by Jaden Skye
“I wouldn’t go that far,” said Cindy.
“Not far enough,” said Carl. I have a gift I want to give you.”
“I don’t need any gifts,” she said quickly.
“You don’t need them but you deserve them,” said Carl. “And you deserve someone better than Mattheus, too. You deserve a man who is worthy of you.” Carl looked up at her hopefully.
“Mattheus and I are happy,” Cindy replied quietly.
“No, you’re not, neither of you,” Carl remarked. “In a way I feel like I’m talking to Kate all over again. Kate was also stuck with someone who was wrong for her. And she never really believed me when I said it to her.”
“I’m not stuck,” Cindy felt upset.
“Maybe it’s the wrong word,” said Carl. “But you don’t love the guy. It’s written all over your face. And, it’s easy to see the tension between you when you’re together.”
Cindy didn’t know how they’d gotten off on this track, but she wouldn’t take it any further.
“What do you want to know about the case, Carl?” she asked, trying to get the conversation back to the reason she was here at all.
“I want to know if they actually have solid evidence against Sean?” he asked, backing off.
“The case is building,” said Cindy. “Mattheus and I spoke to his date, Riva, this afternoon. She was wearing Kate’s bracelet.”
Carl practically jumped out of his seat. “What?”
“Riva told us that Sean gave the bracelet to her,” said Cindy.
“Sean gave her Kate’s bracelet? The damn bastard, the rotten monster!” Carl exploded. “That does it, that proves it.”
“In my opinion, it’s just suggestive,” said Cindy. “Could also be that Riva is lying?”
“How else would she have gotten it?” Carl was incensed.
“We don’t know for sure, do we?” said Cindy. “There are a number of possibilities. She could have taken it herself at some point or another in all the commotion. Or, someone else could have given it to her.”
“I’ve known Riva for a while,” Carl broke in. “She’s not smart enough to figure out a complicated intrigue.”
“Clay showed me a bunch of condolence emails Riva sent him,” Cindy continued. “It struck me that she never once mentioned Sean in them.”
I’m sure Riva’s not involved,” Carl insisted. “At the most she’s a gold digger. Maybe she’s going after Clay now.”
“Why would she so that when Sean is finally available?” asked Cindy.
“Maybe she wants whatever Kate had? Maybe she sees another guy at loose ends?” said Carl. “Or maybe she just plain feels badly for him. Kate’s death has nothing to do with Riva. She’s just scenery. You don’t think it’s her, are you?”
“No,” said Cindy slowly, “but I’m also not thinking it’s all tied up - or that it’s time to send Clay and his family home.”
“Well, whatever you think or don’t think,” said Carl, “I think you’re one fantastic human being.” He reached out for Cindy once again, but she took her hand away.
“Sean suggested that I talk more to Clay’s family,” Cindy continued, “and to Kate’s family as well. I thought that was a good idea.”
“Well, here I am,” Carl smiled, “talk to me all you like.”
“I know you think they’ve got the right guy. But do you think it’s possible that your anger with Sean may be blinding you from the truth?” Cindy asked frankly.
Carl looked at her soulfully. “What truth are you talking about? The fact that Kate may have committed suicide?”
“That, or something else,” said Cindy.
“Now you’re beginning to sound like Wendell,” Carl said. “He’s been having dreams of Kate every night. She keeps coming to him and telling him to look for her killer. It’s driving him crazy. He’s totally shaken, and so is Tyra now. They’re both unraveling. If I start to imagine all kinds of things like that, I’ll start to unravel too.”
“You won’t unravel if you face the truth,” said Cindy slowly. “It may seem that way at first, but it isn’t so.”
“What truth?” Carl was now getting shaky himself.
“Clay showed me the email correspondence between him and Kate,” said Cindy carefully. “Have you seen it?”
“No,” Carl’s face began to freeze.
“I didn’t think so,” said Cindy.
“What’s in it?” Carl suddenly asked in a menacing tone.
“The letters between them seemed odd to me,” said Cindy.
