by Jaden Skye
D E A T H B Y S E D U C T I O N
(book #13 in the CARIBBEAN MURDER SERIES)
Jaden Skye
About Jaden Skye
Jaden Skye is author of the #1 Bestselling CARIBBEAN MURDER series, which includes 12 books (and counting). The first book in the series, DEATH BY HONEYMOON, a #1 Bestseller, is now available as a FREE download on Amazon!
Also in the series are DEATH BY DIVORCE (#2), DEATH BY MARRIAGE (#3), DEATH BY DESIRE (#4), DEATH BY DECEIT (#5), DEATH BY JEALOUSY (#6), DEATH BY PROPOSAL (#7), DEATH BY OBSESSION (#8), DEATH BY DEVOTION (#9) and DEATH BY BETRAYAL (#10). She is also author of the romance A PERFECT STRANGER.
Jaden has always been fascinated with mystery, wrongful death, lies, deception and the power of the truth to prevail. Her romantic suspense/mystery novels feature strong female protagonists who must overcome insurmountable obstacles, and through them, she seeks to get to the very heart of the nature of justice and love.
Please visit www.jadenskye.com to find links to stay in touch with Jaden via Facebook, Twitter, Goodreads, her blog, and a whole bunch of other places. Jaden loves to hear from you, so don't be shy and check back often!
Books by Jaden Skye
THE CARIBBEAN MURDER SERIES
DEATH BY HONEYMOON (Book #1)
DEATH BY DIVORCE (Book #2)
DEATH BY MARRIAGE (Book #3)
DEATH BY DESIRE (Book #4)
DEATH BY DECEIT (Book #5)
DEATH BY JEALOUSY (Book #6)
DEATH BY PROPOSAL (Book #7)
DEATH BY OBSESSION (Book #8)
DEATH BY DEVOTION (Book #9)
DEATH BY BETRAYAL (Book #10)
THE TOM’S RIVER SAGA
A PERFECT STRANGER (Book #1)
Tap here to download Jaden Skye books on Amazon now!
Copyright © 2015 by Jaden Skye
All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior permission of the author.
This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return it and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, organizations, places, events, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictionally. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
CONTENTS
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 1
Cindy stared out of the window as Mattheus sat on the leather stool in the hotel room, drumming his fingers on the small wooden table beside him. The day had turned cloudy with unexpectedly dark skies closing in on them.
“You’re not answering me,” Mattheus repeated once again. “Are we getting married, are we eloping?”
The endless conversation they’d been having seemed to have no end. Cindy couldn’t bring herself to respond one more time. Mattheus was on a roll and unable to hear anything she had to say, anyway. They were not eloping, she never wanted to elope. That was not the way to start a life together.
Thankfully, the sudden ring of the phone broke into the tension quickly building between them.
Cindy grabbed the phone, “Yes?” she replied, grateful for the interruption.
“Cindy, do you remember me? Do you?” a breathless woman’s voice was on the other end. “It’s Loretta Twain.”
The familiar name rolled around in Cindy’s mind, though she couldn’t place it.
“University of Wisconsin,” Loretta continued, “Jeb Lavit’s poetry class. We were in it together, that’s where we met.”
“Of course, of course,” a strange smile swept across Cindy’s face. It had been so long since she’d thought of her college days, especially Jeb Lavit’s poetry class.
“We loved that class,” Loretta continued.
“I remember you, Loretta,” Cindy broke in. “How could I forget?”
“Thank God,” Loretta grew calmer. “I’m so sorry we lost touch, Cindy, I really am.”
Cindy had lost touch with so many people by now, not to speak of old friends from her college days. It was actually wonderful hearing from Loretta.
“Do you remember how we double dated?” Loretta went on now frantically, trying to capture Cindy’s attention. “Your date was Harvey and mine was Frank? We went to Gingerman’s Pub.”
The smile on Cindy’s face grew broader. Of course she’d completely forgotten about Gingerman’s Pub until this unexpected call. Her college days seemed like another world, almost a different lifetime. Cindy could barely remember the person she was then, or what she’d wanted.
“I remember you, Loretta,” Cindy reassured her old friend, relishing the memory of the two of them back together in college. Cindy remembered the long walks she and Loretta had taken on campus and wonderful discussions they’d had about poetry, love and building a future that meant something. “I’m delighted to hear from you,” Cindy continued, “but why now?”
“Everyone back home’s heard about the work you’re doing down here in the Caribbean,” Loretta managed to continue. “Right now I’m down in the Dominican Republic, too.” Once again Loretta grew breathless. “I need your help and I need it badly. Oh God, how did this happen to me?”
“What happened, Loretta?” Cindy grew nervous.
“Do you remember Pete?” Loretta’s voice shook.
Cindy raced through her memory and recalled hearing that Loretta had married her college sweetheart, Pete.
“The man you married?” asked Cindy.
