Death by Engagement (Caribbean Murder Series, Book 12)

“What is it a matter of then?” Edward was relentless.

The elevator suddenly stopped at their floor again and the door opened. Mattheus looked at it and looked at Cindy.

“Let Mattheus and I talk it over,” Cindy said to Edward then. “This entails a change of plans, you realize.”

Then the elevator closed abruptly, leaving the three of them still standing there, face to face.

“Yes, I realize, I realize.” Edward ran his hands over his face. “I’m disrupting your plans, I’m disrupting your life, but what choice do I have? My daughter has just been killed. Am I supposed to pretend that nothing happened?”

“You’re not supposed to pretend anything.” Cindy put her hand on his arm. “Of course you want the truth, of course you want justice.”

“Exactly, exactly.” Edward’s eyes opened. “I have to have justice or I’ll never be at peace and neither will Shari.”

“I know just how you feel,” said Cindy.

“Thank you, thank you.” Edward’s eyes filled with tears. “Then you’ll take the case? You’ll take it?”

“Cindy and I have to talk this over and come to a decision,” Mattheus interrupted. “We’ll let you know in a little while.”

*

Mattheus refused to say another word until he and Cindy were downstairs, out of the lobby and back outside at the pool.

“We’ll have breakfast at the pool and talk it over then,” Mattheus said as Cindy began making comments about Shari.

Cindy forced herself to remain silent until she and Mattheus were sitting outside under an umbrella and their breakfast had been served. Mattheus would come to his senses after he had something to eat, she hoped. First he needed time to drink his coffee and wolf down his scrambled eggs. Cindy herself only picked at her food. Her appetite left her as she wondered what really happened to the fragile young woman she had shared time with only the day before.

“Okay, let’s talk it over,” Mattheus finally said as he pushed his plate away and stretched his legs out. “This situation has obviously taken hold of you.”

Cindy put her coffee cup down gingerly. “How could it not?” she replied straightforwardly.

“I’ll give you that,” Mattheus consented. “A case can certainly grip a person, but it doesn’t follow that they jump to take it on.”





Cindy tried to remain calm and centered. “True,” she replied slowly.

Mattheus seemed encouraged. “I mean there are endless suicides and murders going on all the time in the Caribbean. It’s rotten, it’s painful, but it doesn’t mean it’s up to us to solve each one of them.”

“Of course not,” Cindy agreed. “But I didn’t go looking for this case, and neither did you.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” asked Mattheus.

“I mean the case slapped itself down right in front of us.” Cindy felt unnerved. “We had personal contact with the victim.”

“I don’t usually call someone who commits suicide a victim,” Mattheus snapped. “They’re the victim of themselves, maybe, but that’s not my particular line of work.”

“Why are you so convinced this is a suicide?” Cindy retorted.

“No reason to think anything else,” Mattheus proclaimed. “There’s a note and the body shows no sign of a struggle.”

“Someone could have pushed her from behind,” Cindy responded.

“And from what the police told us, the last one to see her alive, the fiancé, has a perfect alibi. He was in the bar when it happened,” Mattheus went on.

“Someone else could have been involved,” Cindy kept musing.





“Anyone could be involved with anything,” Mattheus replied. “That and ten cents buys you a piece of candy.”

“What’s wrong with you, Mattheus?” Cindy stopped in her tracks. “I don’t remember seeing this side of you. You’re usually interested, you usually care.”

“Right now I’m interested in the two of us,” Mattheus blurted out. “We need our time together. We’re engaged now, remember?”

“Of course I remember,” said Cindy, startled by the tone of his voice.

“Once we’re settled and married, it will be easier.” Mattheus calmed down a bit. “We won’t have to worry about whether or not we’re going to last.”

“Do you worry about that?” asked Cindy, stunned.

“No, but it’s different once you make that kind of commitment. When rough times come, you have a solid ground to stand on.” Mattheus had clearly thought a lot about it.

“We’ve already made a commitment,” Cindy reminded him. “An engagement’s a commitment.”

“But it’s not complete yet,” Mattheus insisted. “An engagement is one thing, a marriage another. Anything can happen during an engagement, and plenty of times it does.”