Carl’s eyes opened wide. “Why? How?” he demanded.
“Clay’s convinced that Kate loved him deeply. It didn’t exactly sound that way to me.”
“Stop playing games,” Carl jumped up from his seat. “How did it sound? What did she say?”
Cindy took a deep breath. “Kate said she was closer to Clay than to you. That Clay understood her better than you did. It sounded as if she were suggesting there was trouble between you.”
“What?” Carl was furious. “I don’t believe she said that. It’s completely untrue. Show me.”
“I don’t have the letters,” said Cindy, “but we can go to see Clay together and you can read them yourself.”
“Absolutely, let’s go this minute,” Carl demanded.
A huge clap of thunder hit then, followed by a torrential downpour.
“Let it thunder all it wants,” Carl insisted. I don’t care about the weather. Clay’s still in the hotel. Let’s go up to his room.”
“I’ll call him first,” said Cindy, opening her phone, when from the corner of her eye she saw a windblown man approaching their table.
Cindy looked up then and saw Mattheus standing there, looking at them with his hands clenched at his sides.
“I was looking all over for you, “Mattheus said to Cindy. “Never expected to find the two of you dining here together.”
Carl stared at Mattheus. “We were hardly dining,” he said icily, “just going over details of the case.”
Mattheus pulled a chair down and joined them. “Case is tied up,” he said, staring back at Carl. “All the evidence points to Sean.”
“So I heard,” Carl commented.
“That should make you happy,” said Mattheus, “given your lousy relationship with the guy.”
Carl took exception. “Nothing about this case makes me happy. I loved my niece and I lost her.”
Mattheus backed down, “Of course.”
“I heard the police are sending Clay and his family back home,” Carl continued.
Mattheus threw a quick look at Cindy. “That’s right,” he said.
“I want to talk to Clay first,” Carl insisted.
“Why?” asked Mattheus. Obviously he didn’t like it, and the tension between him and Carl was so thick, it was hard to make one’s way through it. Fortunately, the blasts of thunder and uncontrollable rain drowned everything out.
“Huge storm,” Carl commented.
“Why do you want to speak to Clay?” Mattheus insisted.
“I want to see his correspondence with Kate,” Carl demanded.
“Cindy’s got your ear? Is she getting you crazy, making you think something else could have happened?” Mattheus asked.
“Leave Cindy out of it,” Carl stood up out of his chair.
“Whoah there,” said Mattheus, “Cindy’s my partner, remember?”
Carl threw Cindy a painful glance, shaking his head, as if to say, look at him. This is the guy you’ve chosen?
Cindy decided not to get involved with the undercurrents, not any of them.
“I think it’s a good idea for Carl to have a chance to look over his niece’s correspondence. It’s only fair,” Cindy stated firmly.
“What’s fair about it?” Mattheus flung out. “It was Kate’s correspondence, it was personal.”
“Nothing Kate did was hidden from me,” Carl declared. “If she wrote something to Clay, I need to see it.”
“That’
s nuts,” said Mattheus, “Kate’s correspondence was her own. If she wanted you to see it, she would have shown it to you.”
The rains fell harder and the sky darkened.
“Café being closed in five minutes,” the Maître D announced. “We’re boarding it up for the storm.”
“Okay,” said Cindy, “while the café is being boarded up, I’m going upstairs with Carl to Clay’s room and see if he’ll let us see the correspondence again. No harm in that, is there?”
Mattheus glared both at her and Carl then. “No, of course,” he said between gritted teeth, “have a lovely afternoon.”
CHAPTER 18
Cindy called from the front desk to tell Clay they were coming up for a visit, but no one answered the phone.
“I know he’s there,” Carl said, growing more anxious by the second as the phone kept ringing. “Let’s go up go up anyway and knock on the door,” he said.
“He may be with his parents,” said Cindy.
“Let’s go up and see for ourselves,” Carl insisted.
The two of them took the elevator and in a few minutes stood outside Clay’s hotel room, and knocked on the door. They waited and waited, no one answered.