“Yes,” Loretta’s voice dropped to a hoarse whisper then. “He’s been killed. His body was just found.”
Cindy felt a long, slow chill. “My God, I’m so sorry,” she responded, suddenly remembering how desperate she’d felt when she’d found Clint dead on their honeymoon.
“It gets worse,” Loretta spoke quickly. “Please, I beg you, come here and help me. I need you so badly.”
Cindy took a painful breath. How could it get worse? she wondered.
“The police say they know who did it,” Loretta rambled, “they say the case is open and shut. But they’re wrong and I know it.”
Nothing was ever open and shut, Cindy agreed. The police loved closing cases, much too fast, usually.
“I’m in danger, too,” Loretta sounded panicky. “There’s someone out there who hated both of us and they’ll get me too, if you don’t get them first.”
“How do you know there’s someone out there who hates you?” Cindy focused sharply, wondering if Loretta and her husband were victims of stalking.
“It’s obvious,” Loretta whispered. “When you come down I’ll tell you everything. It’s too sordid to talk about on the phone. Cind
y, please, I don’t want to die.”
Who could want Loretta dead? Cindy flashed upon her old friend more clearly then. Loretta had always been popular and in control of her world. She always insisted that the world around her be orderly and beautiful, just like the poems she loved so much. Cindy remembered when Loretta and Pete met in her senior year the deep happiness and relief Loretta had felt about it. Pete was a great catch, from everyone’s standpoint. He’s perfect for me, Loretta had said, he’ll make my world safe. Pete had been a finance major, tall, with sandy haired and startling blue eyes. After he and Loretta got together, Cindy saw less and less of Loretta. Cindy had taken it in stride; she was used to girlfriends wandering away when they got into serious relationships.
“Will you come, will you help?” Loretta insisted. “Will you forgive me for not being a better friend?”
Cindy was surprised by her plea. “It’s fine, Loretta,” Cindy said slowly. “Friends come together and then drift apart. You haven’t been a bad friend.”
“But will you come? Will you help?” Loretta’s voice was quivering.
“Yes, I will,” Cindy said emphatically.. “Email me details, and I’ll be there on the next flight.”
*
“You’ll be where on the next flight?” Mattheus asked, agitated, as Cindy hung up the phone.
“That was an old friend from college,” Cindy started.
And?” Mattheus muttered as he stood up from the stool and walked closer, hovering over Cindy.
“And right now she’s in the Dominican Republic where her husband has just been killed,” Cindy answered briskly. “For all she knows she’s also in danger.”
Mattheus ran his hand across his face slowly. “So you just took the case without even as much as throwing a glance my way?”
Cindy hadn’t thought about it that way. “I told her I’d help her because she’s desperate, needs me.
Mattheus wasn’t having it. “And what about me? I don’t need you? You couldn’t answer my question about getting married, but you’ve answered hers the moment she called.”
Cindy felt herself clutching. She and Mattheus were back on the same track again.
“You don’t want to marry me, do you?” Mattheus’s tone grew sharper. “For God’s sake, be straight with yourself and me, too. You’re using these cases to push me away! And, guess what? You’re succeeding!”
Cindy’s eyes stung with tears. Mattheus suddenly seemed to have turned into a bulldozer rolling over her.
“I did answer your questions about marriage,” Cindy insisted. “I told you that I never wanted to elope, and neither did you. You were thrilled about having a real wedding. Now everything’s up in the air as things have become more and more desperate.”
“So, you view me as desperate?” Mattheus was stung.
“I’m not saying you’re desperate,” Cindy insisted, “but the whole situation has taken on an urgency that feels desperate to me.”
“I’d say we have a desperate situation when your family reacts to me the way they did,” Mattheus fought valiantly. “They want to do everything possible to break us up. If that isn’t a cause for desperation, what is?”
“So, rather than work it out, you want to run away, get married, and let the pieces fall where they may?” Cindy wasn’t going along for the ride.
“I wanted to run away and get married,” Mattheus corrected her. “Past tense. I can’t say I want to do that now.”
Cindy felt a long, slow, chill run over her body. “What are you saying, Mattheus?”
“I’m saying that you can go to your case to the Dominican Republic and have a wonderful time there, have a wonderful life.”
“You’re not coming with me?” Cindy suddenly felt heartsick.
“You don’t get it,” Mattheus murmured. “I’m not spending my life with a woman who doesn’t care about what’s important to me.”
Cindy stood up straighter, the shock of Mattheus’s words were seeping in.
“I thought we both cared about the same things,” she responded.
“It looked that way in the beginning, didn’t it?” said Mattheus. “We both love solving murders, but it seems that’s where it ends. I also want a wife who puts me first, is willing to spend quality time with me and let her work sit on the back burner at times. I want a woman who really wants to marry me.”
“I do, I did,” said Cindy silently. “I wanted to marry you in the right time and the right way, when we’ve worked through difficulties, calmed hurt feelings and had our feet set on solid ground.”
