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

by Jaden Skye

  Cindy took a long, sad breath. Could it be Natalie was right, that she knew more about her than Cindy knew about herself?

  “And who did Andrea love?” Cindy picked up the thread of the conversation and put it back where it belonged.

  Strangely enough that question seemed to frighten Natalie. She jerked backwards and stopped in her tracks. “Why do you ask that?”

  Cindy was surprised. “Why not? It’s a natural question.”

  Natalie got up off her stool and then quickly sat down again. It seemed this question upset her more than talking about drugs and sex. Her upset fascinated Cindy.

  “Was Andrea in love with someone?” Cindy repeated more insistently. “Who was he?”

  “Whether or not she was in love with someone doesn’t have anything to do with the murder,” Natalie answered firmly.

  “It might well have,” Cindy was alerted.

  “I mean, Andrea had some Johns, she dealt drugs, that’s where there was trouble, not because she might have been in love.”

  But Cindy knew that being in love was often where trouble started. It turned things around, made a person feel helpless. Cindy wanted to know more about it.

  “Who was Andrea in love with?” she repeated, in a low, friendly tone.

  “I’m telling you to look into the drugs and Johns,” Natalie insisted, refusing to answer the question.

  Cindy backed off and took a new track. “Did Andrea’s mother know about the drugs and Johns?”

  “She knew,” Natalie whispered, nervously. “She knew everything, and she encouraged it.”

  Cindy was horrified. “Her mother encouraged Andrea to deal drugs and sleep with guys for money?”

  “Andrea and her mom were hard off, it was a rough life for them,” Natalie said softly. “It didn’t make Andrea mad at her mother, though, she did it to help out.”

  Cindy wanted to gag. Her natural distaste for and suspiciousness of Petra grew exponentially. This was incredibly valuable information and she was glad she had it before she saw Petra again. A woman who could encourage her daughter to do this, would be capable of anything.

  “You’ve been tremendously helpful to me, Natalie,” Cindy said softly.

  “Thanks,” said Natalie, “and we have to finish up quick because our friends are coming soon, and they can’t see me talking to you.”

  “I’m that bad?” Cindy was taken aback.

  “You’re off limits,” Natalie replied. “No one wants you down here snooping around. No one trusts you.”

  “Okay, I got it,” Cindy replied. “Thank you for trusting me, Natalie. There’s only one last thing I’d like to know before we finish.”

  “What’s that?” asked Natalie, “I’ll do my best.”

  “Was Andrea in love?”

  Natalie looked at Cindy suddenly as though she were the enemy.

  “Why is that such a dangerous question, Natalie?”

  “I told you not to go there,” Natalie’s voice grew sharper. “It doesn’t make a difference.”

  “To me it does,” Cindy stood her ground.

  “I can’t say a thing about it,” Natalie scraped her stool back from the bench then. “It would hurt Andrea if I did. I totally promised her I wouldn’t and I won’t. I refuse.”

  Just then a bunch of kids about Andrea’s age all came in together, looking around for a table.

  “Oh my God, our friends are here, early,” Natalie breathed. “Make believe you don’t know me. Look away. I don’t want them to know we were talking.”

  Cindy quickly looked away as Natalie jumped off the bar stool, and greeted them as if she’d just arrived as well.

  One of the crowd, a guy of about seventeen, with tattoos over both arms, took a step forward, looked over at the bar and peered at Cindy. It was as if he was trying to make out where he’d seen her before.

  Cindy met his gaze as his jaw clenched and his hands curled into fists. She got up from the bar then and walked past him, to the door, as if nothing at all were happening. As she walked she felt his hard gaze on her the whole time.

  Chapter 12

  As she stepped out of the bar Cindy suddenly realized how tired she was. It had been a long day and the encounter with Natalie unnerved her. Rather than walk back to the hotel, she took a cab that was waiting in front of the pub. Once inside the car, she put her head back on the seat and closed her eyes.

  “Long day, eh?” the taxi driver said, looking at her through the back mirror.

  “Very long,” Cindy replied.

