"First I believed one thing and then something else,” said Mattheus. “It was never settled. That's why it was so hard.”
Mattheus got up from the rocks and began walking back and forth on the green pebbles slowly, his shadow moving against the sky. Rodney got up and walked besides him.
“For years some new piece of information about her would float up,” Mattheus went on, “someone thought they saw her, or they found a letter she wrote. We’d track down each lead and it would amount to nothing. It was impossible for me to put the whole thing to rest. It was starting to drive me really crazy.”
“I can understand that,” said Rodney.”
“I finally decided that she must have been taken by transient who killed her and then disappeared. Lots of those types drift down to New Orleans, and you never see or hear from them again.”
“You could live with that?” asked Rodney.
“Not really,” said Mattheus, his face taut. “But life doesn’t always give you things you can live with. You have to anyway. Finally, I made a break, left the states, moved to Grenada, became a cop, started a new life.”
“That’s a big change,” Rodney noted.
“It was a good thing to do,” said Mattheus. “I like tracking down killers. And, it was incredible when I actually found one, locked them up, closed the case. It was the least I could do.”
“For Shelly?”
“Yeah, I did it for her, for myself, and for all those others out there who were left devastated when someone they loved was lost.”
Cindy took a deep breath. How well she understood his decision. It hadn't so different for her and Clint. But one thing was tremendously different. She knew that Clint was dead. Mattheus never really had that closure. How could any of this have ever been settled for him?
Rodney tossed a look at Cindy then. “When did you meet Cindy?” he said off handedly.
“About a year and a half ago,” Mattheus said. “Why?”
“Just wondering,” said Rodney.
“Cindy came down to Grenada to work on a case and we met at the police station. I helped her with it. We became friends, then partners.”
Rodney raised his eyebrows and glanced at Cindy appreciatively. “She’s a beautiful woman,” he said.
Mattheus didn’t like that. “You’re not insinuating anything?” he said.
“No, I’m not,” said Rodney. “Actually, we’ve already checked all your records, the story bears out.”
“Cindy’s husband was also killed,” said Mattheus. “On her honeymoon.”
The cops looked over at her again. “Yes, we heard,” they said quietly. “We’ve also heard that she’s a terrific detective.”
“Exceptional,” said Mattheus, "a natural talent."
Cindy felt warm inside. It was good to be recognized and acknowledged. It was also good to know that the police had taken the time to carefully check both of their backgrounds. They cared about what they were doing.
“We’ve also heard that the two of you are an item,” said Rodney, off handedly again. He wasn’t letting Mattheus off the hook so easily.
Cindy flushed.
“We were an item,” said Mattheus, definitively. “We broke up last week.”
Rodney looked surprised. “What happened?” It seemed like nothing was off limits for him. He wasn’t leaving any stoned unturned.
“It was too soon for us to get together,” Cindy broke in, calmly.
“Natural that you guys would want to though,” Rodney kept prodding. “It’s understandable.”
“There’s a time for everything,” said Cindy, as Mattheus looked at her closely.
“And this wasn’t it?” asked Rodney.
“We’re great working partners,” said Cindy, “have done very well on the cases we’ve handled.”
“You broke up and can still work together? “That’s usually pretty difficult.” Alex interrupted. Neither of them were leaving a stone unturned, they were determined to dig beneath Cindy and Mattheus’s surface composure.
“Mattheus called me down to help with this case,” said Cindy evenly. “It’s his wife we’re talking about. I care about his well being. How could I not help?”
“Called you down from where?” asked Rodney. “You left Grenada?”
Cindy felt like she was under investigation now. She didn’t like it, there was no need for it. Her personal life with Mattheus had nothing to do with the case. Or did it, in their eyes?
“I went home for a while to take a break,” Cindy said succinctly. “Needed some down time.”
“We all need that, “Alex, said, coming to her defense.
Cindy appreciated his support. “Without down time we can’t do this job,” she repeated.
“You could have said no,” Mattheus turned towards her, swiftly.
“What I meant to say,” said Cindy, “is that I didn’t want to say no. I want to be of help here.”