“Our feet will never be set on solid ground,” Mattheus retorted. “The ground beneath our feet will always slide. And when one hurt feeling is solved, another will rise to take its place. That’s the nature of relationships and the nature of our work. Can we handle that as a couple? Looks like not.”
Cindy thought Mattheus was jumping to an extreme conclusion, but maybe he wasn’t. No matter how hard they tried, they kept getting jammed. Maybe he was right, maybe it was time to part.
“Alright,” Cindy began to say slowly.
“No,” Mattheus suddenly pleaded. “Stay here with me in Aruba. Spend time with me looking at wedding venues, walking on the beach and tasting wine. Let your friend find someone else.”
“I told her I’d come,” said Cindy simply. “I gave her my word.”
“So, call and tell her you can’t,” said Mattheus. “Tell her another emergency has come up and you have to handle that first.”
“What’s the emergency, Mattheus?” asked Cindy, wide eyed. “What has come up that has to prevent me from helping a friend whose husband has just been killed and who could very well end up dead, too?”
“Our relationship is the emergency,” Mattheus insisted. “Right now it’s on life supports. If you don’t put it first, then we’re all done.”
Cindy felt a sharp pain in her chest. “That’s a hell of a price to pay to keep a relationship,” she mumbled, “to leave a friend in a ditch.”
“Maybe it is,” said Mattheus, “but that’s what it’s gonna cost.”
“To go against my integrity?” asked Cindy, sadly. “I can’t afford that, Mattheus. Just can’t.”
“So, have it your way then,” he shot back, looking at Cindy one more time, before he turned away and stormed towards the door.
“Wait, Mattheus, wait a minute,” Cindy called after him.
“No, the waiting is over. Go make your plans, get a one way ticket to the Dominican Republic,” Mattheus gasped as he flew out of the room.
Chapter 2
Cindy’s plane, pushed forward by tropical winds, was about to land in the Dominican Republic half an hour before schedule. Cindy began to feel ill at ease. It was one thing to travel alone and quite another to take on a case like this on her own. All during the flight Cindy’s thoughts had been occupied by Mattheus. To her surprise, she’d had absolutely no contact with him since he’d left. What a way for things to come to an end, she thought, trying to absorb the new reality.
Cindy’s hands gripped the edge of her seat as the descent started. She was fine, she could do this. There were so many things Mattheus had taught her that had become part of her now. Nothing could take that away from her. Over and over he’d told her that she was strong, she was smart, she could handle anything. And by now, she was determined to prove him right.
Cindy wondered where Mattheus had gone to, probably back to his daughter and her mother, she thought. Even though he wouldn’t admit it, that girl had a pull on him. Well, why shouldn’t she? She was his daughter, after all, even though he’d only met her recently. But still, it shocked Cindy that Mattheus hadn’t back tracked long enough to say a proper good bye. He must have known they were parting forever. Or, perhaps, he didn’t realize the consequences his actions would have.
Cindy had seen this behavior before in him, this rash impetuousness. Mattheus was prone to wild knee jerk reactions that he felt badly about later on. In a way Cindy was relieved to b
e through with these patterns. They’d definitely taken a toll on her, as well.
As the plane slid gracefully onto the ground, Cindy knew she had to stop thinking about him. It was time now, she was here. There were more pressing matters up front and they needed her full, clear attention. Cindy had to stay focused, and she would. She was grateful for the work she was doing, the call upon her life. Never, all the years growing up, had Cindy thought she’d become a detective, hunting down killers in the Caribbean. But, in truth, she’d grown to love the work that kept her centered and strong. It also kept her from sliding into endless sorrow, spending time dwelling upon matters that could not be changed. Cindy found great comfort in helping others in this way she’d become so gifted at.
Cindy stood up, stretched and lifted her suitcase from the overheard compartment, something Mattheus had always done for her before. Then she threw back her shoulders, and along with other passengers slowly made her way out of the plane, and down into the crowded airport. Loretta said she’d be there to meet her. It was early though and Cindy wondered if she’d have to wait long.
Cindy looked around at the colorful sight of people gathered together, waiting to welcome passengers. She remembered how her sister Ann had always been there to meet her at the airport, whether the plane was early or late.
“Cindy, Cindy,” a loud voice called after she’d taken a few steps off the plane, “it’s me, Loretta!”
Cindy turned and suddenly saw a beautiful young woman with long, brown hair, in slacks and a T shirt, racing towards her. Cindy blinked. It had to be Loretta, who didn’t look a day older than Cindy remembered back in college.
“My God, Loretta,” Cindy ran over to her. “Thanks for being here early.”
“No, thank you, thank you,” Loretta flung her arms around Cindy giving her an enormous hug. “Thank you for coming down to help me. I’ll never be able to repay your kindness.”
Cindy stepped back and looked at her old friend, amazed that she could have made her way to the airport looking so put together right after her husband had been killed. Most likely none of it had sunk in, yet.