  He drove slowly, probably to make the trip longer, she thought. Cindy relaxed and closed her eyes when suddenly she felt a huge thud, heard a bang and crash of glass.

  “Don’t move, don’t move,” the driver shouted and screeched to a halt.

  Cindy’s eyes flashed open as she ducked down.

  “What happened?” she screamed, and then saw a giant rock laying on the floor of the cab, with a crumpled piece of paper tied to it.

  “Some damn idiot through a rock through my cab window,” the driver yelled, getting out of the front and opening the back door for her.

  “It’s because of me,” Cindy breathed, picking up the rock with the paper tied to it.

  “Why you?” the driver’s eyes got big.

  “I’m a detective down here, working on a case,” Cindy answered, dumping the rock and paper into her large tote bag. “Someone’s delivering me a message.”

  “Hell of a way to do that,” the driver grumbled. “Now I’m gonna have to pay for the broken window.”

  “Give me your contact information,” said Cindy, “I’ll get it taken care of for you.”

  The driver looked at her strangely, reluctant. Then he turned and got back into the front of the cab.

  “Thanks but no thanks,” he said. “Look, your hotel’s only another couple of blocks. The sooner I get you there the better. Take your message, call the cops, and forget I was even driving the cab.”

  Cindy was alerted. This guy had secrets to hide, probably nothing to do with her though.

  “Did you see the person who threw the rock?” Cindy was quick on the draw, mentally making note of the cab number and driver’s ID, just in case.

  “I didn’t see nothing,” the driver sounded nervous, “just heard the crash of glass like you did.” Then he got quiet, sped to the hotel, and as soon as Cindy got out of the cab, took off in a flash.

  Cindy didn’t think too much of it. There was all kinds of petty crime on the island and she could certainly understand the driver not wanting to get involved. She went up to her room quickly, her body shaking lightly. Once she got there, she’d read the note, then call the cops.

  Once inside the small, stuffy room, Cindy dumped the contents of her bag onto the sofa, picked up the note, flattened it out and read it. There were only two sentences written on it in big, sprawling letters.

  Get out of town as fast as you can. You’re not wanted in Anguilla.

  After reading the message a few times, Cindy put it down on the table and took a breath. She needed to know who sent the note, and how come it had arrived just as she was leaving Johnson’s Pub. No one knew she’d been there except Natalie. Had Natalie set her up, did she mention to someone that Cindy was meeting her there? Or, maybe someone had seen them on their own? Of course it was also possible that someone had been on Cindy’s trail all the time.

  Naturally, the incident had to be reported. Cindy reached for her phone, and without a minute’s hesitation, put a call into Sean.

  “Someone threw a rock through my cab window,” Cindy reported the second he picked up. “It had a note attached to it.”

  “What did it say?” Sean answered, alarmed.

  “Get out of town as fast as you can. You’re not wanted in Anguilla,” Cindy reported.

  “Stay where you are,” Sean’s voice grew more intense. “Don’t move. Where are you?”

  “Back in my hotel room,” Cindy answered.

  “Give me ten minutes,” h
e replied, “I’ll be right there.”

  Cindy hung up the phone surprised and pleased by his response. He was right on it, wouldn’t let a second go by. Maybe Sean knew more than she did and had a sense of some danger she was in? As Cindy waited for Sean to arrive, she knew that she also had to let Mattheus know what had happened.

  Mattheus picked up the phone the minute Cindy called, almost as if he’d been waiting to hear from her.

  “I’ve been wondering what you’re up to,” he said softly.

  “I ran into a little trouble,” Cindy cut straight to the point.

  “What?” Mattheus’s voice grew tighter.

  “I was in a cab, coming back from talking to one of Andrea’s friends, and someone threw a rock in the cab window. It had a note tied to it,” Cindy spoke fast.

  “What? Someone threw a rock at you? Where are you now?” Mattheus sounded alarmed.

  “It’s okay, I wasn’t hurt. I’m back in the hotel,” Cindy quieted down.

