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

by Jaden Skye

  “Okay,” the guard standing in the back came over to Mattheus now. “Time’s up. Another visitor’s waiting.”

  Mattheus was jostled. “Excuse me?” he said.

  “Only a certain amount of time allotted with each visitor here,” the guard informed him.

  Disgruntled, Mattheus stood up. “I want to make another appointment right now,” he declared.

  The guard just nodded, “Take it up with the officers in the front,” he said. “It’s up to them.”

  Mattheus looked over at Andrea then who was looking at him with a helpless stare.

  “Don’t worry, I’ll be back soon, honey,” he said loudly. “Nothing’s gonna keep me away.”

  *

  As Mattheus turned and left through the narrow hallway, to his surprise, Petra was walking towards him with a short, muscular man at her side. A guard followed a few steps behind them.

  “Petra,” Mattheus called out, but she simply threw him a strange glance as she walked past him, not stopping to say hello.

  “This lady’s another handful. Sure can be uppity,” the guard remarked as Petra passed by. He seemed to feel badly for Mattheus for a moment.

  “You can say that again,” said Mattheus, grateful for the guard’s support.

  “If you want to talk to the cops about another appointment, this is the place to go,” the guard showed Mattheus a long, narrow room, filled with different cops and a receptionist up front.

  Mattheus went up to the receptionist and just as he did, to his surprise, a side door opened and out came Sean. The two of them caught each other’s eye at the same moment.

  “Well, if it isn’t Mattheus,” Sean came over.

  “Nice to see you, Sean,” Mattheus replied, as if it were just a normal afternoon.

  “How can I help you?” Sean replied.

  “I just had a visit with my daughter, and would like an appointment for another one as soon as possible,” said Mattheus.

  Sean’s eyebrows rose. “Hope it went well.”

  “In some ways,” said Mattheus. “But it’s just a beginning, I need more time.”

  “I can understand that,” Sean replied. “There’s a lot left to explore. How about coming into the back with me now, so we can talk things over.”

  “Like what?” Mattheus hedged for a second, wondering if Sean wanted to interview him.

  “You’re an important part of the picture,” Sean confirmed it.

  Of course I am, thought Mattheus. Why shouldn’t I go? After all, this guy has been assigned to help me and Cindy. Mattheus wasn’t sure what to make of Sean, but it couldn’t hurt to find out. And, the picture of Petra walking down the hall with that guy bothered Mattheus tremendously. He urgently wanted to find out who he was, and what he was doing with her. Something was off, and he wanted to ask Sean about it. It would be great to have Sean as an ally, though Mattheus wondered if that was possible. There was a strange edginess between them and Mattheus felt it, even now.

  “Come on back with me and we’ll talk,” Sean repeated, as Mattheus consented, curious to see where it would all lead.

  *

  The room Sean took Mattheus into had big open windows with a view of a long street. Mattheus looked out at the run down, second hand shops and people ambling about in and out of them.

  “This must be quite a trip for you,” said Sean, as they sat down at a round table. “Not quite what you expected, I bet.”

  “You can say that again,” Mattheus agreed. Even though Sean had a casual manner about him, Mattheus felt the intensity of his focus. “By the way, who was that guy Petra came in with? I saw them as I was leaving.”

  Sean looked away. “I’m not at liberty to give you his name,” he said.”Why do you ask?”

  Mattheus was jolted, suddenly reminded that he and Sean were not on the same team. The police were bent on keeping Mattheus an outsider and the conversation was not going to be between equals. Obviously, Sean had something else in mind.

  “I find it odd that Petra would be with another guy so quickly,” Mattheus went on, anyway. It had really rankled him to see the two of them so cozy.

  “What makes you think he’s another guy?” Sean looked surprised. “How do you know he’s not a friend, or brother?”

  “Something about the way they were walking together,” Mattheus continued, taking Sean on. “I have a nose for what people mean to each other, have been in this business too long not to realize.”

  “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?”

  Chapter 10

  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.