by Jaden Skye
Mattheus bristled, “Sorry, fella, I really am,” he said. “It’s a dumb, lousy situation.”
Cindy put her hand on Mattheus’s arm to calm him down before they entered the hospital. Mattheus had an aversion to the wealthy which surfaced abruptly from time to time. Occasionally, Cindy even wondered if Mattheus enjoyed seeing the dark side of wealthy people’s lives. It validated something for him.
“Let’s start out on the right foot, Mattheus,” Cindy said as they got out of the cab and walked to the grand entrance. “We’ve got to stay neutral and clear.”
“You’re right,” Mattheus stopped and nodded. “You keep me straight, Cindy and I love that.”
Cindy squeezed his hand as they walked through the main door and entered a long marble foyer with very high ceilings. Then they went over to the reception booth where a beautiful young, Jamaican woman sat smiling at them.
“C and M Investigations,” Mattheus said to the young woman the moment they approached.
The dazzling smile left her face quickly and she looked down.
“We need to go to Tara Danden’s Room,” Mattheus continued.
“The crime scene?” the young woman asked, looking up.
“Right,” said Mattheus simply.
“I’ve been told you’d be coming,” the young woman spoke so softly now it was hard to hear. “Go to the third floor, Section 222. The room’s on the right, behind large, folding doors. There’s a sign that says no visitors permitted, the police have roped the area off.” She threw a fleeting glance at Cindy, a look of fear flickering across her eyes. “I thought the case was solved,” she murmured.
“It’s okay, we’re only here to help,” said Cindy as the young woman’s smile slowly returned and she motioned for them to proceed.
As Cindy and Mattheus walked their footsteps echoed along the highly polished floors. Then they stepped into an elevator which was filled with soft, cloying music. Everything was arranged to completely disguise the fact that they were in a hospital. The place seemed like a posh rest home, a place people went to recover, far from their everyday lives.
As Cindy and Mattheus stepped out onto third floor Cindy saw huge palm plants placed along the elegant hallways and the doors to the rooms all shut tight. A nurse or two glided by softly with no sense of urgency, illness or concern.
As the young woman had told them Section 222 was hidden behind large, opaque, folding doors with pictures of butterflies on the panels. Mattheus pulled the folding doors to the side, and as they entered the room Cindy saw yellow strips, cordoning off the area. Two beds, which were now empty and perfectly made stood side by side, and a local policeman sat in a chair beside one bed, half asleep.
Cindy and Mattheus walked through the yellow strips and into the room noisily, waking the policeman up.
“Whoah there,” he started and then rubbed his eyes.
“C and M Investigations,” Mattheus announced abruptly.
“Yeah, yeah, we’ve been expecting you,” the cop answered hastily, pulled his phone out of his side pocket and put in a quick call. “Yeah, they’re here,” he grunted into the phone. “Okay, I’ll tell them.”
Cindy took in every detail in the room as she waited for him to end the call.
“Sorry about that,” the cop said gruffly. “Gets pretty damn tiring, sitting here alone, hour after hour. The Chief of Police and a few others will be down here right away to talk to you. Sorry I was dozing off.”
Cindy smiled at him, she liked him. “No problem,” she said. “It’s pretty quiet for a hospital.”
The cop seemed to appreciate her comment. “You can call it a hospital, if you want,” he grunted, “some other floors, maybe. But this section here is dead, if you know what I mean.”
“You mean people die here,” Mattheus responded, looking around.
“Most of them do,” the policeman replied. “This is where they put the ones on the way out, anyway.”
“Are patients put here after severe accidents or illness?” Mattheus questioned.
“Nah, then they go to another floor to be worked on,” the cop continued. “They’re brought here when there’s nothing left to do for them.”
“Like a hospice?” Cindy commented.
“Not exactly,” the cop continued, “they’re still alive in a hospice, they can talk to you, get pain medication. They come here when they’re in a coma! On the way out.”
“Some people recover from comas,” Mattheus interjected quickly.