“I know you’re in there, Clay,” Carl spoke loudly, pressing closer to the door.
No answer.
Cindy flashed for a moment on the night of Kate’s death. Did the same thing happen? Was Sean left out there, knocking and knocking?
Carl knocked even harder. “We’ve got to see you. It’s important, Clay,” he called.
Suddenly Clay yanked the door open and Carl almost fell inside.
“Thanks for letting us in,” said Cindy calmly, walking in beside Carl.
“Who said I let you in?” Clay seemed dazed and angry. “I didn’t. I just opened the door.”
Was Clay unaware that he’d let someone in the night Kate died, Cindy wondered.
“What do you want?” Clay looked taller than before, and more sullen. He stood in front of them, partially blocking their way.
“We just wanted a few moments with you, Clay,” Cindy began softly, in a conciliatory tone.
“A few moments turns into an afternoon, then a day, then a year,” Clay mumbled. “No one understands or respects time.”
Carl looked perplexed.
Cindy jumped on it. “I remember you told me that the moment you met Kate, time meant nothing. You felt like you knew her your whole life long,” Cindy said.
Clay looked at her acidly. “You remember that? An odd tidbit.”
“Not odd,” said Cindy, “another insight into time.” She wanted more from Clay and had to get it out of him quickly.
Clay liked Cindy’s comment and seemed more hospitable. He stepped back a moment and looked at Cindy, but then also at Carl. His eyes kept going back and forth between them.
“Here with another guy today?” Clay suddenly smiled, showing a perfect row of very white teeth. “You sure get around.”
Despite herself, Cindy flushed. “This is Kate’s Uncle Carl,” she responded.
“What happened to the stud you had with you before, Mattheus?” Clay seemed fascinated.
Cindy felt as though Clay had poured a pail of mud over her.
Carl was also offended. “Cindy and I have come to see you because I very much want to see your email correspondence with Kate,” he said.
Clay backed away and stared at him. “You think I’m that stupid?” he said.
“What are you talking about?” Carl became antsy.
“My correspondence with Kate is sacred. It was between her and me and no one else. I made the mistake once of showing some of it to Cindy, but then I realized she couldn’t understand a word of it. She knew nothing about love.”
Carl seemed staggered. “I’m not following you.”
“Too bad,” said Clay, as the winds blew harder against the hotel. “Get out of here now, I’m busy packing. We’re flying out tomorrow.”
Carl turned to Cindy. “What does he mean you couldn’t understand a word of the correspondence? That you know nothing about love?”
“Obviously, Clay has no faith in women at all,” Cindy said slowly, trying to egg Clay on. “He doesn’t believe any of us can understand what he was feeling. Maybe not even Kate?”
“Oh Kate understood me alright,” Clay turned towards them both vehemently. “Kate understood everything about me, and she loved me for who I was. She said it over and over. And I understood her, too. Much better than her uncle Carl here.”
Carl got jittery. “I beg your pardon?” he said.
Clay seemed to enjoy Carl’s sudden anxiety. “There’s lots of things she told me about you and how you treated her,” Clay insinuated. “It wasn’t all good.”
“I always treated her like a princess,” Carl was horrified. “I loved Kate from the day she was born.”
“But not like I loved her,” Clay’s eyes were gleaming.
“I’m telling you I loved her!” Carl cried.
“But Kate loved me more,” said Clay, peering at him.
“I demand that you show me those emails,” Carl exploded. For a second Cindy felt that he was about to lunge at Clay. “I need to see what my niece said about me.”
Clay ran his hand across his chin, as if considering it. Finally, he shook his head, “I don’t think Kate would have liked it,” he said.
“I can have them subpoenaed as part of the record,” Carl threatened.
Just then, a key turned in the lock, the door opened and Clay’s parents walked in.
They seemed surprised to see Cindy and Carl, but walked over to Clay first.
“The airports are flooded,” the father, Dan, announced. “We’re gonna be stuck here another few days.”
