Death by Jealousy (Caribbean Murder #6)

Cindy raised her eyebrows. “I guess there’s all kinds of ways of being in love?”


“Tad’s a great catch,” Mattheus continued, “he does whatever you ask of him. He’s dependable, quiet, and gives Vivien everything she asks for. I’ve never seen him look at another girl either, not even when she’s away.”

“So, why is she running after Mattheus, then?”

“My guess is that Mattheus is running after her!” Mac replied vigorously. “Vivien’s a gorgeous girl, lots of guys want her.”

“From the emails it looks like she’s after him,” Cindy exclaimed.

Mac’s face flushed. This was getting to him more than Cindy expected.

“Hell, Vivien’s a loose wire,” he finally said, “l told you before. From time to time she plays the field. It doesn’t mean much to her, though.”

“Was that why she and Peter broke up?” It was all becoming clearer to Cindy.

“Yes, it was,” said Mac. “Peter’s a straight arrow, can’t deal with anything like that. It was way beyond his comfort zone.”

The way Mac said it Cindy was suddenly struck with the horrible feeling that Mac and Vivien also had a fling at one point, too.

“You also had a fling with her?” Cindy asked in a hushed tone.

Mac’s hands clenched as he stared in Cindy’s eyes.

“It was nothing,” he insisted, “just a crazy, wild drunken night. We both forgot about it the day it was over.”

“Does Tad know?” asked Cindy.

At that Mack pushed himself back from the table and stood up tall.

“Tad doesn’t know and he never will,” Mac pronounced vehemently. Cindy thought he was going to bang his fists through the table. “And you’ll never tell him or Mattheus, will you?” he looked fiercely into her eyes.

“Of course not,” said Cindy, equally fierce. “But for all I know Mattheus is using Vivien now to gather all this information.”

“What information? What the hell’s Mattheus going to find out? That a bunch of lonely people played around with each other from time to time!” Mac’s jaw clenched, “Don’t fool yourself, Mattheus is just taking an opportunity for a welcome diversion. The guy probably needs to unwind.” Mac shook his head. “I’m sorry for Tad though, thought Vivien was through with this.” Then he suddenly realized the whole picture, and looked at Cindy, sadly. “And I’m very, very sorry for you.”

Cindy stood up, irritated. “Don’t be sorry for me. I’m glad I found out. Who said I need Mattheus? I’ve got a whole, new world in front of me.”

“Yes, you do,” said Mac emphatically, “and I only hope you’ll include me in your whole, new, beautiful world.”

Cindy was silenced. “Include you, how?”

“That’s for us to find out, isn’t it?” Mac asked, as he and Cindy sat back down.





CHAPTER 16


Mattheus had been sitting in the slick, well-appointed office, digging through the computer files for hours by now. Nothing so far. Everything looked in perfect order. He had complete access to all the files and no intention of stopping. Once in a while, one of the guys in the office stopped by to ask if he needed or wanted something. They were all expensively dressed, well groomed, living high on top of their game. Tad was in an office three doors down, in a meeting. He sent a note that he’d be in to help Mattheus as soon as his meeting was over. Tad was taking over Peter’s duties until Peter could come back to work. It could be a while and there was lots Tad had to be filled in on.

This company was run like a well-oiled machine. The records were kept to perfection. Mattheus went over the audit by the forensic accountants once again. Everything carefully and duly noted. The company dealt with international clients who invested in major companies around the world. Clearly Peter was being groomed by his father and Mac to eventually take over.

From what Mattheus could see, Peter did a flawless job, was in very early and worked late. He let nothing distract him, not even the many emails from Allie, asking if he could leave earlier that evening, spend more time with her. Peter answered each one of her emails, telling Allie that he loved her and would see her when he got back. Beyond that, there was nothing that Mattheus could find that was a problem in their relationship. And even that didn’t seem like a problem.

Mattheus stopped digging a minute and leaned back in the comfortable leather chair, put his legs up on the desk and took a deep breath. What the hell did he expect to find, anyway? A sign of financial wrong doing, a power struggle in the company? So far there was no reason to suspect either of them. The only thing that made Mattheus suspicious was that everything was all tied up too neatly - no rough edges anywhere.

Mattheus’s telephone rang. It had to be Cindy, checking into see how he was doing. They usually spoke by this time of the day. For the past half hour, he’d actually been wondering why he hadn’t heard from her yet.

“Nothing yet to report,” Mattheus said, as he picked up the phone.