Mattheus decided to spend the next day alone. He had no desire to see Cindy or hear about her visit to the Shelter. The shock of seeing her and Alex, cozy at dinner the night before, was more than he could handle right now. Jealousy had never been one of his weak points. In fact, up until now, the opposite had been true. It had never even occurred to him that a woman he was with would step out on him with someone else. Why would they? He was attentive, dependable, caring and loyal to a fault.
After Shelly went missing, out of respect to her memory, it was years before Mattheus let himself get involved with anyone else. And, he’d had no lack of opportunities either. The women down in Grenada had gone after him big time. Why wouldn’t they? He was good looking, toned, sexy and appealing. And he knew it. It was him who had said no to them, over and over.
When he’d finally met Cindy, it was different. Time had passed, Cindy was beautiful, charming, great to be with. They had so much in common, worked so well together. Despite himself, she’d won his heart.
Mattheus spent the morning in bed, ruminating about everything. He finally ordered lunch up in the room, ate it in bed, and thought about how much he used to enjoy sharing meals in the room with Cindy. He’d believed she’d be the perfect partner, someone to step in for Shelly, finally. How could one guy have been so wrong?
Obviously, Cindy had some kind of problem, pulling out on him in Grenada so suddenly. Who does something like that? It reminded him of the way Shelly just ran away. The fact that Cindy came right back down here to help him now meant something, of course. That was good of her, he knew she cared about him. But why in the world would she sneak around the first chance she got, and have dinner with another guy?
After lunch, Mattheus decided to get dressed and take a walk down at the harbor before going down to Rancher’s Bar. He put on a pair of jeans and shirt, and slid out of the hotel taking the back entrance, so as to be sure he wouldn’t run into her. Let her do all the investigating she wanted to, he thought. She was comfortable working with women, great at getting them to talk. So, good for her. That had worked when they were a team. Only they weren’t a team anymore. What were they? Mattheus had no idea.
He walked slowly down to the harbor, which was only a mile away. The sun beat on his face as it walked, feeling good, relaxing him. When he got near the water he took a deep breath and felt his head clear.
The harbor was filled with fishing boats, stores on the sidewalks, outdoor cafes and the wonderful smell of salty air. Mattheus sat down on a bench on the pier, watching tourists choose souvenirs, walk on the docks, go out on fishing boats. They made it look as though the world were normal, that people didn’t just disappear and that it made sense to collect happy memories to bring back as gifts for the folks at home.
Mattheus gazed out at the ocean, and suddenly missed Cindy terribly. Jesus, he thought, I must be going crazy, one minute I hate her, the next minute I miss her like hell. He suddenly wanted to call her, hear every little thing she found out at the Shelter, help her sort it all out, hold her in his arms. He ran his hands through his hair, nervously. Finding out about Shelly’s life down here had turned his world upside down. How could he trust anything anymore?
Mattheus got up, stretched his legs and started walking along the pier. Better to keep moving than to dwell on details, trying to make sense of them. His years of working as a cop taught him that. It always took time for the truth to be revealed. You had to take it one step at a time, stay in the moment and focus on that. Instead of dwelling on his life with Shelly, Mattheus turned a switch in his head and decided to do what he did best - focus on the crime.
What kind of evidence did the cops still need? How he could help? His gut still said that Anthony was innocent, but a gut gets you nowhere. He had to get out there, dig up the dirt, back up his instinct with hard facts.
Mattheus looked at his watch, to his surprise it was almost four o’clock. In a little while Rancher’s Bar would open and he’d be able to go in and talk to Tommy. This was a fascinating lead and he was eager to get on it, especially as the police had just let it just drift by.
Mattheus decided to walk over to Rancher’s Bar now. It was down the other end of town and by the time he arrived it would just be opening up.