“Some do, not most,” the cop replied quietly. “The doctors play the odds, it’s a waiting game.”
Cindy felt her stomach clench. All of life was a kind of waiting game, she thought, waiting for news, waiting for love, waiting for the sun after a terrible rain. Some people waited for things that never happened and for people who would never return.
Just then the folding doors opened and two more policemen entered. A tall one introduced himself quickly.
“Captain Eric Holder, Chief of Police,” he said to Mattheus, extending his hand forcefully. “I’m the guy you’ve been talking to on the phone.”
Mattheus stepped forward and shook his hand quickly, seemingly glad to meet him.
“Mattheus, of C and M Investigations,” he replied. “It’s good to finally meet you in person.”
Eric smiled as the two men took each other in.
“This is my partner Cindy Blaine,” Mattheus immediately included Cindy.
Eric looked at Cindy for the first time. “Pleased to meet you,” he said formally. “This is my assistant, Kevin Watt,” he motioned to a policeman beside him. Then he turned to the cop who’d been on duty. “Everything okay here, Baron?”
Baron looked at him quizzically. “Same as ever. Everything’s perfect, what could go wrong?” he replied.
Eric walked deeper into the room, motioning to Mattheus to look around. “All fingerprints have been taken and the space has been dusted for forensic evidence a few times. Nothing unexpected or out of order has been found. If you want you can sit down on one of these chairs,” he offered.
Cindy and Mattheus sat on the frail chairs beside the empty bed where Tara had died.
As Cindy looked around she had to agree that nothing seemed out of the ordinary, except the strange pallor that filled the air, a dense feeling of sorrow and heaviness. Otherwise, every speck of dirt, mess or life had been swept away by now.
“Why are you so convinced Tara’s death was a result of euthanasia?” Cindy broke into the stiff silence and started questioning. Eric had spoken with Mattheus on the phone, but not with her. She wanted to hear what he had to say for herself.
Eric looked momentarily thrown off guard. “There’s no question about whether or not Tara’s death was euthanasia,” he replied high handedly. “No one has disputed that point at all.”
“I am,” said Cindy.
Eric didn’t like that. “The initial medical examiner’s report showed a lethal substance in the patient’s body,” he reported tartly. “There was no way it could have gotten there except by someone putting it into her IV.”
Cindy pondered that a moment. “There was no other way she could have died?”
“The full medical report will be here in a few days,” Eric continued, “but as soon as we had this initial information there was no question left about the manner of death.”
“Was the patient ever awake at any time throughout her ordeal?” Cindy asked. “Had she ever expressed her wishes?”
That question stopped Eric Holder cold. He stared at Cindy strangely. “The patient was in a coma. She didn’t come out.”
“How can you be certain about that?” asked Cindy.
“If she’d woken up, we’d all have known about it,” Eric Holder became ill at ease.
“Sometimes they wake up and no one even realizes,” Baron said under his breath, looking deeply at Cindy.
“What’s that you said?” asked Cindy, wanting him to say it more loudly.
“I said
sometimes they do wake up,” Baron repeated more loudly. “Then they go right back in, so the people around them don’t realize they’ve been awake because they can’t say anything.”
“That’s crap, Baron, and you know it,” Eric objected.
“There’s stuff we don’t know, Chief, lots of stuff,” Baron insisted.
“Some Jamaicans are very superstitious,” Eric turned to both Cindy and Mattheus.
“Very religious,” Baron corrected him.
Eric shut his eyes a moment, as if to block Baron out. “Some believe strongly in spirits and things like that,” he directed his comments to Mattheus. “Some don’t even believe a person really dies, they think their spirit goes somewhere, or hovers around.”
Baron grinned softly.
“But we’re not priests here, Baron, we’re cops,” Eric growled. “You’re messing with facts, creating confusing.”
Cindy stood up. “No, he’s not,” she broke in, “he’s bringing up interesting considerations. You’ve got a man in jail now for murder and there’s a lot to find out before you can pin this on him.”