“Damn,” said Clay, “damn it.”
“I know this is annoying and we wanted us to tell you in person,” Clay’s mother, Margaret went close to him and put her hands on his shoulders. “We’ll find a way to relax though, darling.”
“I don’t want to relax,” Clay grew agitated. “I’ve had enough here. I want to go home.”
“Of course you do, dear. This has been a horrid nightmare. But who in the world could ever have expected such rain?”
“How long will the airports are closed?” Clay rubbed his foot on the floor heatedly, looking at his mother. “Can’t you fix it? Can’t you get us out of here another way?”
“Not in this storm, sweetheart,” his mother insisted.
“My son’s exhausted and nervous,” Dan said to Cindy and Carl. “It’s to be expected.”
“Naturally,” said Cindy, “No one wants to be stuck at the scene of a crime.”
“The scene is closed. The cops have found the killer,” Margaret and Dan chimed in together.
“Maybe?” Cindy said.
Dan zeroed in on her then. “What in hell do you mean, maybe?”
“Nothing is ever definite until the trial is over,” said Cindy. “The police have some evidence, but it’s not solid.”
“They said it was,” said Margaret.
“They say all kinds of things,” said Cindy.
Clay didn’t like that. “You too,” he said to Cindy, “you’re just like them. You say all kinds of things to me also.”
“Calm down,” Margaret stroked Clay’s shoulders again.
“I hate when people say one thing and mean another,” Clay started to ramble. “It makes me dizzy, I don’t like being dizzy.”
“Clay can be emotional and sensitive,” said Margaret. “This was the last thing in the world he needed, to be exposed to a nightmare like this.”
“We’ll get our equilibrium back shortly,” Dan interjected. “We just need quiet, family time together. We know how to comfort our son very well.” Then he turned to Cindy and Carl. “What are you two doing here?”
“I want to see Clay’s correspondence with Kate,” Carl replied swiftly. “Cindy saw and said there were some questionable comments in it about me. I need to know what Kate
said. I won’t be able to go on without seeing it.”
Margaret sighed loudly. “This is awful, just awful for everyone.”
“It is,” said Cindy, sympathetically. “I’m so glad you understand. Could you please persuade Clay to let Carl see those letters?”
Margaret seemed taken aback. “Why doesn’t Clay want to show it to you?”
“The letters were personal, between me and Kate,” Clay chimed in. “I refuse to betray Kate’s trust again.”
“Again?” asked Cindy.
“I betrayed her trust when I showed the emails to you the first time,” said Clay angrily.
“Someone betrayed more than her trust,” Carl moved closer to him. “They took Kate’s life away. I need to know why.”
“And how will seeing these emails help you?” Dan jumped in.
Cindy took over. “Along with some comments I noticed in the emails, Clay mentioned that Kate said all kinds of hurtful things about Carl. Carl doesn’t believe it, wants to see it for himself.”
Margaret sighed more loudly. “Our children do that sometimes, don’t they?” she said to Carl. “They criticize us, they find out sore points. But what good will it do you to dwell on that now? It will only hurt more.”
“I never did a thing in the world for Kate to criticize,” Carl insisted, “and I do not believe she ever wrote anything like that about me.”
Clay stared at him, “She did,” he insisted.
“Prove it to me,” Carl’s voice resounded.
Clay ran to his computer, opened it fast and started scrolling through.
Dan took a step closer to Carl then. “Are you sure you want to see this? What good will it do?” said Dan.
“I’m sure,” said Carl intensely, “I can’t live with a shadow like this in my mind.”
Clay got to a spot on the computer, stopped and then thrust it in front of Carl. Cindy stood and read it over Carl’s shoulder.
Dear Clay, My uncle Carl doesn’t love me like you do. He doesn’t understand me. He pries into every little thing I do. I like that you give me space and understand me with just a word or two. Sean never understood me, either. He forced me to be his girlfriend. I never wanted to, either. But Carl liked Sean and also forced me to be his girlfriend. You are the first man I’ve ever truly wanted.
