Death by Engagement (Caribbean Murder Series, Book 12)

“Let’s check with the desk,” said Mattheus. “My guess is they’re set up in the administrative offices of the hotel now.”


Cindy and Mattheus walked to the desk and were greeted by a lovely smile from the handsome Dutch receptionist behind the desk. “How can we be of help?” he asked.

“C and M Investigations,” Cindy replied, straightforwardly. “We’ve heard of trouble at the hotel and want to talk to the police.”

The smile immediately left the clerk’s face. “The police are in the hospitality suite on the second floor,” he replied.

“Is that where the victim’s room was?” asked Cindy.

The clerk seemed momentarily alarmed. “The victim?” he replied, voice quivering. “The woman who fell off the cliff and her fiancé have a room on the second floor. Her family also have rooms beside them.”

“Thank you,” said Cindy as the clerk looked at Mattheus, frightened.

“Why did you call her a victim?” the clerk asked, unnerved. “Have you heard something further?”

“It’s just a term we use,” said Mattheus. “No one is suggesting anything at all.”

At that the clerk breathed more freely. “It’s a terrible tragedy,” he said in a low tone.

“Yes, it is,” Mattheus agreed, “but unfortunately accidents and suicides happen all the time.”

Cindy and Mattheus turned around, got into the elevator and arrived at the hospitality suite in no time at all. To Cindy’s surprise the door was half ajar when they approached. She opened it and they walked in.

A big, round cop with sparkly eyes looked over at them as they entered.

“Cindy Blaine, from CM Investigations,” Cindy introduced them immediately. “This is my partner, Mattheus.”

“Yeah, yeah, heard you guys were in the hotel and coming down,” the cop mumbled, not moving from his seat.

Cindy and Mattheus walked further into the room. There were three other policemen there, sitting at a table.

“Family just left the room,” one of the cops at the table remarked. He was lanky, sweet and tall.

“What have you got?” Mattheus walked over and sat down alongside them.

“Nothing special,” the lanky cop said, “seen it all a hundred times. Lovers’ quarrel if you asked me, and one of them jumped.”

“Cut it out, Alfred,” the round cop at the front declared. “Alfred has something to say about everything,” he went on. “We don’t need to turn on the radio when he’s around, nonstop reporting.”

Albert grinned and rubbed his hands, apparently pleased to have Cindy and Mattheus with them. “Nice to see you guys,” he went on. “What are you two doing down here?”

“Just got engaged,” Mattheus commented, taking them all by surprise. “We’ve come down to find a wedding venue.”

Albert’s eyes opened at that. The other cops, taken aback, took a moment, too.

The round cop at the front stood up and joined them then. “Ben Silte, Chief,” he introduced himself. “Sounds like congratulations are in order.”

“Thanks very much,” said Mattheus, smiling.

Cindy shuddered. The very last thing she wanted was to be congratulated on her engagement at the moment. A young woman who had recently been engaged had just died. This wasn’t the time to focus on her and Mattheus.

“Who did you guys speak to about the case, so far?” Cindy turned professional, joining the cops at the table.

Alfred seemed to like having her there. “There’s no case to speak of,” he said, grinning at Cindy unabashedly. “We’ve got a suicide note.”

“Who found the body?” Cindy continued, unwilling to take it as lightly as they were.

“Actually, a tourist found her,” Ben broke in, taking over the conversation. “He called the police right away, first thing this morning.”

“Where was Shari’s fiancé when the body was found?” Cindy was appalled.

Ben filled Cindy in methodically. “Apparently Doug went down to have a few drinks in the bar with Shari’s father last night and she decided to take a walk by herself,” he said. “Looks like she went up to Lavendar Cliff, about half a mile from here. It’s a beautiful spot in the day, but pretty steep and slippery at night. Can also be quite gloomy. After the drink Doug came back upstairs and went to sleep, thinking Shari’d be back in a little while. When he woke up in the morning, she’d just been found. We came over as soon as we heard the news and informed him. Poor guy looked like he was going to have a heart attack on the spot. When we looked around, we found a note on Shari’s dresser in plain view. She apparently wrote it right before she left.”

“Open and shut,” echoed Alfred.

Ben gave Alfred a friendly slap at the side of his head. “Nothing is open and shut, dummy,” he said, then turned to Cindy and Mattheus. “As you can imagine, Doug’s in complete shock now and so are Shari’s family. They spoke to us for a little while and now they’re all holed up in their rooms.”