Eric got up as well. “So, what are you saying?” he confronted Cindy, face to face. “We should try to find out if the patient is still alive somewhere, if her spirit is floating around?”
Eric’s brusque manner hurt Cindy. It also made her wonder about Ann. Was she totally gone forever, or was her spirit still here on a new journey now?
Eric’s assistant, Kevin Watt, got up then and calmed the atmosphere. “It’s a fair question Cindy’s asking, Eric,” Kevin said. “She just asked if Tara ever woke up during her coma. It happens. People wake up, sometimes even say a few words and then go back to sleep.”
“What difference would it make if she did?” Eric asked. “There was a deadly amount of toxins in her blood. They didn’t get there by themselves.”
“Why are you so convinced that Owen is the one who did it?” Cindy held her ground.
“Owen was with her night and day. He slept in the room, never left the beside,” Eric continued quickly. “He had opportunity.”
“Who else was with her?” Cindy didn’t like Eric and he obviously didn’t like her. He wanted someone to go along with him, acknowledge his facts as absolute.
“Tara’s nurse, Alana was with her,” Eric answered, “and Dr Padden, head doctor on the case checked in a few times a day. Other than that, only family can visit coma patients and each for only a small amount of time.”
“Is Tara’s family down here in Jamaica?” Cindy went on, determined to find a weak link in his story.
“They are,” Eric answered, monosyllabically, looking over at Mattheus for support. “They came down soon after the accident.”
“Where are they? We need to see them,” Mattheus quickly agreed.
Eric Holder shook his head. “This is the last thing I expected,” he muttered. “There’s no reason in hell to suspect anyone in her family. Every single one of them is going through hell.”
“Just want to know who they are,” Mattheus repeated, “and where they’re staying now.”
“They’re staying at the Villa Owen rented when he and Tara came down for vacation,” Eric replied. “Tara’s mother and father are here, her sister Jenna and brother Hank, as far as I know. All of their visits with the patient were totally supervised.”
“But how can you be sure it was Owen who did it?” Cindy wouldn’t stop.
“When we looked a little further, we found out that Owen just happens to be the recipient of his wife’s huge insurance policy,” Eric’s face grew red. “So, not only did he have opportunity, but plenty of motive as well. It was enough to detain him.”
“Why would the money make a difference to him?” Cindy retorted. “He’s rich as hell.”
“The rich always need more money,” Eric’s eyes narrowed as he looked at Cindy. “It’s never enough. The more they have, they more they want. Didn’t you know that?”
Mattheus stood up and got between Cindy and Eric. “I didn’t hear that Owen was going to receive a huge life insurance payout,” he said. “You didn’t tell me that.”
“Why should I have had to?” Eric replied. “The evidence in Tara’s body speaks for itself.”
“But the evidence didn’t tell you how it got there,” Cindy interrupted.
Eric threw a half desperate look at Mattheus. “I didn’t know you guys were going to make it hard for us,” he murmured.
“We’re down here to do a job,” Cindy interjected. “All kinds of questions need answers before you can prosecute a man for murder.”
Eric looked at the floor disgruntledly. Clearly, he wanted this over with. “This case created a stir when Tara had the accident two months ago, and it’s creating a bigger stir now,” he said. “It doesn’t look good for anyone.”
Baron got up suddenly then, went to the window, and looked out.
“Where the hell are you going, Baron?” Eric jumped at him heatedly.
“Going to the window, Chief,” Baron replied.
“What the hell are you looking at?” Eric’s face flushed.
“Looking, just looking,” Baron muttered back. “There are answers out there somewhere, the heavens know more than any of us mortals here on earth.”
“Oh brother,” Eric growled, “oh brother. You’ve been sitting in this room for too long, it’s gotten to you.”
“Cases like these are never simple,” Baron drawled slowly, turning to Cindy and giving her a wink.
