“Katrina, I’m here to help you.” Cindy took a step closer.
“Screw you,” Katrina shouted like a banshee. “Don’t think I don’t know you went down to the boat to get a whiff of him, too. Wanted to steal him away, too, didn’t you?”
“That’s completely crazy,” said Cindy.
Katrina threw her head back and howled. “Me? Completely crazy? You think I don’t know when a woman is after the man I love? I’ve seen it over and over. And what the hell are you doing with my favorite necklace?”
Cindy looked down at the shells that seemed to be looking back up at her.
“I just found it,” said Cindy.
“Give it to me,” Katrina demanded.
But Cindy could not. She closed her hands around it more tightly. That the necklace didn’t belong to Katrina. Cindy felt it.
“I can’t give it to you,” said Cindy.
Katrina stomped closer. “Give it to me.”
Cindy held it tighter. “Why do you want it so much?” she demanded.
“It belongs to Flan,” Katrina mumbled then. “He loves it.”
“What else does he love?” Cindy crouched and lowered her voice, threatening. She wanted to crack her, bring the full story to light. She needed hard evidence and was getting close it now. Outside it grew darker and the wind started to blow up.
“Storm’s coming, Katrina,” Cindy taunted.
“So?”
“So, who else did your dear, precious husband love?”
Katrina took the bait and came closer.
“Plenty of them, one after another. You think you and Shelly were the only ones? No. You think he cared a second how much it hurt me? I told him over and over I loved him, too. He always said they loved him better.”
Cindy flashed to the odd conversation she’d heard between them in the Police Station.
“Maybe he was right?” said Cindy.
“No.”
Cindy heard the horror in her voice. She could only imagine how awful it felt. “Did they love him better?” Cindy asked anyway. She was on a murder investigation and needed the whole truth. “Were you able to give him the love he needed? I doubt it, Katrina.”
That did it. Katrina lunged at Cindy, grabbed her throat and scratched her until her neck was bleeding. Then she started choking her.
“It’s your turn now!” shouted Katrina, rage in her eyes.
Cindy gasped for air. As the thunder struck and the lights in the house started flickering, Cindy tried to push Katrina off. Losing air, finally, she mustered her last ounce of strength and managed to shove her off. Katrina stumbled backwards, tripping.
Cindy didn’t wait. Bleeding, still clutching the necklace, she flew down the steps to the cracked door and then out of the house, into the dark, raging storm.
CHAPTER 22
Hot winds whipped across Cindy’s face as she ran through sheets of pouring rain along dark, back streets away from Katrina’s home. Blood from the deep scratches poured down her neck onto her dress. Trembling, Cindy reached for her cell phone and called Mattheus. He picked up instantly, almost as if he were expecting the call.
“I’m hurt, Mattheus,” Cindy gasped, as she hunkered down under a huge tree.
“Where are you?” Mattheus asked horrified.
Cindy’s head started whirling. “A few blocks from Katrina’s, on the back streets, under a tree.”
Her throat hurt and it was hard to breathe. Katrina had done more damage than Cindy’s realized. It was hard to keep talking. Cindy felt a huge desire to sleep, closed her eyes for a second and suddenly felt as if time were floating and she was floating with it.
When she opened her eyes again, Mattheus was standing over her, drenched.
“Wake up, wake up,” he was rocking her gently.
Cindy opened her eyes as he lifted her slowly into his arms.
“My God,” Mattheus murmured, pulling her close to him.
Cindy put her head on his shoulder, exhausted.
“Katrina did this to you?” Mattheus asked, putting his hand over the wound that was still bleeding.
“Same place Shelly was grabbed and scratched,” Cindy said in a small voice.
“Cindy,” Mattheus pulled her close, “nothing matters to me if I you’re not okay.”
Despite her pain, Cindy smiled. It felt wonderful being wrapped in his arms, with the warm rain around them.
“How did this happen? How?” Mattheus asked when Cindy became more alert.
Cindy remembered the struggle over the necklace then. She’d slipped it in her pocket and had a strong desire to show it to Mattheus now. She reached for it, brought it out for him to see.
“What’s this?” Mattheus flinched as he looked at it.
“Katrina demanded I give it to her. I didn’t want to. We struggled for it,” said Cindy.
Mattheus was stone silent for a second. “It’s Shelly’s necklace!” he breathed, thunderstruck. “The one I gave her!”
Cindy suddenly remembered. The necklace had been on the photograph she’d seen of Shelly in Grenada. It had struck her then, too.
Mattheus couldn’t take his eyes off it. “How did you get it?”