  “Why didn’t you call me immediately?” Mattheus was shocked.

  “I’m filling you in now,” Cindy replied.

  “Filling me in? You could have been killed. The rock could have hit your head,” Mattheus’s voice grew harsher.

  “It didn’t, it fell on the floor of the cab. I’m okay,” said Cindy.

  “I’m coming right over,” Mattheus insisted.

  “No, wait a minute,” Cindy breathed.

  “There’s no waiting for anything,” Mattheus slammed down the phone.

  Cindy looked down at her phone and hung up. Of course she knew Mattheus would be upset, but she had no choice but to tell him. She was too tired to deal with Mattheus’s feelings at the moment. She’d informed him and that was enough.

  Cindy put her head back on the sofa and closed her eyes to rest for a moment. In what seemed like a minute heard a loud knock on her door. Mattheus got here so fast, Cindy thought, as she went to the door to open it. To her surprise, Sean was standing there.

  Without a second’s hesitation, he walked right in. “Okay, where the rock, where’s the note?” he said distressed. Then he took a second to look around at the cramped room. “And what are you doing in a dump like this?”

  “Mattheus booked the room for me,” Cindy replied. “The hotel’s close to Andrea’s family. It’s convenient.”

  “Convenient for what?” asked Sean.

  The door to the room was still open and without knocking, Mattheus suddenly walked in unannounced.

  “Cindy,” Mattheus called out, but stopped the moment he saw Sean standing there, holding the rock in his hand.

  “Come in, Mattheus,” Cindy walked to the door.

  “What’s he doing here?” Mattheus nodded at Sean, who looked over at him, equally displeased.

  “I reported the incident to the police, and Sean came right over to see about it,” Cindy replied, matter of factly.

  “You reported it to him before you told me?” Mattheus couldn’t seem to believe it.

  “Sean got here a moment ago,” Cindy tried to defend herself and normalize the situation.

  “That still means you called him before you called me,” Mattheus grew more agitated.

  “Of course I did, I called the police,” Cindy said emphatically.

  “I was the one you always called first,” Mattheus said more loudly. “We’re the partners, not you and him.”

  At that Sean put the rock down and walked over to him. “Cindy did the right thing,” he said, stepping directly between them. “It’s her responsibility to report this to the police.”

  “Don’t you tell me about her responsibility,” Mattheus shot back.

  “Listen, Mister, you got a short fuse,” Sean wasn’t backing down. “And it’s not doing you any good.”

  “Not Mister, Mattheus,” Mattheus staunchly corrected him, as the two of them stood nose to nose.The encounter was distressing and unprofessional and made Cindy feel less safe than before. They obviously couldn’t stand one another. Cindy had to defuse the tension that was building and she had to do it right away.

  “How about paying attention to the matter at hand,” Cindy broke in between them. “Who wrote this note? Were they following me? Was it one of Natalie’s friends, who saw me talking to her about Andrea?”

  Mattheus grabbed the note out of Sean’s hand, scanned it quickly and threw it down on the ground. “I’m getting out here and finding whoever sent it,” he growled.

  “And do what with them? Take them out?” Sean closed in on Mattheus.

  Mattheus leered at Sean. “I’m finding them and bringing them in as an accessory to the crime,” he said.

  Sean quickly put his hand on Mattheus’s shoulder. “No, you’re not. Calm down.”

  Mattheus pushed him away. “You just try and stop me,” he said, lunging towards the door.

  “Listen, it’s complicated,” Sean called at him. “You don’t know who’s behind this or what they’ll do next.”

  Mattheus turned and stared at him. “You and the rest of the force can sit around all day figuring it out, but Cindy’s life is in danger now. And I’m making sure nothing happens to her!” With that he charged through the door and left.

  Cindy could barely breathe. Mattheus would let nothing stop him from protecting her. But Sean was also right, it was complicated and there was a web of unsavory characters who could get triggered into action if they didn’t tread carefully.

  “That guy’s out of control,” Sean said to Cindy as soon as Mattheus had left. “He’s a ticking time bomb and we can’t let him loose on the island.”

