Death by Devotion (Caribbean Murder #9)

*

Breakfast was served in a little hut, outside the hotel. Cindy took one of the small seats in it and rested her arms on the table. Thankfully, it was empty. Probably too late for breakfast now and too early for lunch. It was stuffy in here, but she was hungry and when the waiter came over she quickly ordered eggs, biscuits and coffee. Then she put her heads in her hands for a moment and closed her eyes. This was a new situation for Cindy. The case was definitely complicated and she couldn’t depend on Mattheus to help her fully. He was obviously way too involved.

“Sleeping?” a man’s full voice, startled her out of her reverie. Cindy looked up swiftly. Sean stood there, smiling. He looked even more attractive than he had at the police station. Tall, blonde, with a rugged edge to him, he looked as if he should have been surfing the waves in California.

“Hi,” Cindy got up from her seat to greet him. “Thanks so much for coming.”

“No, please, sit down,” he replied. “It’s my pleasure.” Then he took the seat opposite her.

“I ordered already, I’m sorry,” said Cindy. “I just was ravenous, suddenly. Hardly ate anything yesterday at all.”

“It’s good to be ravenous,” Sean grinned. “It’s fine, I’ve already had breakfast, just want some coffee now.”

The two of them took a long moment to take each other in.

“You’re nothing at all like I expected,” Sean commented.

Cindy laughed. She’d been thinking exactly the same thing about him. “And you look like you belong on a beach, surfing in California,” she replied.

“That’s what people tell me,” Sean laughed along with her. “But I like it here.”

“In Anguilla?” Cindy was curious.

“Not particularly Anguilla,” said Sean. “I like it down in the Caribbean. After a while it begins to feel like home.”

How well Cindy knew that. “It’s addictive,” she said.

“Yeah, a good addiction,” he added. “All addictions should be as good as this.”

The waiter brought the food, Sean ordered coffee, and Cindy began eating the eggs.

“So, this is really your profession?” Sean asked, watching her eat. “Private detective?”

“It’s become that,” Cindy replied, thinking about the offer she’d received to write a column for the paper back in New York. That seemed like years and years ago. And New York seemed like it was planted in a totally different universe at the moment.

“It’s interesting,” said Sean, “and unusual.”

“These things happen suddenly,” Cindy replied. “My life took a different turn than I’d expected.”

“That happens to a lot of us who do this work,” Sean replied.

Cindy knew she didn’t have to say more. She was grateful that he understood and that, most likely, something similar had happened to him.

“Everyone down here on the Police force read about you when they heard you were coming down,” Sean continued. “It made the guys nervous to have you aboard, but I appreciate you’re being here.”

“Thank you, Sean,” Cindy responded, touched.

“This case is trickier than you think,” he went on, his eyes narrowing. “There’s a pretty big underworld operating nearby.”

It was an old story. There was an underworld operating on all the Islands.

“Tell me about it,” Cindy looked up at him over her coffee, grateful for his forthrightness.

“The underworld here is not a place for a woman to poke around in alone,” Sean continued.

“Lots of the Islands have that going on,” Cindy countered, “I’ve been through it before.”

“Maybe they do, but not like here.” Their eyes met boldly. Cindy was fascinated. “There’s different levels of crime,” Sean went on, “at the core this place is rotten.”

Cindy was startled. “Like how?”

“I’ll tell you little by little,” Sean said, glad that he’d made his point.

“Tell me now,” Cindy urged. “We don’t have so much time.”

Sean smiled and touched her hand lightly. “We have all the time we need. That’s the first thing I learned about solving tricky crimes. If you just keep at it, things show up. They have to. It’s the law of the Islands. Snakes naturally slither out of their hiding places for air.”

Cindy put her coffee cup down. “Who’s the snake here, Sean?”

He grinned oddly, obviously enjoying every second. “There are lots of them around,” he commented. “And mostly they’re camouflaged. It’s easy to step on one and get bitten. But watch out, their poison is deadly. One bite and you’re gone.”

Cindy felt the urgency in what he was saying. “Tell me what you guys have on the case,” she jumped right in.

Sean leaned even closer. “Everyone’s a suspect,” he said.

Cindy shivered. “Who? Andrea? Petra?”

“Keep going,” said Sean.

“Not Mattheus?” Cindy’s mouth got dry.

“Sure, why not?” asked Sean.