Chapter 3
After Cindy and Mattheus left the hospital the very next stop was to the jail to meet Owen personally and hear what he had to say. Eric insisted upon accompanying them, at least up to the interrogation room. After that they had the right to speak to their client in private. Baron stayed on guard in the hospital room and Kevin joined them in the back seat of the car.
“Owen’s gonna tell you all kinds of things,” Eric said as they drove to the jail. “Be careful, he’s charming as hell and convincing. Con men always are.”
“Looks like you’ve already made up your mind about him,” quipped Cindy. “Seems like he doesn’t stand a chance with you.”
“We’ve been talking to him for days,” Eric’s voice got gruffer. “The guy slips and slides all over the place.”
“Any specific inconsistencies?” Mattheus asked as Kevin cleared his throat in the rear of the car, as if warning Eric to lay low.
“Con men are great at all kinds of inconsistencies,” Eric shot back, paying no attention to Kevin. “They cover their asses beautifully. First you’re talking about one thing, and before you know it, they’ve got you off on a completely different subject. You completely forget what you were there for in the first place. I’ve seen it a million times.”
This was the first time Cindy had heard Owen referred to as a con man. Everything she’d read about him up to now made him seem like an upstanding guy.
“Look,” Eric went on, “we got different kinds of crime down here; poor on poor crime, poor on tourists crime, drug related crime, gang violence. We got shootings by dealers and then there’s crime by rich con men who come down here for fun.”
“Sounds like you’ve got it all pegged,” Cindy responded.
“Bet your life I do,” Eric retorted, “I’ve been doing this job too long for now to be taken in by anything. I’m not the Chief of Police for no reason.”
Kevin scraped his throat louder in the back seat. Cindy wondered if this wasn’t a common occurrence, Eric, hot headed, going on too much about what he thought and Kevin signaling him to calm down. Kevin seemed more measured by nature, probably assigned to Eric to keep him in check, especially with the press around.
Cindy thought about what Eric had said. She found it odd that Eric thought that some crime down here was done for fun.
“It couldn’t have been too much fun for Owen to spend two months with his wife in a coma, watching her die,” Cindy responded to him pointedly. “How do you figure that was fun?”
Eric flushed and turned directly towards Cindy. “Weirdo’s have fun in weird ways. They have fun mixing you up, pretending to be someone they’re not.”
“Are you saying Owen enjoyed watching his wife in a coma?” Cindy pressed him.
“Eric never said that exactly,” Kevin piped up from behind. “He’s just giving you an overall picture of motives for different kinds of crimes.”
“Appreciate your filling us in,” Mattheus said to Eric, quieting him down.
“Well, I’m glad someone here appreciates my background and experience,” Eric replied. “Just warning you guys up front not to let Owen pull you onto his golden roller coaster ride.”
Cindy was eager to know more about Owen, to meet and talk to him alone with Mattheus. She was relieved when the car pulled up to the jail and they all got out.
“Guess you want to talk to Owen alone?” Eric was just checking before they parted ways.
“That would be best for now,” Mattheus said quietly, keeping the bond between him and Eric intact. “We can talk more about it later together.”
Eric liked that. He liked Mattheus and Cindy was impressed with how well Mattheus navigated their relationship.
Kevin got out of the back of the car and nodded at Cindy warmly. Then he handed her a map of the grounds, including the building where suspects were held.
Cindy thanked both of them, said good bye and then she and Mattheus headed directly towards the detention center where Owen would be waiting. A few moments after they were on their way, Cindy turned around briefly to check on Eric and Kevin. She saw them walking together, talking heatedly, on their way to their offices.
“Eric’s a loose cannon,” Cindy said immediately, enormously relieved to be alone with Mattheus.
“He knows a lot though,” Mattheus replied, “just needs to be listened to and valued. I’ve known a bunch of cops like that over the years.”
“Eric’s full of himself,” Cindy retorted. “He knows what he knows and has no room for another perspective. That’s not good for a Chief of Police. This case isn’t about Owen and Tara for him, it’s about proving himself right.”
