering if this all could be true.
Yes, he did,” said Katrina.
“And you’re back with him again? Cindy zeroed in.
“I know how to handle the bastard,” said Katrina, smirking, “and besides, he can’t take it when I’m away. If I’m gone for too long, he gets worse and I’m in more danger then. Who the hell can really protect me, then? Idiots like you?”
Katrina felt her only safety was in taking Flan’s abuse. But there was more to it and Cindy felt it. If Flan made her watch when he was with other women, was it possible that Katrina saw Flan murder Shelly? Could she be an eye witness to the crime?
“What happened when Shelly get between you and Flan?” Cindy asked quickly.
Katrina stopped in her tracks. The memory of it agitated her. She smacked her hands against her thighs, as if she were getting a slow horse to run.
“When she found us together near the Shelter, first the bitch flirted her ass off with him,” Katrina said, “she acted all charming and coy. He liked it, too, I could see it. She was getting to him, so, I told her to back off. After all, she was my counselor! Then Flan turned on me, all nasty, about to give me hell. That’s when Shelly got between us physically and told Flan to leave me alone. He grabbed her arms and gave her one of his famous looks, scary and sexy. Then he shouted at her that no lady in her right mind tells him what to do!”
Cindy shuddered. “Shelly was risking real trouble for you.”
Katrina’s eyes spit fire. “It wasn’t for me! She wanted my man all to herself. She had the hots for Flan. Any idiot could see it.”
“I can’t believe that,” Cindy defied her.
“Believe it, baby, because it’s true.”
Cindy shook her head, egging Katrina on.
“Please believe it,” Katrina’s voice was suddenly sad, like a little girl, pleading.
“I’m sorry you have to go through this, Katrina,” Cindy said then and meant it.
“Really? You are?” Katrina quieted down for a moment, then got up and started pacing around. She was a loose wire, easily agitated, the way lots of the women in the Shelter were. Cindy would have to talk to Flan herself about Shelly. It was amazing that no one had done it so far.
“I’m going to talk to Flan about Shelly myself,” Cindy said.
Katrina guffawed and stopped pacing.
“I wouldn’t do that. It’s the last thing you need. He won’t cop to a thing, just charm your ass off. Listen to me, I’m sure he killed Shelly. Why wouldn’t he?”
“Why would he?” Cindy countered. “Has he killed anyone else before?”
“Almost,” Katrina whimpered.
“Who?” asked Cindy alarmed.
“Me,” said Katrina, thrown off balance. “And you’d better get out of town before he hears about you. Flan doesn’t take well to women snooping around on him. You won’t be safe here for long either.”
Cindy stood up, her face full of perspiration. Not only had it grown hot and stuffy, but Katrina’s anxiety was overwhelming. Cindy was eager to get out of there, under the trees, into a cool breeze and have time to sort all this out.
Cindy extended her hand. “Thank you, Katrina,” she said, “I’m really grateful for all you’ve told me.”
Katrina didn’t take Cindy’s hand, seemed offended.
“You brushing me off just like that?” Katrina blurted out. “You think you decide when our talk’s over, when you had enough of me? How do you know I don’t have more to say?”
“Do you?” asked Cindy.
“Yeah,” Katrina snarled. “You’re even more of an idiot than Shelly. And it looks like you’re gonna get whatever you deserve, too. I’m sorry I let you into my house!”
CHAPTER 20
After leaving Katrina, Cindy called for a cab and went straight to the Hemingway House to meet Mattheus. Nestled in the heart of Old Town Key West, the house itself had the flavor of a Southern mansion, painted dark gold, sprawling and gracious, with outdoor porches and large shutters painted white.
The fantastic estate was surrounded by lush gardens, incredible trees and home to more than forty cats. It was now a museum for tourists, a main attraction in Key West, and a venue that people came to from all over the world for their weddings.
As she walked on the grounds, Cindy could hear a band playing in the background, and chair set up for a wedding that very afternoon. Soon the bride and groom would be arriving, photographers would flash photos, friends and family would gather to watch the couple start a new, beautiful life.
Cindy walked around back past Banana Trees and Coconut Palms, was brushed by Bougainvillea. The breathtaking landscape spread out around her. All kinds of flowers, hibiscus, bleeding hearts, angels trumpets, made a path for the wedding guests who were beginning to arrive. Cindy watched them wandering hand in hand, ready to celebrate love. What a contrast, she thought, from the world she’d just come from, the disarray Katrina was living in.
Mattheus said he’d meet her near the famous pool in the back. Cindy went there and looked around. The huge pool was filled with fresh running salty water and had a mystical quality to it, surrounded by gardenias. Cindy sat down at bench, enchanted, breathing the sweetness deeply.
In just a few minutes Mattheus arrived and came right to the bench Cindy was sitting a
t. He looked handsome, strong and happy to see her.
“What an incredible spot,” said Mattheus, sitting close, and taking her hand.
It was truly intoxicating being here and Cindy wanted to let herself drift in the beauty of it and forget the horrors she’d just been bathed in. Cindy left her hand in Mattheus’s though, not wanting to spoil the mood of the moment. She couldn’t leave it there for long, though. She had to remember what they were doing there and decided to go right into the details of her meeting with Katrina.
“Katrina believes her husband killed Shelly,” Cindy announced immediately.
“Whoah,” said Mattheus, “how’s that a way to start a conversation in paradise?”
Cindy smiled. It was as if her old Mattheus was back.
“Backtrack, please,” Mattheus continued. “Let’s take it point by point.”
“Fair enough,” said Cindy moving a bit closer to him on the bench.
“Shelly was Katrina’s counselor at the Shelter. Katrina’s married to a violent, abusive guy, Flan -.”
Mattheus stopped her swiftly. “Who?”
“What’s the matter?” Cindy was surprised.
“Say the name again,” Mattheus spoke intensely.
“Flan,” Cindy repeated. “He’s Katrina’s husband.”
“Oh God, it’s true,” said Mattheus.
“What’s true?” Despite the warm sun that was pouring down on them, Cindy began to feel a chill.
Mattheus was quiet a long time.
“Do you know Flan?” Cindy pressed him.
“I heard about him from Tommy,” said Mattheus. “Up until now, I wasn’t sure what Tommy said was true, though.”
Cindy began to feel alarm. “What did he tell you?”
Mattheus clenched his jaw hard and looked straight at Cindy. Whatever he’d heard, it was hard for him to say.
“You have to tell me, Mattheus,” Cindy demanded.
“I know I do,” he capitulated. “Tommy told me that Shelly and Flan were a regular item at the bar, dancing, drinking, making a scene.”