  “He won’t let anything hurt me,” Cindy replied.

  “But he’s still out of control,” Sean insisted. “What the hell does he know about the underworld here, or what he’s getting into?”

  “He’s been investigating it himself,” Cindy said. “He’s good at that. I’m sure by now he’s got a few contacts of his own down here.”

  Sean became silent, and then spoke. “This idiot could easily mess up our efforts, barge into places that will create blowback, big time. We have our informants in place. They’re not going to like him snooping around.”

  Cindy wanted to know more. “Like who?” she asked, though Sean remained silent.

  “If you don’t tell me where the danger is, Sean, I can’t keep Mattheus away from it.”

  “Doesn’t seem like you can do much to reign him in, anyway, can you?” Sean replied.

  Cindy took offense at that. It made her feel as though her presence here didn’t matter much.

  “You don’t know Mattheus’s true involvement in the murder, either,” Sean continued, turning to Cindy directly. “Remember, he had public run ins with Cain before he was killed.”

  “That’s not proof of anything,” Cindy replied.

  But Sean continued, methodically. “Mattheus doesn’t have an alibi for that afternoon, either,” he said.

  Cindy grew cold. “You asked him for an alibi?”

  “Of course we did,” Sean answered matter of factly. “We asked him where he was that afternoon and if anyone saw him?”

  “What did he say?” Cindy felt the blood draining from her face.

  “He said he was at the beach, thinking things over, then wandering around in town.”

  “That makes sense,” said Cindy. “Nothing so bad about that. There wasn’t a case to solve yet. He was just down here trying to bond with his daughter at that point.”

  “There are lots of ways you can look at his actions,” Sean replied.

  “Yes there are,” Cindy agreed, “but you need hard evidence, before you can call him a suspect.”

  “Hard evidence comes in all kind of ways,” Sean reminded her. “Piece by piece a case gets built, the trail becomes clear, a person’s nature becomes revealed.”

  Cindy tossed her head back and swallowed hard as Sean suddenly changed the topic.

  “Okay, listen, I don’t want you staying at this hotel. Whoever threw the note through th
e taxi window knows where you are. It’s a shabby place, too. You deserve something better – and definitely safer.”

  Cindy couldn’t help but agree about that.

  “I’d like you to transfer to the Hotel Washington. It’s a nice place and near where I live. I can keep an eye on you then, easily.”

  Cindy was caught for a second between crying and laughing. She could only imagine how Mattheus would take that.

  “Let me think about it for a little while,” she answered. “And let me ask Mattheus to transfer there, too.”

  Sean raised his eyebrows.

  “In his own room, of course,” Cindy replied.

  “Of course,” Sean emphasized, scrutinizing Cindy carefully. “Why in the world would I think anything different? After all, you guys are broken up, aren’t you?”

  Cindy took a few steps away to a small chair and sat down on it. “I’ll talk to Mattheus and call you about it,” she answered succinctly. “Of course we’re broken up, but we’re still working a case together here.”

  “I realize that,” said Sean briskly, “but that doesn’t mean you stay in the same room.”

  *

  Sean left soon after and Cindy noticed that he hadn’t asked her anything at all about her interview with Natalie. Didn’t it matter, didn’t he care? Or, did he know the answers already, and was just letting Cindy spin her wheels? Andrea had said that the police couldn’t care less about what she’d told them. Cindy stopped and wondered if the police had already decided Andrea was the killer and were basically closed to looking further. If they pulled Mattheus in as an accessory to the crime, that would certainly tighten their case.

  Cindy liked Sean, but wasn’t totally sure about him yet, either. Yes, he was strong and uncompromising, but there were strange lapses in his behavior that were unaccounted for. She didn’t like that he withheld information from her, or that there were questions he’d never answer. Cindy had to face the fact that Sean was definitely still an unknown.

  *

  An hour later, after Cindy had a light dinner and was preparing to go to bed, there was suddenly a loud knock on her door. She wasn’t expecting anyone and startled, she ran and double locked the door.